In the June issue of the Artisan Notebook ™ we are taking an in-depth look at creative ways you can scrap your travel and vacation photos. Exclusive to our web-site we want to share this idea with our members and visitors. This idea comes from contributing editor Debb Cozzi:

As frequent readers of the Artisan Notebook may know my family and I have been blessed to spend several weeks each summer in the Lake Tahoe region of California. My sister and brother-in-law have a vacation home in the area that they generously share with their family and friends. When we visit we spend much time on the beach soaking up the sun and swimming in that crystalline, slightly frigid big blue lake. We also spend a lot of time hiking and exploring the greater Sierra-Tahoe basin. At the end of each vacation we are always on the lookout for a special thank you gift to give to my sister and brother-in-law to thank them for their generosity. Several years ago I began to print and frame one or two of the best photos that I had taken during that particular trip. The walls of their vacation home are now filled with many of these photos.

Last year I decided I wanted to do something a little bit different. We are not the only ones who are blessed to visit this vacation home. Often my sister and her husband will make their home available to friends, associates, and others. When these people come to visit they are often new to the area and want to know where to go and what to see. There are a couple of hiking and trail books that are kept at the house. However, NONE of these books include photos or first-hand accounts of the different hikes that are available to take in the area. That got me to thinking that I should put together a personalized hiking book and include our first-hand accounts of these hikes along with the photos taken during these hikes. I am slowly working through all of my Tahoe photos and using them to document all of the different hikes that we have taken over the years. I’m putting together a special book that I will have print and bound and give to my sister and brother-in-law as a very special thank you gift. My thought is that they can keep this book at their vacation home and everyone who visits can use it as a resource when planning their own special days in this mountain paradise.

Because of the amount of text I am including in this book I have decided not to create typical scrapbook pages but instead I am using Microsoft’s program Publisher to create the pages of this album/book. I am treating each individual hike as a chapter in the book. In between the chapters I will be including some of the magazine-style layouts I have created over the years when I have scrapped about this beloved place. Following is a look at the first couple of chapters of the book:

Following is a sample of some of the magazine-style layouts that I will be including in between each chapter of the hiking guide:

And here is a second chapter of the guide:

Do you have a special trip or a favortie place that you have visited? Do you have special photos from that trip? Perhaps you too might consider putting together your own travel guide of that place. Not only will it become a special memory of your travels but it can also be used by others when they plan their travels to the same place. I hope you have enjoyed this peek at my treasured times with my family in my most “happy place,”  and that it inspires you in your own creative plans.

Happy Scrapping!

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