Any other busy folks out there? I’m raising my hand, too. (Even during quarantine, most parents aren’t brainstorming ways to fill their time. We’re plenty busy now, too.)

Truth is, you don’t need tons of time or art talent to create gorgeous ways to preserve your travel memories. You can organize your vacation photos, display souvenirs and remember what you did on that trip—just with a few minutes of time and, sometimes, a little planning.

That’s why I wrote this post on 8 ways to use all those ticket stubs, city maps and chocolate wrappers you stuck in your purse while you were on vacation. You know, all that stuff you told yourself you’d make into a scrapbook “someday.”

Well, someday has arrived, because you don’t need a ton of time to pull together these easy projects for vacation photo organization, souvenir display and more!

Here’s how to organize your vacation photos, display travel souvenirs and ensure you never forget the special moments of your trip.

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What to collect for your travel journal: ephemera

“Ephemera” is the fancy travel journal word for all the small pieces of paper and whatnot that collect in your pockets and purse while you’re out of town. Instead of throwing all this stuff away, save it! Ephemera make a phenomenal addition to these projects to organize vacation photos and travel memories.

Not sure what to keep and what to toss? As a general rule, I look for things that are visually interesting. Color, pictures, interesting fonts, anything with a cool logo on it, unusual shapes—these are all factors for ephemera that will add to your travel journal or other vacation memories project.

Here are things I typically collect for my travel journal and other projects:

• ticket stubs
• boarding passes
• maps
• food labels or wrappers (clean, without any food on them, of course)
• menus
• to-go coffee sleeves
• pages from a local newspaper
• pictures from local tourism magazines
• brochures
• receipts
• coasters

Remember, too, that once you’re ready to put travel ephemera into your project, you don’t have to use the whole thing. So if you have a trifold brochure from the museum, consider cutting pieces of it for your travel memories project. If you saved the bag from the baguette shop, you might want to just rip off the logo stamped onto the paper.

There is no right or wrong with travel journals and other projects to keep your travel photos and memories. So no pressure—just fun!

Easy projects to organize vacation photos + more

1. Vacation smash book

Smash books are like the busy person’s scrapbook; vacation smash books are a way to corral all the stuff you pick up on vacation without putting in the time of a scrapbooker. No need to have fancy scissors, die-cut punches or a trillion kinds of decorative paper! That’s right: You don’t need any special supplies—or hours of free time—to make a vacation smash book.

Simply glue or tape all the bits and bobs (also called “ephemera,” if you want to get fancy) into a notebook. When you get home, print some images to add in.

One of my favorite, super-easy smash book techniques is to take a map and glue it to the whole page. (Most places that see tourists have plenty of spots to pick up free maps.) Then you have a visually interesting background to glue onto.

Level 10 travel tip: Bring along an envelope or one of those coupon organizers to keep all the little papers and stuff tidy. If all the ephemera you want to use is in one place—instead of scattered between your carry-on, suitcase and purse—it’ll be easy to pull it out and make a travel smash book when you get home.

2. Vacation photo books

When you get home from a trip, make a photo book of all your vacation pictures. It’s like a highlight reel of the best parts of your vacation.

I do this with Shutterfly. This photo book company gives you credits for one free 6×6 photo book per month. (You can get a free 8×8 photo book with this link, too!)

The important thing here is to get photos off your phone and computer. When your vacation pictures are in a photo book, you can actually look at them with your family. My kids love looking at our vacation photo books!

Level 10 travel tip: Don’t wait until you get back home to make a vacation photo book. On the last day of your stay, or while waiting for your plane home in the airport, pull up an app or bust out your computer and make one! That way, you’ve created a vacation picture book before you get caught up in the busyness of life after your return. Plus, that reminder of your vacation will arrive just a few days after you get back—beating the post-vacation blahs.

3. Planner vacation collage

When I go on a trip, those days in my planner used to stay blank. After all, I didn’t have work to-do lists or meetings filling my days when I’m on vacation! (Thank goodness.) So I started filling those spots in my planner with a vacation collage, made of all the things I’d collected on my trip.

