Visiting new places divides our lives into “before” and “after”. Travelling is always a vivid experience that you want to keep for as long as possible. I will tell you about 12 useful and unique ways to preserve your travel memories.
It’s important to preserve at least a small part of all the experiences of a holiday. It does not matter what it was: a trip to a faraway country or an abandoned village, fishing on a quiet river or sailing in a canoe, a trip to a distant monastery, or a barbeque in the company of friends. After all, the moments that are dear to your heart only become more precious with time. In this article, we’ll show you 10 ways to preserve your memories.
Your travel photo album
Listen to what people talk about when they meet in a café or on a bench. “I flew to Barcelona” or “I’m going to Amsterdam”. The topic of travel is many times more popular than gossip talk. But the linear infinity of travel photos on your phone no longer impresses many people. However, it depends on how you present them to your friends and family. Create a photo album – watching a slideshow is fun and engaging. It makes your audience want to know more about your adventures. You can easily make such an album with Google photos.
The dust of distant travels
If you often vacation at the seaside, sand samples from different beaches are a reminder of the summer warmth and the splashing waves. The important business of sand harvesting can be entrusted to your child: they will be happy to fill any container with sand. For samples, look for pretty bottles or just vials with caps. Labels can help you recall the golden sands of Spain or the pearly white coastline of Greece. Fill glass jars with souvenirs from your travels, sand from the azure coast, seashells, and photographs.
You don’t necessarily have to collect at the seaside – sand from the deserts of Egypt or the UAE would make a great collector’s item.
Postcards
It would be very nice and interesting to find a colorful postcard with views of a faraway country and wishes from yourself in your mailbox (a real one, not an electronic one) when you return home. Imagine on the faces of your friends receiving a postcard with your wishes from the other side of the world.
If you think it would be too much trouble you are wrong. Sending a postcard from any country is not difficult, even for people who can’t understand a word of a foreign language. You can always explain yourself in sign language.
A popular hobby is buying postcards in every new city. Set a unified style for your collection. On the back of your postcard, write the cherished words about your journey. Or describe what you see and feel at that moment. A beautifully designed handmade scrapbook of postcards is a great souvenir and a personal memento for yourself.
But nowadays everything has changed, and applications such as Daily Postcard and Simply Cards allow you to send your own photos as physical postcards. You can send them directly from your computer or smartphone anywhere in the world. How cool is that?
Make a video
Turn on your camera more often. Even if the children in your family have grown up and now you feel like there’s nothing to film…remember, there’s always you! And you change, life goes on. Get together as a family more often for dinners together, have small parties, share funny stories that have happened to you in the time you haven’t seen each other.
Travel memories don’t come without videos. Firstly, you can’t resist catching a glimpse of the Norwegian fjords with their moving ships. You must capture the clouds running through the sun overhead in the Carpathian Mountains. But remember the essential component of any video – the story. Even if you have no storyline and no narrator, put your own meaning, faces, and emotions into the video. In those moments, even if you turn on your camera for 2-5 minutes, a lot will happen! You’ll already be able to remember that every day again someday! Don’t feel bad if you don’t manage to make a video of some extraordinary moment…you can’t capture it all after all. The camera is important, but not as important as your own memories that will stay in your mind forever.
The most interesting part of a travel video is the music, which tells a lot about you. There is not the most fun part of making videos – editing. But it’s not hard to master. We suggest using programs from this site.
Scrapbooking
Looking through a photo album can make for an enjoyable evening. Electronic versions of photo collections never offer the same warmth and experience. And if your gadget fails, the pictures can be irretrievably lost. Is not it a good reason to continue the traditions of ancestors and make a photo album with your own hands? Why with their own hands, if you can buy ready-made options? There are a lot of arguments:
- Because it will be unique;
- It can be made in a variety of styles and themes;
- It will put a piece of your soul;
- And simply because it’s fun.
But be warned, the hobby can be a real stickler – you may never part from their scissors, tirelessly making handmade scrapbooks.
Plane tickets, maps, booklets, museum and exhibition tickets and other simple things that help to sum up the trip will take the place of photographs. Scrapbooking gives plenty of creative freedom – it’s a veritable ocean of fantasy. Preparing your hand-made scrapbook is part of the trip: you might want to pick up something unusual for your future scrapbook from a designer shop or flea market.
