Have you ever made a map of your world? How about a map of a favorite memory?
My friend, Steph, recently gave me an awesome gift. I shouldn’t be surprised because that’s how she is, but this one made me really happy. She knows I love to go on walks and that in doing so, I have several different routes and trails that are part of my regular routine. She gave me this book: Make Map Art: Creatively Illustrate Your World
I immediately tore out one of the map templates and began sketching out a map of one of our nearby walks, the one I’ve been taking my daughter on since she was a newborn. We’ve walked this path in every season–from the baby bundled up and strapped to me in the winter to warm summer walks with the munchkin chatting away in the stroller. Creating and looking at that map brought up so many memories for me as I’ve just started down this path of mommy-hood (no pun intended!)
I also like how you can draw a map of memories. I drew what I titled, “A Walk Down Memory Lane” for my dad’s birthday this year and it was fun to both draw it and to give it to him. I have such distinct memories of things we did when I was a little kid and it was interesting to hear his and my mom’s perspective from those snippets of memory I drew.
One of the maps included in this book is an outline of a person’s head that you can fill in with dreams, favorite books, or even quotes. I think it would be fun to paint in different colors and then write dreams or goals on top of those colors.
Your finished map can easily be framed or put in a memory book. You can fold it up and send it in the mail to a friend or tuck it away in a journal. I think one of these would make for a sentimental anniversary gift or a fun date night activity with your spouse. As you can see, these maps don’t have to be perfect or amazing. They’re supposed to be FUN!
P.S. if you would like to see more creative gift and craft ideas, be sure to check out my DIY Projects page.
6 responses to “Oh, The Places You Go! – Mapping Out Your World”
Oh my goodness, this is SO COOL! My husband is a huge map-lover, so I am jotting down the name of this fabulous gift idea for future reference. Also, if I ever do a version 2.0 of my eBook on gift-gifting, I’m adding it to my chapter on Map Gifts! Thanks for sharing. (Your friend Steph sounds like she has a huge gifting for gift-giving.)
Yeah, Steph gives incredible gifts. That book has been so much fun…it is more of a pamphlet that gives you ideas to get going with map-making and then a pad of map-making paper that you can use for your creations. I love it. I drew one up for my dad’s birthday last year with a map going down memory lane. Made him so happy. 🙂 🙂
Love this! just ordered one for myself. Thanks for sharing
Oh, I think you’ll really like it! Have fun map-making! 🙂
This is new to me – I had never heard about it before. And I love the idea. It looks as so much fun and a perfect documentation of precious moment. A perfect gift. I pinned this from the Ultimate Pinterest Party board.
Thanks for pinning, Charlotte! Mapping out little places we’ve been and memories has been such a fun practice–just seeing the drawing brings back so many happy memories! 🙂