Winter Pinterest Challenge: More Map Love

Last summer, two of my favorite blogs, Young House Love and Bower Power, started a Pinterest Challenge where they took inspiration from stuff they had "pinned" and actually made it for themselves. As Sherry from YHL aptly puts, "It’s a welcome slap of stop-pinning-and-start-doing." I completely and totally agree. I've probably only done a handful of the projects that I've pinned on my Pinterest boards, even though I keep pinning away pretending that one day my house will be filled with projects of Pinterest-inspiration. This time though, instead of just looking at everyone else's cool projects (and pinning those!), I decided that I was going to participate in the Pinterest Challenge too, and make some pins a reality! So, here it goes . . .

As you might have guessed, I've been obsessing over map-related DIY projects. More specifically, some cork board travel maps . . .

This first one by Life Blessons initially caught me eye because of it's simplicity, and I adored the "our adventures together" banners across it! And then, I fell in love with this second one by C.R.A.F.T. because of the bold blue ribbon and the black outlining of the states. I can't imagine the amount of patience it took to do that detail, my goodness!

I've been contemplating doing my own version of this project for a couple of months, but couldn't really decide exactly what I wanted to do, that is, until I found a Cavallini U.S. map, similar to this one, in our attic a week ago!

I know it came from Paper Source, but I honestly don't remember ever buying it. I want to say it was leftover from Chris' old college apartment and that we've just been lugging it around all of these years. I'm so glad that neither of us threw it away! I guess it isn't a bad thing to be a pack-rat after all (right, Dad?!) - our trash has become our treasure!

So, this weekend while I was at Target I picked up some cork board. I had planned on just getting a regular framed cork board, but I saw a set of 4 square cork board pieces and decided I would glue them together to fit the map size instead. At a little over $7, compared to $15 for the framed board, I couldn't pass up this super easy, and cheaper, option.

So, I started by gluing all of the pieces together with my trusty hot glue gun . . .

And then trimmed off the excess cork board to fit the shape of the map . . .

Next, I pulled out some old spray adhesive and rubber cement to glue the paper onto my cork board. Now, when I say "old," I mean old. I think the rubber cement dates back to my high school art class. Again, it's okay to be a pack-rat! Just for your information too, I rubber cemented the corners and edges of the map and then glued the rest of it down with the adhesive spray, and I really only did that because there wasn't enough of both to do the whole thing (it's finally time to get some new rubber cement!).

Now, at this point I couldn't decide whether I wanted to keep the rectangular shape, or cut out the shape of America. Since I am the WORST at making decisions, I decided to keep it as is. I can always trim it later, but I can't add it back, you know?

Finally, I hot glued some ribbon onto the back, tied it in a bow, and hung it up!

Oh, and of course I added pins everywhere Chris and I have been together, which doesn't seem like that many now that I look at all of it! If you can tell, the black pins are places we've lived and the white pins are places we've visited.

Maybe one day I'll add little flag markers about each place like C.R.A.F.T., and maybe one day I'll trim it to the shape of North America. But, in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this new map in my growing collection and I'm going to relish in a Pinterest project completed! (And, for the cost of the cork board, $7, at that!)

Well, that's my first official Pinterest Challenge project, hope you liked it and hopefully I'll start to do more! Here's the links to the four Pinterest Challenge leading ladies' projects too: Katie's (Bower Power), Cassie's (Hi Sugarplum!), Erin's (The Great Indoors), and Sherry's (Young House Love). Now, I  have some travel plans to make to fill up this map a little more!

Also, I tested out watermarking photos, what do you think??