DIY Home Decor: Where You've Been Maps

I've had this project on my to do list for at least a year and it always seemed to get pushed back due to other more pressing projects. I love the idea of visually seeing where you have been in America and Europe, while at the same time inspiring you to travel even more.

"Where you've been maps" are everywhere on Pinterest, created in many different ways. Here is how I created my maps, quickly, easily and relatively inexpensively. I bought cool looking maps, one of America and one of Europe. Then I found framed cork boards that would fit the maps. To dress up the cork board frames I bought brass gold spray paint and to attach the maps to the cork boards I used spray adhesive. (This is one of the reasons that I kept pushing it off, I hate using spray adhesive.) I used the spray paint and spray adhesive outside to deal with the fumes. I used yellow pins for where I have been, blue pins for were my husband has been and green dots for where we've been together or with our kids. (a little bit of color theory, blue + yellow = green, using my art teacher skills)

The whole project took me about 2 hours to complete, but it was an interrupted by kids 2 hours. The total cost for both maps was about $50, $25 for one.

Materials:

• Old Style Maps 
• America - United States Executive [Poster Size and Tubed] (National Geographic: Reference Map) $13.75
• Europe - Europe Executive [Tubed] (National Geographic: Reference Map) (Reference - Continents) $10.94
• Framed Cork Boards - Quartet Cork Bulletin Board, Oak Frame, 24 x 36 Inches (85223B) $29.00
• Spray Paint - Rust-Oleum 202719 Designer Metallics Spray, Aged Brass, 11-Ounce $8.60
• Spray Adhesive - 3M General Purpose 45 Spray Adhesive, 10-1/4-Ounce $4.89
• Pins
• Yellow - Moore Push-Pin Map Tacks, Yellow $9.25
• Blue - Moore Push-Pin Map Tacks, Dark Blue $8.85
• Green - Moore Push-Pin Map Tacks, Dark Green $9.20

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