Maps! Maps! Who doesn’t love maps? I am a map collector. My Dad was a map collector too. He carried maps in the car stuffed into overhead visors and between the seats of our station wagon. I can remember him laying the maps out over the hood of the car or at night over the dinning room table to chart his course. Granted, this was before Google Maps and the convenience of iphone searches etc. I believe though that there is a lot to be gained for being able to read a paper map and find your way. I think they’re good to have on hand when traveling. Not all places have accessible Internet.

As some of you know I’ve traveled a bit recently and became engaged to the love of my life. Since I like maps and traveling so much I recently decided to have the theme for my wedding décor to be travel. Maps just easily fall into this category. So, the hunt for travel and map inspired items has begun. Last weekend while I was at the Gypsy-Chic Vintage Market I picked up this beautiful tray and a world map. Such a deal!

In all of my searching I must admit that my favorite maps are the one’s inserted into the National Geographic Magazines. I use these maps for all of my crafting and collage work that is travel inspired. Yesterday, I headed out to the Central Library in town and picked up Nat Geo Magazines for .25 cents each at their book sale. I intended to get only two and I left with nine! Not only are these maps grand in size there is also added imagery of animal and plant life, legends, and other information for the geographical location. There is nothing quite like this type of map.

When I got to college I took a collage class and was given the assignment to collage my own topographical map. For this assignment I used a few maps from Triple A Insurance. After college is when the obsession with Nat Geo maps really began.

Every Christmas my family participates in a White Elephant Gift Exchange. 4 years ago the theme was travel. I collaged this piece below of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco using primarily Nat Geo Maps and origami paper. It was so fun and so challenging. I went one to create three more collages of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Now days I use the maps for other collage projects.

The maps that I picked up from the library will go into my future collages. Stay tuned for those pictures!