Travel Journal Tutorial - Anglophile Friday

 You can see that it's been a while...

I'm hoping for next spring

I posted this in 2010, but thought it might be helpful to bring it around again - especially now that it's travel time for many. Along with planning an itinerary and making a packing list, this is one of my favorite things about preparing for a vacation.

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I have found a great way to come home from a trip with a keepsake that I will enjoy for years to come.

BEFORE LEAVING ON VACATION:

I like to purchase a Cambridge 6"x9" spiral bound drawing tablet, for it has good, heavy paper. For this particular one, I found some pictures of England and made a collage for the front cover, then laminated it.

The inside of the drawing tablet has a pocket which is nice for storing adhesive mailing labels which I pre-print and take along, so that it's easy to address postcards to mail home. On the inside front cover, I glue the print out of our flight and itineraries. I also use adhesive labels to keep important contacts  and phone numbers close at hand.

The only other items I need to take along on my trip to make my keepsake, then, are a gluestick and camera. The gluestick has to go into that one TSA-allowed quart-size Ziploc baggie of toiletries, such as shampoo, toothpaste, and soap. When I once packed a bar of soap separately, I found out that  even bar soap scans as a liquid, so I make sure to pack my gluestick in that baggie as well.

WHILE VACATIONING:

Wherever we go, I collect ephemera, and when we're back at our hotel in the evening, I tear our pictures from brochures, postcards, etc. and glue them here and there on the page. Then I start journaling around them. If I've taken a certain photo that day that I'll later want to include, I make a note of it in the journal so that when I print out the photo after arriving home, I'll make sure to place it in the journal.

I think it was about the time of the Churchill Cabinet War Rooms that I realized I need to make better use of my journal space. That's when I started overlaying, as you can see in the photo above. The two WWII posters are hinged at the top, so that I could lift them up and write under them. Same thing with the photo of Winston Churchill. He's hinged on the side. You don't want to see Churchill unhinged.

Tickets, receipts from the grocery store, ale labels, and business cards all went into making my journal a fun keepsake to read and re-read (if you're like me). :-)

Occasionally, I'd even sketch in my journal. This is supposed to represent the holiday cottage we rented with our daughter and son-in-law in Sutton on the Forest, near York. Okay, the illustrators of the world have nothing to fear from me.  By the way, I was fascinated by the many chimney flues that poked out of the tops of the houses.

If you're ever in London, it's definitely worth the small cost to take a London Walks walk. They're greatly entertaining and we learned so much from them! It just so happens that the man who owns London Walks and writes the fun brochure (see link), is from Wisconsin! Who would have thought!

More 'layering,' allowing me to lift up the photo and write in the journal underneath.

I'm trying to visually scan these pages and see if I'm giving away any family secrets. I hope not. But you can see by this page, above, that we paid $110 per room per night in downtown London, near Victoria Station. (That's US Dollars, not British pounds.I think the exchange rate at the time was 2:1, USD:GBP. It's not that bad now, although airfare has gone up dramatically.) For someone who generally stays at Super 8, (like we do) that may seem like a lot, until you compare it with other hotels in London - or even Duluth, MN!! It was really quite a find, and our hotel room, though microscopic, was very clean, and our hosts very friendly and accommodating!

UPON RETURNING HOME:

By the time we returned home, I already had most of my journal done - all except for the occasional photo I would add later. Above, the beefeater is 'hinged' on the edge so it can be moved to reveal more text.

In summary, this is a great way to remember a trip. It's so easy and inexpensive, and unlike the huge project of making a scrapbook after you return, it's almost done by the time you get home! I happened to have enough space leftover from the 2007 trip, that I decided to take it along on the 2008 London adventure with Joe and Anna. Now my journal sits on the bookshelf next to our England guide books. :-) It occasionally comes down so I can enjoy it all again, and will continue to do so until airfare comes down!

***

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This post may be linked to one or more of the following: Mop it Up Monday  and Get in My Tummy and  Cure for the Common Monday and  Clever Chicks Blog Hop and  Barn Charm and  The Marketplace  and  Mix it up Monday and Make it Pretty Monday and    Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and   You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and Creative Showcase and Memories by the Mile and  Tweak it Tuesday and  Coastal Charm Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday  and Love Bakes Good Cakes and Mom on TimeOut  and Adorned from Above and Wildcrafting Wednesday and   Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and All Things With Purpose and Home & Garden Thursday and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Artsy Corner Thursday  and The Girl Creative, Thursday and  Creative Things Thursday and Be Inspired and Time Travel Thursday and Thrifty Things Friday  and  Friday Fences and  Thursday's Inspiration and  The Self-sufficient Home Acre and  I'm Lovin' it Thursday and Creative Things Thursday and   Mandatory Mooch   and Foodie Friends Friday and Freedom Fridays and From the Farm and   Anything Blue Friday and Junkin' Joe and  Serenity Saturday and Get Schooled Saturday  and Inspiration Friday(ThursNite) and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Photo Friday and Share Your Creativity and   A Favorite Thing Saturday and Sunny Simple Sunday and Sunlit Sunday and  Market Yourself Monday and  Saturday Nite Special

Making a Medieval Peasant Cottage - Tutorial

 Medieval Peasant Cottage

Making a Medieval Peasant Cottage:

We're using Answers in Genesis' Kingdom Chronicles this year in VBS (Vacation Bible School).

