When A Plan Comes Together

EVERY RECEIPT

From Every State

With a Little Artistic Flair

Based on our documentation of our 2014 trip 

"All Around The USA", 

my oldest son and I discovered the value of obtaining a receipt 

from each state that we visited. 

It's all in the proof you know?

Right from the beginning, I wanted to, somehow, 

display the receipts that we gathered on our 

"All 48 States" trip. 

My wife and I searched everywhere to find puzzle pieces of the 

United States that we could put the receipts on -  

but to no avail. 

One day my wife was visiting friends and discovered that 

they had just acquired an amazing laser machine. 

When great minds come together great things can happen. 

She and the designer worked out a map large enough to accommodate 

the smallest state of Rhode Island in a 1/4" size - just big enough to put the "RI" from the receipt. Every other state was made to scale based on that measurement.

Working with the receipts was a trial and error process;

Of course we used other receipts as a test before we started to work with the real ones.

When the water-based glue was brushed over the top of the original receipt 

the ink disappeared!

We discovered we had to make a copy of the original receipt before adhering them to the wood. 

Lucky for us that we made a copy of the copy because nothing ever works out as planned. 

The next problem we encountered was...

After the original receipt was cut to size to fit the state and taped in place to copy... 

the ink disappeared after a day or two from the chemicals on the tape!

Needless to say...the original receipts are gone

but their image has been captured for history

and......

sent to our son, along with his own wooden map to create memories of his own

Don't You Just Love It 

When A Plan Comes Together?