Map Art Bridal Shower Gift

I went to a bridal shower this weekend for my cousin's fiance, who happens to live in the Denver area. My aunt came in town and we trekked across I-70 in the crazy wind.

I love personal gifts, but since I just met this lovely gal this weekend, I didn't know a whole lot about her. So, this is what I made.

I've seen a couple of similar ideas on Pinterest. Here and here. They are totally cute, but not exactly what I was looking for.

I bought a frame at Michaels for 50 percent off. Yay! And grabbed an old driving atlas from 2004. Since it was so old, I figured my husband wouldn't care if I ripped it apart. I also liked that there were close-up versions of each map, so I could get the detail I wanted.

First, I drew out my patterns on scrap paper. I folded it in half (so I could cut two patterns at once) and cut out the girl first. Then took the second pattern and cut off the skirt and hair, so they would be the exact same size. I know, genius.

Next, I located the towns each of the betrothed were from. In my case, Riverside, CA and Northglenn, CO. I placed the patterns on the maps, so I would get the name of the town in the chest area of the cutout, traced them lightly in pencil and cut them out. Here are those.

Nice and neat.

The next one wasn't as easy because the part of the map I needed was along a fold. After carefully piecing it together, I taped my people together, so they were holding hands and placed them on the map. Under the glass, you can't even see the patch job.

The lovely couple met at the National Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, NY. I loved that the map actually showed the location and name of the school.

The maps didn't stand out well on that awesome burlap paper (yep, it's paper), so I mounted them on black cardstock on cut them out again, giving a little black border. I played around with the idea of adding some kind of text, like the wedding date or the names of the bride and groom. But, in the end, I decided that wasn't needed.

The bride loved the gift and it was the most personalized gift at the shower, except for maybe the hilarious "wedding first aid kit" made by the bride's sisters, including "Man of Steel" underoos for my very embarrassed cousin.