Coordinates and Longitude/Latitude Art - Valentines Day Gift for my Husband

Long time, no post! I know I have been absent for a long time. I would like to apologize and give you a valid reason but I can't. Life has been busy, so my blog has been ignored but not forgotten.

I have not stopped doing the things I love, I just haven't had time to share them with you. I will stop by Full of Great Ideas every once and a while to share things. I won't promise I will be consistent and I will say you will see more 'art' style of pieces, since I make loads of them for gifts.  I hope you can understand and stop by every once and a while to see if there is anything new.

For those of you know have followed me for a few years, you might remember my $0 spending months (if you want to see how previous years went, check it out here) Well we are officially 19 days into our third spend free month and it has been going well. My pantry is not overflowing anymore, I have purged three rooms and we have saved loads of money. I will admit it is very difficult to do this in January when you find all Christmas stuff on clearance for 90% off, but we are staying tough and sticking to it.

Valentines day is quickly approaching, so I thought I would work on something for my husband. We don't normally buy each other gifts but I thought it would be nice to make him something using a frame I had kicking around the house.

I had seen on Etsy various coordinates art and immediately knew I had to have one and thought they wouldn't be difficult to make.

I designed my version of the coordinates art using my personal favorite tool, Microsoft Publisher, but you can use almost any other program. It is really just a box in background filled with a solid color and a text box over it with the coordinates. The entire thing will only take you 10 minutes to design! Honestly, it is that simple.

Start by determining what size frame you want to use. I used an old IKEA Ribba frame I had laying around the house. I will explain how I altered the mat later in this post, but I knew my image had to be 6.5x17.  Since Costco will not print that size, I designed my image as 12x18 and cut away the excess. You can see in the image below the inner box (it doesn't show when printed) is what I needed for the frame but the entire image is much larger.

Important: Photo developers will only print standard size images (for example - 8x10, 12x18 etc.). What will happen is if I design my image to my frame size and it will be stretched or shrunk to fit within a standard photo size. So, I will be stuck with a image that won't fit into the frame. What you need to do is find the a standard size that is larger than the size you need and use that for your design. Therefore, if you have a frame opening that is 6x7 and you create the image as that size, when you print it, it will be stretched to 8x10. Instead if you design your image as an 8x10 and make the text fit within a 6x7 box, then when you print, you can cut off the excess and your finished product will fit in your frame. Confusing I know...but I hope you understand what I am saying :)

Once you get your design to be the correct size, Insert a box for the background. You can fill that box with whatever color you like.

Then Insert a Text box to the size you want your image to be. Set the background color for this box as Transparent and make sure there is no boarder. You can center that box in the middle of the overall design size by moving the box around.

If you have issue with wrapping, select the text box and select no wrapping and bring to front.

The fonts I used are Euphemia (coordinates) and Jayne Print (saying).

I found a website that gives you the exact coordinates location. Simply visit the iTouch website, enter the street address and the site will automatically generate the longitude and latitude for you. If you don't have an exact address (i.e. the middle of a park, lake etc.), enter an address that is close and then move the marker on the map to get the exact coordinates.

For this example, I entered New York City. To get the coordinates numbers, you will use the digits on the right side of the image above. The coordinates would be 43 degrees 18' 76" N and 79 degrees 38' 04' W. If you have a negative in the first number, you would switch the N (North) to S (South) and a positive in the second number, you would switch the W (West) to E (East). In order to get the degrees symbol, you will have to select "Insert" and then "Symbol" and find it within the library of symbols.

Once you are happy with the design, save the image as a high resolution JPEG (to do this in Publisher follow theses steps: 'Save As', 'Save as type', 'JPEG', 'Change...' (Resolution), 'High quality printing or commercial printing (300dpi)') .   Then upload the image to your favorite photo developer and you have a beautiful but very cheap reasonable Valentine's Day gift!

I thinks this would make a great wedding gift, anniversary gift, birth announcement...the options are really endless.


This image has a digital frame added to my final image since I can't print my creation until February 1st (when my spend free month is over).  But you get the idea how it will look! AMAZING!

For how I addressed the mat issue:

I knew the frame I had from IKEA Ribba had 3 5x7 openings in the mat but I wanted a long image.