(I use a Happy Planner similar to this one. I love how it lays flat, the grid format and all the cute stickers you can get to fancy it up!)

I usually take about 45 minutes one night after my trip to stick in the museum ticket stubs, maps, brochures, tea bag labels and everything else I squirreled away during my vacation. Don’t they turn out wonderful?

Making a vacation collage in my planner gives me a handy way to look back on those memories when I most need them: When I’m busy bulldozing through my work to-dos. Remembering my trip gives me an extra boost of energy and happiness I channel into my work, earning more money for our next vacation!

Finally, I love that making a planner vacation collage reflects the fullness of my vacation days.

4. Send yourself a post card

Remember how I’m a huge, huge fan of sending post cards? Sending yourself a post card is a wonderful way to record memories from your vacation.

Buy a handful of post cards when you’re out and about. Then take 5 minutes to write yourself one. This can be while you’re waiting for your food at a restaurant, while you’re lounging by the pool or during my favorite time to write post cards—on the plane ride home.

My kids are getting into writing post cards too! They dictate to me what they’d like to write, and as you know, they love getting snail mail.

Not sure what to write? Here are some ideas:

• Your highs and lows
• What you hope to remember forever and ever
• Something that surprised you
• Something that challenged you
• A list of what you did one day
• A quick sketch or drawing of what you see while you’re writing a post card

5. Make a travel art journal

When I travel, I love bringing along a small art journal and a travel art journal kit. I feel most inspired when I travel, which isn’t a big surprise, since research shows travel makes you more creative.

So I take 30-45 minutes a few times on a vacation to work on a travel art journal. I use pieces of tickets, maps, labels and such from my trip and combine them with magazine pages, paint and even string. I love looking back on my travel journal pages. They bring me right back to the moment when I created them.

Level 10 travel tip: When you’re exploring, stop at a used book shop. Buy a small used book with a pretty cover. It doesn’t matter if you can, or want, to read it. Use it as your travel journal notebook instead!

6. Vacation shadow box

What if some of the things you collected are big or bulky? They won’t fit in a vacation smash book—so create a vacation shadow box instead.

For around $10 at craft stores or here on Amazon, you can buy a shadow box—like a picture frame except with the space to display thick items.

Print out some of your vacation photos and display them at the back of the shadow box. Then put in everything else—a seashell, a carving you bought at a souvenir stand, a paper fan, anything that reminds you of your vacation!

I love this because it displays your vacation like a piece of art. Instead of sticking that piece of driftwood or a jar of sand in some drawer, you put it out for everyone to see.

7. Kids vacation memory book

This one requires a tiny bit of forethought but otherwise it’s super easy. Just bring along cardstock or other sturdy paper cut in 4×6 rectangles. Most craft stores have these papers pre-cut.

Then, when you’re on vacation, ask your kids questions. Write down their answers on one side of the paper.

Finally, when you’re home, print a bunch of photos from your trip. Using craft glue, secure the photos to the backs of the papers with your kids’ memories written on them.

Your kids might also want to make drawings about the trip on some of the papers.

Your last step is to bring the stack of pages to a Kinko’s or other office supply store. For a few bucks, they’ll bind it into a book! Your kids will love that their faces and words appear in an actual book.

8. Family travel journal time

Want to encourage the whole family to record travel memories? Buy everyone in the family their very own travel journal. This doesn’t have to be fancy! I love these blank kraft paper notebooks because you can buy them in a bunch (so everyone gets the same one), the covers are easily customizable and there are only 30 sheets in each one. That means no one feels pressured to fill it with pages and pages and pages.

Then take 15 minutes every day to work in your travel journals as a family. Even if your kids can’t read and write yet, they can draw or collage in their book. Ask them if they want you to write for them or label what they’ve created.

You can even have a travel journal prompt to spark everyone’s creativity. Ask if there was something they learned, or show everyone an art technique. For example, they could draw what they see out a window, or sketch something without lifting their pencil from the paper.

