Because of my great love of this pastime, I wanted a way to preserve my memories, a way to go back and revisit if you will. During one trip to Hawaii I found a beautiful 8 X 8 scrapbook album with a breathtaking scene of a beach on the cover. I was elated with the find and a tradition was born.

Now, during my voyages, one of the items I always pick up is a unique scrapbook album that speaks of the place I am visiting. It comes home with me and then I lovingly fill it with the trip’s highlights. I insert everything from beautiful pictures and special treasures to napkins, menus and sand (yes, sand). In fact, I used the sand to build a whole beach scene on one of my pages.

I find that when I travel with an open mind I always learn something new. On many pages of my scrapbooks I use a journal template to document things I learn along the way.

When you leaf through the pages of these albums, it is like returning to those places. It allows the person that is viewing the book to share the trip by walking down the cobbled roads or riding on the back of a donkey down narrow passageways. I have even been known to use glue dots to adhere a piece of a donkey’s tail to the page (don’t worry, he didn’t feel it. I used a nail clipper).

Many times I use a simple scrapbook layout, but for the most part I go all out and every page is protected by a page protector. I’m crazy for decorative paper and love to try new techniques like little gift tags hanging from the page or using textures of different kinds. When I finish them I store them in special scrapbooking cabinets. I want these books around for a long time. There may be a day I can’t travel as much and my scrapbooks will help me relive the memories.