Source Ikea

 So I trimmed the mat using an exacto knife and metal ruler.

Since the mat is cut on an angle, I scored the mat in two places (for each cut). The first score was inline with the outside of the mat angle and the other is inline with the inner side of the mat angle.

 

 I then cut through the mat on the inner most line.

Once the inner divider is removed, you can cut with a sharp exacto knife to follow the angle of the mat.

I will say if you look really, really close you can see where I altered the mat, but it does look good. If people want to look at anything in my house from a few inches away...well they are no friends of mine :)

Do you have any DIY Valentine's Day gifts planned?

Do you think you can use this for a gift idea? Let me know what you think!
Stephanie

Free 'What a Difference a Day Makes' Template

Do you remember last year where I made the Special Date Art on my $0 Budget? I used some of my favorite scrapbook paper and cut out the numbers on my Cricut. I love the end result but it took too long and was too tedious to make it as gifts for Christmas this year.

So, since I am becoming a wiz with Publisher, I thought I would try my hand at designing one with Publisher. It was very easy and I just love the end result. Grand total to print it was $0.89 and $8.00 to frame. I had amazing Christmas gifts for under $10.

I created two designs, one for a family of 4 plus a wedding date and the other for a family of 5 plus a wedding date.

Aren't they great!?

NOTE: I had intended this post to only be a tutorial sharing with your how you can make your own. But I really want to share with you as much as possible and I know most people aren't as experiences with Publisher as I am....so... I have tried to share my sample files on Google Documents. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the Download template links and instructions.  


Here is how I created my own from scratch (and how you will be able to edit the template you downloaded):

Open a new 8x10 file

To set a 0.5 inch margin around the image, select the 'page design' tab, 'Margins' and then set your margins to 'Moderate' .

Then determine how many rows of numbers you need. For example, if there are 4 people in your family (i.e. 2 parents, 2 kids) plus you want your wedding date, you will need 5 rows. To do this, I select on the 'Page Design' tab, 'Guides' and then 'Grid and Baseline'.

I enter 2 columns (so the middle of the page is clearly identified) and then 5 rows (for a family of 4 with a wedding date). If you are a family of 5 plus wedding date, you will need 6 rows. I keep the spacing between the rows at 0.

The next step is to insert a 'Text box'.

I draw the text box to be the full width of the page (between the two margin lines) and almost the full size of the row. This allows me to have space underneath for the names.

Insert the numbers and find a font you like.

The fonts I used are:
'Baskerville Old Face' for the numbers
'Nymphette' for the scrolls on either side of the name
'Adobe Arabic' for the names.

Insert another text box for the name.

Once you get the font and approximate size you like, you can play around with the spacing of the characters. This allows you to stretch the characters so they are the full width of the box (so all the numbers line up on either side along the margin).

Open the More Spacing box and the select Show Tool Bar (bottom left corner)

With this window you can make the letters/numbers further apart, wider etc. Play around and see what you like.

Once you are happy with the first row, I copy and pasted the text 4 more times. This will ensure you have the same font, spacing etc. Once you insert all the new numbers and text, you might need to play around with the spacing some more.

I added a heart in the middle of the wedding date just to add some color.

If you want, you can change the background by inserting a digital scrapbook page and 'send to back'.

You can see how many boxes I used to design this.

Once you are happy with it, save the Publisher file and then save it as a JPEG image. To do this, select File, Save As.

Change the Save as type, to JPEG

Then be sure to change the Resolution to High Quality Printing so that you will be able to deevelop this as a large image.

Save it someplace you can easily find. Either print the image at home if you have a good printer or send it to your favorite photo developer (my personal favorite is Costco).

I have made these for a few friends and family members and framed them in a floating frame. I love how they look and they are so much easier to create than the one I did a while ago where I cut out each number.

Wouldn't this make a great Valentines gift for your hubby?

DOWNLOADABLE Template:

Here is the link to the family of 4 plus wedding date and here is the link for family of 5 plus wedding date. Please leave me a comment below letting me know whether or not you were able to do this.

