One of my closest friends is absolutely incredible. She is one tough cookie, who goes above and beyond. I am so glad to be able to call her one of my closest friends because she is just a joy to have in my life. But one of the biggest reasons I have so much respect for this friend is because of her loving heart. This girl has inspired me to expand my horizons and get involved in some of the service activities here on campus that I otherwise would not have thought twice about. Like me, she went to Jamaica for a week of service (not the same trip, however). This wonderful girl has been on a variety of other service trips as well, and I know how she holds a soft spot in her heart for these types of activities. So when it came time to make her a little something for Christmas (first reference to the Holidays….forgive me), I wanted to involve the different service sites she has been to.
This project was a little different; yes, I got my inspiration from Pinterest, however, I kind of rolled with this one on my own. Often times I will see this do-it-yourself sharpie mugs and string art and other similar items for long distance relationships, using hearts and little dotted lines, yadda yadda, insert some more Pinterest romance stuff here. I decided to use somewhat of the same concept, but with a twist.
I had a large canvas, and I thought to represent all of the service sites my friend has been to (and the future site where she will be visiting this upcoming summer). I began by creating the shapes of the states. I simply just googled and images and drew them free hand, which honestly, was not as hard as I anticipated it to be.
I then traced the states’ outlines on the canvas, said states to be: Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Jamaica, New York, and Guyana.
I went over all of the pencil tracing with a black sharpie. I decided to use hearts to mark the service sites more specifically within the traced shapes. And I used dotted lines to draw the hearts leading back to our little campus town.
For those that are close to me always know, I adore glitter. So of course I used this opportunity to apply some glitter; the canvas needed something to make it pop! I added a simple title and boom! It was complete! As simple as this was to make, this is one of my most favorite projects to have done. I was so excited to give it to her, because I wanted her to always be proud of everything’s she has done and the many lives she has touched as well.
The finished product, please do not mind the hideous shadow….the lighting at that time was dreadful but I tried to work with what I was given.
Just Keep Pinning 