Souvenirs, keepsakes, and the like hold fantastic travel memories! To keep them from ending up in a dusty corner of your home, I’ve put together a handful of DIY craft ideas to help you capture and display your memories in a lasting and aesthetic way!

Make Travel Memories visible

So, you come back from vacation, unpack your things, and have all these little souvenirs in your hands? I don’t necessarily mean specially selected souvenirs. You usually have a place for those. I’m talking about things like maps, rocks, seashells, postcards, stickers, coins, or maybe a napkin from your hotel or favorite restaurant while you were on vacation. Memories in physical form, but what to do with them? They usually end up in a box at the back of the closet and are forgotten. Or they eventually end up in the bin.

This is not only a shame, but also not really sustainable. Neither for the things you throw away nor for your memories. That’s why it’s best to think about what you want to do with certain things, and whether it’s worth taking them with you at all. For example, why would you want to bring sand that you’re not going to use at home? You’ll probably just end up throwing it away.

By the way: You shouldn’t remove sand from your favorite beach anyway. You can read about the why here. (LINK)

Idea number. 1: Framing

You can frame just about anything. Not only the most beautiful vacation photos, but also the road or hiking map you used on your trip and on which you marked the most beautiful places and destinations during or after the trip. Napkins can also be framed, as can seashells or coins.  For the latter, simply remove the glass from the frame.

Another great idea: If you use a relatively deep frame, such as those available at your local Swedish furniture store, you can even combine your map with small treasures. Simply cut a slightly larger backplate (the outer edge of the frame) and glue your map to it. Glue the glass to the front of the frame. Now you can fill the cavity with all your treasures and glue the backplate on top.

Variation: Tray or Type Case

A type case is the perfect way to display shells or stones. You can either buy one or make your own from strips of wood. Now all those little mementos will find a worthy home. You can also write the place and time of your trip on a small sign or plaque.

Idea number 2: A wall collage

Do you have lots of pictures, map clippings, and other things that don’t fit in a frame? And do you have an empty wall in your house that could use some life? Then this idea from ECO-APARTHOTEL THE DREAMERS’ CLUB in Croatia is perfect for you! Grab some masking tape and start creating a colorful wall collage!

If you want to plan ahead, you can draw a world map on the wall or use ready-made wall stickers. You can also find world maps made from sustainable materials like wood or cork. Simply place all of your memories on and around the world map. Then, use some string and pins to connect the photos to your destination.

Idea number 3: Practical household items with a memory effect

Personally, I hate it when things don’t have a purpose. Purely decorative objects? You won’t find that with me! That’s why I’m always looking for ways to turn “dust catchers” into something useful.

For example, you can turn small objects you brought home, such as coins or even small rocks or shells, into handy pins or magnets. All you need is a hot glue gun or super glue and either small (strong!) magnets or thumbtacks. Use a drop of glue to attach the souvenirs to your chosen “carrier” and now you have a unique way to display them on your bulletin board or refrigerator.

If you have a lot of coins (perhaps accumulated over the years), you can also decorate coasters or even entire tables with them. To do this, simply glue them to the base and then pour epoxy resin over them or grout them, similar to how you would tile.

Create a different kind of memory

Finally, I would like to leave you with an idea for your trip that our sustainable hotel partners gave me. Maybe it doesn’t always have to be a physical souvenir, but an idea to take home with you.

It could be an interior design or decoration idea. Maybe it’s an object, like the Swiss stone pine cubes found at the HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio. Well, if you want to take one home, it’s probably best to buy it in the hotel shop, but you can definitely learn how to use it at HUBERTUS.

At Hotel Weihrerhof, you can get inspiration for simple and natural decorations from senior manager Zilli. Her favorite idea: an apple in a container filled with water. Add a few fresh twigs and done!

At the lifestyle hotel SAND, many of the guests have been inspired by the key rings made of driftwood. Instead of key cards, there are chips with the aforementioned driftwood on them. “This way the key stays with us and you have something beautiful in your hand,” says the reception team, adding that some guests have already reported taking the idea home with them.

Self-made souvenirs

Also cool in my book: Crafting your own vacation souvenirs. You can do this at the SCHWARZWALD PANORAMA wellness hotel in Bad Herrenalb, for example. Handicrafts and upcycling are part of the program, especially during the Christmas season. The hotel team also offers upcycling workshops at conferences and other events. But don’t worry, if you’re not a crafty person, you can still buy the upcycled products in the store 😉

Just get started and make your travel memories come alive

If you really want to get started right away, but haven’t found the right thing yet, take a look at the following articles. Here on our blog, we have been sharing DIY projects that we have either tested ourselves or that came from our partners.

• Easy upcycling projects
• Sustainable Christmas decoration (DIY)
• Even more upcycling ideas
• Six ideas for keeping your travel memories alive

Have fun creating! And if you try something out, please share it with us on Instagram! Either use the hashtag #greenpearls or tag us @greenpearls. We are looking forward to it!

Want to save this as an inspiration for your travel memories? Use the Pinterest button at the bottom of the article or pin one of our pins 🙂