Hi, everyone! This is Michelle from the design team, here to share with you my first project! When I first saw the “Hello Beautiful!” kit and read Andrea’s blog post on how the kit came together, it felt nothing short of magical. I found out that I was chosen for the design team the night before my husband and I left on vacation to Portland, and the timing was just perfect. There are so many aspects of this kit that followed themes of the trip, so I decided to use it to make a memory keeping traveler’s notebook for the trip!
The cover was the aspect of this project that I was most nervous about. I was meandering down jam-packed aisles of a vintage store in Portland among old graphic tees and mismatched pots and pans when I came across this beauty, a Pendleton wool notebook cover. As soon as I saw it, I just knew I could transform this old server’s book into the perfect traveler’s notebook!
In Andrea’s blog post revealing this collection, she wrote, “when you look at the collection as a whole, you can see that there is a lot of imagery that is very reminiscent of an enchanted forest... filled with adorable creatures and potential friends”. I was reading this blog post on the morning of our first full day in Portland and that description of the collection really struck me. Here I was, sitting in a beautiful, lush landscape and around every corner held the possibility of meeting new people willing to share their stories and their city with us. I wanted to capture the enchantment of these possibilities and the forest all around me and put it straight into my traveler’s notebook.
For the inside cover, I decided to take bits and pieces from my adventures and make a pretty decorative page. I started with 2 postcards that I had picked up on my adventures, and a Starbucks gift card, which added the perfect touch! Next, I added the 2 lapel pins that I picked up at the International Rose Test Garden, where they grow various rose hybrids from all over the world! And I topped it all off with an adorable bow from the embellishment pack of the “Hello Beautiful!” kit!
The opposite page is a dashboard I made to go around the insert in the traveler’s notebook. I wanted to make a cover that really introduced the magic that lay behind it, and what is more magical than gold glitter and “beautiful fairytale life”?
Because this notebook was not originally intended to be a traveler’s notebook, it did not come with any pockets, so I added a pocket page to the back of the dashboard cover. I needed a place to store bits and pieces I picked up during my explorations. And I don’t know about you, but as a paper crafter, I hold on to everything; receipts, free postcards, paper bags, everything!
For the smaller pocket, I used a scrap piece of floral vellum that went just perfectly with this collection. This particular piece of vellum had logos on it and writing that did not go with the look, so that is where these adorable embellishments come in! I am all for adding something to a page that is both functional and adds to the cute factor, and this “Hello Beautiful!” tag does exactly that!
The opposite page is the cover of the TN insert I made for this project. When I was first looking at the reveal of this collection, I knew that I wanted to use the “Enchanted Forest” pattern to make the insert. The roses are so dimensional and beautiful, and after all, Portland is the City of Roses! I kept this cover pretty simple with the black and white polka dot page, and Snow White fussy cut from another page of the collection. And I then topped off the page with a Chinese fortune, given to me at the Lan Su Chinese Gardens in Portland, carried by two sweet die cut birdies!
Seeing this traveler’s notebook come together with the “Hello Beautiful!” kit was purely magical, and I cannot wait to begin using this new traveler’s notebook to fill with all the magical memories from my trip to an enchanting place. Thank you so much for following along on my crafty adventure! Until next time,
Michelle