My Japan Scrapbook Album

  It's not new that I obviously love playing and collecting stationary. And one of the best ways to use up all those cute tapes and stickers that I've been collecting over the years is to decorate lovely photo albums of memorable trips. I recently came back from an amazing holiday to Japan and what an experience it has been! And to keep those happy memories lively for years, I love printing my photos instead of keeping them in hard drives. I always find it such a waste storing beautiful pictures in the computer that will eventually be forgotten one day...Don't get me wrong, I love posting pictures online too but there's something about printing photos that makes everything even special. 

Printing photos are fun. They're the best way to relive precious memories in a tangible way, It inspires you and to remind you how great your life has been. It's satisfying and the memories will live on forever! One of the reasons why I print them is also because of my daughter. I want her to always remember these beautiful memories spent with us and of all the adventures she's been to! There's still a possibility that my laptop and hard drives won't make it in the next 10 yrs or less...so print them out!

This post is not a tutorial but rather to share with you on how I decorate my photo albums and share with you some tips. 

First things first, before printing my photos I will usually edit them in Photoscape. I adjust colors, brightness and crop them if needed. 

I only choose the best photos or those moments that made an impact on our trip. Then I would just, roughly, calculate how many photos per page on the album. I print my photos in 3R size, by the way..I find the size perfect as It's not so big neither too small. 

Before I get all excited decorating the album with all the colorful stationary, I write type down and print all the places we've visited according to the photos you have printed. Then,  I plan my layout on each page and stick the photos with a bit of scotch tape. Once you're satisfied with the album 's arrangement, It's now for the fun part - Play with stationary!

I love buying my origami paper from Daiso. The have such wide variety of them! And some of those stickers are from there too!
By the way ( out of topic), don't forget to plan your photo layout in a chronological way! ^_^

The photo below was taken in Nishiki Market, Kyoto. The traditional sweets were so delicious I had to document it! hehehe

My first time trying out Warabi Mochi and I loved it. Bought 3 boxes to bring back home huhuhu!

The photo below was one of the best desserts we've tried so far during our trip. It happened to be on a small dessert shop right beside Nigatsu-Do Hall, Nara. It was so good that we bought the very same ingredients in the grocery store so that we could recreate it back at home ^_^ Yes... We even bought the ceramic bowls at a market later in Osaka! The dessert had chocolate balls, plain mochi, matcha powder, chocolate syrup, frosted cornflakes, vanilla ice cream and deep-fried dough sticks covered with caramel. Simple ingredients for an unforgettable taste. We had ice cream before lunch and I recall it was 1°C that day...;P

Don't throw away the plane or entrance tickets of some of the places you visited! They make really special addition onto your travel journal! I kept all mine at the last page of the album by storing them on a D.I.Y origami paper pocket. Just fold the side edges inwards and glue. Don't forget to glue the bottom edge too.

I bought this photo album in Tokyu Hands and it's from Mark's Inc DecorRap. The album itself has only 10 pages but I love these albums because they're refillable. When I got this album I already knew that 10 pages wouldn't be enough to accommodate my holiday photos so I bought extra paper. Each refillable pack has 10 pages. You can find these fun albums in Macao's New Iao Han shopping mall on the 5th floor.

Well, that's it guys! I hope this sparks a little bit of inspiration to print your very own photos and display them in a super fun way! I have other finished albums to show you but that will be on a other day :) 

In the meantime, wishing you a great start on this New Year and see you on the next post!