Level 10 travel tip: Make kids their own travel journal kit. Ideas of things to include: Washi tape, scissors, glue stick, markers, watercolor paints.

Bring the travel journals on all of your trips together. When they’re full, you’ll have a gorgeous record of all your family vacations!

Minimal work travel scrapbooks

I’m not about to spend three hours on a single page of a travel scrapbook, but I do love handwriting and actual, physical photos. I found a way to make a physical scrapbook without a time commitment with Project Life scrapbooks.

This system has clear plastic sleeves and perfectly sized, pretty papers where you can add a bit of pizzaz to the pages and write down memories. Then you add photos—and have a scrapbook page in minutes.

I use the Wander Edition Core Kit, which is all about travel (naturally). Another thing I like about the Project Life scrapbooks is that these little cards are small—therefore portable. So I bring them on family vacations and jot down notes, what we did on a given day, funny things Max and Edie said, anything.

Throughout the trip, I “favorite” some of the best photos I take on my phone. Then on the last day of a trip, I print these favorite-d photos on Amazon Photos. They arrive in my mailbox a few days later.

That’s how I take vacation photos and memories and organize them into a scrapbook we love to look at.

Get out there and record your memories!

I’m not a big gambler—casinos seem like a giant waste of money to me—but I’d wager you’re feeling inspired by these tips to make travel journals and other easy ways to organize vacation photos! Not only do you have ideas on how to use up the pictures, souvenirs, ticket stubs and other things you collect on vacation; you also feel like these travel journal ideas are doable.

After all, you don’t need a ton of time to pull these together. You just need some paper, a little glue and a little creativity—and your vacation photos, of course. I know you have those!

I can’t wait to see what you create. Snap a picture of your travel journals or the way you display vacation photos, then tag me on Instagram. Let the creativity flow, friends!

The post 9 low-pressure tips to organize vacation photos, travel memories + souvenirs appeared first on To & Fro Fam.

My girls have received postcards from Hawaii, Turkey, London, the Everglades—all across the world. They’ve also received them from places that aren’t exactly tourist meccas: Columbus, OH, San Jose, CA and Chelan, WA (mostly places I’ve traveled for work). On the back, messages show my kids they’re loved from every geography.

But truly, they don’t know if the postcard my kids get is from a must-see destination or not; they’re broadening their horizons, one mail delivery at a time.

Want your kids to see the world without ever leaving home? Sending postcards to kids (and recruiting your family and friends to do the same) is one of my favorite ways of opening kids’ minds to the wealth of diversity of our beautiful planet.

Read on for why to enlist your loved ones to send postcards to your kids, how to make a postcard book and how to display postcards your kids get. When you set up this family tradition, you’ll create a keepsake—and a special bond that spans the globe.

Why send postcards to kids?

Who says snail mail is dead? It’s definitely not in our mailbox; postcards come in nearly every week, addressed to my girls.

Here are six reasons why you should enlist everyone you know to send your kids postcards.

See the world.

If you’re like 99% of families, you don’t have the money, time and opportunity to travel the globe all year ’round. But you probably know folks who travel, whether that’s internationally, nationally or just nearby. Kids can learn about different destinations—from Morocco to Minneapolis—via postcards.

Kids love mail.

Our mailbox is usually full of bills, letters trying to get us to refinance student loans and pamphlets advertising expensive skin treatments. Not. Fun. Among all that junk, postcards are a welcome, super-fun change of pace!

My kids feel so special when they get mail addressed specifically to them. They ask to reread them time and again!

Stay connected.

When your family and friends live far away or travel often, like some of ours do, it’s harder to develop a deep relationship. Sending postcards to kids increases the contact between your children and important people they might not see that often.

What’s more, it gives more “touch points” for growing that relationship. When my kids get a postcard from their Aunt Bootsie, for example, they ask about things she’s done recently. My older daughter had a ton of questions about the Parthenon after my sister recently traveled to Greece. Talk about a conversation starter!

