With Summer practically over, we’ve been reminiscing on the fantastic photos that we took on our travels in 2014. Don’t worry – they haven’t gone to waste.

We wanted a way to display our photos that was a little out of the ordinary – something special that reminded us of the fantastic times that we had and the wonderful places we visited.

We wanted to go BIG with displaying our photos and make it a real centrepiece for everyone to admire (and admire they did!).

For our World map photo project, you’ll need:

A world map
Travel photos – whether these are your own or images from your ‘bucket list’ of places to travel to. These can be printed in a variety of sizes – it’s completely up to you!
Coloured pins
String or twine
Blu-tac

All in all, this project should take around 2-3 hours – but the beauty is you can keep adding and adding the more you travel. Let’s begin!

Step 1:

Pin or blu-tac your map to a wall – depending on the size of the map & amount of pictures you have, you’ll want to leave around 30cm of space (if possible) around each edge.

Step 2:

Arrange your photos at random on a table, a select one to begin with. We found that a ‘close your eyes and point’ method worked best for us.

Now comes the tricky part…finding the country on the map! Just kidding – we’re sure you’re smart enough & didn’t have to use Google Maps like us.

Position your photo around the edge of the map and secure with blu-tac. Where you place it is completely up to you, we’ve gone for quite a random variation, with some photos near the country they were taken in, and some on the opposite side of the map.

Step 3:

Using twine or string, measure the distance between your chosen photo and the country it was taken in, cut to length.

Using a coloured pin, secure one end of the string to the map, placing it in the correct country. Secure the other end of the string with blu-tac behind the photo – this works best if the string is taut against the map.

Repeat for all photos until you have an even spread around the edge of the map.

Top tip: If you have currency left over from your trip, secure small amounts behind the relevant photos or on the map for extra impact. This could also be done with ticket stubs or any mementos you have leftover from your trip.

Step 4:

Stand back and admire!

There are so many personalised variations that can be created from prints using this idea – we mostly used standard 6’x4’ prints, with some cropped to fit, but when we add to the map we’ll be trying some different sizes and styles, like our stunning retro prints.

We also had the opportunity to use an A1 sized map, but this project could be done on a smaller scale using an A3 map as well. Size & space shouldn’t hold you back!

Is this a project you’d try? Let us know which countries you’d want to include, or even better, give the project a try and share your versions with us!