Packing 101: tools to create during your vacation

My love for documenting doesn't stop when I go on vacation.

All of the new sights, sounds and smells. The adventures you have, new exciting things you eat.. It all demands to be documented. 

But being away from home also means being away from your exstensive stash of things that help you document what's going on. 

Ever since I can remember space was cramped whilst traveling. When I still lived at home going camping with my parents and 2 brothers meant 5 people in one car that was stuffed to the brim with essentials. So not much room for creative stuff. And now, with Nico, we still go camping.. 2 people ( and one dog) means slightly more room but still the one car.. So space still isn't limitless.

Over the years I found thourgh trial and error what must-haves are and what I can do without.

This was the first year that I decided to fit everything into this small plastic container.

One of the issues I've had with my notebook the past few year was the warping because of damp. When camping it can get quite damp at night. This small plastic container keeps all of my bits and pieces nice and dry. 

And also serves as an excellent place to store all of the tickets, brochures and other paper paper bits you collect during your vacation. 

This is the box unpacked:

I have a plastic zipper bag that contains a small box of watercolors ( van Gogh I think) , a stack of watercolor paper; It used to be a make-your-own-postcard block that I cut in half, my self made notebook; a small tin of neocolor II crayons; a big binderclip for windy days, one regular black pen, 2 pigma micron pens in different withs, 2 kuretake waterbrush pens and a small bit of tissuepaper to clean my brushes.

I had this little set with me most days. It allowed me to do some on the road drawing. The plastic zipper bag makes it water proof and easy to keep everything together. ** I noticed when we got back that the bag is getting old and has ripped. It might be time to replace it..

I've had this little set together for several vacations. The notebook changes each year and this was the first year I had the neolor crayons in there. I had just bought them before the vacation and thought it would be nice to play a bit with them.. 

Next up:
A small pouch filled with a datestamp, pad of red ink, small pair of scissors and a gluestick.

This little pouch has been like this for many years. I've tried combining it with my regular pencilpouch but can not seem to get to fit everything in one pouch.. I wonder why... ;-)

My pencil pouch filled with the stuff I use on a daily base; a set of mini stabilo fineliners, my lamy vista fountainpen, some mechanical pencils, an eraser and a highlighter. 

I added a pad of stazon jet black stamping ink, my set of alphabet stamps and 4 rolls of washi-tape. To the box.
I secretly hoped to find a store selling washi but no such luck... 

This little box of documenting bits and pieces made it easy to keep track of all our daily adventures. I just pulled it out whenever I had a spare bit of time. Maily in the evenings or when Nico was at the showers..

Now that we're back from our trip I will dismantle it and put everything back in my regular stash. Until next trip.

And you, what are your essential crafting tools to help you document your trip? And how do you store them?