woohoo... another travel book!

midway through my california trip, my friend and co-conspirator barb admired by travel book and said something along the lines that it seemed like a really EASY way to make a travel scrapbook, and someday even she might want to try it. which of course was all the excuse i needed to come home and make a second one, just for her!

the size, shape and format of this book is exactly the same as the book i made for myself; which is to say that the covers are 4.5 x 9.5" and the pages are just a tiny bit smaller. this seems like kind of a weird shape, until you realize that it makes it possible able to just punch one hole and add the brochures and things we all tend to accumulate on vacation. which explains the one-ring. because although i love a nice spiral binding, it means you have to wait until the very very end to attach everything. and meanwhile you have a suitcase full of precious papers and postcards getting literally bent out of shape. i covered sturdy chipboard panels with a fun pastel cactus patterned paper and added the title of the book on a postcard from the trip, which i mounted on a hambly transparency dolled up with a bit of washi tape.

since i was making barb's book AFTER the trip, i had the luxury of being able to print and add photos from the jump. so i chose one shot i liked for each of the labeled pages which represent each day of the trip as well as a few themes like food, accommodations, weather, etc. 

i formatted the photos to be the same size and shape as the labelled pages (4.25 x 8.5") and printed them on inkjet transparency sheets, so that you can see the pages beneath... right through the photos. i love this effect. and it always impresses non-papercrafters, because they can't quiiiiiiiite figure out how you made the pics SEE-THROUGH! :)

of course, barb can add traditional or mini photographs to her pages, or even just punch a hole in 4 x 6" prints from the drugstore and make them be their own pages. i love that this style of book is so casual you don't have to do ANY fussing or fancy footwork! i cannot wait to see what fun things barb adds to make it HERS! ♥

hey! it's a travel book!

it's been a while since i posted a travel book, but then it's been a while since i took a trip that called for one. luckily, i just got back from a couple of weeks hanging out with my friend barb in carlsbad, california; and while i was there we took a road trip to palm springs for part of modernism week. and that's definitely the kind of trip that needs recording! 

somehow i accidentally forgot to take a "before" photo. so we will just have to imagine the bare bones book i started out with. it consisted of two chipboard covers measuring 4.5 x 9.5" that i had wrapped in an oversized atlas index, and added a cloudy sky illustration from an old book as endpapers. 

inside, i started with about 50 cardstock pages, measuring 4.25 x 8.25". i made one page for each day of the trip, labelled with the days of the week; a few printed theme pages for things like "food", "weather", "accommodations" etc; and a bunch of blank pages for journaling or adding photos, stickers, business cards or other fun things from the trip. i also made a bunch of slightly higher quality sketchbook-paper pages, so i could draw or doodle or do some lettering while i was on the road. 

my travelbook kit is a little larger than my regular travel art kit, just because there are a few extras i thought i'd need... also the book is bigger than my little moleskine travel sketchbook. inside this 12 x 9" clear plastic pouch i could easily fit: the book itself (secured with a hair elastic so the pages wouldn't get bent); small scissors (TSA demands the blade be shorter than 6cm if you want to put them in your carry-on); a hole punch, tape runner, tiny stapler and some washi for adding and attaching things; small ruler, pencil, magic pencil, sharpener and eraser; a selection of pens including my 3 favorite sizes of pitt artist pen (XS, S and 1.5), a ballpoint with 4 colors of ink, a couple of gel pens as well as a medium and fine point white posca paint pen; plus a rainbow of tombow dualbrush pens and a waterbrush. oh and wet wipes, which are useful for clean-up, while the outside plastic wrapper is a nice wipe-able surface for scribbling the tombows on, to pick up with the waterbrush and use like watercolors!

typically, i spend 10-15 minutes per night on my travel book during the trip. the most crucial thing to do during this time is write a quick summary of what we did on the appropriate day's page... because although i THINK i'll remember the details... honestly, i never do, lol! the other thing i do each night is punch a hole in the brochures, menus, postcards, business cards or any other ephemera i collected  that day, and slip them into the book, more or less in order. honestly, it's this type of item which makes up better than half of my travel books. and that is why my travel books are generally the size and shape they are: i based the whole design around the size and shape of the typical tourist brochure. not only is this the quickest and easiest way to document what we did, it means that when someone asks me next year the name of the condo we booked via air b-n-b, i will not only KNOW, i'll have the address and telephone number in a place i can quickly find again. you can see from the photo below that i will sometimes also make notes on the fronts or backs of postcards and brochures, if there were particular things i wanted to remember or a funny story attached to a place or... whatever...

