Bookmaking Travel Kit

When the kids were young, we would bring a small selection of bookmaking materials on our family trips. You can make a kit per child or one for the whole family. And as always, don't let the kids have all the fun. Join them and make books of your own!

I think the three books most conducive to travel bookmaking are:
The Hot Dog Booklet
The Accordion
The Index Card Accordion

If you have access to the internet, look up the directions online while traveling. If not, print them out before you go.

Start with a large resealable plastic bag. I prefer the heavier freezer bags but a thinner weight would be fine. If you have some interesting bag or box you've been saving, use that.

Put inside:
Some sheets of used copy paper with writing on one side. You can also collect papers on your travels. Check out this hot dog booklet made with the program from The Office Convention in Scranton, PA.

Front and back panels from one to two cereal boxes

Scrap paper for gluing. I usually bring a thin catalog.

An Index Card Accordion Book accordion and index cards. I think it's easier to make the accordion at home and write/illustrate the cards and attach them as you go. You might want to plan for a page for each day. You can also have a picture on the front and glue a second card on the back with writing. I used a side panel of brown paper grocery bag for the accordion. You can bring 3x5 or 4x6 index cards.

A small resealable plastic bag filled with papers from the collage box. And do collect papers along the way. Brochures and flyers, chopstick sleeves, candy wrappers, etc.

Glue stick

Small scissors

Some pieces of yarn. I cut mine to be twice the length of the cereal box panel.

Markers and/or Colored pencils. I think I brought colored pencils more often than markers when the kids were small to avoid markers on car seats, clothes, and furniture but I do prefer the vibrancy of markers. Bring whatever you think is best. I got washable markers for this.

This is just a starting point. Add more things if you like but the point of this is not to make a traveling studio, just a simple kit. Sometimes the less you bring, the more creative you are.