Alabama map, cut to the state line

College football is the organizing idea. A buyer in Birmingham might never have lived in Tuscaloosa or Auburn, but they will hang the campus on the wall. Do the street grid around the stadium, keep it tight, and sell both schools. A "house divided" piece with two hearts is a real gift here, not a joke.

After football comes water. Lake Martin, Lake Guntersville, Smith Lake and Wheeler all have families who have gone back to the same cove for years. Those buyers want their slough and their dock, so zoom in. If the Studio has a depth survey for the lake, a lake depth map adds the channel. If not, a shoreline and roads piece still reads clearly.

Then the Gulf. Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are where a lot of Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia families spend the same week every summer. A beach strip with the lagoon behind it and the condo road in front makes a good city street map or coaster set.

Alabama's outline is simple: a tall block with the short Gulf coast tucked in at the bottom left beside Mobile Bay. That makes it an easy frame. Pick the Alabama outline as the frame, set it to 4 in, and keep the inside sparse. At ornament size you want I-65 running north to south, the I-20/59 corridor through Birmingham, the Tennessee River across the top, and Mobile Bay. Skip county roads. They turn to fuzz.

Drop a heart on the hometown and engrave the town name in the frame band. A contrasting backer does the rest. A crimson acrylic backer behind birch reads one way, a navy one another. Read the room and offer both. See the map ornaments guide for the backer and front frame build.

One catch on the coast: the outline is simplified, so a heart on Gulf Shores or Dauphin Island can land right on the edge. Check the outline in the Studio before you promise a beach town.