Last updated: 8th August 2022
Holidays always seem to end too soon, but with a bit of collecting and some very simple DIY crafts skills, memories from your holidays will live on forever. It doesn’t have to cost much, most of our ideas cost nothing more than a little bit of time. In this post we’ll show you ideas for things to collect from your travels and then how to display travel souvenirs in your home.
Table of Contents
20 Ways To Collect & Display Travel Souvenirs
1. Add Push Pins To Maps
Plot your travels with push pins and a mural
So why not plot your travels like us with a wall map? We bought an inexpensive world map wallpaper mural from Ebay, mind you putting it up in the dinning room was an event as neither of us had done any wallpapering before! Each time we return from abroad, we stick another red push pin into the wall to plot where we’ve just been. We love looking at it, as it’s a constant source of inspiration seeing all the different countries of the world we’d like to visit. Why not add different coloured push pins, like blue for destinations that you would like to visit? Or how about a green ones for all your ultimate bucket list places you wish to see. For extra creativity you could tie cotton from your hometown to each push pin, and make it look really fancy, like a cats cradle. Great thing about it being on the wall in our dining room, it’s always a talking point over dinner and our friends kids love testing their geography knowledge too!
2. Make A Collage From Airport Luggage Tags
Just a few of the airport luggage tags we’ve collected
Don’t throw away those airport luggage labels on your suitcase. Keep them as the tags have unique 3 letter airport codes. A perfect way to record your travels by creating a collage of them in vertical rows. Frame them so they lie flat behind glass. When your friends and family come round guessing what the airport codes stand for is a fab game!
3. Collect Fridge Magnets
Our fridge is groaning under the weight of our magnet collection
Fridge magnets are easily our favourite souvenir for tracking our travels, well when we say ‘our’ I mean Garth’s! We don’t collect antiques or anything sensible, but we LOVE to take a little memento from all the places we’ve been to and fridge magnets are the best!! But whichever one we buy, there are always three more that are ‘better’ as the holiday goes on. Yes they are tacky, yes are kitsch, and that’s why we love them! They are reminders of adventures we’ve had each time we get the milk out of the fridge. Although our American style fridge is groaning under the weight of them! The best way to display fridge magnets is to group them all as close as you can together. Any gaps you should fill with a smaller magnet, think of it like a jigsaw. It looks better to have one large space under a big group of magnets rather than spreading them all out over your fridge door. As a bonus idea you can also turn foreign coins or beer bottle tops into magnets, just glue some craft magnets to the back.
4. Add Sewing Pins To A Globe
Plot where you’ve been around the world by using sewing pins on a globe
This was a really neat idea we saw outside a lovely restaurant in Kyoto, Japan. Same idea as our wall map but using one of those geography school globes. The restaurant owner asked all his guests when they left to add a sewing pin to mark their hometown, to show off his international diners, how clever!
5. Collect Christmas Ornaments
Collect Christmas tree ornaments
Another idea is to collect Christmas tree ornaments, just buy one each time you visit a new destination and in no time you’ll have a colourful collection. It must be popular, as we’ve noticed places in different countries sell them year round. We don’t collect these, but we love the idea of unwrapping them each year and rekindling memories of that destination. Our friend Helen collects them and each year decorates her “Around The World Tree” which was nearly destroyed by her daughter last Christmas!
6. Create Memory Boxes
This was the first memory box we created with bits and bobs from Amsterdam
So why not make your own art by creating a travel collage and frame your artwork to form a memory box. Just collect anything – boarding passes, ticket stubs, shop receipts, food labels, beer bottle labels, beer mats, sweet wrappers, carrier bags with logos, napkins, etc. A free city map makes a great base background and then glue everything else on top. We like to keep business cards from the hotels and restaurants we visit. What could be cheaper and more fun?
7. Make A Money Collage
Some of our unused foreign currency
If you’re like us, you always come back with a bank note with loads of zeros on the end and think, I’ll change it back as it will be worth a fortune. It’s always a disappointment when its works out to be 12 pence! So use your left over foreign currency, overlap the notes into a simple composition, really easy and instantly shows off where you’ve been, plus it’s easy to keep adding to. Stick them in all in a cheap frame and voila! instant art. And if the exchange rate shoots up, you can always crack open the frame and cash it in!
8. Collect Cheap Unusual Items
We collect Coca-Cola cans from different countries
Another idea is to collect cheap simple things you can compare from each country. We collect Coke cans from around the world the different logos remind us of our times in places like Thailand and Vietnam. Other people collect mugs, shot glasses, beer bottle tops or antique books. Or why not photograph doors, public telephones, or other items that will form a good collection. But a word of warning – when we were taking a photo of a phone box in Beijing, very quickly we were approached by 2 policemen with guns! We didn’t realise we were right outside a Chinese government building and apparently they aren’t that keen on you photographing it!
9. Frame Free City Maps
Keep and frame free subway and city maps
Another idea for framing is to use those free underground or city sightseeing maps we seem to collect from hotel receptions. What’s nice is ours usually have scribbles of recommendations, or an ‘X’ where our hotel was. Just keep adding frames to the collection on your wall, as and when you travel.
10. Frame Passport Stamps
Cut up your old passport pages and put them inside little frames
What do you do with expired passports? Well keep them and cut up the rubber stamp marks you’ve collected from different countries and frame them! We bought these really small frames from Ikea and they are just the job!
11. Keep Do Not Disturb Signs
Collect or buy Do Not Disturb signs – This is one we bought from Disneyland Paris
So what if one of those paper ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs from your hotel room accidentally falls into your suitcase (!) it will make a great reminder of your stay. You can also purchase them from attractions, like this one in the photo we bought from Disneyland Paris. They’ll make fun talking points when you have guests staying over.