Spark curiosity.

If your kids are like mine, they don’t get a ton of opportunities to learn about other parts of the world, other ways of life and other cultures on a daily basis. Postcards to your kids introduce easy, bite-sized introductions to new places.

For example, my kids were blown away that there’s a country in the world called Turkey. They were like, “You mean Turkey like the animal? Gobble gobble?!” That led us to open my laptop and learn a bit about the country (not the farm animal) and to discuss other countries whose names are similar to words we know, like Greece.

Sparking curiosity is one of the best ways to encourage empathy in young children. That’s why we love learning about the world through postcards.

Make the far-away familiar.

We live in a global society made stronger by multiculturalism. But not all of us live in highly diverse communities, limiting our options to make something “different,” “foreign” or “unfamiliar” into something your kids are accustomed to.

Having the world come to your mailbox, then, is a great way to “see” the world. When they got a postcard from Cambodia, we talked about different ways people worship and the different buildings where people go to pray. When they got a postcard from the UK, we talked about the real-live Queen of England. When they got a postcard from Hawaii, we talked about how they volcanoes are constantly reshaping the islands.

The next time my kids encounter something that relates to what they’ve seen on the many postcards they collect, they’ll already have a touch point to understand it. They’ve already begun to adopt that “new” thing into their view of the world.

Inspire a love of travel.

“I want to go there!” my kids say after reading nearly all the postcards they receive. Through snail mail, they discover places they’d never heard of—and can’t wait to explore.

What’s more, kids come to understand they can travel the world. After all, people who they know and love are doing just that! It makes travel seem more attainable, since they have role models who travel and examples of places they could go someday.

How to collect and store postcards for your kids

Ok, now that you’re on board with why your kids will love getting postcards from around the world, you might be wondering something else:

What do you do with all those postcards?

Here are a few ways you can collect, store and display postcards to your kids.

1. Bind them.

When you have a stack of postcards, bring it to a Kinko’s or other office supply store. Within a few minutes, they can bind the stack together into a book!

Your kids will be able to flip through the postcard book whenever they like, and it will cost you about $5.

2. Ring them.

You can DIY a postcard book, too. Simply hole punch the bottom right corner of the postcard (below where the address goes). Then use a circle ring to corral all your postcards.

This example of a postcard book is the cheapest—you can create it for mere pennies.

3. Sleeve them.

When I was a kid, my brother had binders and binders full of baseball cards, which he’d lovingly flip through. That’s what this postcard storage reminds me of, and it’s the method we use in my family.

Simply buy a binder and plastic sleeves that will fit the various sizes of postcards. (We use these postcard display sleeves – affiliate link.)

I like that it’s easy to flip through the book and that we can see multiple postcards at once. I also appreciate that you don’t lose any of the writing or pictures on the front of the card by punching holes or adding spiral binding. We can still read the entire message on the back of the postcard.

Finally, this postcard book method works the best for my family’s busy lifestyle. It takes a step out of the process, since I don’t have to DIY anything or make any trips outside my routine. I simply pop new postcards my kids receive in the sleeves as soon as we finish reading them, and we’ll get to keep them forever.

4. Hang them.

These snapshots of the world are gorgeous—so why not display postcards? All you need is a string and some mini clothespins. Hang a length of string along a curtain rod, above your mantle or anyplace you’d like to add some visual fireworks. Then pin up the postcards as you get them.

You can swap out postcards regularly, putting ones that have been in rotation a while into a binder like the above.

Postcards: A little bit of love in the mailbox

Now that receiving postcards from far-flung places is part of my family’s routine, my kids love running to the mailbox to see if anything has arrived for them. Whenever one of my relatives or friend goes out of town I remind them, “Send us a postcard!”

What’s more, collecting these treasures into a postcard book will allow us to look back on them for years to come. How special that my kids will grow up knowing their friends and family think of them from across the world!

How about you: Do your kids ever get postcards? Is this something you’d try?

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