Bungalow Lane Traveler's Notebook by Amber Mitchell

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Hello crafty friends! Amber Mitchell here on Paige's blog today to share with you this very chunky, very Fall-themed traveler's notebook that I created using her Bungalow Lane collection.

To create the base of my journal, I took several sheets of paper that measured 8x8 inches. I folded all of these in half and stacked them in the order I wanted the patterned papers to be.

To add some extra interest to the journal, I created other pages of different sizes and shapes. I used my Cricut to cut a 7.75 inch circle from Paper 8 that I folded in half. I also cut a 4 x 12 inch strip of cut-aparts from Paper 23 and a set of two tags from Paper 22 that I folded as well. I added these extra pages randomly throughout the album to break up the 4x8 inch block pages.

For the binding, I hand-stitched the journal together using a saddle-stitch and some light pink embroidery thread.

The Bungalow Lane collection offers a variety of fun embellishments to work with and I tried to use a bit of everything in this notebook.

On the cover, I used the Thickers to create a "Happy Fall" title. To frame the title and make it pop, I took paper leaves from the Floral Die Cuts and machine-stitched along them. I then added them, along with some flowers, to the cover. The smaller Stitched Leaves made for the perfect final touch on the cover, along with a dangle of charms and tassels that includes a super cute, mustard yellow heart from the Heart Charms.

Throughout the journal, I used sheets from the 2x2 Paper Pads to create sentiments and photo mats. Layering these together, or staggering them one on top of the next, is a fun way to create spots for photos while also adding interest to the pages.

The scalloped Washi Tape is so adorable that I added it to almost every other page in this journal.

One of my favorite things about creating Traveler's Notebooks is that each and every page can be completely different from the next. On some pages in this book, I used frames from the Chipboard Stickers to create photo spots while on other pages I used pieces from the Foam Phrase Stickers to create titles and spots for journaling or documenting. Another fun technique was creating a pocket from the Floral Die Cuts that I tucked a card from the Ephemera Die Cuts in. This pocket can also be used to store extra photos or memorabilia.

On some pages, I used punches to fill the empty space. I created several paper flowers using a Fiskars punch. I layered two pieces for each flower and then adhered them down the length of one of my pages in a zigzag pattern. For extra fun, I added some button embellishments from the Embossed Puffy Stickers to the center of each flower. For another page, I used my Envelope Punch Board to create three small envelopes. These were the perfect size to fill up an empty page and they're perfect to use for extra storage as well!

Since this journal is so chunky, I opted to use two strings of twine tied in a bow to keep it closed. This journal is so perfect for documenting any and all Fall memories and I can't wait to do just that with it!