Now That's Thrifty!

I love traveling, and so does my family. When my sister got married, I wanted to give her and her husband a gift that they could use. They have both traveled to lots of places within the US, so I decided to make my own pushpin travel map that they could use to keep track of the different cities that they have visited. It was pretty easy, and they loved getting it. Now every time I go to visit, I see it hanging on the wall in their living room. It’s so cool to see a gift that you made being put to such good use.

 

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If you would like to learn how to make a pushpin travel map for yourself or someone else, then follow along with me!

 

How to Create Your Own Pushpin Travel Map

Materials:

• framed cork board
• map
• tacky glue
• trim (optional)
• pushpins

Step 1: Choose a Map

First you are going to have to decide what kind of map you would like to make. I chose a map of the US based on where my sister and brother-in-law have traveled. You could also choose a world map, a map of a continent, a map of a country, a map of a state, or even a map of a certain region of the world. Make sure that whatever you choose, it will be a good fit for the person you are making it for.

You have the option of buying a pre-printed map or printing your own. I would suggest buying a map unless you have the ability to have one printed like I did. It would probably be cheaper to buy one, but I was able to get mine for a couple of dollars because of where I worked at the time. Either way, you shouldn’t have to spend too much money on it. You can find some cheap maps here.

I also chose to laminate my map for my protection, but that is optional.

 

Step 2: Choose a Cork Board

I already owned a cork board that I wasn’t using, but you can buy one pretty cheaply at a store or online. Here are some great cork boards on Amazon. The hard part is going to be getting one that is similar in size of your map. You certainly don’t want one that is smaller than your map. Try to get it as close in size as possible.

 

Step 3: Adhere the Map to the Board

I used tacky glue to attach my map to the cork board. You could also probably use spray adhesive. Just make sure whatever you use, it sticks and it doesn’t cause your map to wrinkle.

 

Step 4: Trim (optional)

My map was a little smaller than my cork board, so I decided to glue trim around the map to hide the gap. I used rope as trim for mine.

 

Step 5: Choose the Pushpins

I ended up buying a container of black, white, and gray pushpins. It had 300 pushpins in it. You can buy it on Amazon ⇓

What is cool about using these colors is that when black and white are mixed, they make gray. My sister uses the white pushpins to represent places she has been. My brother-in-law uses the black ones to represent where he has been. And they use the gray ones to show the places that they have both been.

You could do something similar or get whatever color pushpins you would like 🙂 I would suggest buying ones that are tall enough to be seen on the map.

 

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Looking for an awesome DIY gift idea? Create this pushpin travel map for anyone who likes to travel. #diygifts #travel” quote=”Looking for an awesome DIY gift idea? Create this pushpin travel map for anyone who likes to travel. ” theme=”style3″]

 

So that is how you make your very own pushpin travel map. I hope this helps you create your own map. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Also, if you end up creating your own, I would love to see a picture of it! Feel free to send it to us via email or social media.

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