When you are looking to Document Your Travel Adventures, it’s hard to imagine a time when travelers and holidaymakers actually did without smartphones, laptops, selfie sticks, and photo sharing apps. Just a decade ago, most folks made do with snapping a few pictures on compact cameras with their 4GB memory cards (good for 200 photos at most) and then waiting to get back home from a trip to have them either printed out and pasted onto a scrapbook or made to languish inside a computer hard drive.
Then smartphones and social media came along, and people suddenly had the capability to document and share their travels—not to mention their everyday activities—in real time, in high definition, and without storage capacity concerns. No doubt, these technologies have revolutionized not only how we track our comings and goings but also how we communicate, transmit, and store the information that makes up our daily lives.
But with the virtually limitless bytes that are allotted to our every thought and snapshot through digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and cloud storage, does that mean we’ve (ironically) run out of room for saving the physical souvenirs of our life’s milestones, special occasions, and travels? The more sentimental and old-fashioned among us don’t think so!
So, why not keep both digital and physical mementos for posterity?
Related read: What does travel for goo mean?
Here are seven ways to create beautiful and lasting keepsakes to document your travel adventures:
1. Themed Travel Photo Book
Photo Credit: AdoramaPix
Photo books are a great way to immortalize your travel snaps, but why not take it one step further by making a themed book? If trying all kinds of exotic food is one of the activities you enjoy most during your travels, a culinary-themed photo book filled with stunning photos of your gastronomical experiences would make a unique keepsake.
If you’re interested in publishing your own travel photo book, there are online services like AdoramaPix that offer full customization options and an easy, foolproof photo book creation process. All you need are your travel photos, as well as a theme that best encapsulates your globetrotting adventures for a photo book that is truly meaningful and memorable.
3. Memory Wallpaper
Photo Credit: PicMe
Got lots of Instagram photos from your travels? You can print them onto photo paper with your inkjet or laser printer, cut them out, stitch them together into a quilt-like patchwork, and hang them on your wall as tapestry or tacked on as wallpaper.
Or, if you feel like that’s too much work, you could try a service like PicMe to make your very own Instagram wallpaper.
3. Ticket Collage
Photo Credit: Flickr (Photo by sanpani / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 )
Do you frequently take public transportation while traveling? Make a collage of all the transportation tickets you’ve collected throughout your travels!
If you’ve managed to keep the ticket stubs from those plane, train, or bus rides you’ve taken while hopping from country to country, making a ticket collage would be an easy and inexpensive way to document those adventures. Simply grab a piece of posterboard (or any type of thick paper) and some glue, arrange the tickets into a colorful mosaic, and glue everything together.
You may also want to stick your collage in a glass frame to protect it from fading and make sure it stands the test of time!
4. Shadow Box Display
Photo Credit: Flickr (Photo by mondays child / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Originally used to display military artifacts, shadow boxes are a great way to display small travel mementos collected from a summer vacation, a study abroad trip, or a volunteer holiday. You can fill your shadow box with shells or vials of sand collected from various beaches, Polaroid pictures with friends you met during your travels, and other meaningful keepsakes.
Shadow boxes can be purchased online or at certain arts and crafts stores.
5. Wood Block Art
If displaying your travel photos or mementos on the walls of your home is something that appeals to you, another idea is to make rustic wood block artwork by transferring printed copies of your photos onto a piece of wood. All you need are some wood blocks (any size will do) from your nearest Home Depot or art supply store, a jar of gloss gel medium, some Mod Podge, paintbrushes or sponge brushes, a wet cloth, a clean working surface, and your travel photos (or even digitally scanned copies of your travel postcards, venue tickets, or pages from your own passport) printed on very thin paper.
6. “Autograph Book” Tote Bag
Photo Credit: Sea Bags
A physical travel memento that’s not only memorable, but practical as well! Take a plain, light-colored tote bag and a set of fabric markers with you on your travels. Encourage new friends to sign it, doodle on it, or decorate with charms and pins from souvenir shops.
7. Get Inked!
Photo Credit: Flickr (Photo by Denise Krebs / CC BY 2.0)
Definitely reserved for the most dedicated and extreme type of traveler!
Getting a tattoo to commemorate your journey may be considered the most personal and lasting of all physical travel souvenirs. However, as tattoos are obviously permanent, you need to carefully choose the characters, messages, or images that will be included in your tattoo—choose those that best reflect your travel experiences on an emotional level.
Also, it’s best to wait until returning home to get inked by a trusted artist. While getting body art from a local artist lends more authenticity to the memory, the risk of complications (from dirty needles, toxic inks, etc.) isn’t worth the trouble.
These are just some ideas on how to save your travel memories for posterity. Have your adventures served as a wellspring of creative inspiration? Tell us all about them in the comments below!
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