Pinterest Win for this Momma!
In preparing for our European Christmas trip I decided the boys were old enough to start journaling their adventures. So, in looking for kids journal inspiration I, of course, went to Pinterest!
Using a bit of this and a dash of that, and a lucky find of a three pack of moleskin notebooks, I put together these three travel journals for my two boys and their travel pal.
I found the "Adventure is Out There" printable HERE. The map was just a print off Google Maps of the area we were headed and trimmed of excess white, wrapped around the notebook and attached on the interior of the front and back flaps with a long strip of scotch tape (highly sophisticated stuff here, folks).
Each boy had his own style washi tape to trim out the cover as well as accent the interior. This not only looked pretty sweet, but it kept the wrapped map secured in place. The black glitter washi tape was used in all three books, too.
Each guy has his own signature page to open to. After that it was his name page with not only his name but the dates we're traveling, the stops we'd make and names of all our traveling companions. The large letters were cut on my Silhouette and traced with white pen, but the rest of it was simply hand written with colored pens.
From here came the actual journal pages. These I made up in Word. I measured how big the journal pages were, scaled back about a 1/4" on each side and made a template. There were two journal pages per 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. Once those were cut and trimmed I corner punched the outer corners to reflect the rounded corners of the journal. The boxes on each page were traced with pen in a color that coordinated with that book, just to give it a sketchy finish.
Each page had 5 squares: two small ones on top for the date and the weather, and three wide ones for the day's entries. They asked the author to talk about "Where I went" and "The favorite part of the day" as well as "What I learned." On the back of each journal page was a title, "What Did I Eat?!" Here they could remember all the fun, new foods they ate!
The weather box was fun - each book came with two sheets of little stickers of clouds, suns, rain drops, snow flakes and rainbows. This was always the first box done by my two guys. They really wanted to use the rainbow stickers, but... well, it was England in the winter.
Each book also came with a magnetic book mark to help them easily open to the day they were on, as well as an elastic book strap to keep it shut tight for traveling (Just black elastic band sewn quick on the machine - easy peasy!)
As a bonus! I got a portable printer for Christmas. (insert large smile here) It prints small 2x3 pics from my phone - PERFECT for these books! On the back of each page, under the list of all the food, I added a picture special to each of them for that day. I packed my Smash pens with glue sticks on the ends, and was able to add pictures to the books on the road, as well as passes, ticket stubs, etc.
We had a couple small struggles getting the boys to do their journals every night, and a couple nights when we were out so late that we put off journaling until the next day, but overall I'm very proud of them for taking it seriously, sticking with it and I think we have two journals that they will really enjoy looking back on (not to mention allowing Van to work on his writing, spelling and grammar!).
Using a bit of this and a dash of that, and a lucky find of a three pack of moleskin notebooks, I put together these three travel journals for my two boys and their travel pal.
I found the "Adventure is Out There" printable HERE. The map was just a print off Google Maps of the area we were headed and trimmed of excess white, wrapped around the notebook and attached on the interior of the front and back flaps with a long strip of scotch tape (highly sophisticated stuff here, folks).
Each boy had his own style washi tape to trim out the cover as well as accent the interior. This not only looked pretty sweet, but it kept the wrapped map secured in place. The black glitter washi tape was used in all three books, too.
Each guy has his own signature page to open to. After that it was his name page with not only his name but the dates we're traveling, the stops we'd make and names of all our traveling companions. The large letters were cut on my Silhouette and traced with white pen, but the rest of it was simply hand written with colored pens.
From here came the actual journal pages. These I made up in Word. I measured how big the journal pages were, scaled back about a 1/4" on each side and made a template. There were two journal pages per 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. Once those were cut and trimmed I corner punched the outer corners to reflect the rounded corners of the journal. The boxes on each page were traced with pen in a color that coordinated with that book, just to give it a sketchy finish.
Each page had 5 squares: two small ones on top for the date and the weather, and three wide ones for the day's entries. They asked the author to talk about "Where I went" and "The favorite part of the day" as well as "What I learned." On the back of each journal page was a title, "What Did I Eat?!" Here they could remember all the fun, new foods they ate!
The weather box was fun - each book came with two sheets of little stickers of clouds, suns, rain drops, snow flakes and rainbows. This was always the first box done by my two guys. They really wanted to use the rainbow stickers, but... well, it was England in the winter.
Each book also came with a magnetic book mark to help them easily open to the day they were on, as well as an elastic book strap to keep it shut tight for traveling (Just black elastic band sewn quick on the machine - easy peasy!)
As a bonus! I got a portable printer for Christmas. (insert large smile here) It prints small 2x3 pics from my phone - PERFECT for these books! On the back of each page, under the list of all the food, I added a picture special to each of them for that day. I packed my Smash pens with glue sticks on the ends, and was able to add pictures to the books on the road, as well as passes, ticket stubs, etc.
We had a couple small struggles getting the boys to do their journals every night, and a couple nights when we were out so late that we put off journaling until the next day, but overall I'm very proud of them for taking it seriously, sticking with it and I think we have two journals that they will really enjoy looking back on (not to mention allowing Van to work on his writing, spelling and grammar!).
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