US Map

I am so excited to share my latest DIY. 


Originally I saw this idea on Young House Love. It was pretty much love at first sight. I.heart.sentimental.DIY. 

Here it goes...I picked up a shadow box frame at Hobby Lobby for $12.50. Painted it black. Bought some corkboard & a few pins. Then, printed a US map.

The point of this map: to mark the places we've been during our marriage.  Granted, we've both been all over the US with our families, but those trips don't count. We're only marking the trips Joel & I have been on together. Layovers at an airport do not count either!

As you can see, we haven't been many places yet, but are excited for the years ahead to fill up this map with lots of pins in the future. 

Green pins = places we've lived (Chicago & Pittsburgh)
Yellow pins = places we've visited
OTHER pins = we'll use other colors when Haldeman babies come along--we'll change the color of the pin as we add each kid to the family. Hopefully it will be a fun way for our kids to keep track of the states they have been to. 

Not only is this a great project for ourselves--we also gifted these maps to our parents this Christmas. 


My parents have traveled ALL over the US, but recently purchased a pretty sweet motorcycle to take long road trips on, so we gave them a map to mark their motorcycle trips. To personalize it, we added a picture of them standing next to their Goldwing.  Secretly, I'm a bit jealous of the long trips they get to take on their Goldwing. Any short ride my dad takes me on is a total blast! 

For Joel's parents, we made them a world map as his parents have traveled all over the world. Sorry, we forget to take pics of the world map. Because we could not find a shadow box large enough for a word map, we used a regular frame and gave them tiny gem stickers to mark the places they have traveled. Personally, I'd recommend searching a bit harder for a large shadowbox for a world map. The sticker idea just did not look as great.  


There you go, a fun, sentimental DIY project that will last for YEARS! It's helping us to slowly fill the long hallway/office in our apartment.