Map Quest

I really want to show you something I am working on but it is a surprise for our invitations.  So if you aren't getting an invitation from us or hate surprises and Santa Claus please do not continue.

So I started working on my very own custom wedding map!  This project has been super easy and surprisingly kind of fun.  I began well before we had to submit our invites so I work on it a little bit each day and I am nearly there.  Since I am a woman who can't keep a secret to save her life, I wanted to show you my progress!

I started by finding approximately the area I wanted to use for my map in google maps.  Then I saved it and moved it to power point (my preferred photo editing software.... so advanced!).  I added stars for the cities and traced the major roads with black lines.  I played around with the shapes to add the road numbers and our little name plate.

Love Already!

 I obviously didn't want the googlemap to be the background.  I couldn't figure out how to color/fill it in with powerpoint so off to ms paint!

I simply used a big 'paint' brush and shaded in all the water blue and the land green.  Very complicated, I know.  I copied the picture and moved it back to powerpoint.  Once the photos were layered on top of each other I sent the streets to the back and moved my green and blue masterpiece to the front.  Viola!

I am still playing around with it and adding some fun things.  Like little fishes and playing around with fonts.

I can't wait to have these printed with our invitations.  I am going to put written directions on one side and the map on the other.  I knew I wanted to make a map but I am still shocked at how easy and fun it is turning out to be.

Any projects you got unusually excited about?  Suggestions for my glorious map?