How to Use Personalized Mementos on Your Pages

There are so many things you can use for embellishments these days, and I tend to stick to a few. I use stickers, but I also use ribbon, brads, eyelets, tags, journaling cards, die cuts, and cutouts. But I also try to use things that are personal - mementos or things that came from the place we were or what we were doing. I tend to think of embellishments and mementos as almost the same thing - they both add decoration and interest to your layouts, and they not regular photographs. If I can use a personal memento in place of a store bought embellishment, I'd rather. There are lots of ways to add these personal mementos to your albums, and they add a lot of character and uniqueness to your layouts.

Here are my Top 10 Favorite Personal Mementos:

1. SIGNS. I love signs. Park signs, street signs, ride signs, highways signs, you name it. I started taking pictures of signs so that I would know when I edited my photos which pictures came from where. Then I started incorporating the photos of the signs in my layouts, and just loved the effect. Wherever you go there are signs - state park signs, national park signs, theme park signs, road signs on your road trip. Take photos of them and use them in place of another embellishment.







2. TICKETS. Ticket stubs are great, but sometimes you have to hand your ticket over and don't get to keep it. Take a picture of it! Once printed and trimmed - it looks just like the real ticket. I've done this with Disney FastPasses, game tickets, airline tickets, and many other tickets. Another easy, and personal memento.

3. STAMPS. Stamps can be a really cool embellishment. While I've never used actual passport stamps, I've taken photos of stamps for both Disney scrapbooks and national park scrapbooks. At Disney, my kids did the Epcot passport book and collected the signatures and stamps in each country, and at several different national parks they got the "Passport" stamps in the NPS Passport books. Once home, I took photos of all of the stamps, cropped them in Photoshop, and uploaded them into a Word document where I could re-size them and print them all on a sheet of paper. Cut them out and there is another embellishment that looks just like the real thing.

4. AUTOGRAPHS. Another Disney idea, but if you collect the character autographs while at Disney, take photos of them once you get home and you can use these in your scrapbook.  I wanted to keep the originals intact, so I just took photos and printed them, and once in your album they look just like the real autographs. If you collect autographs at sporting events or concerts, use those too!

5. PATCHES and BADGES. Perfect for national parks, trails, scouts, and many others, take photos of patches and use them in your books! Once you trim out the patch it looks just like the real thing. 












6. POSTCARDS. Pick up a couple of postcards while on your trip. If you forget to buy some, you can look for them online and and print out a few! I have found some really cool old vintage postcards this way that make great art for a scrapbook page.









7. BROCHURES/FLYERS. Brochures and flyers are great and given out almost everywhere. Grab two - one you can keep intact on your page and one you can cut apart if there is something on the inside you want to use. I've used brochures to cut out logos and small maps from places we've visited.










8. PROGRAMS.  If you're heading out to a show or your child school music program - be sure to grab the program! In fact, grab two. Just like with the brochures, you can keep one intact and if there is something you want to cut out (like your child's name, a list of songs, etc.) you can cut the other one up without feeling guilty.

9. MAPS. Maps are an easy one, again being handed out everywhere, and often in a brochure or flyer. But you can also take pictures of maps at parks or theme parks, or wherever you travel. They are great in a scrapbook to look back over the area you traveled and the path you took to get there.

10. ART/POSTERS. Again I've used this idea for Disney books and national parks, but it could be used anywhere. Posters, prints, and artwork make great additions to your scrapbooks. I've taken pictures of posters hanging on the walls of buildings and also printed off small thumbnail sized graphics to use in my books.