Gift Guide 2024 – Gift Guide: Get Out and Fall in Love with Austin Again: Fun Ways to Be a Tourist in Your Own City – Features

It’s easy for Austinites to become jaded, always looking back at what we’ve lost and worrying that the Purple Crown will lose its charm. Good news: That’s not the case! Give the gift of a tourist’s eye to our little gem of a city with items that will help locals fall in love again like a total newbie (or help total newbies get to know each other).

1) My Beautiful Earth Tote Bag. (Buy Benefits Keep Austin Beautiful) ($25, www.parkerandscott.com)

2) Capital Metro 7 Day Pass ($11.25, local; $27.50, commuter; buy.capmetro.org)

3) ResortPass Gift Card for pool use at the Austin Motel (or other hotel) ($30, www.resortpass.com)

4) Koko’s Austin Travel Guide by Jane Ko ($19.99, www.atasteofkoko.com)

5) Watercolor ATX postcard ($2.50, www.watercoloratx.com)

6) “I’d Rather Be in Austin” tie-dye shirt ($34, www.fsgprints.com)

7) Gift membership to the Texas Science & Natural History Museum ($40, sciencemuseum.utexas.edu)

8) Austin like a local by Kenza Marland, Michael Clark, Stuart Kenny and Zandra Robinson-Burns ($18.99, www.bookpeople.com)

Create your own travel journal/scrapbook

Where else will you keep all these new memories?

Deliveries:

– Cardboard, manila folder or other heavy paper or textile suitable for the cover

– Several sheets of thinner paper for the inside

– Yarn, string, laces, ribbon etc. (3x the length of the back should be enough)

– Awl, ice pick, pen or similar tool with a sharp point

– Large needle (optional if you can push your string/ribbon through the holes)

Instructions:

1) Fold all the paper and cardboard in half like a book.

2) Poke three holes along the spine of the book: one in the middle and then two more equally spaced apart, no matter how far you want the binding to be from the top and bottom of the book.

3) Thread a ribbon or string through the center hole. Start from the outside if you want to make a bow on the outer back, or start from the inside if you want a clean look. If you make a bow, leave enough fabric hanging out to make a nice bow.

4) Make a figure eight shape with the ribbon using a technique called a booklet stitch: thread it through one of the outer holes, then back around and through the center hole, then to the other outer hole, and then make in the Sew a knot hole in the middle. You can make a nice bow or cut the string near the knot.

5) Decorate however you like and use it to collect stickers or memorabilia from your trip, draw what you see, take notes or whatever!