Monday, November 12, 2012

DIY Canvas Map


Create your own canvas map for you and your special someone or family to mark all of your travels.  I made the canvas map for my boyfriend who loves maps.  We marked the places that he has been with blue pins, the places I have been with red, and the places we have been together with purple pins. See what we did there?? Cute, huh? Anyway, the canvases are really cute once hanging on the wall. They won't be perfect, but they're still amazing and fun to share with guests.

What you need:

Mod Podge -- whatever finish you want.  Mine has a mix of matte and glossy just because that is what I had on hand. There are several different types of mod podge, even glitter!

Map -- I got mine from Office Depot, but you can find them at bookstores or other office supply stores. I chose one that had good color to it and didn't look like a kindergarten map.

Sponge brush -- You may end up using your fingers more, at least I did...

Map Pins -- You can choose whichever colors you want and there are tons of different pins available out there. I just got mine from the sewing department at Wal-Mart.

Canvas -- You want to make sure that your canvas is a tad bit smaller than your map so that it will fit right, mine was not perfect so I painted the inside borders of the the canvases so that all of the map would show. I wrapped the borders and mod podged them down.



The Process:

1. Lay out your canvas with your map on top of it. ** I rolled out my map and let it sit for a couple of days with the canvas holding down the edges and corners so that it wouldn't try to roll up on me when I was trying to work with it.

2. Cut your map where it needs to be cut in order to be wrapped and mod podged how you want it when it is finished.  Measure like 5 times, because you can only cut once...

3. Slap on a layer of mod podge to the canvas ***Work with one canvas at a time***

4. Lay out the map on the canvas and smooth from the middle out

5.  Layer mod podge on top of the map so that it is sandwiched between mod podge which makes it stick

6. Repeat 3-5 for how ever many canvases you have

7. Let the mod podge dry for about 2 days to make sure that it sets

8. Place your pins!!!

9. Share pictures of your project!


xoxo

ashli brooke


1 comment:

  1. PLEASE tell me what dimensions you used for the canvas! I'm debating splitting it into 6 16 x 16 or 8 12 x 16 but I really love the three panels you used, I just can't get the math right somehow!

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