CREATING MY OWN JOURNAL

I like the idea of having several types of paper in my journal and being able to carry along a few extras, such as pencil, wc pencils, eraser, clips, etc. Here are the "ingredients" for my journal:

One 9 by 7 3-ring binder
1 sheet of Arches 140 cold press, cut into 10 6x9 pieces (it will make 18 5 x 7 or 15 6 x 7)
1 9x12 Arches 140 Hot press, cut into 2 6 x 9 pieces
1 sheet of tracing paper, cut to size
2 sheets of 18 x 24 drawing paper cut into smaller size
Any other pieces of paper I have on hand or want to try
    (Such as Yupo, Fabriano, Bee, etc.)

1 small clip
1 plastic pencil holder
elastic for closures
eraser/mechanical pencil/2 brushes

I just punched holes in the paper to match my binder.
In pencil, I marked the paper type in corner of paper.
I ended up with 20 sheets of 140 lb paper plus drawing paper, tracing paper, and room to put more.
The total cost was about $13.

What I like, besides paper choices, was that I can remove the paper and clip it to the outside of the binder and use it for a support. And I can make a smaller or larger one by using a different size binder and cutting paper differently.

Small binder

Open binder with plastic pencil holder with Micron pen, mechanical pencil, and Pentel ink brush.

Extra supplies: Sponge, eraser, pencil sharpener, clip, travel paint palette, wc pencils in plastic pencil holder, masking tape wrapped around orange strew, 2 brushes, waterbrush, and extra paints in round magnetic tin. 

The paint palette is Portable Painter (cost around $29 on Amazon). On the far lower right is a homemade palette made with 1/2 pans I bought on line that have magnetic bottoms. You can put these extra paints in a Sucrets or Altoids box, and the magnetic bottoms keep them from moving around. 

If you are making one of these, I have two cautions. One, be sure to dry your paint wells for a few days before you travel. I love M. Graham, but they do not dry as quickly as the others. They don't have to be solidly dry, but enough that paint won't drip around as it gets jostled in travel. The second caution is that sometimes the glue on the magnets isn't as permanent as I'd like. I had to reglue a few of them. Other than that, it's a great, inexpensive way to get extra paint in a very small space.

I've been playing with the Portable Painter to get familiar with it. It comes with an adorable portable brush with two sides to it. But I am used to flat brushes and a larger brush, so I will probably have to bring those. 

All of these supplies plus journal fit in a very small tote bag, which fits in the outer pocket of my carry on, and weighs about 2 1/2 pounds at most. It takes up a space about 10" by 8" by 3".  Far less than a kindergartener's back pack.

I still have some tweaking to do. Still need to ask myself, "What can I live without?"