It’s been a while since the last Museum Craft Corner. That’s because although I have lots of ideas up my sleeve, life has been so busy recently that I’ve not found the time to do any crafting. But since we’re in the middle of holiday season, I wanted to share a quick craft idea with you that any museum lover should take with them on their travels – a hand made sightseeing journal!
It’s really easy, all you need is a blank notebook, some pens, old magazines or travel leaflets, scissors and glue. Just cut out some pictures and words, and create different pages that will inspire you to record your travels. This example here is a journal I made for my friend Sarah, when she came to visit me last year for a long weekend filled with museums and other cultural sightseeing activities.
You can add whatever you like to the pages. Since Sarah had never been to Berlin before, I thought “First Impressions” would make a good start to her journal. “Buzz” is a word I picked because it sums Berlin up quite well, but you can choose whatever fits your destination.
Of course, there were several pages dedicated to “Museums” – you could make a list of all the museums you visited on your travels, write down interesting facts you learned, or even make some drawings or sketches.
You’ll probably also want to leave space for notes on other sightseeing (yes, even I will concede there is a life outside of museums), and how about a section at the end to sum up the overall highlights of your trip?
To mix things up a little, I also included some “just for fun” pages – such as a space to note down your holiday playlist. For some museum inspired music suggestions, check out my previous ‘songs about museums‘ and ‘music to visit museums by‘ playlists!
Another fun thing to make a list of (can you tell I like lists?), are your favourite travel inspired movies. Some of my favourite museum movies that just put me in the mood to travel include The Thomas Crown Affair (New York), How to Steal a Million (Paris) and Topkapi (Istanbul). For further museum inspired movie suggestions, check out ‘Museums & the Movies‘.
I always find one of the fun things about traveling – besides discovering new museums, of course – is trying out new foods or restaurants. Why not make a note of them in your sightseeing journal. You’ll find some suggestions for nice museum cafes in the Museum City Guides, and there are also regular museum inspired recipes featured on the blog.
I left a good third of the journal for photos. I know that these days most people have gone digital when it comes to photos, but I quite like to print out a few of my favourites afterwards and stick them in my travel journals.
And finally, for Sarah I chose a notebook that had a little pocket on the last page, where she could store some small souvenirs of her trip – such as the ticket stubs of all those museums we visited!
Wherever the summer takes you, I hope you all have nice holidays and if any of you keep a sightseeing journal I’d love to hear about it.
July 26, 2013
Crafts