Displaying holiday memories
I am always looking for creative ways to display photos and artwork at home. I think it makes a house feel so much cosier and personal if there are photos displayed on tops of sideboards and in frames on the walls. It’s also nice to be reminded of those happy memories – snapshots from recent and past holidays to allow you to recall an evening relaxing in 30 degree heat, on a sun lounger with a cocktail in hand. When I was asked by Keepmoat to find a creative way of displaying holiday memories at home, I set about creating something that would not only display my photos, but also communicate the parts of the trip that aren’t shown on film.
You all know my love of scrapbooking by now, and I wanted to create a layout that incorporated my memories of a trip to Turkey. My sister and I visited in October 2014 and it was a week of relaxing and sunbathing, with a trip to Turgutreis and my first outing on a jet ski included. A guest who might see a photo in a frame might not guess that – there are so many memories behind a photograph that only those on the trip would know. With that mind, I wanted to create a piece that visualised those hidden thoughts – those anecdotes that aren’t told and the little snippets that are lost when you get home – and allow the viewer to get a real sense of my holiday.
The beauty of this DIY is that it can be any size you want, and doesn’t need to be mounted on a wall either (it can sit proudly on the dresser instead). For the layout itself, I started with a blank piece of paper cut to size and two wallpaper samples. Did you know you can get these for free? You simply rip off a sample from a roll in a DIY/Décor shop and it makes a great base for layouts, card making or any paper craft. Wallpaper is so varied now and you can get some beautiful paper, like this stripy sample that I used to represent waves on my beach holiday. I also used a neutral textured piece that I placed at the bottom of my layout to visualise the sand, and then stuck on a few a shells with some UHU. You could add on shells or pebbles that you’d collected whilst on the beach, or tickets and maps from your excursions out. The frame I used meant there was room to use 3D items on my layout, and I got this 8x10 photo frame from Homebase. If you have even bigger or bulkier items you want to add to your layout, a shadow box frame would be ideal.
One of the things I looked forward to on my lazy beach days at the hotel was the ice cream! They had a little ice cream stand where you could go and have a cone and eat as much as you like – so I added an ice-cream embellishment (from the Dear Lizzy Fine and Dandy collection) along with a photo. Little things like this make the layout varied and add to the story – everything has a meaning.
Our hotel room was up on a very large hill, one row from the top, and there were a lot of steps! This is an example of one of those memories that you don’t get from photos. I wrote a little memento on to a paper tag – how we struggled at the start of the week but by the end were doing all those steps with ease! The view at the top, and from our room, was totally worth it and I added this photo to the layout to go along with the memory.
This DIY is so versatile and I think it’s a really good way of displaying holiday memories – not just ones that have been captured in a photo but also the little keepsakes and stories that go with the trip. What do you think?
I think scrapbooking is a great way of displaying photos around the home with an extra personal touch. Who says they have to stay in albums!
