Korea Travel Journal Prep

My long-awaited 2-week trip to Korea is coming up quickly, which means I’ve started packing my stationery supplies for travel journaling. This trip will be the first time I’m bringing a passport traveler’s notebook with me for portability since we’ll be out and about most days. I currently have ambitious plans to stay on top of my travel journaling, but I think we all know what will end up happening - I’ll be too tired to catch up on my pages each night and fall behind eventually.

To make documenting easier when I’m on the go, my plan is to pre-decorate as many pages as possible prior to my trip. I have a loose itinerary and I generally know what color combinations I like to work with, so I thought I’d give it a go. As it turns out, the items I received in The Stationery Selection’s March box make for great additions to all kinds of travel journal pages!

To give the first page of my travel journal a personal touch, I used the Kodomono Kao “handle with care” stamp with the Versafine ink in crimson red. The stamp showed up really well on the page, with every detail being visible. The Versafine inks are known to be waterproof when dry, which makes it an awesome travel companion. Even after this trip, I can see this stamp and ink being a perfect combination for sending happy mail.

I decided to dedicate the very first blank page to a brief packing list, just to broadly categorize the types of items I will be bringing to Korea including the necessities and gifts. The Chalk Boy flake sticker made for a convenient standout header here, and the other designs in the same set will match with different types of pages as well.

The Chalk Boy thank you cards will definitely be put to use during this trip because I’m bringing some gifts for my family members. I have a few people in particular I’m truly grateful for - my aunts who took care of my mom during her long visits, and my grandma who has been so supportive of my family to this day. I’m not bringing anything extravagant, but hopefully the brilliant blue foiling on these cards will put a cheery smile on my relatives’ faces.

I’m an equal parts coffee and tea lover, so the Midori tea stickers will fit right in during cafe visits and relaxing days. I’m a fairly slow traveler in the sense that I prefer to take my time - I like sleeping in, starting the day slowly, and really enjoying a place before moving onto the next spot. There’s subtle gold foiling on these stickers, too, and it’s so lovely how they catch the sunlight.

The box also includes Midori envelopes, which come in four beautiful colors. Not only can they be used for letters and notes, but they’re also useful for carrying ephemera with you on your trip. I’m planning to bring some scrap papers with me and gather tickets and business cards in one as I go.

Last but not least, now I finally have another Kata Kata x Classiky cat plate to add to my collection! I received a blue whale plate in a previous box months back and use it every day on my writing desk to hold a washi tape cutter and an eraser. This handmade plate has a cat printed on it and the details in the craftsmanship are amazing to behold. As you can see here, it’s also handy for keeping smaller stationery bits around me as I pre-decorate my pages.

One of the things I enjoy the most about The Stationery Selection subscription boxes is how light and portable most of the items are. More often than not, I find myself adding what I receive to my daily carry right away, or tucking it into the side of my notebooks that are already in use. I truly appreciate that Mits, the creator and businesswoman behind The Stationery Selection, continues to find new and exciting stationery goods from Japan for the rest of us in the world to try. I can’t count how many brands I’ve discovered through these boxes, and it has been so much fun learning more about each and every one.

Now that I’ve mostly finished packing my journaling supplies, I have some actual(!) packing to do - you know, things like clothes, toiletries, the usual stuff. It’s so funny how one of the first things I think about these days for travel is what I’m going to bring with me for documenting my experiences. I love looking back at my old journals to see what I got up to, though, so I suppose all of it is worth it in the end.

If you’re curious about the The Stationery Selection monthly box, you can visit their website here to learn more about how to become a subscriber! Their blog also features many inspirational posts from their design team members.

Disclaimer: I was a guest design team member for The Stationery Selection in March, which means I received this month’s box free of charge. However, I’ve been a paying subscriber since late 2017 and plan to continue purchasing these boxes in the future. All opinions presented in this post are my own.

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