Alex and I went to New York City in April and I’m finally finished with my travel album — I haven’t created a travel album like this before, so if you have any suggestions for products/techniques, please let me know! Honestly, Amy Tan, Ali Edwards, and Kristin are my travel-album inspiration, so if you see something you would expect to see from them, you’ll know why.
Basic Supplies Used:
Studio Calico 6×8 Handbook in Gray
Designer Project Life® Seafoam paper
Studio Calico kits (embellishments, random 3×4 cards)
Project Life® cards from Seafoam & Midnight
I decided to make a 6×8 album for our trip to New York because I knew ahead of time that we would take a ton of photos while we were on vacation. It being Alex’s first trip to New York, I wanted to make sure to document our trip with something a little more personal than a photo book — there were so many ticket stubs and other sorts of trinkets that I knew I would want to include in our album that would be difficult to include in a traditional photo book.
I love how easy it is for me to document our everyday using pocketed page protectors and the album I purchased came with several pages of various layouts, which was fine with me! I like that it isn’t all 3×4 pockets and I was able to include larger things like a museum brochure and a large letterpress postcard Kristin gave me. Using these page protectors also made it easy for me to pull together my kit for this project — I was able to go straight to my cart and pull cards from the organized trays and embellishments from the different compartments and get to work right away.
To print my photos to be 3×4, I used Kristin’s tutorial (how to get 2 3×4 images on a 4×6 print) and printed my photos through the PostalPix app.
Our short time at the Central Park Zoo turned out to be a big part of our trip, so I dedicated a 2 page spread to it. I adhered two smushed pennies to a card and slipped it into the sleeve — If I was to go back and do this again, I would adhere the pennies to the outside of the pocket. With the added dimension, the page protector looks a little funny and doesn’t feel as clean as the other layouts with the dimensional features on the outside.
Travel Album Tip: Keep tickets, vouchers, stickers, and business cards to include in your album. If there is an address, a time stamp, or special design on something, I suggest including it in your layouts.
The red playing card (across from George Washington) was my “room key” for the play Sleep No More and because we didn’t have a program or any other thing that showed that we attended the show (okay, so we had the masks from the show, but we left them behind in the hotel room because what are we going to do with two plastic masks?? I can’t scrapbook that.) I knew that hanging onto that card was important. I put the name of the show on the 3×4 card that says “enjoy it because it’s happening” because it’s the kind of show where you need to drink the kool-aid early on (or in my case, a glass of slightly warm milk…) to enjoy the show.
Embellishment Tip: Sometimes less is more. I love using the white space of a photo to highlight a stamp or some journaling. Let the embellishments speak volumes by keeping things simple.
I left one of the pockets empty so the photos on each side could peek through — and emphasized that it was done on purpose by putting two chipboard stickers (the camera and the trio of hearts) on either side of the page. Flipping back and forth between the two is kind of fun and it gives a different dimension to the album. I’m all about layers and using 6×8 page protectors the entire time was getting a little boring.
I included Kristin and Jeff’s signature hashtag on a photo of them taking a pic of the small plates we were eating at Beauty & Essex. The background of the photo was a little distracting, so I found a vellum word bubble, some wood veneer letters, and cut out the dining icon to help fill the space and draw attention to the main subject of the photo.
Photo Tip: Capture “behind the scenes” types of photos and very candid photos of the people around you. Kristin and Jeff didn’t know I was taking this photo so they’re comfortable and anybody who has ever snapped a photo of their food can appreciate this moment. Other ideas include taking photos of people walking through a museum together, waiting in line for an event, or while ordering at a counter. These are all moments where we let down our guard and seem the most relaxed.
I cut a 6×8 page protector down to better fit the photostrip that Kristin and I took while at the Ace Hotel. I sealed the page protector with some washi tape. I didn’t have anything to put on the backside of the insert, but it’s available if I ever find something to include there. Normally, I would stress about it, but I’m embracing the imperfection.
I had no idea the photo of Alex and me walking down the street was taken — I had to stare at it for a long time when Kristin sent it to me for me to understand what exactly I was seeing. It’s nice to spend time with friends who understand that things like this simple photo mean so much to me. This is the most journaling I’ve ever done for a single project! Maybe I’m less of a non-journaler than I thought?
I was working on my album during National Scrapbooking Day (weekend) and shared the closeup on my Instagram account — it’s much easier to image the layers of this page when you’re seeing it up close like this. I love layers and textures, and using the travel-themed lace paper (American Crafts) as the foundation for this page was something very different for me. I used a lot of foam adhesive to lift elements off the page, too.
Do you have trip-specific albums? How do you keep your photos organized?
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