What To Do With Your Favourite Family Holiday Photos

Picture this: you’ve just returned from a family adventure somewhere wonderful and exotic (or at least new). You’ve had the time of your lives, whether you went swimming with dolphins in Florida, tasted an authentic Vietnamese pho, enjoyed some of the Louvre’s most famous attractions or walked for miles in the bounteous English countryside. And you’ve captured every moment, experience and new first on film (aka your smartphone cam).

While a few of your holiday photos might make it onto your social media channels (and receive their share of likes and LOLs), most of these precious pics won’t even be seen by your parents, let alone 500 friends and acquaintances.

Which is a real shame. And not only because some of those snaps of you are particularly flattering. But also because you’d quite like to gaze upon the cheeky grins of your children splashing on a foreign beach every time you open up that fridge. Or coo at the snapshot of your baby’s first smile – which just happened to coincide with your first trip to New York’s Central Park.

So, you’re looking to make the most of those family photos from your holiday. There are some handy apps out there that can help turn your photos into a book, but if you’re in possession of a high-quality wireless printer, you can do so much more with your pictures. Transform holiday memories into keepsakes, home furnishings and crafts projects for the kids by trying some of these creative and inspired ideas…

Make them art

Design Improvised

Who doesn't love a bit of a craft session with the kids? Get inspired with Haeley from Design Improvised's DIY photo art tutorial and lend a little embellishment to your photo prints. A great way to add a pop of colour and some texture to black-and-white photographs, this also might just be the perfect rainy-day activity. Scissors (and glue, and coloured paper) at the ready. Glitter optional.

Turn them into something practical

Honest and Truly

Your gorgeous kids' faces aren't just for bragging rights anymore. Why not use them to keep your coffee table from getting trashed? Instagram-style photo coasters are a great way to display the funny and silly pictures you might not deem frame-worthy. They're also practical and work as great gifts for loved ones. Plus, you can make them yourself - just follow the instructions on Honest & Truly's blog to become a DIYer extraordinaire.

Use them to plan more adventures

Currently, Kelsie

The world map poster is a fail-safe design piece in any home (and any room of the house, for that matter), sure to inspire even more wanderlust among family members. Instead of marking places you've visited with push pins alone - so meh! - why not add in photos of your brood in travel mode to personalise your map and showcase some of your favourite holiday spots? Currently, Kelsie shows us how it's done (using a map of the U.S.A.).

Display them in unexpected places

Crafts by Amanda

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home, and given how much time we spend in front of our refrigerator, we won't dispute the point. The kitchen is also a prime display space for your photos. Turning holiday snaps into fridge magnets is a genius way to get a smile on everyone's face at mealtimes and to showcase a wide variety of people and places. Bonus: that pic of your little one on the slopes at half-term can now help keep those school letters from getting lost. This step-by-step tutorial from Crafts by Amanda shows us how it's done.

Wear them

Ginger Snap Crafts

Your most cherished photos don't need to be confined to the four walls of your home: transform them into something wearable to create even more precious mementos. This tutorial from Ginger Snap Crafts directs you to the tools needed and provides simple instructions for how to make your own photo pendants. Gives new meaning to the phrase wearing your heart on your sleeve...

Frame them in an interesting way

Mod Podge Rocks

If you've got one or two special photos you want to display, adding a playful and stylish border can transform a plain Ikea frame into an eye-catching statement piece. Follow the tutorial on Mod Podge Rocks to make this DIY map craft photo frame, which sets your travel photos against a map backdrop of the place you visited. Perfect for helping sleep-deprived parents remember where their travel photos are actually from...

Hello Lidy offers an alternative tutorial featuring a single photo.

Make a scrapbook

The Life of Angela

As any parent knows, there is nothing kids love more than flipping through books starring themselves. Putting together a scrapbook of your family travel adventures is a fun activity which creates a go-to memento that the kids will pick up again and again. It's also a great way to preserve all of the tickets, postcards and "treasures" the kids have collected along the way (all hundreds of them). The Life of Angela shows us how it's done with a Peru adventure that she organised by city and location.

Create a travel album

Saturday Morning Vintage

This travel album from Saturday Morning Vintage shows another way to put together your photos into a keepsake book, with the trip organised in chronological order and pictures collaged together to save on space.