How To Create Your Own Travel 'Scratch' Poster

 

I love documenting my travels, and one way is through scratch maps. Not only is it a record of where I've been and what I've done but it has also given me some inspiration for other places to go. However, the 100 places to visit poster has places that I probably won't ever go to and misses off places and experiences that I hope to do one day. So, the solution? Make my own!

First, join pieces of card together. I chose A4 size and stuck 6 pieces together. In hindsight, this may be a bit too big, but it just gives more room to put more pictures on! 

To avoid awkward joins, I cut separate strips of card about 3 inches wide and glued the pieces of card onto so the edges of the card are touching rather than overlapping. 

Next was the tricky bit- narrowing down the different travel stuff I wanted to do. I did a mixture of places I wanted to see and experiences I wanted to do- mainly because most travel scratch posters only do places to visit. I managed to get a total of 42 which the mathematician in me loved as it meant I could do 7 rows of 6 pictures. 

I got inspiration from other scratch posters online; I found one that had a load of places I want to go to one day, but the poster was £30 which was a bit expensive so I copied ideas from that. I also had a general list of places I want to go and things I'd like to do. 

Sticking the pictures down was a bit difficult- mainly because I wanted to get the pictures straight and lined up neatly. I used two rulers making a right angle to ensure the photos were kept in line and glued each one individually. 

I then found some patterned paper and cut out 42(!) rectangles. I measured them so they were slightly bigger than the photos. This bit was boring, but necessary. I then stuck a piece of blu-tack on the back and put it on the photo ready to be peeled off when applicable. I could have stuck foil on to make it a proper 'scratch' poster but thought the purple looked cool too. 

Next, I wrote above each photo to label it. I used two different coloured pens to differentiate between the landmarks and the experiences, mainly to give it a bit more colour. Finally, I used some travel stickers and normal stickers I had lying around to jazz it up a bit. 

I haven't completely finished it yet, but will upload the finished product ASAP!