DIY Adventure Book (memory keeping for people who don't scrapbook)

A few months ago I read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and I found some great ideas in it.  One of them was to do a quick tidy-up of your living space before going to sleep each night (which is great and I now do it religiously) and another was to "be a storehouse of happy memories."  I have not been a person to display photos, organize albums or keep a journal, but recently I thought of some small steps to improve in this area.  The first step was to make a casual display of photos from fun trips and visits with family members (which you can see in this post), then I made some paw print keepsakes for our pets.  My next baby-step to memory keeping was to make this Adventure Book.  It's as close to a scrapbook as I'll ever get!  I purchased a 3-pack of extra large Moleskine notebooks, then rounded up a few supplies from around the house (clear tape, decorative printed tape, heart stickers, and a cute bookplate for our names).  Nothing fancy because this is a low-stress project, quick to complete, and it is not allowed to be too fancy : )

Next, I pulled out The Shoe Box.  The Shoe Box is the place I dump all of our travel postcards, maps, ticket stubs, etc.  I don't take tons of photos when we travel, but I love to collect postcards (especially because we visit tons of museums).  I have stuff in the box from the last six or seven years!  I often think about specific items in the box, but it's buried in the back of my closet and I never want to dig it out - the Adventure Book has solved this problem because now I can easily look through it whenever I want.

The Adventure Book is different from a scrapbook in that it doesn't include photos, just memorabilia from trips or memorable events (because I rarely print any photos and don't see myself doing it anytime soon - this is a "here and now" kind of project).  I was pleasantly surprised that choosing not to include photos didn't effect the quality of the book - with postcards, maps, tickets, brochures, and programs I had more than enough material to capture the essence of each event and bring back so many happy memories.

I simply organized my memorabilia into little piles so I could see what went together, then started taping it into the notebook.  I added a few stickers or pieces of printed tape here and there, along with a few words about which city we were in or what a particular building was called.  I also added a little title, "Our Adventures," to the front of the book.

I am SO pleased with this project!  My husband loved looking through it, too.  This is a great way to organize memories without all the fuss of a trip-down-the-scrapbooking-aisle project.  Now that I have it started, it will be quick and easy to add new memorabilia along the way.

How do you collect and display your photos, postcards, etc?  I'd love to hear about it!