Carta Bella "Well Traveled" Vintage Travel Journal

Morning Friends,

Today I'm sharing a darling vintage themed travel journal which I created out of Carta Bella's "Well Traveled" paper collection.  Several of my on-line paper sisters and I are headed out to a retreat this fall and we decided to do a travel journal to document our good times together!

While on retreat, we plan to create this journal together and fill it with lots of silly pics of us having a fantastic time!   Some of the ladies have already met, but several of us will be meeting for the first time.  After spending a few years together swapping and hanging out in Brat's Latte Cafe' together, we are all so excited that we are finely going to take the plunge and met up!  It's going to be a blast!

I've got several more touches I'd like to include in this journal like making some photo book flaps and doing some hand sewing, but I'm going to wait till after our trip to add my own finishing touches.   

Well friends that's it for me today, the balance of this post is on how to create this fun vintage travel journal.  Feel free to review the instructions, collect your goodies and follow along!  Thank you so much for dropping by my blog today.  Until next time, create and live life inspired!  ~ Dawna 

Tutorial Introduction

This journal is 6" x 9" and 40 pages long making it perfect for an everyday diary, journal or scrapbook.  There's plenty of room throughout the journal for matting photos and lots of nooks and crannies to tuck away whatever memorabilia your heart desires.  

Front Cover

Review the following step-by-step directions, collect your supplies and equipment and join me in creating your own beautiful journal.   Here's what I used to create this design:

Supply List

1 ea 12 x 12  Carta Bella “Well Traveled” Paper Collections
1 ea 6 x 6 Carta Bella “Well Traveled” Paper Pad
1 ea Carta Bella “Well Traveled” Sticker Sheets 

(Note:  these stickers already come inside the 12 x 12 collection pack so there is no extra cost for these)
1 ea Carta Bella “Well Traveled” 3D Chipboard Stickers

1 ea Carta Bella “Well Traveled” Journaling & Accent Cards

1 ea Teresa Collins Cottage Collection Medallion
2 Sheets of Vintage Colored Burgundy Cardstock (reserve one sheet for your Cricut cut on the front page and one for an extra journal page))
1 Sheet of Black Cardstock (to make an extra journal page)
A few extra sheets of Cream, Black and Vintage Burgundy Red Cardstock (for photo mats, as desired)

8 ea. 3” X 5” (or similar size) Cream Craft Tags with Strings

5 ea. Tim Holtz Antique Metal Hinge Clips  

1 ea. Tim Holtz Antique Metal Compass (for decorating the front page)

1 ea. Tim Holtz Metal Spinners (to add to the Compass)

1 ea. Tim Holtz Metal Brads (to secure Spinner to Compass)

Velcro Dot Closures (Optional if you’d like to secure a few of your small envelop flaps closed)  

Equipment List

Circuit Machine & Cutting Mat

Close to My Heart “Artist” Cricut Cartridge  (I used Page 1, Doily Accent 2, set size to 2” and make 1ea. for the doily under the front page Compass)  

Alternate Cricut Cartridge  Option:  any other Cricut Cartridge that makes 2” doilies will work.

 2 ea  10" long 3/8" Black Double Sided Satin Ribbon (For Journal Closure)
1ea 24” long 3/8" Black Double Sided Satin Ribbon (For one Book Marker)
Paper Glue
3D Pop Dots
Paper Scoring Board and Scoring Tool
1 ea 7" piece of 1” Black or Sliver Binding Wires
Cinch (or other) Binding Machine

Wire Cutters
Paper Trimmer

Corner Rounder
Scissors  

  Directions

Front Cover

Step 1 - Preparing Journal & Post Cards:  From the 12" x 12" collection kit, pull one of the 3" x 3" journal card papers and trim the sentiments down to size.  Set these and your package of journaling post cards aside to decorate with later.










Step 2 - Preparing Pages & Pockets:   Take the remaining 8 sheets of 12" x 12" papers and add one black and one vintage burgundy red piece of cardstock for a new total of 10 pages.  Take all of these 12" X 12" pages and cut off a 3" strip from each of them.   This gives you a total of 10 ea,  12" X 9" double sided pages and 10 ea 12" X 3" pocket flaps.  Together these cuts become the basis of your journal pages. 

Scoring & Folding Pages:  Next score and fold all of your 12" x 9" sheets in the middle at 6" creating 10 ea 6" X 9" pages.   Once cut and scored, these 12" x 9" sheets create four journal pages each, two outside and two inside.  

Scoring & Folding Pocket Flaps:  Now take the 3" x 12" strips and score them in the middle at 6."  Set these aside until you begin page by page assembly.  You'll cut a few of these 3" strips in half at 6"to create single page pockets and you'll leave a few of these at 12" lengths for double page pockets as pictured throughout the journal.  

Step 3 - Page, Pocket or Flap Corner Rounding (Optional):  I included a corner rounder in the equipment list just in case you'd like to round the corners of your pages, pockets or flaps.  While I did not round the corner edges of this journal, I did use the corner rounder on a few flaps.  