Build a mug collection
People bring back various souvenirs from their trips. Some take fridge magnets (most often), some decorative plates or just plane and public transport tickets. But I would advise you to start collecting mugs from different countries.
Instead of souvenirs, which are expensive and have no practical value, bring back something practical from your travels. Mugs could be a great option. And you don’t have to follow any ‘national’ theme. Some images on the cups will remind you of interesting adventures.
Handmade photo collage
Oh, that photo folder called ” Unstuffed”! We suggest taking out your most interesting photos, printing them out, and using them to make a collage. You’ll need a suitably sized photo frame, saved travel souvenirs, and ideas for the whole family to decorate. Not only photos can be used in a collage. Put other objects which remind you of your holiday destinations on your glass: plane or museum tickets, seashells or pebbles from the beach, map fragments, clippings from brochures, coins, small souvenirs. Take a look at the rest of the ideas to see what you can add to your collage.
Music
The real color of a country is not the bright tourist trinkets on the market but its people’s living and breathing for centuries. Its culture, traditions, heritage, and of course, music. You hear it on the streets and in restaurants, in shops, and during services in temples. Are you entranced by the sound of traditional Korean drums? Do your feet dance at the first sounds of the sirtaki? Take that inspiration home with you: buy some vinyl. Vinyl is gaining a second life and even if you don’t own a record player, it’s the perfect item to hang on your wall. The cover design alone will make you think of vacation tunes.
And if there are opera or ballet fans among your friends, you can bring them as gift records of local productions, which are not usually sold out of the country.
Memorable details
The most important thing you should bring back from any trip is memories. Not only photographs but also seemingly insignificant little things can help you preserve them. Tickets, labels, magazine pages, promotional postcards, maps, and flyers can all be considered trash, or you can turn them into a treasure trove of priceless memories. How do you do it? There are plenty of ways! Buy or make your own travel journal or hang on your wall map of the world, where you will place and mark your collections, like pinning in their place a Polaroid picture or a ticket. You could also order a photo book and fill it with your favorite images from your holiday.
Something similar can be done using the border control stamps in your passport. Make enlarged color copies of the stamps that show the names of the countries. Prepare the required number of 6×6 cm plywood strips.
Paint the sides of the pieces with any color you like. Spray adhesive on the reverse side of the paper and glue it to the plywood backing, remove the excess with a construction knife. The finished strips can be placed under glass or simply hung on the wall.
Preserve memories of your travel itineraries by “sewing” them onto a map with colored thread. Get a map of the world (or country) in thick paper or thin cardboard and mark on it the airline routes or roads you have traveled as a family. Use different colors of floss for clarity.
Finally, a map would make an original mat for a family photo or a decoration for interior décor. A traveler will love scratchmaps, where you peel off a layer and the white areas of the unknown are replaced by bright spots of open countries.
A numismatist’s dream
Many tourists bring back coins from their trips as a memento of their time away. If you already have an impressive collection, you can immortalize the memories in a decorative painting.
To make one, you will need a medium-sized picture frame or 1 to 2. Remove the back and place the front on a table. Layout a collage of money on the glass. Try to arrange the coins as tightly as possible.
When the entire panel is filled with metal, apply a drop of glue to each coin and press the back of the frame against the collage. The finished picture, shimmering in shades of bronze, copper, gold, and silver, will make a beautiful decoration for your office or bedroom.
Wall of Memory
Do you fly a lot by plane or take the train? Don’t rush to throw away your tickets – you can make a collage of them to commemorate your travels.
Glue them in the order of your choice onto cardboard and place them in a glass frame. A picture that alternates between bright and pastel-colored paper is particularly striking.
There is another option. This idea may require a significant financial investment, but it’s well worth it. Why hide your travel photos on your computer when you can display them on an accent wall in your living room?
You can do this by using the services of a photo wallpaper printing company. It won’t take long to complete. You just need to stick the wallpaper on the wall and enjoy the result. Are you ready for the rave reviews of your guests?
Children’s drawings
Children aren’t always able to put their experiences into words – but they do draw them. Ask your child to draw what they remember most from their holiday and you can create an original picture or even an album. These can be framed and hung on your walls or included in a collage or travel book.
Tip: Children are keen to use other art techniques too, whether it’s making plasticine paintings or appliqué.
You might end up with your own travel museum. When going on a trip, you’ll know exactly what to bring back from the sea or a new country – fresh pieces for your home collection, of course.
