Creative Wanderlust Experience
A Creative Keepsake in the Heart of Italy – Artistic Journaling as a Meaningful Addition to any Tour or Retreat
Imagine enhancing your group’s travel experience with a touch of creativity, connection, and personal expression — that’s exactly what happened during a magical, multi-generational family reunion in Umbria, Italy. As part of a week already filled with adventures, fine dining, wine tastings, and villa life, I offered a supplemental artistic experience designed to weave a deeper layer of memory-making into the journey.
Throughout the week, I curated a dedicated creative space at the villa, stocked with inspiring collage materials, art supplies and thoughtfully crafted printed journals with prompts. Guests of all ages — from grandparents to grandchildren — were invited to document their experience through sketching, journaling, and collage. From bocce ball showdowns and cooking workshops to breathtaking landscapes and heartfelt conversations, each family member captured their favorite moments in their own personal art journal.
This offering brought a meaningful, reflective dimension to the reunion, sparking cross-generational bonding, creative play, and a sense of shared purpose. By the end of the week, the group gathered to pass around their journals — each one a completely unique, handmade souvenir. Far more than photos on a phone, these tactile, heartfelt creations became cherished keepsakes, preserving not just the memories, but the emotions and experiences behind them.
This is what a creative supplement can bring to any destination gathering: deeper engagement, joyful connection, and a beautiful, lasting reminder of a trip well shared.
“The art inspirations that Betsy provided our family truly enriched our vacation. Her ideas and prompts brought us all together to share and enjoy the scenery and experiences.”
“I loved making my Art Journal with Betsy in Italy! I decided to make mine a wine-theme to celebrate all the great wine we were drinking! I now have a wonderful Tuscan Wine Journal I can refer to and memory of our incredible reunion.”
Journaling prompts and pre-printed journal pages guided guests to explore their location, sketchbook in hand;
Ideas were given on how to capture the colors, smells, and textures on short walks throughout the local village.
Demonstrations on sketching and journaling during a cooking class or wine tasting offered guests inspiration on ways to fill out their journals
and more!
Colorful collage materials uniquely created for the experience and location were free to use in making your journals;
Washi tapes, stickers, old ephemera were accessible to all to enhance each of their journal pages;
A wide variety of art supplies - from on-the-go watercolor sets to colored pencils and paint pens were available to bring with you on outings and use at will whenever the creative urge hit;
Photo printers were on hand to be able to print out on the spot memories that typically sit on your phone for years. Including these in the personal journals made the memories so vivid;
and more!
Being an artist myself, I loved having this on-going activity as part of our family reunion! It was so fun to have a room where I could take a moment from all the adventures and capture my thoughts and experiences.
Creative Journal Flip-Through
As part of the experience I created a journal as well to demonstrate all the possibilities a creative journal can be. In the end, I loved the "chunky," tape filled journal filled with collages, sketching, note taking, glued inserts, nature and so much more. An incredible keep sake of memories of this once-in-a-lifetime reunion.
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