do it yourself {1st anniversary present – paper}

I definitely love the idea of doing traditional anniversary presents. I told Dan to make sure he did something having to do with paper for me. He was like, “so…I could get you a card…” haha. Anyway, he came up with something great.

I looked around for some fun ideas that I could make for Dan. I found some great ones and decided on one that I knew I could make and that Dan would love.

Here is my inspiration picture that comes from A Step in the Journey.

I printed a map of the United States out and cut out all of the states so I would be able to trace them on scrapbook paper. I chose a few different pieces of scrapbook paper to use. They were all plaid in teals, yellows, and greens. I placed the states together as I cut them out so I could see how the different papers were fitting together.

When I had about half of the states cut out, I decided to start taping them together. I didn’t have time to do them all that day, so I decided having them taped together would be the best way to keep myself organized. It also made it easier to see how they were fitting together.

I had a canvas that I wanted to use. I decided to just keep it white because I thought the colors would pop off the white. I also decided to paint on the canvas “Let’s go on an adventure”. Dan and I like exploring and going on adventures so I thought that would fit. I put modge podge over the whole canvas and let it dry.

I then hot glued the buttons to the places we have gone together. I already had buttons so I used teal and yellow buttons to go with the scrapbook paper. I decided to do places we’ve spent the night in. There aren’t many places we’ve gone but I know we will add lots more buttons.

I think this turned out really well and Dan loves it. He loves maps so he thought this was a really creative idea. He found a place and hung it right up on the wall.