Create a Summer Staycation Passport
Written By Miss June 2014, Laurie Marshall of Junque Rethunque and See Laurie Write

Thirty years ago this month I was in France living with the Granet family and wasting an amazing opportunity to learn about that beautiful country and its people because I was a naïve, immature 18-year-old who didn’t study nearly hard enough in French class. It was many years later before I realized just how wasted that trip was, probably around the time my passport expired. But I still have lovely memories of the Granets and their extended family who treated me significantly better than I deserved.

Well, the Granets, and the bread… O.M.G. the bread!!!!

As many of you know, summer is typically vacation season. We will be packing the jeep and driving to Austin this month to meet my new niece, but aside from that (looooong) road trip, the next couple of months are going to be challenging as I try to meet writing deadlines while keeping my 9-year-old son entertained.

To keep us from driving each other crazy, I’ve decided to create a list of local places to visit (good thing we live in a state full of amazing things to do!) and make a point to take a Staycation day every couple of weeks. To keep track of our “travels” without the need for a generous scrapbook, I thought it would be fun to make a little passport to help us record the things we see and do this summer. This is a great way to make a vacation-free summer just a little more fun.

I pulled out my desktop paper cutter, some used file folders, and my pitiful collections of ink pads, stamps and stickers. I am a terrible scrap booker – I buy the paper and take the photos, and that’s as far as I get – so I was pretty sure I would need to run to the craft supply store, but as it turns out, I had stickers and stamps that were a good fit for a travel theme. The craft gods were smiling on me!

TIP: If you would rather not create a notebook from scratch, a small spiral notepad can be purchased for less than $1.00 at a grocery or drug store, and it can be transformed with some pretty scrapbook paper and a glue stick.

I cut the file folders to size with the fold of the folder, creating a fold for the cover of the passport. Blank paper was cut ¼ inch smaller than the cover to make up the pages. (I made sure that the size allowed me to insert the cover and pages into a standard stapler.)

The Boychild and the Grand-Cuteness enjoyed picking out stamps and stickers for the covers of their passports. Other options for decoration are maps, photos and vintage images printed off the internet, or the kids can simply draw their own pictures. Keep it simple – the fun part will come later as you fill your passport with stamps and stickers to record all the awesome things you do this summer.

I left the inside pages blank to fill in with stamps and stickersand to make notes about the place we visited. If you’re really ambitious, you could create pages on your computer with travel-themed quotes and clip art. I am an “instant gratification” crafter, so I don’t mind the blank white pages. You could also collect small items like ticket stubs, printed selfies, and other small souvenirs to attach to your passport pages to remember your summer activities.

In the words of Dr. Seuss… 

“Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!”