I had so many pictures of the kids around the house, that I felt like I needed to add something a little different. One thing we always seem to talk about with new people we meet are the places we've traveled. I have thousands of pictures from each of the places we have visited, so I decided I would print some and hang them on my wall. My OCD forced me to pull them together in some common way and thus the idea of the USA Map was born.
My first step was to print a poster size map on my home printer. I used that map to trace my outline onto a piece of wood. Once I had the outline traced, I used a jigsaw (yes, this was my first attempt at power tools) to cut along the outline. The next step was to sand some of the rough edges. *tip - I used youtube and found an instructional video to prepare myself for the use of the jigsaw.
Next, I painted the wood with black chalkboard paint. I balanced it on 2 or 3 drinking cups so that the surfaced was raised and I could paint the edges at the same time.
Once the paint was dry, I cut each of the states one at a time from my formerly printed map. I traced each one (immediately after I cut it) with a white paint marker.
After that, I used different color chalks to shade in each of the states that we have been to. I used picture hangers on the back of the map and hung it on the wall.
Then, I purchased varying size frames to fill the area surrounding the map. Once I got the frames home, I took the inserts out and used painters tape to position them on the wall until I was satisfied with the placement. This helped to insure that my last step would require little effort and I wouldn't have tons of unused prints because I would change my mind about the sizes if I didn't yet have a frame.
Lastly, I ordered prints in the sizes of my frames on the wall, and placed them in the frames after they arrived in the mail.
I have received so many compliments on this little project and it took about 4 hours of my time, plus time waiting for photos to arrive. Not only does it allow us a stroll down our vacation memory lane, but it is a great conversation piece allowing us to share our stories.
I had so many pictures of the kids around the house, that I felt like I needed to add something a little different. One thing we always seem to talk about with new people we meet are the places we've traveled. I have thousands of pictures from each of the places we have visited, so I decided I would print some and hang them on my wall. My OCD forced me to pull them together in some common way and thus the idea of the USA Map was born.
My first step was to print a poster size map on my home printer. I used that map to trace my outline onto a piece of wood. Once I had the outline traced, I used a jigsaw (yes, this was my first attempt at power tools) to cut along the outline. The next step was to sand some of the rough edges. *tip - I used youtube and found an instructional video to prepare myself for the use of the jigsaw.
Next, I painted the wood with black chalkboard paint. I balanced it on 2 or 3 drinking cups so that the surfaced was raised and I could paint the edges at the same time.
Once the paint was dry, I cut each of the states one at a time from my formerly printed map. I traced each one (immediately after I cut it) with a white paint marker.
After that, I used different color chalks to shade in each of the states that we have been to. I used picture hangers on the back of the map and hung it on the wall.
Then, I purchased varying size frames to fill the area surrounding the map. Once I got the frames home, I took the inserts out and used painters tape to position them on the wall until I was satisfied with the placement. This helped to insure that my last step would require little effort and I wouldn't have tons of unused prints because I would change my mind about the sizes if I didn't yet have a frame.
Lastly, I ordered prints in the sizes of my frames on the wall, and placed them in the frames after they arrived in the mail.
I have received so many compliments on this little project and it took about 4 hours of my time, plus time waiting for photos to arrive. Not only does it allow us a stroll down our vacation memory lane, but it is a great conversation piece allowing us to share our stories.
