I've really gotten in to using my Traveler's Notebooks this year.

I use a FoxyDori from the Foxy Fix for work to keep track of my monthly and weekly calendars, plus my meeting notebooks and brain dumps.

I also have one for my art journalling and one I keep by my side when I'm reading.

Now, having three Traveler's Notebooks is great, but inserts are a pain. They're expensive (especially shipping here to Australia) and I'm happy to admit that I'm pretty lazy when it comes to putting my own together from scratch.

However, I have a fix for that!

Watch the video below for my quick, easy and cheap Traveler's Notebook insert hack that's perfect for people who just need paper to write on and aren't too worried about paper quality. This method will help produce beautiful little notebooks on a budget!

materials.

Staple-bound notebooks (any design of choice, 64pp words great) - scrapbooks, grid or lined

Craft knife

Metal ruler

Pen

12x12 Scrapbooking paper

Glue (I use Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive)

These are some of the beautiful notebooks I've made using this method:

Hello, friends!

Earlier this month I shared an unboxing video of the February Goodie Box. This weekend I've finally had some time to actually put it to use and do a bit of happy crafting this morning! 

For those who are unfamiliar with the Goodie Box, it is a monthly subscription box put together by Blank Goods, a Melbourne-based DIY craft supplier. The February box (plus the other boxes) are still available for purchase on their website, if you're curious!

This month's theme was all about fabric painting and creating your own awesome designs. I won't go through all the items in the box (if you want to see those, watch the unboxing video) but it does come with everything you need to create your own stamps, and includes paints, paint brushes and really great instructions and ideas.

You can see below the colours the paints came in. I limited my palette to colours that I absolutely adore. Limiting myself also gives me less chance to hesitate and I really love the pieces I created today.

All in all I decorated 5 bags - a large tote, two large and two small cotton canvas gift bags. For each bag I slipped a scrap piece of paper inside just in case the paint bled through (it did!). 

I deliberately used simply shapes. The triangles was inspired by one of the examples shared in the Goodie Box kit, the diamonds is just because I like the way they fit together!

In case you're wondering - I didn't intentionally have the triangles overlapping. That was a happy oops! moment that I'm glad about!

Did all my stamps work out perfectly? Nope.

Did I get perfect coverage? Nope.

Did I accidentally get black paint on the pretty pink paint? Yep.

Do I care? Nope!

I am not a perfectionist. I adore imperfection in handmade items, because it lets you know a real person made it. (Perfection has a place, don't get me wrong, but I'm not going to throw away the bag above because it was my first time using fabric paint and I made a mistake!)

This bag was my first (and only) attempt at free-hand painting on the cotton canvas bags and I think it turned out really nicely. I may even add in some stamped images over the pink heart at a later date.

The last step was to iron over the painted images after they'd dried and now they're ready to go.

Did I have fun? Absolutely.

Thanks Blank Goods!

xxx