Travel and Map Projects for Your Home

Reliving your trip once you’ve returned home is just one way to hold yourself over until you can take another. One way to keep the memories alive and well is to create your own art pieces for your home from souvenirs, maps, foreign currency and any leftover artefacts.

If you scrapbook your travels, you’ll be a natural at these travel and map projects!

Decoupage Everything

If you ever used Mod Podge in school, you’ll be a pro at these crafts that involve decoupaging maps or travel pictures. Nearly anything can be covered to brighten up your home with reminders of a favorite destination. You can attach them to a vintage suitcase you picked up at a thrift store, a lamp shade or picture frame. Cover a simple wooden chair, the top of your coffee table or the back of your bookshelves. Attach them to pieces of wood for easy coasters. You can even turn your photos and maps into wallpaper if you have enough.

Some decoupage projects to check out:

• Decoupage Furniture Tutorial, My Altered State
• Decorating Frames, Alyssa B. Young
• Map Wallpaper, The Inspired Room

Fabric Transfers

Create pillowcases or coverings for pieces of furniture by doing a transfer onto special paper using your printer. You can either print off a map of a place that’s special to you or make your own collage of travel photos using PicMonkey or Canva. Print this design onto photo transfer paper, which costs around $10 for a few sheets from the craft store. (Note: It should reverse your image so that it shows up correctly when transferred.)

You’ll then iron it onto fabric that you’ll transform into a pillow, for example. Give it enough time to cool before peeling back the paper. If this sounds like too much trouble, you can upload your photos to websites like Snapfish and Shutterfly to let them do it for you.

Some fabric transfer projects to check out:

• DIY Photo Pillow, The Dating Divas
• Photo Chair Covering, Apartment Therapy
• Photo Printed Quilt, This Is Do-Able

Shadow Boxes & Spare Change

Create a shadow box for those extra items like ticket stubs and foreign currency. For a less involved project that will still look great on your walls, glue all your foreign currency, bills or coins, onto the back of a frame in place of a picture. You can also transform foreign coins into magnets or drill holes in them to create unique jewelry.

Some projects to check out:

• Alphabet Letter Frames, Design Aglow
• DIY Coin Charm Bracelet, What I Wore
• Foreign Coin Magnets, Tattered Style