Your trip is over, your laundry is put away (ok maybe not quite yet) and you have your souvenir t-shirt to show for it. But that doesn’t come close to immortalizing the trip of a lifetime, and maybe you want to do something truly special with your stamped rail passes and photos. To help you get started, we’ve picked the brains of STA Travel’s craftiest Travel Experts to offer up a few ideas to preserve your travel memories.
Image courtesy Shimelle on flickr
Travel Scrapbook
This one actually starts while you are still out on the road! Bring a notebook with you (preferably a durable one with non-removable pages) and jot down the interesting things you see and learn in the course of your travels. This can be anything that inspires you, impresses you or even sums up the city you are visiting and you want to remember. Trust us, you think you’ll remember the name of that amazing dish you had in Singapore (rojak!), but after you are back home you might find yourself having to Google it.
After you return from your amazing trip, gather your ticket stubs, receipts, coffee shop stamp cards and print a few favorite photos. Arrange and glue these around your notes in the journal, maybe adding a few doodles in colored pencil or some fun stickers. Keep the same journal for future travel and you have a keepsake that will stay near and dear to you long after your beachy suntan fades.
Shadowbox
Image courtesy of Amy on flickr
For bigger souvenirs and trinkets, a shadowbox is an awesome option to display your treasures from your trip. Shells from a beach, bottlecaps from your favorite local beer, train tickets and more look fantastic when paired with a few photos and even newspaper clippings from your time abroad. You can purchase these at any craft store in the frame section, and they are so easy to fill and hang. Keep your travel memorabilia together and enjoy a walk down memory lane every time you see it.
Instagram Magnets
If you are a social media junkie like we are, odds are you’ve already Instagrammed your favorite shots from your trip while you were there. And while you can always scroll through your feed to revisit these memories, having personalized little photo magnets on your fridge is so much more fun. Sites like sticky9.com or foxprint.com are inexpensive and super easy to use. Simply upload your favorite shots and they’ll print and mail them to you in no time! They are bound to become your favorite little souvenirs.
Photo Enlargement
You don’t have to be Annie Leibowitz to have your own work printed and framed! Maybe you got the perfect shot of a baby giraffe snuggling close to his momma while on safari, so why keep it hidden away on your hard drive? Enlarge it to 8X10 or bigger, pick up a special frame and you have yourself an incredible conversation piece for your apartment. Don’t forget to sign the bottom corner, you budding photographer!
Photo Painting
This is just taking the last idea one step further, depending on how crafty you want to get. Enlarge and print a photo, preferably on matte paper (any print show can do that for you). Bonus points if you print in black and white. Before you frame your masterpiece, grab some watercolors, acrylic paints or even colored pencils and “paint” over parts of your picture you want to highlight. Colorize the flowers around the base of the Eiffel Tower, or capture the bright turquoise of the water on that gorgeous private beach. Get creative! You’ll never want to take your custom wall art down.
What other ideas would you suggest for showcasing and preserving your travel memories? Share your favorites with us in the comments!
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