Capturing those travel memories (an alternative to the traditional scrapbook)

We have been very fortunate over the past 18 months in that we have been able to do a lot of traveling together as a family.  We have seen lots, learned lots, made so many wonderful memories, and taken a LOT of photos.  

Those of you who know me well may be shocked (SHOCKED!) to discover that not a lot of scrapbooking has taken place.  Yet.  As always, I have some very good reasons for my procrastination.  I am not convinced I want to do each page in triplicate (one for each child) and then another one for me.  I thought about doing a page for each child from their perspective, and then an overall summary type page for our family album, but that will be an even bigger job.  I started to wonder if the kids will even care if they get a page for every trip?  Could I wait for the end of this particular adventure, and then do a few summary pages for each album with some highlights?  Maybe. I think I might do something like that.  Or maybe something else?  I am still formulating my plan when it comes to the traditional travel scrapbook!  

In the meantime we did come up with a great way to capture those travel memories, in a way that is useful as well as ornamental.  We bought the kids a blanket each, and they have been collecting blanket patches on our travels.  We tried to imagine a big map outline on the blanket and attach the patches in roughly the right spot, so that helps the kids to remember where we have been too.  

They are all very proud of their blankets, and the patches that they have - many of them they have earned through Junior Ranger Programs. It does help to have Nan come for a visit though, when you have a backlog of patches to attach! Some areas of the blankets have more patches than others, but we told them when they are older they can come back themselves and fill in the gaps.  For the boys especially, I think that is more likely than them adding scrapbook pages to the album.

Another bonus to getting the patches is that they often come with a handy piece of cardboard that has a brief overview of the place we have visited.  

 You can be sure I am squirreling those away for the day when I finally get around to some actual scrapbooking of our travels!

Been taking a break...

Oh dear.  Has it really been a month since I posted here?  I guess I have been taking a break!  A frenzy of school trips and parties and concerts, as well as family visits, and the resulting traveling and exploring and having fun, has been keeping us busy.  Not much time spent on crafty stuff.  I did do some thinking and talking about crafty stuff.  That counts, right?  I did acquire a couple of new toys tools. That has to count!  I just didn't have the time (or was the inclination?) to blog about it, but hopefully that is about to change.   The new USA Stampin' Up! catalogue is about to launch, and that will give us a good indication of what we will see in the new NZ/Aust in September, not to mention a lot of wonderful new inspiration (and inclination!)  I am wondering how the internet will handle all those eager people, hitting the SU website on July 1?   Just don't crash before I get there!!

I do have a couple of projects (alternatives to the traditional scrapbooking methods of perserving those travel memories) that I have been working on, one of which should hopefully be arriving in our mailbox today.  I am looking forward to sharing those, along with a couple of teacher gift projects that we did a few weeks back.  Just have to find the photos.

Taking a break is also a very good excuse to get back into some crafting today.  Although we might have to go and buy some more masking tape first.  Hayden has been doing some creating of his own - making monsters and dinosaurs from an old phone book and a lot of masking tape.  It is keeping him nicely entertained.  Now, how to keep the other two out of trouble?!