Last Spring Michael and I took a vacation to San Francisco, Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park. The trip was spectacular and opened my eyes up to such beautiful landscapes and unfamiliar plant species.

I found these ‘field cards‘ in one of the park stores and knew I had to get them. Each one is less than $3.00, they are front and back laminated sheets so I knew they would be pretty indestructible for the rest of the trip. I chose the flowers and trees cards, but they also had bird species field cards.

When I got home I really wanted these to look like watercolor paintings, so I picked up a package of thick off-white cardstock from Paper Source. The matte finish and thick sturdy paper really helped to make this feel like a more expensive print. I scanned each card into a colored scanner and took out any imperfections in Photoshop.

Next I printed them out onto the card stock and framed them in IKEA frames. The IKEA frames come with a nice matting already, so I used that and was able to keep the prints roughly the same size. That way there was no image distortion when I printed it. I used the same four frames for each to give it a cohesive look. This is a super simple idea to memorialize a special vacation and create and instant gallery wall.

Materials:

Now they are hanging above my dining room table and I’m always reminded of the time we hiked in Yosemite! Here is an actual photo of the Indian Paintbrush, I only later identified because of these field cards.