Ok, you took a fantastic trip. Maybe it was just overnight, or perhaps it was a two week long trip of a lifetime. Either way, you’re home now and you want to scrapbook a lot of the photos… but you don’t have a lot of stories, or you’ve been to this place before and scrapbooked it in the past, or maybe you’re just overwhelmed. Today I’m going to share my favorite vacation scrapbooking starters – tips and page ideas to get things moving and get pages scrapped.
At the heart of my scrapbooking? I started with vacation albums, and I still adore scrapbooking those pages and making “look at the cool stuff we did!” albums that are always the favorites for my family to look back at.
Page starter ideas:
- Talk about a specific incident that was embarrassing, funny, or otherwise memorable. Something that comes up when you talk about the trip to other people.
- Talk to people about the trip, make note of what you talked about/what you were most interested in sharing. THERE is some prime material!
- Refer to your vacation journal (if you made one) and pull stories from it directly, or just use as inspiration.
- Make a page about the trip itinerary.
- The favorite ___(ride, restaurant, place, moment, thing, hotel, etc)___
- Talk about where you stayed
- Page about inside jokes/incidents that will become legend in your circle of family/friends
- Who went? Talk about them
- Let others contribute journaling. Give them some journaling paper options, let them write, then you incorporate that into a page.
- don’t be afraid to make pages that don’t have a lot of story or emotional depth. Simple title + no journaling or little journaling is ok too. There aren’t rules here!
- Make a title page!
- Interview everyone who went with you, use in whole or part their interviews as individual pages or one group page. Ask about what they remember, loved, hated, enjoyed, want to do again, favorite meal, etc.
- make a title page, something to start your book/start the pages of that trip.
Here’s my title page for my Maui 2012 book. I used a badge button + journaling tags and things from Evalicious that I am absolutely addicted to, and I threw in some pink thread, ink, and gold paint, scallop edge punch into play as well. All of the patterned papers, letter stickers, and other embellishments are from the Webster’s Pages Palm Beach collection (which I ADORE):
Interesting enough, my Hawaii pages have stalled out… know why? Each day we got up. Had in-room breakfast. went to the beach. went to the pool. had lunch at hotel. went to the beach. went to the pool. had dinner at hotel. back to beach. bed.
Ok, we mixed it up a bit more than that – but seriously not a big “Stories” vacation. Just relaxation in paradise at a beachfront resort where you don’t need to leave. I’ve already told the main important stories in my pages so far. That just reminded me of rule #1:
There are no rules.
If I want, I can just make lovely paradise pages with titles… or no words at all. THAT IS OK.
Sometimes, I think there is too much pressure on scrapbookers to hit all the notes. To have good photos, title work, tell an awesome story… ok yes. I do like photos + stories and that is the heart of my craft. But a little fluff thrown in never hurt anyone. Telling yourself that making pages just for fun that don’t tell a story is ok once in a while too.
I think of them like I do dessert- not the base of my diet, but an occasional treat.
I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on getting vacation scrapbook layouts jump started, and I hope you’ve been inspired by mine as well.
today’s post is sponsored by Evalicious
Evalicious offers art journals & pretty handmade scrapbooking embellishments including a wide assortment of cool tags and badge buttons. Her shop has long been one of my favorites – and you don’t want to miss out on her kits either. Her products work great for all kinds of paper crafting and scrapbooking projects. You can visit the shop at www.evalicious.bigcartel.com
Special offer: Eve is offering camp scrap readers 10% off with code: camp10 (valid until end of July)
I love to read information and tips about vacation – scrapbooking.
I want to make a scrapbook about this summer and I don’t know how to get started! :-S
I really need to practice in scrapbooking! lol!
Great post, it definitely gave me some new info.
Greetz Dee
Great timing as I am in the process of starting to scrap our last trip and found some of your suggestions useful on “telling the stories. Trips provide so many pictures that I thought I do mine in a Smash album. Have not used one before, but I think it will make the process so much faster! Thanks for the inspiration!
Great ideas here – thanks for sharing!
LOVE your suggestion of making “dessert” pages. I always seem to get stuck in “main course” scrapbooking. This is a great idea for making some travel/trip pages that are JUST FUN. Thanks for the inspiring post. A good kick start.
this post speaks to me as I returned from vacation Sunday night. And although we did a few things, most of the time it was just hanging with family. I like the idea of asking each person what their favorite part of the trip was and/or the worst! The 16 hour drive to get home was my least favorite! Although those car rides do leave lasting memories so perhaps they should be documented! And I have one special page to make, a nice photo of my Mom the day she went for her check-up and was told she is cancer free – she was practically floating that day!
These are all great starters May. I am a minimalist when it comes to journaling and your tips will help me improve that area when needed.
Excellent ideas! Travel scrapbooks (and special event scrapbooks for conferences) are my favorites! Back in the days when I used to watch David Lettermen, I always enjoyed his top ten lists, so I like to incorporate that idea into my books, as well as using funny quotes, catchwords or running jokes that sometimes end up being so much a part of a trip. Also, if anyone in your family likes to draw, you could incorporate their doodles into the layout as well.
LOVE your page starter ideas!
Great blog post! I have a question about scrapping travel that has been rolling around head for awhile now. I use Stacy Julian’s LOM system so I have a “Places We Go” album. Do all your trips have their own album or do your pages live within a larger album. For me the trip is usually worth more than a double page layout but not a whole seperate album. Would welcome any thoughts on this subject.
I love this post May. I have photos from our last 3 “big” trips (a month away from home) and have scrapped about 5 LOs in total!! I think I’ll give myself permission to use the divided page protectors and not worry about trying to journal every single thing! Thanks!
I love the pins! Where did you find them?! I would love to use these kind of embellishments for my scrapbooking!
The knitted flower are pretty. The layout seems so cool in my eyes. I will to use this idea, is it okay?…