Starting out on my solo travels, one of the biggest things for me was keeping track of everywhere I had been and all of the amazing pictures and memories I had picked up along the way… enter scrapbooking stage left. But, starting out with notebook in-hand wasn’t so easy, as a self-confessed perfectionist my heart broke as I saw perfect pages laid siege to with a whirlwind of snatched minutes and splodged mementos. Once my initial illusions had been well and truly shattered however, I came to the conclusion that, you know what, this thing was turning into something pretty darn cool.
From the shell of neatly organised pages with specially-picked cut-out cards came something I fell completely in love with. A piece of my history that would make me well up when turning its pages years later. My bag of lettering tools and abundance of page adornments turned into pages of ticket stubs from that eventful tram ride, programmes from Broadway shows I got to experience and backgrounds not formed from pre-made packaged designs but from the wacky envelope I got my tickets in, guide-book pages about the sight I had seen that day and hotel notepaper from my favourite spots to lay my head in cities that had made my head spin.
The abundance of washi tapes remained but these turned into ways to stick in the multitude of instant camera pictures I had gathered, and the wristbands worn for a week straight for events. Pages sprouted from in-between-sections I just could not miss out and the result was something that became less of a chore, more of a keepsake, something I could flick through when missing my travels, or looking up the name of that very reasonably priced hotel on a return visit.
Sure, you can buy a pre-made scrapbooking kit full of neat spaces you can put your images if you ever end up printing them out when you get home, but for something with real character, chuck an empty notebook in your bag and let your adventures do the rest.
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