The Medieval Peasant Cottage is not part of the suggested crafts, but I wanted to make one and thought the kids might enjoy it too. There is a 'Castle Catapult' suggested for the juniors and primaries, but it's made with a little wood ice cream spoon and a bottle cap, not exactly the kind of stuff my craft buddy and I like to use. Now if we could make an actual catapult...

Anyway, the Medieval Peasant Cottage is going to be a two-day project, allowing an overnight for the stucco and the paint to dry.

For this VBS craft, I used the following supplies:

• 5 x 5 x 5 cardboard box (with flaps)

• 6 x 9 piece of chipboard for roof

• 8 x 8 piece of cardboard for the platform on which the cottage sits (tiny lot)

• 4 1/2  x 2 1/2 piece of chipboard or heavy cardstock for chimney

• Tiny fake flowers for window box

• Moss for bushes

• Coconut matting (loose) for thatch, or you can use straw

• Tiny gravel or fish rocks for walkway

• Acrylic paints: Green, Brown, Black, Gray

• Vimasco (vinyl acrylic mastic) for the stucco effect on the outside of the house

I'll admit, there are definitely perks for being married to a contractor. We have just about everything around here. (That's also the downside.)  But if you don't have Vimasco sitting around, you can use a heavy white paint with sand added. 

• 1" wide paint brushes for applying the Vimasco

• Assorted narrow paint brushes for applying the detail

• Tacky glue (which the kids will paint onto the roof before applying straw 'thatch.')

• Hot Glue gun and glue sticks. The adults will be doing the hot glue. I don't want the kids losing any fingerprints, like I almost did.)

Here's how:

Assemble the box, taping the bottom closed with Scotch packing tape.

Cut two opposite-end top flaps of the box so that each forms a triangle. Now bend the side flaps inward. Your roof will be affixed to these side flaps.

End flaps cut to form triangles

Construct a chimney by folding the 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 piece of heavy cardstock or chipboard at 1-inch intervals with a half inch leftover as a tab to glue or tape to one of the sides.

Fold 6 x 9 chipboard (roof) in half and cut a square (the size of the chimney) out of it.The 6x9 gives the roof a little overhang.

6x9 roof with hole for chimney

Hot glue the roof to the side (top) flaps of the house.

Glue the chimney in place. When that's dry, Give the chimney a stone look by dabbling gray and black paint onto it.

Paint the platform with a green acrylic paint (The platform is not yet glued to the house)

Paint the roof brown.

When the roof is dry...Apply the Vimasco 'stucco' to the outside of the house and let dry overnight.

***

Now paint the brown timbers, the window frames, the walkway, etc.

Adults hot glue the cottage to the platform.

Now would be the time for the kids to use Tacky glue to adhere flowers to a 'windowbox,' gravel to the walkway, and lastly, the straw to the roof.

The kids can use the 1" wide paintbrushes to paint the Tacky glue onto each side of the roof, then sprinkling straw on, like you'd add glitter to something. Probably best to do one side at a time.

Although I like the look of the coconut matting on the roof of the one I made (in the photo), an adult would have to hot glue that on. So at VBS, we're going to go with the chopped straw instead, so that the kids can do it themselves.

P.S. If you have any questions or if I left anything out, be sure to email me or leave your questions in a comment.

****

And speaking of Coconut Matting...

Lord Peter Wimsey, Harriet Vane

tumbler.com

Lord Peter: "I was rather hurt. Fancy having to ask the Morning Star where the pole-star of one’s own heaven has gone to. . . How do these things get into the papers?”

“I rang them up myself,” replied Harriet. “First-class publicity, you know, and all that.”

“So it is,” agreed Wimsey, helping himself lavishly to butter. “Rang ‘em up, did you, with all the gory details?”

“Naturally; that was the first thing I thought of.”

“You’re a woman of business. But does it not, pardon me, indicate a certain coarsening of the fibers?”

“Obviously,” said Harriet. “My fibers at this moment resemble coconut matting.”

“Without even ‘Welcome’ written across them..."

                                               from Have His Carcase, by Dorothy L. Sayers

***

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This post may be linked to one or more of the following: Mop it Up Monday  and Get in My Tummy and  Cure for the Common Monday and  Clever Chicks Blog Hop and  Barn Charm and  The Marketplace  and  Mix it up Monday and Make it Pretty Monday and    Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and   You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and Creative Showcase and Memories by the Mile and  Tweak it Tuesday and  Coastal Charm Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday  and Love Bakes Good Cakes  and Overflowing With Creativity and Mom on TimeOut  and Adorned from Above and Wildcrafting Wednesday and   Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and All Things With Purpose and Home & Garden Thursday and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Artsy Corner Thursday  and The Girl Creative Thursday and  Creative Things Thursday and Be Inspired and Time Travel Thursday and Thrifty Things Friday  and  Friday Fences and  Thursday's Inspiration and  The Self-sufficient Home Acre and  I'm Lovin' it Thursday and Creative Things Thursday and   Mandatory Mooch   and Foodie Friends Friday and Freedom Fridays and  Anything Blue Friday and Junkin' Joe and  Serenity Saturday and Get Schooled Saturday  and Inspiration Friday(ThursNite) and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Photo Friday and  A Favorite Thing Saturday and Sunny Simple Sunday and Sunlit Sunday and  Market Yourself Monday and  Saturday Nite Special