Finished my prototype holiday checklist/notebook! It has titles for destination and date, plus sections with space to write what you want- divided into essentials, toiletries, accessories, clothes and miscellaneous. Then there are a few blank pages for general holiday notes:
This one I’ve done for myself, as a tester, but I will do proper ones with neatly printed insides! It’s been made using coptic binding technique, covered in nice paper and sewn with very sturdy black waxed thread. There’s room for 8 holidays in here.
A friend commissioned this fabulous blank notebook for writing recipes in. Love the cover paper she chose! I cut out a section and added a title on the front.
It’s a mere two weeks before I will be jetting off on a family holiday to Positano, Italy, for some much needed rest and relaxation.
Of course I will be taking a notebook and pen/pencil with me, but sometimes it just doesn’t cut it to simply have a couple of items loose in the bottom of my bag. This, I feel, will be one such holiday and I will need something a bit nicer; a grown-up pencil case, basically, so I can keep all my stationery essentials handy, compact and tidy.
And so I explored the web to find the best travel stationery sets I could. Here’s what I discovered…
Having written the line about wanting something grown-up, it turns out that one of the best little all-round sets I stumbled upon is in fact a Hello Kitty one. It has a ballpoint pen, pencil, ruler, eraser, notepad, felt tips, plus (and this is what makes it so good) a sharpener that catches the shavings. I feel this is essential for a travel set, when you won’t know if there’ll be bin handy. You can get it from Tesco and it’s pretty darn cute:
If, however, you’re looking for something a bit more upmarket, why not try this travel set in a fancy leather case? According to the site it’s “A luxurious way to carry all your stationery essentials”:
Just want to do a bit of sketching on your holidays? There are quite a few sketching wallets about. This one’s from Derwents and contains a sketch pad of nice paper, nice pencils/charcoal etc., an eraser and a sharpener:
This little set from Ryman’s is pretty handy, with just the basics of nice pencils, erasers and that all important sharpener. This one not all collects the bits, but it has different sharpening sizes for drawing/writing etc. Who knew these existed? Not me! This one’s also nice and compact, with good quality erasers that sit nicely over the tops of the pencils:
Now that you’ve got together the right set of pencils/pens etc. you’ll need something to put them in. Good old Paperchase has a great selection, ranging from eco-friendly wooden ones to nice soft zip-up ones, both plain and patterned:
And finally, for any of you hardcore crafters out there, why not try making your own from this awesome tutorial?
