Using travel memorabilia

Hi, Dolly here.

I am not sure how many of you are like me and collect loads of miscellaneous memorabilia when you are on holiday – or even just on day trips. I seem to come back with everything – receipts, tickets, placemats, menus, postcards; you name it I bring it home.

In the past most of the memorabilia has sat in various bags per holiday secreted away in drawers. This time I decided that was a complete waste of space and time. I never ever looked at the memorabilia; it just sat forgotten in the bottom of a cupboard or drawer. I decided I would try and use the memorabilia.

 

I had dabbled with it from our Rome trip when I included some postcards and tickets as part of the album.

 

This time I went a little pocket crazy and thought I would share some of the ideas with you. I guess if you are an acid free purist this isn’t for you as not everything is acid free, but for this sort of book/album it doesn’t worry me. 

First I made the album. I decided on 10” x 7” largely because some of the guidemaps and things I wanted to use dictated the size. I made the covers out of chipboard, covered with papers on both sides and then embellished.

I didn’t bind it until the whole book was finished.

 

 

 

I made the pages as normal, as individual or double page spreads, but I made many of the pages into pockets to hold things.

This is incredibly easy to do. You simply overlay a piece of paper or cardstock onto the background and stick or stitch it on three sides only. Voila – simple pocket. I stitched most of mine but double sided tape works just as well. I also like to punch a semi-circle notch at the top so you can pull out the inserts easily.

This page pocket holds a map of the gardens on the estate.

 

This one holds an envelope with our vows inside.

 

On some pages I used the memorabilia straight on the page like the metro map and tickets and even the Hard Rock flag that was stuck into Nigel’s burger.

  

I used little envelopes (these were actually Graphic 45 but it is really easy to make your own) to hold other tickets and things and then bound those in with the book. I cut a window in this one so you could see the relevant bit of the room key inside.

 

The other thing I like to have are postcards as sometimes they have shots you really can’t get yourself like this one of the huge roundabout that is the Arc de triomphe.

 

I then just bound the whole lot together.

The nice thing is that now, all of my Paris memories, photos (well not all of the 2000 photos obviously LOL – just a selection) and memorabilia is in one place which means I might actually look at it from time to time.

So next time you go out for a day trip or away on vacation, collect, collect, collect. It will look fab in your albums.Have fun and do share what you create.

Dolly

Comments

[kim]

Love your mini-book... I love Paris, brings back some brilliant memories... that is what is so wonderful about mii-books, they're like a little treasure chest of memories, aren't they?
Thank you for sharing...
Hugs
Kim
x

[Claireliz]

Oh this is wonderful, really love it.
C
xx

[Debbie Roberts]

Beautiful book, I will have to try to use my memorabilia in a book like this x

[Eleanor]

Fabulous, it really brings the trip to life.
El
x