Great Ways to Collect Travel Memories
Fun options for physical reminders of great experiences
I’ve always said that I prefer to collect experiences over things and I stand by that 100%. I rarely buy souvenirs on trips (the exception being locally-made jewelry), and instead prefer our ‘souvenir’ to be photos that capture our experiences in new destinations. Since travel has become such a big part of our lives, I love finding cool ways of showcasing our experiences in our home to make our decor tell the story of us and of our adventures.
Below are three great options for ways to commemorate a great travel experience in a physical form. These are also fabulous gifts! For hard-to-shop for parents, I always find that something sentimental is the answer. If you have more fun ways to collect travel memories, share them in the comments below!
CanvasPop Canvas Art
1For awesome photos that seem to capture an overall travel experience, I love one solid blown up piece done right. CanvasPop is great for canvas prints that are gorgeous to display and bring a different dimension vs. normal prints. The company works with a slew of formats and layouts, including mobile photo printing for all of those Instagrammed images you’ve been wanting to share. We recently received this canvas print from our time in Israel and the quality is even better than what I was expecting – perfect for displaying a spectacular travel experience in our life. We’re currently working on creating small square canvases from our trips around the world to display around our living room!
For anyone interested in creating their own statement prints with CanvasPop, use code SCHOLAR35 for a 35% discount on your entire order! Code expires August 31, 2015.
Artifact Uprising
2Artifact Uprising has become part of an annual tradition for us. I kicked this off for our first anniversary by surprising Scott with a hardbound book that captured our travels and milestones over the course of our first year of marriage. Together we’ll continue to do this every year as a way of chronicling the places we’ve been and the experiences that have helped shape us. I’ve used Artifact Uprising to create books as gifts, too. Such a fabulous way to showcase a whole slew of photos, and even great for individual trips for those wanting to start a library documenting each travel experience individually (this would be my ultimate goal if I had the patience to do this). It takes a bit of time to get the layouts perfect but the final product is undeniably awesome.
Travel Shadow Boxes
Image courtesy of the Abroad Guide
3This is something that I have yet to do, but I’ve always sworn that I would create cool shadow boxes after each trip I went on. Those ticket stubs, favorite photos, leftover foreign currency… I think this is absolutely one of the coolest ways to display remnants of a travel experience, and it makes for a great conversation piece! You can find inspiration for these all over Pinterest. Check out more creative displays here.
Trying to get great photos from your next getaway? Check out my previous post on hiring a vacation photographer. We did it in St. John (decent photos despite not-so-great weather), and are thinking about doing a family shoot in Ireland this September! I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest issues with getting great images from a trip is that I’m usually the one behind the camera which means I’m not in a ton of the photos. Getting a photo of the two of us when we’re not traveling with others is super hard. Vacation photography – while seemingly awkward at first – is actually a really neat way to capture some great souvenirs from special excursions!
What are your favorite ways to display your travel memories? Share your projects in the comments section below!
