Putting Us on the Map

I'm working on my pre-baby to do list and putting the finishing touches on our staircase wall. I've put a lot of love into this wall, filling it with fun prints and sentimental pieces. I've been inspired by the map art floating around on Pinterest. I know it's a bit trendy, but I really love the idea of creating art using a map of a place with special significance. My inspirational pieces include:

Tickety Boo via Pinterest

and...

  maryruffle.tumbler.com (original link broken) via Pinterest

I switched it up a little and made some map art on canvas that I already had on hand. I used four small canvases with each canvas representing a place that is special to Nick and I. The maps include: where we met, got engaged, got married, and where we live. I basically Mod Podged the maps onto the canvases and then added a candy apple red brad next to the city name to draw attention to the specific location.  

To make these bad boys, I used four 5" x 7" canvases, tacky glue, Mod Podge, maps, and scissors.

I set the canvas on top of the area of the map that I wanted to highlight. When I had the canvas and the map positioned to my liking, I cut around the canvas leaving a 2" overhang on each side. 

I spread tacky glue on the canvas. Mod Podge works too, but I happened to have a little tacky glue left over from an old project.  

I placed my map onto the wet canvas and pressed down. Next, I used a credit card to smooth out the surface, working from the center and pushing the glue out towards the sides. 

I clipped the four corners of the map, brushed tacky glue on the sides of the canvas, and adhered the overhang to the sides and the back of the canvas frame.

I let the pieces dry for about 24 hours and then coated each with Mod Podge. I then let the Mod Podge dry for an additional 24 hours and globbed on another coat.  

After I finished my last coat of Mod Podge, and each canvas was sufficiently dry, I inserted these sweet little brads into the canvas. I picked the brads up from my local scrapbook store, but you can also order them online. They come in every color imaginable and even with a little bling-bling.  

It definitely wasn't a hard project, and I really like the way they turned out!