Well, we are back safe and sound from the beach! “Safe and sound” but also more than a little depressed to have traded in our shorts and sandals for work appropriate slacks and flats…There is very little worse than driving back over the bridge towards home when it feels like we were just driving OVER it towards our island oasis. Yet, on a happy note, I’ve been reunited with my lovable hubby and our three furry kiddos so life ain’t all that bad.
I’ll be recapping our trip throughout the week, including a full tour of the house we rented and a review of one fun, HANDY new product I tested out, but today I’m sharing a little project I managed to whip up yesterday afternoon after everything was unpacked and I was ready to do a little reminiscing…
Source: Martha Stewart
The inspiration image above (snagged from Pinterest, of course) caught my eye right away. I’m definitely the sentimental sort, saving everything from receipts and candy wrappers, to ticket stubs and those little cardboard restaurant coasters – Anything to encourage a little walk down memory lane. As I’m sure you can imagine, I came home with quite a few new pieces of memorabilia to commemorate our latest trip to South Carolina.
Although this is something like the 12th time we’ve visited Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a quaint southern plantation my parents discovered on their honeymoon almost 30 years ago, we’re always discovering new places and picking up new treasures. Instead of tossing it all, I loved the idea of filing it all away in a special labeled box. Luckily, I was able to pick up all of my supplies pre-vacation and just had to set aside 15 minutes of my Sunday afternoon to put it all together.
As to those supplies, I bought two hinged wooden boxes for less than $5 apiece at my local craft store, one for this recent trip to Hilton Head and another for our honeymoon to Punta Cana last May. The stencil I also picked up cost next to nothing and helped my confidence to stay on point as I drew out the letters on my first travel keepsake box.
To label my box with “HHI” (for “Hilton Head Island”), I simply held the stencil in place and traced the shape with a pencil. Now here’s where I know a lot of you will think I’m crazy, but really I’m just impatient…I knew that black paint would have given me a cleaner look, but I had just finished cleaning up from a spontaneous closet purge and didn’t have the energy to paint my letters. So instead I grabbed a Sharpie pen and merely colored inside my traced lines.
Sure it bled a little bit but, since it only took me .5 seconds to complete whereas it would have taken me at least 20 minutes to paint it on, the uneven lines were worth it. I can always go back over with black paint to clean up the edges if I feel like it, but frankly, I don’t mind the drawn on look. This is one of those projects that’s just for me and my desire to remember a wonderful family vacation – Perfection was never my goal.
That said, my ultimate goal of creating a special sanctuary for all of my collected paper memories was easily met, and I can’t wait to move on to my second box reserved for Punta Cana memories!
How do you make the most of YOUR vacation memories?