Here are the links again (I find they get lost in text) to the Publisher files:

• family of 4 plus wedding date 
• family of 5 plus wedding date

Here is what you need to do to create your own personalized baby birth announcement:

• Download the family of 4 plus wedding date and download the family of 5 plus wedding date here  
• Note when you click on the link, Google documents will give you a note saying "Sorry, we are unable to generate a view of the document at this time. Please try again later." That is ok. Simple click on the arrow down button (next to the print symbol) to download the file. You will have no problem opening it in Publisher after you download it.
• Open the file in Microsoft Publisher. No I do not know how to convert these to a Mac compatible program...sorry.
• Download the fonts (fonts can be found on free font websites or you can use your own favorites). Here are the free fonts I used:

'Baskerville Old Face' for the numbers

'Nymphette' for the scrolls on either side of the name

'Adobe Arabic' for the names.

• Personalize the numbers, text, colors, and anything else you want to.  
• See below on how I made the design to help you with stretching text so that it fits nicely in the space provided. 
• Each row is in a separate box, so you can manipulate each row independently. Remember you can always Undo, so get creative.
• Sounds like lots of work, but the template will help you alot.

Please leave me a comment to let me know whether or not you have been able to create your own.

I hope you are able to use the downloadable files. Please let me know if you were able to do this yourself and/or if you have any issues.

What do you think? Can you make your own or will you try the template?
Stephanie

'Special place in my heart' Art - Anniversary gift

My amazing husband and I celebrated our anniversary recently and although we are not usually ones who shower each other with gifts (we are practical and tend to buy something we need), I decided this year I would make him something special.

I decided a while ago to create collage wall of photos and other things that are special to us in our master bedroom. So I knew since we were the only ones who were going to see it, I was going to make something symbolic for only us and I wouldn't have to explain what it meant.

I have been addicted to Pinterest for a while now and I pinned the hand made map art. For those of you who are on Pinterest, you have seen it and for those of you who are not on Pinterest...try it out! Well, this piece of art is sold online for 250 pounds without a frame. Seriously!?! I knew I could easily make if for $20.

Here is what I initially created...a frame with 9 special places in our hearts:

I purchased the frame at Ikea for $19 and a road atlas of the US, Canada and Mexico for $1 at our local thrift shop. I had another map in my car that we have not used since the invention of a GPS :) So I had plenty of maps to choose from.

I cut out a heart template (3inches wide by 2.5 inches high) with my Cricut and Sure Cuts Alot. I then used this template to determine how to position the map on the Cricut mat to cut the heart exactly where I wanted. For those of you who do not have a cutter (like me until recently), you can draw a basic heart and trace it so all the hearts are the same size.

I cut 9 different locations that were special to my husband and I (i.e. where we met, got married, had each of our kids, vacations, our homes etc.)

 After these were cut, I quickly ironed the hearts to make them lay perfectly flat.

I was going to attach the maps to a white background but I really liked how they looked on the blue scrapbook paper.

I secured the 9 evenly spaced map hearts with double sided tape onto the scrap book paper. I framed the piece and stood back. I loved it but knew something was not right. I realized that since we had kids there were so many more places that we have special memories of. So I started to add more hearts that apply to us as a family.  I decided I will add a new heart for ever vacation we take over the next years.

Our hearts grow with amazing memories for every vacation and so will our 'special place in my heart' art.

I will continue to add hearts around the mat like this:

 

My husband loved it and immediately knew what it meant when he saw the names on the maps. We had an amazing night talking about all of these places and had a great time explaining to the kids why each place is special to us.

I think this would make a great wedding, anniversary, or valentines day gift for anyone special in your life.

I hope you like it as much as we do.

Linking to some great parties including: Story of A2Z

V-alien-tine Card Heart

Last week I posted the Butterfly Heart Valentine cards that my kids are making for the girls in their classes and I promised to post what I was going to do with the boys. So here they are...the boys Valentine Cards. I got the original idea from Family Fun and changed it so it was easier to make and so that each child gets a pencil.

I used the same foam hearts and technique to insert the pencils as I did for the girls. I used shiny monster/alien eye pencils for these one and one piece of green pipecleaner.

I used a sharpie to draw the eyes, nose, mouth and sayings on the inside.  You can write "You are out of this world." or "Happy V-Alien-tine's Day" or "There is space in my heart for you".

 

 Cute huh!

These work out a little cheaper than the girl's version because you are only using 1heart. So approximately $3 per class.