12. Collect Pressed Pennies
One of our old pressed pennies. These souvenirs make a great collection
You’ll find elongated penny souvenir machines in museums and touristy places like theme parks. The only one we could find was this New York World Trade Center souvenir penny, as we’ve never actively collected them. But we’ve always thought a whole bunch of them would look good framed. It’s another souvenir collection idea you can keep adding to each time you go away. However this idea is somewhat limited, as we’re not sure you’d find them in places like Vietnam’s rice fields!
13. Send Yourself Postcards
Some of the postcards we’ve posted back to ourselves
Why not post yourself a postcard, that way you’ll have a stamp and a dated postmark too. Build up your collection over time and keep them in a box, photo album or display them all in a frame either together or individually if you have a big wall to fill.
14. Take Selfies At Famous Landmarks
Our collection of photos at famous world landmarks
Another way we like to record and display the countries we’ve been to is by photographing ourselves at iconic landmarks and then frame the photo. We collect different styles of frames to create an eclectic display. Ok so ours aren’t quite ‘selfies’ but you could do this especially if you are a solo traveller. Just remember to add another frame to the wall the next time you get home from somewhere new. Easy!
15. Collect Flag Patches
Flag patches from around the world on sale in Cambodia
We’ve never done this, but we recently saw this collection of flag patches for sale in Cambodia. Patches are popular with backpackers who sew or iron them on to their backpacks. How about adding them to a sofa cushion, a pair of jeans or a hoodie? As well as flags, you can pick up badge shaped patches from national parks, and other landmarks.
16. Create A Poster From Your Instagram Food Photos
Turn your Instagram food photos into a poster
So for some reason we all take tons of photos of the food we eat, especially in exotic places and post them to Instagram or Facebook. So why not collate them and create some contemporary and stylish Instagram wall art. If you are a bit of a whizz on Photoshop, like Garth, you can make it yourself, if not then sites like Paperwave can make them for you direct from Instagram. Food pics look great in your kitchen and provide a record, memories and a source of cookery inspiration. Get a black marker and write on where you took them. We’ve also had a couple of cookery lessons abroad and every time we see photos of those dishes, it brings back wonderful memories.
17. Make A Sand Jar
Photo of sand in the Maldives, we could have used to make a sand jar
How about buying a tall Kilner type jar or use an empty jam jar, grab a handful of sand each from beach you’ve visited and make up layers in your jar, that you keep adding to. With a permanent marker write down the date and destination on the jar, add a few shells, pebbles or perhaps small pieces of drift wood if you like. Alternatively you could display your sand collection individually in different bottles or even in a rack of test tubes.
18. Start A Vintage Letter Peg Board
Vintage letter peg board for adding the countries you’ve travelled to
Go retro and buy a vintage letter peg board and pin the names of all the countries you’ve been to using those cute alphabet plastic letters. Alternatively you could pin all your bucket list places.
19. Make A Travel Scrapbook
A page from one of our old Canada scrapbooks
Similar to the memory boxes, but this time you keep everything in a scrapbook, and make it up as you are travelling. Just remember to take a glue stick with you to add your bits and bobs. Use it as a diary, and write over cuttings. It’s personal and a unique coffee table book!
20. Draw Places In Sketchbooks
A few of Garth’s old sketchbooks
These are some of Garth’s sketchbooks, so Garth is good at watercolour sketches and has lots of sketchbooks from his travels. Even if you think you’re not good at drawing, just try it as it’s a relaxing thing to do whilst you’re having a drink at a bar. Spend no more than 30 minutes on each sketch of whatever you see in front of you. When you return home, you’ll be surprised at how much you remember when you look back on a sketch.
A few more ideas…
- Buy T-shirts or fabric and display them as a collection in square glass frames, like the ones used for vinyl sleeve covers.
- Collate all your Lonely Planet guidebooks and proudly display them all together on a long bookshelf.
- Get a sheet of glass cut to the size of your coffee table – add rubber feet and put hundreds photos and under the glass.
- Buy a cork board, draw an outline of the world and pin photos to locations, or better still buy a pre-made map.
- Create a big and awesome coffee table photo book. Use companies like Blurb or Photobox for a professionally bound book.
- Scratch off maps are popular and fun for plotting the travels you’ve done.
So those are our ideas, what have you done to remember your trips? Is it Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts, miniature landmark statutes or snow globes like Phil’s boss? Leave a comment, we’d love to know.
30 comments
Hello! What a great post! I can never resist buying fridge magnets, our 16 year old has around 15 snow globes, we have paper money, and for me, I get a cheap pair of locally made earrings from our travel spots. Not sure what will happen to all this stuff when we eventually downsize in prep for our nomadic retirement (7 years to go!) but we love all of our momentos.
Sounds like a fab collection, we also collect paper money, and will be making a frame from all the notes soon.
First off, I can’t believe we haven’t commented on this post, because it’s one of our favorites! Second, what brought us back to this post is a new idea we saw at a garage sale, of all places. A woman’s hobby is decoupage; in particular, she decorates her husbands empty cigar boxes. She had a couple that were covered with postcards and Christmas cards they’d received. She is making one for us using our old baggage tags for a unique memento of our travels! Great idea, eh? A direct spin off of the collage idea in this post. Thanks for inspiring our creativity!
Oh wow, yes that sounds great! Decoupage using old baggage tags is such a great idea! You’ll have to send us a photo of the finished thing.