An Easy Vacation Souvenir Craft for Kids and Adults

Do you ever wonder what to do with all of the ticket stubs, brochures, postcards and pictures you bring back from every vacation? Sure, you save them so you can make scrapbook pages later...but then the time slips away, or your kids get a hold of them so they can re-live their fun trip and your items wind up wrinkled or splattered with juice. Well, here is a great project that your kids can easily do to make their own vacation memento - and a useful one at that. Have them make their own vacation memory bookmark!

These easy homemade souvenirs start with Scotch brand Self-Sealing Laminating Pouches. I purchased a package of 5 pouches at Wal-Mart for less than $4.00. They come in several sizes, and I chose the 4 3/8 X 6 3/8 size. They are also available at JoAnn.com.

Gather up the items you and your children brought back from vacation; these can be a map, brochures with pictures of places you visited, ticket stubs, snapshots, a napkin with a restaurant's name on it, leaves, receipts or just about anything else that's relatively flat. Your future bookmark can be as narrow or as wide as you want it to be, as long as it stays within the confines of the laminating pouch. Have your child cut out pictures or sections of maps or brochures that he or she remembers or loves most. Have them arrange the tidbits of memories in a manner that pleases them, then stick them in place with a glue stick. Just a little touch of the glue stick will suffice. Also create a back for your bookmark... another collage or a large cut out will do. Lightly glue stick them together.

Take the laminating pouches out of the package, and read the instructions included with them. The pouches are comprised of two sheets of plastic that are stuck together along one long edge so that they open like a folder. One surface is stiff, the other flexible. The flexible side has the "stick-um" on it.

Place your child's (or your) work of art inside the pouch, making sure to leave at least a quarter of an inch from the edges to assure a tight seal. Then carefully peel the instruction sheet off of the sticky side, and roll the sticky side down evenly across the surface of your project. Press down firmly to seal the edges. Voila! You have the basic form of the bookmark!

If your bookmark is considerably narrower than the laminated pouch, you can trim it to size, making sure however that you leave that quarter inch edge around the artwork. You can then take a hole-punch, and make a hole at the top and tie a piece of yarn or ribbon on as trim. Your child's precious memories are preserved forever! A bookmark is something that is easily stored and will be useful their whole lives. Imagine them reading a book to their kids thirty years from now, using the bookmark they made themselves as a child. They'll probably help their kids make their own.

For a variation on this project, use the 5 x 7 sized pouch to make a collage that is easily framed or can be tacked to a bulletin board. There is also a 9 x 11.5 size available... this would be great for making memory placemats. The larger size would accommodate larger pictures, photos and brochures. You could place a map of the area you visited, marking all of the stops you made along with pictures inside of the placemat.

This simple craft idea is also great for kids to make presents for relatives. They can put a small school picture in a bookmark along with a written sentiment, pressed flowers, a piece of their very own artwork or a collage of pretty holiday pictures. Or, on a rainy day, you and the kids can sit down and make bookmarks for your own every day reading books. A comic strip, pictures of their favorite movie stars or characters from their favorite books make great subject matter for this simple project. The possibilities are endless!

Sources:
Wal-Mart Store, Mountain View, CA
www.JoAnn.com
Personal Experience
Rand McNally Maps, Vermont & California