Lisbon is an exquisite city. And one of the reasons it is quite so unique and beautiful is because it is almost ‘coated’ in Azulejos – glazed ceramic tiles that cover the outsides of many of the city’s traditional buildings. They date as far back as the 13th century when the Moors invaded, but they really took hold in the 16th and 17th centuries and most are still in place today.

When I visited earlier this year, I became almost obsessed with these tiles. They come in such a range of colours, designs and age that once I started photographing them I almost couldn’t stop. Their colour palette is simple – shades of blue, green and a yellowy gold – but the constant variation in pattern and design meant that over the course of four days I managed to photograph over 150 different examples.

Now, there are only so many tiles one can post pictures of on Instagram without starting to lose followers. So what to do with all these gorgeous images?

I turned some of my favourites into coasters and they’ve turned out beautifully. It was easy to create sets of blue and green that work independently or together. And they also made a really lovely thank you gift for the friend I travelled with.

Most of us take a huge number of photographs on holiday, and mostly we take them of our family or landmarks. These pictures make wonderful memories – they preserve the happy moments and give us something tangible to reflect on – but if you want to make a really different memento or gift from your holiday, it’s worth considering looking around for smaller visual details to photograph.

Other photography ideas that look great on gifts:

• Autumn leaves
• Summer flowers
• Door knockers
• Street art
• Floor tiles
• Street signs