We Met, We Married, We Lived, We Love Map Art

Here are the supplies you will need.

A 6 x 6 artist’s canvas four pack  (Michael’s)

Paint color of your choice

Modge Podge

2 foam brushes

Maps

Martha Stewart Avery Metal Tag Holders (Staples)

Red ball top pins (not pictured)

The most expensive item here is the artist canvas 4 pack.  Use a 50% off coupon at Michael’s and it will be about $7 for the pack.  I had the Martha Stewart metal tag holders left over from another project.  If you don’t want to buy them, you could just use paper labels.

 

Paint your four canvas pieces the color of your choice.  I used a sample of paint color I had on hand.   While the paint is drying, gather your maps and find the locations where you and your spouse met, married, lived, and now love.   We have lived in Pennsylvania for all of those events, so I needed 3 different Pennsylvania maps.  My father-in-law gave me two maps and I found the other in the garage.  Make a heart template that is just slightly smaller than your canvas, making sure to leave enough room for your label at the bottom,  and use it to trace the areas needed for the four heart locations and cut them out.

The next step is optional.  My maps were fairly new and I like things to look old, so I tea died the paper hearts to make them not so white.  Once they were dry, I used an iron (not too hot) on the reverse to remove the wrinkles from the paper hearts.

 

Then use your Modge Podge to apply each heart to each painted canvas.  Apply two coats of Modge Podge, letting dry completely between coats.  Now make your labels – We Met, We Married, We Lived, We Love.  I used Word and printed them out from my printer.  Center each metal tag or label under the corresponding heart.

Finally, I used red ball top sewing pins to mark the specific locations on each map heart.  I used wire cutters to cut them down to about 1/4 inch and just poked them into the canvas at the appropriate location.

I chose to hang my canvases in a square, but you could line them up horizontally or vertically too.

Wishing you all a fun Valentine’s Day with your special someone!