I mentioned way long ago that I made Colin an extra surprise for Christmas, and I was finally able to take photos to share with you. Better late than never, right?
I don't remember where I got the idea, but I thought it would be fun to make customized map art of the places where we live. Sometimes, splitting weekends between Connecticut and Massachusetts (for three years and counting...) means that I feel like I live half in one place and half in the other and not really entirely anywhere. Since there are so many reasons to love both New Haven and Cambridge, I wanted to make something meaningful to represent our lives in these places. I wanted to highlight our favorite places in the form of classy wall art.
So, the idea I had was to make maps of our states using maps of our cities. Confusing? I know. Let me try to explain.
I happen to really like maps (as does Colin), so I already had the key ingredients for this project--maps of both New Haven and metro Boston. The maps were detailed enough to see key landmarks, like Yale University, the New Haven green, the Boston Common, and Harvard Square, where Colin and I like to hang out.
The next step was to print and cut out "stencils" of the state boundaries for both Connecticut and Massachusetts. I printed these small enough to fit within a 5x7 frame and made sure not to forget the Massachusetts islands, as annoying as they were to cut out. Then I arranged the stencil on top of the map, making sure to include those key landmarks. And then I cut out the state border again, this time with the map underneath.
After removing the stencil, gluing the map to a piece of fancy scrapbook paper, and sticking the whole thing in a frame, I was left with this:
It's Connecticut/New Haven!
And here's Massachusetts/Cambridge:
You wouldn't believe how long it took to cut out Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket or to figure out which direction was up for the Elizabeth Islands. My perfectionist instincts just wouldn't let me glue it down upside down, even if it was just a solid blue piece of map that no one would have been able to identify.
That frustration aside, this was a really quick and fun project. I was so pleased with how they turned out! Colin loved them, too--so much that he asked if we could make another one for Michigan/Ann Arbor. Luckily, I also had a Michigan map in my stash, so we bought materials for another frame and made that one together. Colin now has all three hanging on his wall in New Haven, and I have a fourth frame hanging out in my room, just waiting to be filled with wherever life takes us next!
I don't remember where I got the idea, but I thought it would be fun to make customized map art of the places where we live. Sometimes, splitting weekends between Connecticut and Massachusetts (for three years and counting...) means that I feel like I live half in one place and half in the other and not really entirely anywhere. Since there are so many reasons to love both New Haven and Cambridge, I wanted to make something meaningful to represent our lives in these places. I wanted to highlight our favorite places in the form of classy wall art.
So, the idea I had was to make maps of our states using maps of our cities. Confusing? I know. Let me try to explain.
I happen to really like maps (as does Colin), so I already had the key ingredients for this project--maps of both New Haven and metro Boston. The maps were detailed enough to see key landmarks, like Yale University, the New Haven green, the Boston Common, and Harvard Square, where Colin and I like to hang out.
The next step was to print and cut out "stencils" of the state boundaries for both Connecticut and Massachusetts. I printed these small enough to fit within a 5x7 frame and made sure not to forget the Massachusetts islands, as annoying as they were to cut out. Then I arranged the stencil on top of the map, making sure to include those key landmarks. And then I cut out the state border again, this time with the map underneath.
After removing the stencil, gluing the map to a piece of fancy scrapbook paper, and sticking the whole thing in a frame, I was left with this:
It's Connecticut/New Haven!
And here's Massachusetts/Cambridge:
You wouldn't believe how long it took to cut out Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket or to figure out which direction was up for the Elizabeth Islands. My perfectionist instincts just wouldn't let me glue it down upside down, even if it was just a solid blue piece of map that no one would have been able to identify.
That frustration aside, this was a really quick and fun project. I was so pleased with how they turned out! Colin loved them, too--so much that he asked if we could make another one for Michigan/Ann Arbor. Luckily, I also had a Michigan map in my stash, so we bought materials for another frame and made that one together. Colin now has all three hanging on his wall in New Haven, and I have a fourth frame hanging out in my room, just waiting to be filled with wherever life takes us next!
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