Mat it with a Map!

If you joined me on the blog on Wednesday I shared a little bit about our trip to the big apple.  And since our trip to New York for our 6th anniversary was a little more special and since I got to cross something off of my bucket list (Lion King on Broadway!!!!) I wanted to make a special souvenir to commemorate the trip.  (holy run on sentence.)   It all started with a playbill that I wanted to frame but because it is not the typical size of a picture I couldn't find any kind of mat to use.  No problem, I'll just make one!

I had a thin piece of cardboard so using a ruler and a pencil I first drew a square that was 8 x 10 and then in the middle of that square I traced around the playbill.

This gave me the shape of the mat and all I had to do was use an exacto knife to cut it out.  Don't forget to put something underneath your project when using an exacto knife, otherwise you'll end up with some scratches on your table.

When we were in New York I picked up a couple of maps of the city (for FREE from a tourist booth) and one of them became the next step in my souvenir project.  I placed the new mat on the map and traced about an inch away from the outside and the inside.

I left the extra inch on both the outside and the inside so that I could wrap it around the mat and create a nice clean edge.  I cut a slit in the corners so that it would wrap around smoothly, like you would wrap a present, and I secured it with some tape.

 

 The finished "map mat."   When I was cutting it I laid it out so that the whole Theater District is in the top left hand corner, you can even see the Minskoff Theater where we saw The Lion King.

Then all I needed to do was place the new map mat over the playbill and put it in a frame.  I LOVE this unique and meaningful souvenir.  It is a perfect memento for our trip and would also be a great way to also display a favorite photo from one of your favorite vacations.