In today’s post, I’m sharing a little how-to for making a DIY travel journal for kids.
Last spring, I went on a rampage trying to find an easy travel journal that I could purchase for my daughters to help them document and remember our travels. I couldn’t find anything that spoke to me, so I decided to just make our own.
I made these journals last spring before our big trip around Europe, and we have brought these on every trip we’ve done since then. The idea is that my daughters help put the pages together in real time to help them process what we’ve seen and (hopefully!) help them remember our adventures as they grow.
I LOVED scrapbooking as a kid and thought this would be an easy way to introduce my daughters to the hobby. The girls are so cute and proud of their journals. They love showing them to loved ones and looking back on our trips together.
In this post, I’ll share the list of items I use for these as well as a few tips for helping kids document their travel memories.
DIY Travel Journal for Kids
DIY Travel Journal Supplies:
Plain Spiral Journals
I bought these plain spiral journals from Amazon. I’m sure you could find something higher quality, but I knew if we were bringing these with us on the trips I wouldn’t want to be too precious with them. I bought the 8 inch white version, but the kraft version is also cute and looks more vintage if you’re into that!
Kodak Photo Sticker Printer
At first, I wanted to buy the girls each their own Polaroid camera to bring along with us on our trips. Then, my brain came back to me, and I realized that would be insane. Carrying two extra cameras around–not to mention paying for Polaroid film–was not going to be feasible.
Instead, I purchased this Kodak photo sticker printer that my friend recommended to me. This portable device connects to your phone via Bluetooth and allows you print directly from an app as you go. We LOVE this thing. It’s a little finicky and slow and does need to be restarted sometimes if you are printing a bunch of photos at once. Even despite all of that, we’ve been very happy with it.
The photos aren’t the best quality but they are still so, so cute and have a somewhat vintage feel to them. The best part is that they peel and stick right into the journal, making this a super fun craft for the girls.
Don’t forget to stock up on extra film!
Scrapbook paper + stickers
I bought a set of travel-themed scrapbook papers and stickers to decorate the books with. I used this stuff mostly on the cover and first few pages when I was setting the books up, but we brought a handful of various decorations with us on our trip last summer for the girls too.
Calligraphy pen set + stencils
I bought this set of pens to use with the books. We use these pens to title the pages, add dates, and add any special memories or notes that either the girls or Tyler and I want to add.
I have the world’s worst handwriting–like, I can’t even read it–so I also bought these stencils to use on the titles of pages. It looks a little janky but better than what I can do on my own. And I’m sure we are almost to the point where the girls are going to want to write their own titles and captions soon. I can picture it now: “Mom, how do you spell GRANADA?”
Scrapbooking tape roller and washi tape
Even though the photos have their own adhesive, I got a pack of these tape rollers to secure everything else into the pages. I also got this set of washi tapes because I don’t think there is anything cuter on the planet than washi tape.
To make things easy, I added all of these supplies to a dedicated section on my Amazon storefront which you can access here.
Tips for using this DIY travel journal
We use these journals to help our kids document our travel memories but also to help prepare and familiarize them with the places we are going to visit.
For our trip to Europe last summer, I printed out a little map for their journals and put labels on everywhere we were going.
“Scavenger Hunt” Page
And then Tyler made this little “scavenger hunt” and taped it into the journal. He typed out three very easy, basic things that we knew we’d do in each location, such as “drink hot chocolate” in Paris and “walk around the lake” in Lake Bled. We went over the list many times with the girls as a way of helping them understand the itinerary and a little glimpse of what we’d be doing in each place. We found that this helped them feel “bought in” to our big trip, and they’d get SO excited at night when they got to check things off the scavenger hunt list as we went. With older kids, you could make the scavenger hunt more elaborate, but we kept it very simple for our girls. We’ll do it again this spring on our trip to Spain and Portugal too.
Journal Page
Once we were on the trip itself, we encouraged the girls to save things to put in their journals. This could be anything: boarding passes, museum tickets, train stubs, and even postcards from gift shops.
We ended up pulling out our journal supplies every 3 or 4 days on our long trip, usually on the last evening of a stay before we packed up to head somewhere new. This was such a fun way to recap with the girls. Tyler and I would help them paste everything into the journals and write down a few of their favorite things about each location.
Both of our girls LOVE crafting, so I also think this was an easy way to let them unwind and “fill their cups” throughout a long trip and walking around and exploring.
At the end of the trip, Tyler and I both went in and added little notes to the girls on a few pages with our favorite memories too.
We’ve used the journals to document our trips to Banff and Disney too. For those shorter trips, we just did the scrapbooking when we got home.
There is a ton of travel journal inspiration on Pinterest. I made a little board when I first started this project last year. Most of it is too advanced for our girls to execute, but it’s fun to look at! And if you’re doing this as an adult or with older kids, make sure to start there.
Thanks for checking out my DIY travel journal for kids. I hope this was helpful! Let me know if you end up doing this with your kids (or for yourself!) and how it turns out.
On that note…
30 tips for traveling internationally with small kids
How to pack for a long trip with kids
DIY Stoner Clover Inspired Backpack
26 lifesaving tips for traveling with a baby in Europe
5 reasons to plan an international trip with your kids
For more family tips, click here. And for travel inspo, city guides, and tips + tricks, click here.
