Thoughtful Do-It-Yourself Love Map for Travelers and Lovers

Sometimes it is truly agonizing to try to decide what to buy or make a significant other for Valentine's Day. The DIY Love Map is the extremely thoughtful alternative to a store bought gift. If you met your partner in a special place, went on an incredible honeymoon, took a romantic or memorable vacation or plan to go on exotic get-away some day, the Love Map is the perfect gift. I saw this project on Pinterest and figured out how to recreate it for less. For example, I met my boyfriend in Santa Monica, California, so I needed a map of Los Angeles for my Love Map. This project takes about fifteen minutes to complete and about $5.00, which covers the cost of the map and the frame (which I purchased from the dollar store).

If you need to purchase glue, cardstock paper and scissors in total the Love Map will cost about $10.00 dollars. Making more than one Love Map (all of different meaningful locations) and mounting them next to each other is a clever and stylish way to make a "series" of interesting and personal art pieces. Making one Love Map a year to represent different locations is also a fun idea for a family Valentine's Day tradition.

Materials you will need:
1. Map of desired location (in desired size)

2. Glue Stick

3. 1 sheet of white cardstock paper

4. Scissors

5. Desired Frame (in desired size)

Steps:
1. Fold your cardstock paper in half

2. Draw half of a heart (like you did in elementary school). The heart that you draw needs to be the size that you want your "Love Map" to be.

3. Cut out your cardstock heart and trace it on to your map, be sure that the "special location" your map is to symbolize is in the center of the heart.

4. Cut out your Love Map and glue it on the cardstock paper.

5. Place Love Map in the frame

It is incredibly easy to create a thoughtful, custom, personalized and crafty Valentine's Day gift! This gift is fabulous for romantic partners but can be tailored to accommodate anyone. If your family members or friends grew up in a special place, have a favorite vacation spot or dream of going to Italy one day then the will certainly be appreciated. The Love map is also fun to make for yourself to satisfy decorative needs. After completing my first Love Map for my boyfriend I was inspired to make love maps of all of my favorite cities and hang them next to each other to decorate my office.