It's The Journey...

I've been meaning to post about a little craft I did for our 7th wedding anniversary back on June 25th.  I had a budget of approximately $15 for an anniversary gift, and I knew just the thing.  (My husband is the type of person for whom saving money is a really good gift!)  If you've been on Pinterest for more than five minutes, you've undoubtedly seen many iterations of this particular DIY craft.  They all have to do with using maps creatively to showcase places you've been or places that are important to you in a piece of art.  Since we've been, um, MOBILE for the last 7 years, I thought this would be the perfect gift to display in our home now and in the future.  

I bought a $10 frame at Target, a $6 US atlas (yep, they still make them - I was surprised too), and a piece of white poster board.  Next, I cut a heart template out of the poster board and used it to trace hearts around the 6 most important cities to us:  College Station , Houston, Dallas, Durham, New York, and Davenport.  Then, I cut out two more blank white hearts to symbolize the future places God will send us.  I'll  replace those with maps when I actually know where we're going :-)  I glued down all the hearts with double stick tape and used a Sharpie to write one of my favorite sayings - actually a motto of YES Prep - "The journey, not the arrival, is what matters most."  Lovely and appropriate sentiment, don't you think?  I can't wait to find the perfect place to hang it in our home when we get back to Durham.

I'd highly recommend this project since it cost about $15 and only took 45 minutes to put together from start to finish.  You can create it however you want, and it makes a great personalized piece of art!