Falcon Travelers

1500 members and a weekly photo challenge

Monique

February 17, 2016

This week the Lady Falcon Traveler’s Notebook group hit the 1500 member mark. A festive occasion, one that calls for a festive celebration of the group. What better way to celebrate this than by a giveaway. At the moment the admins of the Lady Falcon Traveler’s Notebooks are thinking about what would be an awesome giveaway for you guys, so stay tuned for what we come up with. It’ll be announced some time this week, or at the latest the beginning of next week.

However awesome 1500 members is, this post is supposed to be about the 2016 weekly photo challenge we are hosting at the Lady Falcon Traveler’s Notebook group. I first made it with some 50+ prompts, but since we are now 7 weeks into the new year, I removed a few and have reduced the prompts to 45.

Here they are, 45 planner, Traveler’s Notebook related prompts. Open to your interpretation, let your imagination take you by the hand and show us your planners, your Traveler’s, your tools of the trade, your messy weekdays and what have you. Anything goes, as long as it’s PG-rated =)

To make it a bit more interesting, the admins of the Lady Falcon group will select a photo each week for the groups banner and at the end of the year, 2 winners will be selected. Prices are yet to be determined, but will no doubt be awesome! One of the winners will be the photo that was most liked by the group members (got the most likes) and the admins get to choose the other winner, which will be the picture they like the best. So be sure to tag your photo #weeklyphotochallenge2016 and post it in the group. You can of course also post and tag your photo’s on IG, however to be eligible for the prizes, you have to be a member of the group.

To start you all off I made some pics of a few travelers I have in use at the moment, my little planner pile….

Some of these are used daily… Continue reading

A suitcase full of Travelers…

Monique

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February 8, 2016

In my last blogpost I referred to my suitcase with Traveler’s Notebook inserts….

This suitcase belonged to an aunt of my mother and she took it with her on every trip she took. She loved Traveling. However the suitcase is now not very practical anymore and I wouldn’t want it to get damaged from traveling. With that in mind and my collection of Traveler’s Notebook inserts and other journals that I’ve been keeping and collecting over the years, I thought it very fitting that they should stay in the suitcase.

So here it is, a short but picture heavy post. Continue reading

January 2016 setup update…

Monique

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January 21, 2016

Just a quick post with a video of my updated Traveler’s Notebook Planner setup for January 2016.

I also made some adjustments to the insert listings on Etsy and added a range of lovely designer covers to choose from for you notebook covers or folders.

I hope I made the ordering process easier, by removing the separate listings for each size and style and have condensed the insert listings to:

MOTP-WOTP combo insert, with either a listing for a design cover or a listing for a plain card-stock
WOTP or MOTP insert, with either a listing for a design cover or a listing for a plain card-stock
Bullet journal insert, with either a listing for a design cover or a listing for a plain card-stock
Notes Insert, plain/grid/lined/dot-grid/cross-grid, with either a listing for a design cover or a listing for a plain card-stock

I now also have the folders with either a listing for a design cover or a listing for a plain card-stock, with or without pen-loops.

All the diary styles are shown here on my Diaries explained page and you can also find the color options for the diaries there. Continue reading

My oldest Traveler in use…

Monique

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January 11, 2016

It’s been rather a busy few weeks these past weeks. To relax a little I like to work in my art journal. At the moment I have 2 art-journal Travelers. One is Regular size and the other is A5. Today I want to share with you my oldest TN in use. It looks lovely, marked with all things life has thrown at it. Still as strong as ever.

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It’s the same saddle leather I usually use, maybe even a little thinner. Its lovely brown glow does not come from any dye, well apart from the acrylic and ink add-on’s….It’s just oiled veg tan leather… Continue reading

Setting up a new shop interface ain’t easy…

Monique

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January 5, 2016

Well, that is, it’s easy enough if you go with all the defaults, but to make it your own and have all the bells and whistles you saw in other shops, that you really thought were awesome….That ain’t easy… However being a former IT admin, I do know a bit about these things.

I’ve build a website before and dabbled with html and style sheets and stuff, had several blogs and know a little bit of scripting, so I should be fine…

However it looks like it’s going to be a lengthy process. I’m doing it all next to the up and running Etsy store, which is going great, which in turn means there not all too much time to spend on things like setting up my own store front… Continue reading

How many inserts can my Traveler’s Notebook hold…

Monique

3 comments

January 2, 2016

I get that question a lot: How many inserts does your Traveler’s Notebook hold. Specially when talking about a Regular sized Traveler. I always feel a little lost with this question, because I know there is no straight forward answer. It all depends on the thickness of the inserts. That’s why I thought I would write a blog post about it and try to show you what I mean.

I do have a standard respons, because generally speaking this is what it comes down to. However it all depends on the inserts. I Usually say, my Regular Size (RS) cover allows for 3-4 inserts, that’s booklets, folders and such and my XL RS, being 20 mm wider, will allow for 6-8 inserts.

However, like I said, it all depends on the inserts, not all inserts are the same. You have your folders, plastic zipper pouches, leather wallet inserts and booklets.

