I bought some Traveler's Notebooks last year and had no idea what to do with them. I think I tried stamping in one and had to tear it out (my stamping looks like a bird walked through the ink pad. A really sick bird).
I love seeing people's layered notebook pages with lots of embellishments, photos and papers but I just can't do that so I went back to what I can do - make a clean and simple page in Photoshop Elements. Cooking and eating is my jam (haha) so I decided to use this book as a place for the many food photos that fill up my phone. Minibooks are always perfect for single themed projects.
Food photos can be colourful and busy so I chose a mostly black & white colour-scheme for this project. I didn't plan very much, I just played around in photoshop making my first page and was happy to keep that overall style going - a photo, B&W elements, a short story and a title.
I already had a few digital food themed kits so I coralled those along with some simple non-food kits that still work. I've also made some of my own simple elements when I couldn't find what I wanted.
Some of my supplies:
The book is a mix of favourite recipes, meals we have eaten out and new things I've tried cooking and loved. I'm not including full recipes but noting why we love it and where the recipe came from. I'm not in a hurry to finish this project - I'm about half way. I just make pages here and there when I feel like it.
THE PROCESS
I started by measuring my notebook page and created a 4x8 canvas in photoshop, which is slightly smaller than the actual page and allows some room to glue the finished page in. Then I just create my page exactly like a mini scrapbook page - a photo, some embellishments, journaling and a title.
When I'm finished, I print onto a thin, cheap matte photo paper I bought years ago by mistake and never used. The thinness means it doesn't bulk my book up too much. I can't find the actual paper I used online anymore but it is the same weight as regular paper (not cardstock) and is smooth on the printing side and rougher on the other side. I'm almost out so I'll have to find something similar). I can fit two layouts to one A4 or letter sheet, but mostly I'm impatient so I'm just printing one per sheet.
Once I cut the layout out, I just stick it in with my tape runner. I am half way through the book and it's not too bulky and everything seems to be well stuck. This is one of those projects that I pull out now and then and add to and really enjoy playing with. Usually makes me hungry though....