honestly, i have made plenty of travel books in which the day pages and ephemera are the ONLY contents and they are fun, useful and (to me, at least) cool looking. however, if i'm feeling more ambitious, i will sometimes add stickers, tape or other decorations to some of the pages. for example, i found those cute puffy cacti at paper source in carlsbad, the day before we left for palm springs. obviously, they were a necessity! when i get home, if i feel like adding photos, i do; if not, i don't worry about it. in this case, i chose to print a dozen or so panorama-shaped photos the same size as my text pages, and i printed them on inkjet transparencies, so it's possible to see the text through the pics as you flip through the book. in the photo below, you can see a rather dramatic sunset towards the back of the book, a pic of me standing in front of the big MW moderism week logo, and in the foreground, a snap of the little monkey amigurumi i crocheted on the airplane and sewed together before we left for palm springs. because road trips need mascots!!! :)

the final step i do after returning from the trip is make the decorative part of the cover. i don't do this beforehand because i know i'll be handling the book a lot, and honestly anything attached to the covers during that phase is bound to suffer. also, i love to use something i acquired on the trip, to make it even more special. in this case, it was an oversized vintage postcard of palm canyon drive in palm springs, in the magical twilight you only get in the desert. of course, i could have attached this directly to the index-wrapped chipboard covers, but you know how i LOVE layers, so i added it to an orange hambly transparency, which swings free of the cover itself. a few pleather stickers for a title and i was DONE. 

seriously... i think this may be the easiest and lowest maintenance style of travel book in the world; you literally come home with the thing 90% done! later this week, i'll show some art journal pages inside the book that i made while on the road. and hopefully  a second, blank book that i'm making for my friend barb as a thank you gift! (so shhhhhhhhhhhhhh don't tell her, k?!) ♥♥♥

photo finish

i'm done editing my pictures from california--wanna see?

ok, everyone takes a zillion pictures of the the pandas in san diego zoo,

and i'm no exception. what can i say? pandas are cool.

here's our b&b, the artists' inn, in south pasadena. very nice.

and now...some pics from the breathtaking gardens at the

huntingdon library:

here's a bit of the rose garden...

...here's the japanese garden...

...here's some girl...onna bench...

behold, the san diego museum of art--hubba hubba!

(did i mention i loooooove museums?!)

this is where we saw the pre-raphaelite exhibition...

which was ah-MAY-zing, i might add!

the day before i left, we visited another place full of art & wonder:

LEGOLAND!

they have prince charming...in lego...

...mardi gras...in lego...

i looooooved legoland! as a matter of fact, i loved everything we did in california; i don't think there was a single day when i thought, "oof--that was a bit disappointing"! au contraire. in fact, the closest i have

to a travel horror story is:

that gelato we had in ocean beach? i suspect it was mass-produced!

(oh, the horror!!)

seriously, that's as bad as it got!!! :) what a fabulous trip!

now i just have to finish the minibook i started out there. i keep mentioning it here, in the hope that if other people know i am working on it, i will make it a priority, and not let it get pushed to the back of the busload of things i need to accomplish!

(there are even more pics here. because god knows, there is nothing quite as fascinating as the mediocre vacation photos of complete strangers! lol. enjoy!)

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!

my friend barb & i are off to pasadena for a couple of days, where we suspect we won't have internet (waaaaaaahhh) or the time to use it (yaaaaaaaaaaay). howsabout a couple of links to help you while away the time? we're staying in a fab b&b, visiting a museum/botanical garden (which serves high tea!) and checking out a mystery bookshop. oh yeah, and on the way, we're stopping at in & out burger, since barbara was shocked to discover i have never been to one.

you're startin' to hate me again, aren't ya?? thought so. it's ok. i'd hate me, too, under the circumstances. if you can't tag along to pasadena, why not bop over to CAARDVARKS? ...they might just have something cool to work on in the next day or so...

the happiest place on earth...

