Build The Perfect Scrapbook By Keeping These 10 Items From Vacation

Reading through a scrapbook gives you the opportunity to revisit your favorite vacations, even if your bank account doesn’t. Keeping these ten items from your vacation will help your scrapbook be a work of art instead of a monotonous display of photos.

1. Bags

This may seem like an odd or unnecessary item to keep for the perfect scrapbook, but it can serve as your own custom scrapbooking paper. Specifically, paper bags with unique designs or pretty logos from shops that you visited. Not only does this allow you to recall the stores you went into, but it also adds a unique characteristic that others won’t be able to replicate. Cut the bag up and use it as backing for pictures. Or, for a more organic look, simply tear the bag apart and use it as decorative boarding on pages or in corners. People will be begging to know where you found the unique paper for your scrapbook. And you can smile knowing it’s not paper that can just be found down the street.

2. Business cards

There are two reasons business cards can help you build the perfect scrapbook. Most companies put a lot of time and effort into making their logos and business cards aesthetically pleasing. So, these special momentos always look perfect on the page. Think big picture. Ask restaurants, boutiques, museums, and other knick-knack stores you visit. They often come in a wide variety of colors, so you can add them to specifically themed pages.

Another way to add some interaction into your scrapbook is to put an envelope on the page. You can stick the business cards inside the envelope and then pull them out when you land on the page. But, if you aren’t into envelopes or think that they just don’t go with your theme, using washi tape to attach the business cards lets you flip them over and look at both sides.

If you visit a really cute boutique but don’t have the money to spend on items at the time, the business card serves as a reminder to check it out on your next visit. Most businesses have online stores you can visit, so when you have the money you can go back and buy what you want. They also serve as a helpful reminder for restaurants you visited and liked if you ever want to go back for a delicious meal.

3. Packaging

Sometimes the packaging is just as pretty as what comes inside it. Much like the bags, this is a perfect opportunity to add a unique quality to your perfect scrapbook. Using these as decorations will give you the chance to compare the different packaging styles in different countries when you go abroad.

A perfect example is chocolate boxes. In certain countries in Europe *ahem Belgium*, they take immense pride in their chocolate. That includes both the product and the packaging. Using this kind of packaging will help your perfect scrapbook become more than just aesthetically pleasing, as now it’s a time capsule. If you want to be able to compare and contrast cultures, you can even include the nutrition label. Use washi tape to secure it down and make the packaging front (the prettier aspect of the packaging) a flap. Open the package to reveal the nutrition underneath.

Pay attention to boxes, tissue paper, and even tags. You’ll be surprised how much beauty surrounds your trip that can be used to make the perfect scrapbook.

4. Tickets

For planes, for trains, for museums, for expeditions. One of the aspects of tickets, making them indispensable for the perfect scrapbook, is the accuracy. They have the date and time for each departure and return. They serve as perfect record keepers for your trip itinerary.

Tickets can even help you decide the layout of your perfect scrapbook. They can be a blueprint for a chronological recount of your trip. Not to mention, there’s something cathartic about a story that starts the same way it ends. To be clear, I mean starting your perfect scrapbook with your departure ticket and ending with the return.

5. Notes

So, technically this isn’t something you “keep” in the traditional sense of the word. However, it’s the component that can really bring together the perfect scrapbook. It’s easy to let memories fade even when the pictures last. Unlike the small sparks of recognition firing when you look through your scrapbook, written notes help you relive the day.

Not to mention, when you have handwritten notes either filling a page or blank spaces between pictures and moments, you can’t help but feel like a princess writing in a victorian leather diary. There’s something intimate and timeless about handwriting, and the aesthetic makes it more personal.

Your notes can be as simple as a bullet point itinerary of your day or poetry about the weather that day. It’s your scrapbook, so it has to be perfect for you in your own way. Just make it note-worthy.

6. Store Catalog

Much like the business cards, if a store or company has printed a catalog for customers, they put a lot of effort into making it aesthetically pleasing. Getting back to the roots of scrapbooking, a store catalog serves as the perfect cut-andstick component of your perfect scrapbook.

Flip through and find items that fit your trip theme or even just the page theme. It can help tie in your scrapbook’s diversity. Many adventurers might only glance over the catalog and not see it’s unmatched potential when it makes it’s way home. Whether used as a highlighted feature or a mock scrapbook paper backing, your options with the catalog go as far as your creativity.

7. Flowers

Whether you’re stopping into a pretty shop in the city or picking wildflowers out in the country, flowers can be gathered anytime during your trip. Aside from adding a natural and organic feel, flowers offer a more lively aspect to your perfect scrapbook.

Once you have found the flower that will decorate some pages, be sure to start pressing it. Place the flower in the pages of a book, or between any two hard flat surfaces. If you’re staying in one place for the entirety of your trip, leave it on a table or nightstand until you go home. Try not to mess with the flower too much so it doesn’t lose its integrity before finding its forever home in your perfect scrapbook.

8. Map

There’s two options for a map that would be perfect to add to your perfect scrapbook. If you want a more interactive addition, secure the map into the book in a fashion that allows you to unfold it to full size. Or, like the packaging and catalog, the map can be used as scrapbook paper that actually relates to your pictures. It’s fun to know that the lines behind your pictures are actually related to the location of the picture.

The map ties together the story of the picture. The colorful lines and locations can help black and white pictures pop in a way they wouldn’t with a solid color behind them. Go forth and explore with the confidence that you can find your way back─using your perfect scrapbook, of course.

9. Currency

No matter how hard you try, it’s hard to spend the exact amount of foreign currency you pull out of an ATM. But not to fear, if you aren’t planning to return to that country anytime in the near future, you just gained another component of your perfect scrapbook.

You can also use this piece as a sort of time capsule momento. Next to the currency, write down the conversion rate for the time you traveled. Occasionally, as you revisit the trip in your scrapbook, you can look up the conversion rate and see if it’s changed at all.

10. Pictures

Honestly, what’s a scrapbook without pictures? Well, it’s not very exciting. There are so many different types of photos to include from your trip that will make your scrapbook perfect.

Before you just start pointing and clicking, think about what you’re taking a picture of and why. What specifically do you want to remember? The shape, the color, the angle, the size? Try to highlight that in your picture.

Mix up your pictures and scatter a mixture of polaroids, candids, posed, architecture, black and white, and sepia photos throughout your perfect scrapbook. Including a variety makes your scrapbook more fun to look through.