Now most things are fairly straight forward and it is clear that a folder will get thicker when you put stuff in it and so does a zipper pouch. A leather insert has a thickness of it’s own and mostly that seems to be clear. It’s the booklets that cause the confusion. Not all booklets are equal…there’s even a difference between a booklet that hasn’t been written in and one that is full. This is something you should take into account when looking for inserts. Also my inserts, the Falcon Files, are about 60 pages. Looking around on Etsy and elsewhere, I have found most inserts are about 40 pages. Fieldnotes booklets are 48 pages. Midori inserts and Moleskine cahiers have about the same number of pages as my Falcon Files. This all makes it difficult to compare.

So I’m not going to do that, I’m just going to give you a real life example. My own Regular size Traveler. Continue reading

Very short blogpost with my current Traveler’s Notebook setup

Monique

3 comments

December 19, 2015

I started off really great this morning with making a video, only to find when I came back downstairs, that I had pushed the wrong button

… I made a lovely photograph instead…

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A bit sad, because I’d been talking about half an hour and told all kinds of stuff. Which I later couldn’t remember of course.

I did do a take 2 of the video and remembered to push the right buttin this time, so here it is, my.take 2 flip through of my current setup and something about leather and paint and stuff….

Hope you enjoy and should you have any questions about anything TN or diary related after watching this, please don’t hesitate to ask..

Have a great weekend and happy holidays to you all

xx Monique

Steampunk Lady, a pretty English Bridle and then some…

Monique

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December 9, 2015

I’ve been making lot’s of TN’s with pockets lately. Hand stitching pockets on Traveler’s Notebooks is quite different from hand stitching wallets with thinner softer leathers. However I feel I’ve mastered the craft by now, so next I’ll be making messenger bags…I’ve got one commission already for a messenger bag. That’ll be one for my daughter… the prototyping can start….but first I’ll show you what I’ve been up to these past weeks.

Painted TN’s are a thing I love to do and I love how people come up with ideas for their own personal Traveler’s Notebook, unique to them. Like this Steampunk lady Personal Size Traveler’s Notebook. As I learned yesterday, this was inspired by many little snippets of interest in the life of the lovely lady this is going to. Steampunk, Outlander, Vampire diaries etc. I love that, not only do I have many similar interests, but I love that people will tell me things about their life and that through this I get to touch on a person’s life for just a brief second and get to know them, just a little bit.

However not all TN’s I make are painted, most actually are “merely” dyed. Like this very cute English bridle A6 Traveler’s Notebook with pockets, white stitching and a pen-loop.

Making all those wallet inserts and Traveler’s Notebooks also means I’ve gained quite a bit in speed with the hand sewing, which made it possible to add just a stitched edge to the store. Something I didn’t do before, because it took so much time to sew it all by hand. I now feel the sewn edge is a viable and lovely decorative addition to any Traveler’s Notebook.

Last but not least and already at its new home is a Thor themed Traveler’s Notebook, which I did with a stencil technique that doesn’t leave any feathering, but just clean crisp edges.

The Thor themed Traveler’s Notebook is like the Enterprise themed Traveler’s Notebook from a while back and the “JOURNEY” Traveler’s Notebooks from last year something I will be exploring further in the future, specially since I’m going to try and start adding ready to ship items to the shop, since all items now are made to order. Which is in effect, like a friend said, as if my shop is always sold out…

Hope you enjoyed my notebooks and do stop by the shop or if you want something custom made, drop me a line.

Have a great day,

xx Monique

3 Painted Traveler’s Notebooks from Monique Vanmeulebrouk

Monique

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October 8, 2015

Never Reblogged anything but I have to share this with you…specially the photobombing kitty in one of the photo’s =)

I ordered these in July as a birthday present to myself and they arrived this morning just before I left for work. I was delighted because I work in a high security environment and cannot received parcels at work, which means that there is often no one at home when a parcel arrives and I have to wait days to collect it from the post office. But for once time was on my side!

I had to wait to open the parcel until I got home but it was a good wait. Ooh the anticipation!

Beautifully packaged. Fluffy my cat got at the corner as soon as I put it down but thanks to the secure packaging, nothing was damaged.

Nicely padded with tissue paper, paper and bubble wrap.

Really secure

Nicely wrapped on all sides!

Four little parcels all individually wrapped. And a card!

Wonderful little card from Monique

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New diary style… I’m calling it Grunge..

Monique

1 comment

October 2, 2015

I needed a new diary for my Personal size Traveler’s Notebook, since the old one was only to the end of September … Somehow it escaped me that October had already come and I still didn’t have a new diary for my every day carry …. What is a girl to do in a situation like that….

I already had an idea for a new style diary, I just never came round to actually making it. Making new templates always takes more time than you would anticipate. Which of course is the reason I’ve been putting making the new diary for my EDC off. However now I could no longer do that, it was now, or just use one of the existing templates

I really wanted the new design, because I wanted it to go with the new paper I now offer as covers for my inserts …

So I made myself a new lay-out. Building on the modern style I already offer, changed a bit, added a bit, went for a bit of color and now I have a super cute Grunge style diary Continue reading