7th Anniversary = Stars
Spoiler Alert: The traditional and “modern” gifts for the 7th anniversary have nothing to do with stars.
For Brad and I this year, stars were the thing we got to celebrate. Rather the very cool thing that artist Jennifer Beck, of Modern Map Art, made for us: a custom star map. I got our star map for free in exchange for reviewing it here.
Although I’m by no means an astronomy buff, I’ve always loved the way that the stars look and since taking an astronomy class in college, I have an appreciation for a clear, dark night where I can look up and see stars and planets.
The concept of Jennifer’s maps is to capture and commemorate an important date – for our map I chose our wedding day. Any milestone in a relationship could be a great one to commemorate – the day you met, the night you got engaged, etc. The birth of a child or their graduation could also be great candidates.
Creating your custom map is a ton of fun as well because Jennifer’s builder walks you through every level of customization and gives you a preview as you go.
You start with your size, which range from 8×10 for $29.99 to 24×36 for $79.99. I went with an 18×24. Next, you select your color scheme – ours was white with a black sky, other options are white with grey, white with navy, grey with white, black with white or navy with white. The preview is incredibly helpful with this step. Next you pick your location – anywhere in the world. Then your date – any date back to 1900 or even into the future – right now you can select as far forward as 2030 – which makes getting this for someone in advance as a wedding, graduation or birthday gift is totally possible. Finally, you customize the details – give it a title, write a message – pick the fonts you’d like for those and select whether it marks the constellations and whether it has a border. I picked some lyrics for our first dance song for the message.
I got a nice black frame from Amazon
Along with the cool star maps, you can also find some other great map art. I find maps fascinating and I know I’m not the only one who does. Using a similar map builder, you can create a custom street map poster, pillow, phone case or shirt. I love the idea of creating a poster map for someone as a house warming gift, a phone case with the location of where some started their business or a map t-shirt of a place they love.
Modern Map Art also has a stock of products that make great gifts for pretty much anyone. The scratch off maps are pretty cool for the traveler in your life.
Plus, it’s free shipping to US addresses.
What moment or place would you commemorate with a custom map?
I received a custom star map free in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
