Where'd you go?

I saw a really cute map posted on the Young House Love blog that I wanted to add to the collage wall in my dining room. I thought it would be fun to make a map of all the places we've been in the United States (and continue to add more pins). Maybe one day I can add maps of other continents! 

This was a really quick and inexpensive craft project. I found a few old maps of the United States online. I think I've mentioned it before, but you can find high quality maps for free via the Library of Congress' American Memory site and the University of Texas. I printed out a few to see which one would work the best, and went with an 1898 Rand McNally map of the US from this site. I believe it was a map showing the railroads at the time, but I selected it because I liked the color palette and the fact that all the major cities were labeled (not just states).

I had originally intended to just copy the one over at Young House Love, but then I couldn't find a frame that I liked. Not having much free time to drive around looking for the perfect frame, I just decided to go with an easier and cheaper option...to use a canvas. The one I bought is about 11x14. The map I used is 10x13. I also bought map pins.

I did iron the fabric before I started using it for this project.

I trimmed the map down to size and then cut a piece of foam core to the same size. Using a glue stick (I use really strong UHU sticks), I adhered the map to the foam core. You could also use spray adhesive to stick the map to the foam core, but I hate spraying that stuff in the house and since I do these projects at midnight I figured I'd go the less stinky and messy route.

Next, I covered the canvas with a piece of neutral colored linen fabric I had left over from another project. I just stapled it on. You could also paint the canvas if you didn't want to go the fabric route.

After I wrapped the canvas in fabric, I hot glued the map (on the foam core) onto the canvas. Then I got to have more fun than was probably necessary pinning for myself and Henry and then letting Kirk do his own pins.

 

You may notice in this photo the pin heads are much smaller than map pins. I ended up, after opening the map pins, realizing the heads were too large for this small map. I remembered I had a bunch of straight pins, in my sewing basket, with different colored heads. You can find these at a craft store with all the sewing supplies.

To hang you could just tap in one of those picture hanging brackets to the back of the frame or do the wire hanging method which I used here (mostly because that's what I had in collection of picture hanging stuff).

I can't wait to add more pins. I need to plan some trips just for the purpose of adding more pins!!!