Insert Hulk Smash [Book] reference here

I've eyed up getting a smash book for a while. Seen them, drooled over them, flicked through them and put them back down and walked away. Then I thought sod it and brought one and the fun began! Smash Books [which I've seen in both JoAnns and Target] are designed to be used pretty much however you like - from drawings, to scrap-booking to journalling. Coming in a range of colours and themes, they come with their very own half glue half pen stick thing. There are additionally a range of accessories to help you on your smash book journey.

I've always been one to collect stuff. Recipes, tickets, tokens, leaflets. You name it I've saved it if it's from somewhere we've been, something we've seen, or just a something. But they've either been thrown into a memory box [aka an old shoebox], lost in the bottom of my bag or line the edges of our mirrors. I thought it was time to try something grown up, crafty and stick them into a book, with notes and pretty tape so they tell a story.

Smash Books come with a really cool introduction which pretty much encourages you to use this book as you will. I started ours off with a geeky introduction page - with old photographs of us both, my visa picture [geeky!] and one of the few postcards I've ever been able to find around and abouts!

It won't be one of those neat scrapbook things with numerous coloured paper, fancy stickers and stenciled letters. It'll be a mish mash, it'll be messy, hand written, doodled things. The idea is that the things I stick in will tell the tale of a British girl finding everything in America amazing, showing the things she loves, places she's been to the things she wants to do. I'll stick in the the CTA travel ticket from our honeymoon, gig tickets to the Dave and Buster Power cards we got last week from playing on arcade games for the boys birthday. Glue glue, stick stick.

I'm working on a couple of pages so far - one about all the fancy American stamps I'm coming across both US and UK and pages about all about random things we do and places we've been.  I start off with writing a random title and just going with it.

Being an inpatient person however, I keep having to constantly remind myself that this Smash Book will be a work in progress, that it will take months, maybe even a year to fill. But that's okay. It doesn't need to be filled up right now. Just however and whenever.

How do you collect your random somethings? Do you journal or use a scrapbook?