Saturday, December 15, 2012

Map Art


I love maps and photos. I wanted to make something to remember our epic road trip we took this summer. I had this huge frame from my Dad's that I carted all the way across the country. Why? because I hate to give usable stuff away and I wanted to junk up my house in OR real good. I still get mad about stuff I left behind or sold.
  I am an AAA member and before our cross country trip I went to their travel store and requested maps. I got 8 (for free) basically what my year's membership cost, valued in maps.
Once we got here from NC, the maps and frame sat in the same corner. I had seen some awesome map crafts on Pintrest. I decided to go for it. I cut them up. I felt slightly bad, because I love to look at maps so much. I figured a) we wont be driving through Tennessee and Texas again in the near future and b) I will be a life long AAA member and can acquire more maps if needed and finally c) map technology exist that surpasses paper :(
For the quick prep work: I used a heart template I made out of an index card. I laid it down between the existing blue mat from the original frame and then on some photos to be sure of the size that I desired. Finally, I determined how many photos I could fit.
Now the fun starts: I went hunting for my favorite photos from our cross country trip. This was the hardest part because I took sooo many amazing shots like this one:
UTAH
or these:


IDAHO                       OREGON
I had a very hard time choosing when it is scenery like this.
 I pulled some of my favorite images off the computer that had been taken by iphone and SLR to be printed. I took my thumb drive down to walmart and had them printed cheaply. The quality if the prints certainly had a lot to with which camera I had used.
I spread the photos out on the table and started hunting for those locations on the maps and when found I centered them in the heart and traced them and cut them out.
We found an awesome quote online, " Distance is a Test to see how Far Love can Travel" by simply doing a Google search for: "Travel Love Quotes" It was hard to pick there were so many. One gripe is that, I don't know who to site.
I set my hearts on the craft/brown paper and decided on a layout, then used double sided tape to stick them to the craft paper. I traced the quote in pencil and checked it from a distance and finally went over in sharpie marker. The blue mat was already in the frame. So, for the cost of $2.00 to print the images, I got a huge piece of personal art, that reminds us daily of this amazing country and the freedoms we are blessed with, to travel as we wish.

 I know this is a bad image, I did take it.  It is hard to take pictures of glass. I didn't think of taking a picture until after I had already closed it all up.

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