For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

A post about my true love . . . Traveling.

By my count, I have been to 13 different countries and that is not even nearly close to the number I want to visit in my lifetime, which is ALL of them. Well, most of them.

Sadly, pesky things like work, car payments, and student loans are preventing me from dropping everything and becoming the kind of jet-setter I've dreamed about (which includes drinking bellinis in in Venice, riding an elephant in Thailand, and chasing King Penguins in Tierra del Fuego).

Until such a life is possible, I'm bringing the world home and putting it on my walls.

Introducing my first project:





I'm sure many of you have seen variations of this craft online, especially on Pinterest, and I've wanted to make my own version for a while now. There are some cute versions for married couples depicting where they met, then married, then lived. I decided to go with the three places in the world that I truly consider home - Merced County, San Diego, and London.

It's a fairly self-explanatory craft, but what's the fun in making something and not sharing about the process?

Step #1: Paint the frame.





I used floating frames meant to display comic books ($5 each, on sale at Michael's) and I chose to match the color to the throw pillows on my couch. What you don't see in the photos are the little strands of camel hair from my paint brushes that got stuck in the paint. I would recommend spray painting instead, unless you like the texture. Don't forgot to add a couple layers of gloss for that nice, shiny look.

Step #2: Choose your map.





If you're a AAA member, you can get free maps from any AAA office (thanks Dad!), or you can order a street map offline, which I did for the London map. The good thing is, the map doesn't necessarily need to be current, so you can get old ones fairly inexpensively.

Step #3: Select your heart templates.





Due to the types of maps that I selected, one big heart wouldn't quite cover all of my favorite areas, so I found a selection of different sized hearts worked nicely.

Step #4: Arrange your hearts.





I tried to keep the pieces mostly in geographical order.

Step #5: Put it all together.





Repeat as desired and display.






All in all, for three framed maps it cost about $30 total.

Maps - Merced County/San Diego - $0 (AAA); London - $8 (online)
Paint - Navy Blue, Teal, Clear Gloss - $1.99 each
Frames - 3 x $5