Fall is here. This time of year calls for reflection as our seasons begin to change. And for me, that reflection means organizing the photos of summer activities. Often, my dilemma is whether to make it a Summer Scrapbook that tells the story of the whole season. Or do I break it down into several smaller Travel Scrapbooks. There is no wrong or right answer and I have done both, kind of depending on how the photos are eventually sorted or by my particular mood and creative process.

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To me, a travel scrapbook is thinner than a typical scrapbook. Each destination gets its own travel scrapbook. You end up with a series of books to document the season. And when sorting through travel photos, I pick a group of photos that best capture the mood, document our favorite moments and activities, and show the scenic beauty of the location. These ingredients then bring ideas of how to decorate the travel scrapbook.

Each page layout of the Travel Scrapbook may look different as I include icons and patterns, ephemera, and color schemes that highlight the pictures instead of picking one color scheme or theme for the whole scrapbook. One style of layout that I particularly like is to put light, bright photos on a darker background so that they pop. Or, for a Hawaiian trip, I used flowers from a faux Hawaiian Lai from the dollar store as part of the page décor of a luau event; but then, I used more calming colors to document a humbling trip to Pearl Harbor. And don’t forget to include some memorabilia to decorate a travel scrapbook. What do I include?

1. Drink labels from wine, water, beer, or liquor bottles
2. Luggage tags
3. Watercolor painting of something I saw
4. Menus from our favorite eatery
5. Flowers, shells, grasses
6. Tourist maps and brochures
7. Travel tickets
8. Postcards
9. Rubbings of interesting textures
10. Receipts

Most of us crave exploration and summer is usually the time we take to travel and see the beauty the world has to offer. So as summer ends, begin organizing your memories, photos, and memorabilia into your summer story. And decide if you want to make one summer scrapbook or a series of smaller Travel Scrapbooks to document your memories.