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Scrapbooking your Disney trip: Some tips to make it easier

by Jeannette Cona-Larock - August 2004

"It is all a matter a love. The more you love a memory, the stronger it is."

--Vladimir Nabakov (novelist)

Some of our Disney memories are among the strongest we have because they are the most dearly treasured. How many times have you told yourself during a trip, "Now THAT'S something I want to remember"! If you are a scrapbooker or you want to work on an album project the next time you go, here are some helpful planning trips to make the job easier and maybe a bit more memorable when you get back.

Before you leave: What to prepare

Most of us spend lots of time preparing as many aspects of our trip as possible. What park shall we go to on Day 1? What character meal shall we choose? Where's the best place to stay? On and on the planning goes until you're ready to leave. Why not do a bit of planning for your scrapbook too?

Here are some pre-tip ideas:

1. Label an accordion folder with either the days of your trip or the parks that you will visit. This can then hold tickets, maps you've gotten ahead of time, etc. While you're on the trip it'll be a place holder for all the memorabilia you'll collect. This can go with you in a backpack or duffel bag on the plane. I'd also consider taking along a smaller sized accordion folder or pocket folder to bring with you to the parks so that your pockets don't become a catchall for the items you collect during the day. A manila envelope is also handy.

2. Throw some photo-safe journaling pens in there too in one of the back compartments. You'll need these while you're on the trip.

3. I also pack a spiral notebook since I keep a diary on the trip. You might prefer to precut some journaling boxes or even taking along lined scrapbook pages if you want all of your journaling to be in long hand. Since I type my diaries when we get back, the notebook usually does the trick.

Consider predecorating pages if you like making borders or just make ahead some borders that you'll know you need. Some ideas include: Photographs with the Characters, Title boxes with the park names, etc.

While you're there: What to collect

Trips to any of the Disney parks are usually a whirlwind of activity and before you know it, you're back at the hotel at the end of a long day with all sorts of stuff shoved in pockets, backpacks, fanny packs or purses. Here are some tips to help the process go a bit more smoothly.

Tips while you're on the trip:

1. Collect everything and anything you'd like. Don't worry about making decisions yet about what to keep or throw away. Enjoy your vacation! Instead of shoving things into your pockets, put everything in the smaller accordion folder or manila envelope and then sort it at the end of the day into the larger file so that it's empty and ready to go the next day. Some things you might want to keep are:

• Postcards
• Tickets
• Monorail pilot's licenses if you ride in the front car
• Room keys
• Checkout expense reports
• Cookie bags (idea courtesy of Christine Soroko) - they look like vellum
• Maps
• Artwork - I saved the pictures that my girls colored with Mickey at the Ice cream social
• Wrappers from favorite snacks - Dole Whip anyone? These might not always be around!

2. At the end of the day, I typically take some me time (I have two small children) and sit down with a cold drink, cup of coffee or maybe even a margarita and journal what happened that day. This is the beginning of my trip report! Even though I might be exhausted, this is when my memories are freshest and I can recollect funny things they said or little bits of pixie dust that happened along the way. Let's face it, by the end of the trip we're lucky if we remember who we're traveling with but some things you'll never forget like the _expression on your child's face the first time they see the Magic Kingdom! If that's an "I never want to forget" moment, make sure you're telling someone about it in the album! Your journaling should be as expressive as if you were telling someone sitting next to you on the sofa.

3. If a diary isn't for you, use those journal boxes you brought along. They can be squares of photo mounting paper or even just photo-safe white paper and record the highlights of the day. You can crop them down into other sizes and shapes later if you want. Quotes of note from your children or others that you want to remember can be recorded on a separate journal box and then you'll have them at the ready when it's time to work on the album. If you brought album pages along, use those - you've got your photo-safe pens with you. Imagine how much easier it will be to get going once you're home and staring at 15 rolls of film or hundreds of digital prints

4. Take pictures of plaques, billboards or anything with writing that describes what you're taking a picture of at that moment. A historical plaque might be an example. It would explain the history that you might not remember.

Once you're home: How to get started

Now you're staring at that folder full of memorabilia, those mountains of pictures and all of that writing wondering, where do I start? Use those tabs on the accordion folder to guide you as you sort your pictures. This will give you an idea of how to organize your album project. I use a process called a Power Layout to help me organize the pages. It's basically a process where I divide each page or two-page spread worth of pictures, memorabilia and journaling onto a scrapbook page and then stack them up. You might also want to look at a "table of contents" sheet similar to the ones available at OrganizedScrapbooks.com. They have some neat templates that you can use to preplan your pages.

As you're going through all of the memorabilia you've saved, consider this. Don't confuse junk for memorabilia. Ask yourself why you want to put it in your book. You don't have to use everything.

1. Does it show the price of something (like a ticket) that would be fun to see in 10 or 20 years?

2. Does it remind you of a specific memory that you want to write about? I have the rose that was given to me when my then boyfriend, now husband and I ate at Victoria & Albert's. I simply pressed it in a guidebook until I could get it home and safely sealed in photo-safe plastic.

Is it something trendy that might not be around in the next generation? Remember that Dole Whip you liked so much? It wasn't there 20 years ago and it might not be there 20 years from now.

Remember though, most memorabilia is not photo-safe and should never come in contact with your photographs. Use a buffered page, put photo-safe mounting paper in between, seal it in photo-safe plastic or put it on the page opposite of your pictures with page protectors in between to prevent contact. Pages with pockets or full page sleeves are another good way of preventing your memorabilia from coming in contact with your photos.

Once that's all finished, you'll be amazed at how much quicker and easier it is to finish your trip album. Good luck and send me some of your finished pages!