This is probably the most last minute trip DH and I have ever done… but we’re off to Alaska!! We bought the tickets just 1 week ahead of the departure, which left me in serious panic mode to get ready. I decided I had to make a journal album to bring on the trip with us, so I had to put it together very quickly. I loooove how it turned out!

How to bind the book is what I pondered most. I love stitched books, but, alas, I do not own a stitching machine. Nor do I have a Bind-it-all or a similar fantastic machine. Since I already bound my previous travel book with rings, I wanted to go with something different. After much consideration, I found the simplest solution: use masking tape! It’s easy, quick, cheap, and fun!! The fact that it comes in a pretty blue too was an unexpected bonus! 🙂 In the process, I also finally fired up my Silhouette after a couple months of laziness and cut a bunch of cute elements for my album.

Here are a few details:

I used Mod Podge to glue down the tree and the title, but since I have now fallen in love with said masking tape and wanted the book to have a cohesive look, I added a few bits on the cover as well. 🙂

In the inside cover, I printed a pretty map of Alaska.

The inside pages are done with the new ledger papers by Sahlin Studio from this month’s BYOC, printed on plain copy paper.

I bound the internal pages with regular masking tape. I love the look!

And here’s my favorite part! Lots of colorful word strips to glue inside the journal!! I am bringing a glue stick with me (sigh, Mod Podge is liquid and I cannot bring it with me) to glue them as I go. That envelope (from the post office) is what determined the size of the journal. 🙂

Isn’t it cute that the tree continues on the back?

I don’t know if I’ll ever manage to follow up and print some pictures to put in the album after we’re back, but at least I will capture all the journaling while we’re there.