Map Hearts

Home is where the heart is...

This month the unthinkable happened.  My adventurous friends settled down... in a house... in the suburbs... of Chicago!  While the pilot and I had settled down in our home right after we got engaged, these friends have lived in 10 different cities (6 states) in the last eight years.  That's not including their several-week-long European adventure.   Super cool life, right?!

When I started to think about what to get them for a housewarming gift I initially thought of the usual gift baskets with kitchen utensils, cleaning supplies and wine.  I even placed an order on Etsy for a cool return address stamp BUT cancelled it when I received their Christmas card the next day and saw they already had one.  Don't worry, I got a refund.

Then I had an epiphany and remembered all of the cool map art that I have seen on Pintrest.  I didn't follow any one design, just did it as I went.  Here it is:

I've always loved the look of them but truthfully had no use for because I met my husband in high school in the same town we bought our first home and don't really have any other place of significance.

What other project should I use the book of maps for?

Mounted Photos

Go to www.costcophotocenter.com and upload your photos.  From there you can select what size and what finish you want.  Since the photos would be displayed near my dining room chandelier I wanted to minimize the glare as much as possible so I went with the "lustre" finish.  The prices are amazing.  One 12" x 18" photo only costs $2.99!

While they were printing I went to Lowes and after searching the lumbar section with a Lowes employee I finally selected a packaged piece of presanded solid pine edge-glued panel for $16.97. This wood had a very smooth edge that would look nicer than if we chose an refined piece.  Here is what the label on the package looked like:

They employees there are super helpful and will cut the wood for you, of course for an extra charge.  I was able to get the three sizes I needed (12 x 12, 12 x 18, 8 x 16) and still had wood left over for other projects.

Luckily I had some extra paint from when we did our bedroom so I used that to paint the edges and just around the corner in case the photo didn't line up exactly.

Once it was dried I had Adam hammer a wall hook onto the back to make it easy to hang.  I'm a huge klutz so I leave all hammering for him to do.

Then with my heavy duty spray adhesive, I simply sprayed the back of the photo and the wood.  After 30 seconds I carefully lined up the photo with the wood and slowly pressed it down, going left to right.  Take your time with this step!

Voila!  It is finished.  Here is the final cost of this project:

$8.97 - Three photos at $2.99 each
$16.97 - Wood
$5.95 - Spray Adhesive
Free - Paint
= $31.89 / 3 photos = $10.63 each