What to do with your travel photos

Do you have tons of travel photos sitting on your computer or external hard drive? I know I do. And with the help of Pinterest, my favorite web-place, I decided to actually do something with the 15,000+ photos I have from the past two, yes two, years. If you have followed my blog and seen my travel posts, you know I spent time studying abroad in Rome, and then working in London and Rome too. Now I have made it my mission to display my photos in my grad school apartment. This post will take you through my current project, and also share other Pinterest ideas to help display your precious travel photos. 

Before you print your photos, the best thing to do is back them up. After I move my photos to my computer, I create a folder for each city or country I visited, then folders for the date the photos were taken. Its fairly simple, but it helps me find photos easily and remember what days I was in a city. I also move all my photos onto an external hard drive to clear space on my laptop. Again, this is just a very simple way to store and organize your digital collection, and you can go nuts with the organization and backing up if you'd like. Whatever works for you.

Now to the physical collection of your photos!

This pin inspired my current project to take 108 travel photos, printed into 4" x 4" squares (including a small white border), onto two 27" x 40" frames. I went about this project by going through ALL of my photos, picking out my favorites, and then using photoshop to crop the photos into a square. I then went to Walgreens in order to print the photos and add the white border. My next step is to double-side tape these photos onto museum board before placing them into the largest photo frame sold at Michaels. Once this project is finished, I will post the final photos and some a more detailed step-by-step tutorial. 

Like my current project, this gallery wall project may take a little more time and photo editing skills. After reading several pins about Gallery Walls, the best tip is to create 8" x 8" square photos and putting them into a square frame with large matting. 

I really like gallery walls, they look very sleek and chic in any space, though they could be a chore to actually put up on the wall. Additionally, it is a nice way to display favorite buildings and cities you visited in your travels, without becoming overwhelming like the last project and or a scrapbook.

Down the lines of single photo frames, this idea combines your lovely travel photos with a map matting to remember exactly where you were! Again, this probably takes some time to cut out the map just right, but its another cute and fun way to display some of your favorite travel photos. Maybe you can combine this with the gallery wall tutorial too!

Maybe you are in the map mood. For those of you who love to display photos of you and your significant other or family on your travel adventures, this is a great idea to showcase exactly where you have been in the USA, or any other country, continent, etc. Just buy the map of the place you want to highlight, and then cut your photos accordingly. This is also a great way to keep up with your bucket list idea to visit all 50 states.

If you are feeling ambitious and like to cut photos precisely, try this pin. It involves printing out many of the same photo and layering them for a 3D effect. I think it looks awesome for family photos like the one pictures above!

This is probably the easiest travel photo project on Pinterest. Instead of buying frames, cutting out scenery, and leveling photos on the wall, buy a basic wooden box at a craft store, paint it and label the country, state, or city, of the contents in the box. It's a great idea for people who also collect museum brochures and ticket stubs, allowing you to "display" them alongside your photos. If I was doing this method, I would probably label my photos with a ball point pen with the exact city and date too. 

So here is my round-up of things to do with your travel photos besides wasting away on your external hard drive. Obviously these are not my own ideas, but things I have pinned on Pinterest, but they are all things I would love to try in order to make my apartment feel more like home. I will also keep you up to date with my travel collage project too! 

Have a fun day and happy travels!

~Kelly