I've been meaning to try a project I pinned on Pinterest a couple weeks ago and I finally got around to do it:


I've only been to Texas once so I don't really need the 'Everything's Bigger' state in our home, so I thought it would be nice to show homage to our own state and the place where we bought our first nest.

I started by buying a canvas panel from Hobby Lobby for under $10, and grabbed some acrylic paints at about $1 a piece.  I already had the frame from Ikea which was about $20.  So with my wallet $35 lighter, I started my own original art.

I started by printing out an outline of Ohio the size I wanted.  I then did an ol' transfer trick by turning over the printout and using a pencil to draw along the outline on the state.  Then, I turned it over and placed it on the canvas where I wanted it and drew along the outline on the right side and when I picked it up I was left with a light pencil outline of the state.  I tried taking a picture, but the pencil was too light and wasn't able to capture it. 


Instead of the solid background, I chose to do stripes and picked a cheery yellow and just used painters tape to make stripes and painted everything else.  I tried to paint around the state outline and paint lightly so that I didn't get any build-up under the state.


After the yellow paint was dry I then used a small (and cheap) paintbrush to outline the state and just filled it in.



After the blue paint was dry I added a read heart over our home and added it to my frame.

(Taken from the Craigslist ad)

...said in my best Michelle Tanner impression.

The other day I was doing my daily facebook stalking viewing when I came across one of my best friend's status:


Anyone who's a fan of inexpensive Swedish furniture and meatballs knows what those flags mean:


Not a minute later, I was on the phone giving her my "order":


Although I already had a project in mind for this frame, I actually had her pick up a couple Ribba frames, because with the closest Ikea over an hour and half away, you can never have too many Ribba frames.

The specific project I had in mind for the larger frame was something I had seen in a fellow blogger's post:


Via

It's a cut-out of road map of Savannah, GA, where her and her husband spent their honeymoon.  I loved the graphic look, as well as the sentimental value it had.  I knew I wanted to do something similar, and chose to do our neighborhood.  We actually live in a small division of a much larger city and chose to highlight our area, as well as some of the surrounding areas.

I started by using the dimensions of the large Ribba frame and sized a Google map of our neighborhood to fit.  I then used Photoshop to draw each of the streets.  I then removed the map layer and was left with my black and white street map. I then printed it out on 6 - 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of paper and cut and taped them together.  I then taped this map on top of a piece of card stock and taped it to my cutting board.

(The following pictures are actually from my first attempt, which was done in a smaller size and I tried using a three-ply cardstock.  About an hour after starting to cut, I realized that my little fingers couldn't handle the three-ply and went back to the store to get thinner cardstock.  Just trying to keep it real for ya!)




After everything was secured down, I started to cut out everything that was white.  I cut anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour a day, sometimes more, sometimes less.  Pretty much whenever I felt like it, and it took me about two weeks to finish.  It may have taken less time, but sometimes I had to take some unexpected breaks due to the working conditions:


You know Benelli likes to help out when he can.  And it never fails, if you're doing something and Benelli wants to join, no matter how many times you push him off the table, he will get his way.  That's why Mike and I finally got smart and got him something that would let him feel like he's a part of the action and still let Mom and Dad work. 


Back to the project.  After I cut everything out it looked something like this:


And removing the template, I was left with this:


I then added some blue paper backing and loaded it into the Ribba frame. 


I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and for those that know the area, it's been fun pointing out our street and finding their houses.

 
UPDATE:  Not an hour after I published this post, I came across an Etsy shop that features an artist that makes these cut-out maps.  She's even been featured in museums!  Her shop is amazing, and all I can say is, I'm glad we don't live in Toronto.  There's a reason she's selling that for $1,100, wow!