Photo Map

One of my most recent projects is a personalized photo map.  I had seen this idea on Pinterest and followed the link to the blog that posted about it.  In the original post, she said she didn't cover all of the states they'd been to together because she wanted the pictures to stand out.  Our hope is to slowly cover all of the states on the map as we visit them together.  

David and I went together and bought a map and then selected the pictures from each state.  If it's a state we've been to more than once (such as Oklahoma), we used a picture from the first time we went together.  The only exception is of course, Texas--where we used a picture from the State Fair!

I had the pictures printed at SAMs and then I cut them out.  I used tissue paper to trace the states outline and then glued that to cardstock to make a stencil.  All of our pictures were different sizes-- Texas had to be a 12x16, Oklahoma a 5x7 and Arkansas a 4x6.  Florida is such a weird shape, that I just printed a picture off the computer to make it fit the dimensions!

I did follow the original blogger's advice about putting the map on a piece (or two pieces together in this case) of foam board and then pinning the pictures on by gluing push pins to the back of the pictures.  It makes the shapes stand out a little more--and I found that if they weren't perfectly cut it didn't matter as much since they're sticking out some (which is good, because I do not cut perfectly!)

I made it earlier this week and showed it to David and then he helped me hang it in the hallway.  After we hung it up, I decided I wanted a quote to go with it.  So I scoured Pinterest and picked several and then David ended up choosing 3 that he liked.

The main one I made a wood sign out of using my silhouette and some white vinyl.  (Fun Fact--this piece of "wood" is actually some leftover flooring from when our kitchen floors were redone!  We have a bunch leftover, so I try to use that instead of buying wood for some projects)

Life is an Adventure. Have Fun!

And then I made some prints for the last 2

always take the scenic route

It doesn't matter where you're going, it's who you have beside you

It was fun starting on this project and displaying it in our house.  But what we're most excited about is that we have 6 new states that we're scheduled to visit before the end of 2016!  Looking forward to filling more of our map!