Corner Rounder Page & Pocket Tip:   If you decide to round the corners of your pages, please be careful to hold any graphic paper in the correct direction when rounding the bottom of your 3" pocket strips.  Otherwise you may wind up with the graphics on your pocket upside down at assembly!  Oops!

Step 4 -  Preparing the Cover Doily:   Using your Cricut and Close to My Heart "Artiste" cartridge, and a sheet of your vintage burgundy red cardstock, cut one each of the doily shown on Page 31, marked as Accent 2.   If you do not have a Cricut machine or the "Artiste" cartridge, feel free to improvise your own decorative element to use instead.  Or,  you can use any Cricut cartridge that creates a 2" round circle with a decorative edge. 

Step 5 - Create Page Pockets:   As discussed above, you'll  notice that I cut a few of my page pockets down to 6" to mix up the design a bit from page to page.   I alternated page pockets on the outside and inside throughout the journal.  When securing your page pockets use your favorite paper to paper glue otherwise the first time you insert something hefty into a pocket it will fall apart.  Do not use your standard scrapbook tape runner.   Remember to leave the top of your page pocket open, gluing only the sides and bottom.   Since you will bind your pages at their center fold, there's no need to glue down your pockets in the middle.  Follow the page by page pictures in this tutorial to layout your pages and pockets before gluing down.  This will give you time to make any design adjustments you'd like to make along the the way.  

Step 6 - Creating Mini Envelops:   Follow the directions for using the We R Memory Keepers Envelop Punch Board to create mini envelops using your 6" X 6" paper pad.  Please note that the directions I linked above include a brief discussion on how to measure your envelops to ensure that they come out the proper size. The initial boards had several measuring errors in the first round of CHA releases which have since been corrected with an overlay sticker for the measurement guide.  For perfect results, please make sure you update your measurement guide with the overlay sticker.   Without an update, your envelop board will produce envelops, however, the results will be somewhat inconsistent.  

Special Note on 6" x 6" Paper Pad:   I used about one forth of the 6" x 6" paper pad for envelops and another forth to help decorate this journal.  I used some pages whole to make photo fold outs and/or cut a few pages down to make photo mats and journaling flaps as shown throughout this book.  Please see the photos below to see how I varied these items throughout the journal.

Step 7 - Binding Your Journal:   I used the Cinch Binding Machine with 7" of 1 1/2" black wire to bind this journal.   Follow the directions to punch, stack and cinch your pages together.   Remember to stack your back cover last, over the front cover, so when you are done binding you can turn the back page to the rear and hide the seam of your binding wire.

Alternate Binding Ring Method:   If you don't have a Cinch Binding Machine, you can easily improvise a binding using a standard hole punch and 3 ea. 1 1/2" binding rings.   Make a 6" x 9" cardstock hole punch template to use as a guide.   To make sure your holes are evenly spaced fold your 9" cardstock in half, then in half again and one more time.  This will give you 7 evenly spaced crease lines.  Mark and punch your top, bottom and center crease lines.   Using your template punch all of your pages and secure them together with your 1 1/2" binding rings.  

Step 8 - Decorating Your Journal:   With your journal all put together, now its time for the really fun part!   Feel free to follow my simple design ideas or better yet take this opportunity to use your mini envelopes, stickers, journaling cards, photo mats and 3D chipboard to finish decorating your journal just the way you want it.

Inside Cover: Pages 1 & 2 Pockets, Journal Flap, Post Card & Tag

Travel Itinerary on 1st Page Photo Flap

2nd Page - Pockets & Flaps for Memorabilia

Loose Journal Flap between Pages 3 & 4

Pages 3 & 4 with Journal Flap & Velcro Closures for Envelops

Pages 5 & 6 Pockets, Post Card & Tags

Pages 7 & 8 with Post Card & Photo Area

Pages 9 & 10 with Picture Mat, Envelop & Post Card

Pages 11 & 12 with Travel Checklist, Envelop & Post Cards

Pages 13 & 14 with Photo Page & Journal Flap

Pages 15 & 16 with Pockets, Journal Flap & Photo Page

Pages 17 & 18 with Journal Flap, Envelop & Journal or Photo Tag

Pages 19 & 20 with Pockets, Envelops, Photo & Journal Flap

Pages 21 & 22 with Envelop, Post Card & Photo Page

Pages 23 & 24 with Pockets & Journal Tags

Pages 25 & 26 with Pocket, Envelop & Photo Areas

Pages 27 & 28 with Pocket, Envelop & Journal Tags

Pages 29 & 30 with Pockets, Envelop, Post Card & Journal Tag

Pages 31 & 32 with Pocket, Envelop, Post Card & Photo Area

Pages 33 & 34 with Pocket, Journal Tag & Photo Mat

Pages 35 & 36 Photo Areas

Pages 37 & 38 with Pocket & Journal Flap

Pages 39 & 40 with Pockets, Post Card, Envelop & Photo Area

Back Page

Again, thank you for dropping by my blog today.  I hope you feel inspired to create something beautiful.  Hugs ~ Dawna