One Down, ????? To Go

I'm not on facebook very often, but yesterday I updated my status to tell the world that I was starting to fulfill my 2012 goal of finishing all my half (or less than) done projects.  That's how excited I was.  I was surprised at how many comments that posting generated.  Apparently I'm not alone in the "unfinished symphony" problem.  If I can do it, so can you.  Step away from the computer, DO NOT enter into any swaps or challenges this week, and get busy completing the unfinished.  You'll feel so much better.

My first project was the travel journal we began during the 2009 Tim Holtz/Wendy Vecchi cruise to Mexico.  On board we did all the foundation work....decorated the grungeboard pages, added some stamping, inking, etc., but I never got around to adding photos or any journaling.  I always keep a small notebook with me when I travel, so I had all the details I needed, and all the photos are on my computer, so it was just a matter of actually sitting down and DOING it.  Yesterday was the day.  Yea!

First of all, click HERE if you'd like to see what the journal looked like before I got started. (You'll have to scroll down when you get there to see the section on the journal.)   Look at it now!

There are enough tabbed pages to have a section for each day of the cruise, and each section also included pocket pages made from small brown paper bags.  The ribbons you see are attached to tags, inserted into each pocket.  You'll see more of that in a bit.

You can see here that I added a photo from my day in Los Angeles, prior to the cruise, some ephemera from the hotel, and a bit of journaling.  On the brown paper bag I glued down some Day 1 cruise notes that I cut from the newsletter you get every day on cruises.  These went on each bag.  If you journal or scrapbook it's a good idea to keep all the newletters if you cruise; bits and pieces of them come in very handy.

Here's a close up of the journaling tag that we made to insert in each bag pocket.  I had them all completed and just had to add the journaling.

Here are the front and back of the Day 1 tag.  Again, I used a bit of the daily newsletter as well as my own writing.  Thanks to my notetaking, I even could write down what I had for dinner each night.  In the greater scheme of things, is that information earth shattering?  No, of course not.  But I think it's those kinds of little details that make your journal or scrapbook pages come to life.  And in a million years I'd never have remembered our waiter's name, even though I did remember that he had a great personality and added a lot to our dinnertime fun.

In addition to the tags, the bag pockets are roomy enough to include other mementos, such as this welcoming letter from Scrapmap.  Other items that fit are additional photos, postcards, maps, etc.

This page shows photos of my workspace before we started working on this journal, and also me in the studio finishing up some decorating during my free time.  And you can see the journaling I added (computer generated on kraft cardstock).

Another bag pocket page.  In case you were wondering, all those pages were stamped using a fantastic foam alphabet set from way back when Tim worked with Junkitz.  No longer available, Tim had a few sets for sale, and I immediately scooped one up.  I use it a lot, and really love the look of it.

As I mentioned before, I always take notes when I vacation.  Although I used these notes in my journaling here, I didn't include every little detail.  So, I created a new bag pocket and inserted those notes inside.  Even though they really only amounted to scrawls in an old steno pad, I didn't want to lose anything I wrote. 

This shows just how nice and chunky my journal became.  I even have a few more spots on some of the pages for additional photos, so I just may go back and see if there are any I'd like to include.

I have a whole lot left to finish, but having this one finally completed has been great motivation for me to continue, until my "to-do" list is empty.