I know how it sounds. Scrapbooking is for soccer moms or retired women. But I’ve been scrapbooking since I was in elementary school, somewhat sporadically. I save everything from ticket stubs to business cards to receipts from my travels, all to put into a scrapbook once I’ve gotten home.
It’s my way of remembering as much of the trip as I possibly can. I have this fear that one day I won’t be able to remember my life, which is probably why I scrapbook, journal, blog and take photos of everything I can.
The first trip I scrapbooked was my very first trip overseas to Paris when I was fourteen. It’s embarrassing to look back on my photos from that trip, with capri pants and kinked hair. But it was 2002, so I hope my style has improved since then.
Everything has improved, from my photography skills (back then it was a Kodak disposable camera) to my methods of scrapbooking. But I recall taking pictures of everything because Paris was unlike anywhere I had ever seen growing up in suburban Georgia.
Two years later, we took a trip to London for my sixteenth birthday. We hit all the touristy landmarks, including the Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. It was this trip that made me fall in love with London and for that reason it’s the city in Europe I’ve visited the most times.
I visited New York many times, but this particular trip was one summer when I had big dreams of Columbia University. We brought our family friend Joy with us, shopping on Canal Street and checking out Madame Tussaud’s.
The next summer, we took two more friends to Chicago, where we tried to see the city Ferris Bueller-style. We saw them filming the movie Roll Bounce while we were at the Museum of Science and Industry. I loved riding the ferris wheel at Navy Pier and I’m not ashamed to admit that I had fun at the American Girl Cafe.
The summer that I visited Washington DC for the National Student Leadership Conference, I devoted an entire scrapbook to the experience. I loved visiting the sights of our nation’s capital while meeting students from all over the country and getting my first taste of politics. It was this conference that led me to study political science in college.
Once I got home from Australia, I knew I would want to do something for that trip, but the idea of narrowing down ten months of travel into one book was daunting. I got my favorite pictures printed off, compiled all the brochures and ticket stubs I had saved and tried to make each page representative of the feel of that destination. The Melbourne page is artsy and the Byron Bay page is hippie.
These scrapbooks are something I’m proud of because I can physically show them to people who ask about my trip. It also allows a certain level of creativity on my part.
I love your story, and I known something new from your idea.
Thank,
You’re a great scrapbooker! I’m not so great when it comes to that, but I can organize layouts like a pro, haha.
I’m a big fan of doing photo books for trips and big events. I love Kodak Gallery’s stuff, and have done several through them. I documented my senior year of college, did a photo book as a guest book for our wedding (documenting our relationship), did one for our wedding, and will be doing one for our Australia trip. I still need to get my Study Abroad one printed, but it’s not as high on the priority list for some reason. To me, they’re easier, especially since all of the photos are digital – I don’t have to print them or cut them up (I hate cutting actual photos!)
I wish I had the patience to scrapbook. I tried to do a “Europe Trip” scrapbook from when I went with my school in 2003. It still has only 3 pages completed…
One thing I know that I need to do is just get pictures into albums with quick notes scrawled on the back stating where it was taken and the year. It’s always fun flipping through photo albums and having everything digital is dangerous. My first roadtrip without my parents was in 2004 (maybe 2005, I can’t remember…) when I went with some friends and drove to Vancouver. When my computer crashed I lost ALL of those pictures. I wish I had taken the time to get them printed and put into an album.
I scrapbook too!! I had planned on doing on online photobook throughout my time in Australia (so it wouldn’t be so overwhelming when I get home), but after reading about the wifi connections, that might not be possible. I know how hard condensing 3 months of travel in Italy and 4 months in Japan was, I can only imagine a whole year!!