...for ME...was not disneyworld. don't get me wrong, i liked disney--and i had a blast in orlando! but being a fairly museumy sort of a person, i would have to cast my vote for balboa park, in san diego.

you like museums? they got museums! you like science? there's a science museum! art?? yepper, got a couple o' those! anthropology? natural history? photography?? check, check & check. you name it, and balboa park probably has a museum devoted to it...maybe even two!
did i mention that it's all contained within gorgeous historic buildings, set amongst palm trees, courtyards and beautifully manicured gardenscapes? uh-huh. even if you never went IN anywhere, you could have a great touristy day just wandering around the grounds.
and if the OUTSIDE doesn't have enough glorious exotic flora for ya, just take a gander inside the botanical building! admission to which is...wait for it...FREE!!! (so are a few of the other museums and galleries; most charge a modest fee.)
if i ever run away from home...this is where you should look first!



( http://community.webshots.com/user/namastekitty has additional pics, should you need them!)

i (heart) the specific ocean

ordinarily i would view the prospect of posting a picture of myself in a bathing suit with the sort of fear and dread usually reserved for audits and root canal...together! but my friend cassie and i had sooooooo much fun swimming yesterday, that even the photos turned out ok.

i say "swimming" but really, "splashing, jumping and screaming ineffectually at the bigger waves" is probably more accurate...at least on my part. now, miss cassandra is strong, experienced & intrepid when it comes to watersports. she'd have been halfway to singapore, if she hadn't sussed pretty quickly that her companion, despite years of childhood swimming lessons, never quite made it past "minnow" level.

practical to the core, cassie kept her eye on how far we were drifting down the beach, and periodically led us back to our point of origin. she also continually assessed our distance from various bands of boogie-boarding boys to avoid collisions. "if the wave breaks in front of you, catch it with your back" she offered helpfully, at one point, along with, "if you think it's going to break right on you, dive into the bottom of the wave". (she was kind enough not to mock replies such as, "waaaaaaaaahhhh--RUN!!!" and "ummmmmm....dive into...??!?")

you know, i think if i could spend the whole summer under such expert tutelage, by august i might very nearly be ready for promotion to guppy!

what i did on my summer vacation

(you know, in case you're not quite envious enough yet!) :)

on wednesday i spent the morning in...

a very cool, very funky/artsy/friendly beach town near carlsbad. i had an amazing breakfast at a cafe called st. germain (where $10.37 gets you a big omlette, fruit, muffin & coffee!) and then wandered around all the little shops and boutiques.

i discovered soul scape, http://www.soulscapeonline.com/ which was full of indian, asian & new age books, art and gifts. coast highway traders--my favorite from last trip--did not disappoint either. http://www.coasthwytraders.net/ i bagged some cool postcards and little trinkets there.

then barb and i met up for a

PICNIC ON THE BEACH!!!

(life is gooooooood!)

...wouldja believe...

...that i'm entirely caught up with editing my photos of the trip so far?????! well, frankly *I* don't believe it! i have no idea how to react, since it's a phenomenon that has never happened before...and most likely never will again, but in the meantime...

can i get a *WOOHOO?!*

thank you. i've even started posting pics (can i get another, smaller, woohoo?!) in my webshots "solo" album: http://community.webshots.com/user/namastekitty

yesterday, i had the first batch all ready to go--complete with witty descriptions & repartee--on flickr. then i found out you can only make *3* sets using the free flickr membership. you can post loads more pics, but they just sit there...in a big CLUMP...until you fork over $25.

i spent half an hour deciding whether to be cheap (and re-do the work) or lazy (and commit to $25 a year...or whatever they raise it to). i settled on cheap...with a side order of moral outrage. but it's hard to sustain the "outrage" part when you're surrounded by this:

don't hate me b/c i'm beautiful...

...hate me b/c i'm HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is me, an hour after my plane landed in san diego (g'head & curse in my general direction...ya know you wanna...and i don't blame you!)

on the way to carlsbad we stopped at ocean beach, a funky little surfer town, where we had lunch & dabbled our toes in the water. this pretty church was several blocks inland

later we stopped at the gorgeous louis kahn-designed salk institute. i like this picture of timmy, leading the way to the fountain and a spectacular view of the sea

...did i mention the WEATHER???!!! well, maybe we should save the weather for next time...

(ok, you can stop the cursing now)