Guest Blogger: Heather Nichols

Hello everyone and welcome to this month's Traveler's Journal feature. This month we are going to talk about creating mini kits for your Traveler's Journals to either give as a gift or maybe just to keep for yourself! I know when I have coordinating products all pulled together it makes putting together pages and layouts in my Traveler's Journals so much easier. I am so much more successful at being able to actually complete my projects.

I am excited to share that there is some exclusive new Traveler's Journal products debuting this month and they are just perfect for the upcoming holiday season. You will also being seeing more inspiration during the rest of the Papertrey Ink October release countdown. 

Today, I am featuring the Traveler's Journal: December and Traveler's Journal: December Typed Words stamp sets in the mini kit that I am sharing with you. You will learn more information about both of these stamp sets a little later in the Papertrey Ink October release countdown.

Sometimes it's hard to know exactly where to start when putting a mini kit like this together and so I thought I would breakdown the parts of this kit. There really isn't a right or wrong way to do this. Just think about what you want to have included and start with making a list and maybe some sort of inspiration. My inspiration for this kit was, of course, Christmas!

1. I started with the journal. You are definitely going to need a place to put your journaling and layouts. I use the Traveler's Journal: Page Blanks and stamped the cover with snowflakes in Fresh Snow ink. I put the book together and used some red and white twine for the binding. I also added some die cut letters to spell out the word "merry" and I glittered just edges of the letters for a fun, frosty look.

2. Next, is a selection of patterned papers. You can use printed patterned paper from your stash or you can stamp your own custom patterned papers. I used a few pieces of Bitty Big: Pure Poppy patterned papers along with a few custom pieces that I stamped myself using the new Traveler's Journal: December stamp set.

3. Labels are always great for adding titles and journaling to your pages. The new Traveler's Journal: December stamp set includes two label images and stamped them in Pure Poppy, Prairie Grass, and Olive Twist inks and cut them out. I stamped a few of the labels with some of the larger sentiments in the Traveler's Journal: December stamp set.

4. Tiny word stickers! I cut 1/4" strips from a white adhesive sheet and then stamped the typed words from Traveler's Journal: December and Traveler's Journal: December Typed Words onto them. As I am working in my journal, I can just snip the words apart that I want to include.

5. Frames, page tabs, and more stickers. I used the Traveler's Journal: Accessories die collection to cut out an assortment of frames and page tabs for my journal. I also stamped some of the small circle images from the new Traveler's Journal: December stamp set onto a white adhesive sheet and punched them out with a circle punch. I love having all of these elements ready to go!

6. Embellishments. I went through my craft stash and found twine, ribbon, and some snowflake eyelets that coordinated with my kit. I made my own metallic snowflakes using the Fancy Flakes dies. I die cut the snowflakes from cardstock and then applied some silver gilding flakes to them – you could use embossing powder or glitter as well.

That breaks down what I put together for this particular mini kit and I hope that this list helps you when it comes to putting together your own kit of supplies. There are so many other ideas of items to add to your kit that I didn't add to this one like pockets, envelopes, tags, and more – just add whatever elements that you would like!

During the rest of the Papertrey Ink October release countdown, I will be sharing layouts from my journal that I created using this kit and so I hope that you will stop by to see what I have created to share and to learn more information about the new Traveler's Journal products debuting this month.

• STAMPS: Traveler's Journal: December, Traveler's Journal: December Typed Words, Background Basics: Farm & Barn
• INK: True Black, Fresh Snow, Fine Linen, Classic Kraft, Olive Twist, Prairie Grass, Pure Poppy, Versamark
• PAPER: Stamper's Select White, Classic Kraft, Olive Twist, Bitty Big: Pure Poppy, Traveler's Journal: Page Blanks, white adhesive sheet
• DIES: Traveler's Journal: Accessories, Block Alphabet, Fancy Flakes
• OTHER: white embossing powder, silver gilding flakes, 1/2" circle punch, white gold glitter, red & white twine, ribbon, snowflake eyelets

Amy and Andi from the Traveler's Journal team have some great mini kit inspiration to share with you today:

"Keeping up with memory keeping during the holidays can be challenging. How about get a head start by putting together a mini kit? Design your pages and prepare an assortment of die-cut and stamped embellishments ahead of time, so that by December, all you'll need are photos and some quick journaling!"

• see Amy's blog for more information on supplies used

Click here to visit Amy's blog to see more!

"Looking around I’m seeing some signs of the up coming holiday season. I thought it would be fun to pull out some Christmas colors and play with the soon to be released Traveler’s Journal Sets. Let me show you a Mini Album Kit that I’ve made to give to some lucky person…or keep for myself. It’s too cute!"

• STAMPS: Traveler's Journal: December, Traveler's Journal: December Typed Words
• INK: True Black, Fresh Snow
• PAPER: Pure Poppy, Pinefeather, Classic Kraft, vellum, Traveler's Journal: Page Blanks
• DIES: Traveler's Journal: Accessories, Traveler's Journal: Envelope, Traveler's Journal: Outer Cover, Countdown Details, Framed Out #5
• OTHER: Rustic Cream button twine

Click here to visit Andi's blog to see more!

Thank you so much for joining me and the Traveler's journal team today and I look forward to sharing more Traveler's Journal inspiration with you next month!