Scrapbooking Your Travels: Tips and Tricks

We’re all looking for a way to re-live our travels long after we’ve gone home, and for me that’s making scrapbooks of my photos, ticket stubs and brochures. You can add your photos to the photo books to be printed online, but I prefer doing it all by hand.

I’ve scrapbooked most of the trips I’ve been on in the last ten years, which I break out when I’m feeling antsy for travel or just missing friends I’ve made along the way. I try to include as much detail about the places I visited as possible for those who might see it who weren’t with me.

Here are a few tips for scrapbooking your travels.

Step 1: Print Your Favorite Photos

If you’re like me and take thousands of pictures on a two week trip, this will be the hardest part. Be realistic about which photos you’ll want to use, so you may want to pick shots of you with friends over the artsy shots. Print off both horizontal and vertical photos so that you’ll have variety when it comes time to arrange your scrapbook.

Make sure there are at least a few pictures of you in your destination and not just of everyone else. I keep all the extras in metal photo boxes when I’m not using them so that they don’t get lost, spilled on or taken out of order.

Step 2: Choose a Scrapbook

For the one I made for my year in Australia, I splurged on a large, bound scrapbook. If you’re not picky, you can make-do with a binder, page protectors, standard sized card stock or punch holes in all pages, and metal rings.

>> Check out these blank scrapbooks on Amazon.

You can also buy ready made packs of scrapbooks, stickers and papers according to different themes, like Disney or cruise travel. I like to pick my own, but also buy stickers for the place I went when I can find them, like the Australia graphics pictured below.

>> Check out some Australia scrapbook sets, stickers and embellishments on Amazon.

Step 3: Experiment with Papers, Stickers and Layering

Now for the creative part! If you enjoyed our DIY decoupage luggage tag post, you’ll love scrapbooking. You’ll want to invest in acid free paper and glue so that it doesn’t fade over time. If you really want to splurge, you can get scissors that cut in different patterns and cut out letters and icons. Don’t be afraid to crop your photos to suit the page size or get certain photos printed larger or smaller for dramatic effect.

>> Here are some decorative edge scissor sets on Amazon.

Step 4: Add In Ticket Stubs, Maps and Other Mementos

The advantage of scrapbooking with paper over photo books is that you can add in ticket stubs, receipts, business cards and other items to make it that much more special without scanning them. If you kept a journal from your trip, you can even add in details, as I did above about my flight to Australia alongside a map of the country and my ticket stubs.

Scrapbooks are the perfect way to make use of all those extra pieces of paper you saved along the way.

Step 5: Put on Display

Show them off to the world. Put your scrapbooks on your coffee table or living room bookshelf for friends and family to enjoy along with you.

Are you a fan of scrapbooking your travels?