DIY: Anniversary Gift

Good Morning and Happy Wednesday! As I mentioned on Monday, in our love story, Josh and I are celebrating our 2-year anniversary today and I am so happy! Neither of us can believe that two years have gone by - as we both feel that we've known each other our whole lives. Last year, for an anniversary gift, I created a special gift for Josh - a jar filled with 365 reasons why I love him - one for every day we'd been together. The gift took time and thought and knew that I wanted to do something special for him again this year. I took to Ebay in hopes of finding an awesome old map - since Josh loves them - but instead of finding maps, I found stamps. At first, I was a bit discouraged, but then I realized that they could be a part of the perfect anniversary gift.

To make this gift, I went online and ordered 15 stamps to create the main part of this project. I had them all sent to my office so that Josh wouldn't figure out what I was doing ahead of time and once I received them all, I brought them home in a secret envelope and got to work, first setting out all of my materials.



Frame (from Michael's, $7.99 on sale)PosterboardPencilPainter's TapeScissors (not pictured)Secret Envelope
The secret envelope contained all of the stamps, but as I was working on this project at home, I had to limit the time that they were out in the open, in case Josh came into the room.



I traced the outline of the picture mat onto the posterboard, and used the inner rectangle as my guide for spacing out the outline of my heart. 




Then, I made a diagram for the heart and set the stamps in a similar pattern.




After I created a pattern that I was happy with, I used small pieces of the painter's tape to afix them to the posterboard. 



And, of course, I made sure to get a close-up for you.



Then, I cut out the part of the posterboard that I needed and slipped it into the frame.



I stored it in the closet until this morning, when I left it sitting out for Josh in front of our TV, with a pretty bow and a happy anniversary note. 

I love this gift not only because of the personal memories and feelings that it evokes, or the love and thought that went into it, but also because I cannot wait to add more stamps to it together, beginning to overlap the others, as Josh and I go on more adventures!
As I searched for stamps, I also came across this amazing 1892 map of Virginia and West Virginia, also on Ebay, and placed it in this small frame as a second gift to Josh this morning. 




Have you made any gifts lately? Do you love seeing your boyfriend/girlfriend/partner's face light up when you give them something you know they'll love? Do you have other great DIY gift ideas? I'd love to hear them!