Maps Maps Maps

           So it's been a while... a long while!  2 months to be exact.  It's been a hectic couple of months and a lot of fun as well.  We had a great Thanksgiving- first time to be in New York with no snow while we were there!  And we had a wonderful Christmas with our family.  A big surprise Colby and I received was a brand new DSLR camera! :)  I was not expecting that at all and I am SO excited about the photography possibilities we now have.  We've already taken over 200 pictures in just a few days.  Granted, a lot were just testing out the different settings but it's been a lot of fun to explore and play with.
         With school running up right to the 22nd of December, there was not a lot of time for the usual Christmas crafts and activities that I've done in the past.  Now that Christmas is over and the busyness of it all has passed, I've had a little more time to relax and spend some time creating, and pinning, and pinning, and pinning some more. :) I found this idea on pinterest a couple of days ago and decided this would be the perfect time to make it.  It was very inexpensive too.  You can find the original idea here.

Here's my finished product:

Now here is how I got there...

           I started with printing 3 maps from this website: http://www.yellowmaps.com  I knew I wanted to use New York and Indiana, but I wasn't sure on the 3rd state, so I ended up choosing South Carolina where we went on our honeymoon and had an amazing time.  

I went all the way to the bottom and chose the "reference" maps and downloaded the high resolution maps and saved them to the computer.  (I originally just printed them from the site but they were much too large to fit in my frame.  Therefore, I saved them and printed smaller versions.)

My maps

Then I carefully cut them out and got my frame ready.  I picked up a "float" frame at Hobby Lobby yesterday and it worked perfectly.  

Afterwards, all that was left was using some adhesive to attach the maps to the back of the frame, using my Cricut to cut out three 1/2 inch hearts, attaching those, and then putting the frame back together!

Love love love this frame now and I can't wait to put it up in a future project I am currently working on! 

The best part about this- low cost!

Maps: Free, printed from the computer

Hearts and adhesive: Free, used what I already owned

Frame: $10 originally, but I used a coupon and got it for $6

Total cost: $6    Wooo!

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and enjoyed time with their family and friends!