You probably noticed that Blogger went totally off it’s rocker last week and decided to snack on all our posts and comments and stuff. Well, that’s why I didn’t tell you before, but I guest hosted over at Sugar Bee Crafts, and now I’m reposting here for your viewing enjoyment.
I came up with a fun and easy little geography project. I’m kind of a map nerd, so I really love these. Hope you do too!
We’ll be making little canvas mounted silhouettes of states or countries that you’ve lived in or visited. Scrapbook-turned-wall art (the closest I get to scrapbooking).
You’ll need:
Some cheap canvas frames
fabric scraps
fusible interfacing
a silhouette machine. You can use scissors, but it’s going to require a little more brain power.
First do a google search for your state or country of choice. When the results pop up, click on “images”, then click on “line drawing” on the left sidebar. This should give you a clear silhouette image of your desired location. You might have to alter your search terms to say “map of”, or “silhouette of” if you don’t get a good image the first time.
Next, transfer that image to your silhouette and trace it, or print it out if you’re using scissors. Make sure the image size will fit nicely on your canvas. If you have a silhouette, iron one side of the fusible interfacing to your fabric and then cut out the image. If not, trace the image onto your fusible interfacing, then fuse it to your fabric and cut it out.
After that, you just have to peel the other side of the interfacing off and iron it onto the canvas. If you’d like, you can cut out a small dot or heart or star or whatever pleases your fancy to mark a specific city.
Then I used silhouette vinyl to cut out the name of my state and countries and stuck that on the bottom. Again, if you don’t have a silhouette, you could cut this out of fabric or even just write it on with permanent marker.
If you have a lot of islands though, I highly suggest using your silhouette or becoming friends with someone who has one.
Then hang them all on the wall and admire the places you’ve been!
Now go plan a vacation so you can make some more :)
And be sure to check out the line-up of guest bloggers Mandy’s having at Sugar Bee Crafts as part of her Blog Celebrity Week (if you’re wondering how I made it in to “celebrity week”, I snuck in the back door when nobody was looking.) There’s some really great projects up right now.
ps: just in case any of you are super curious to know why two of my canvases are cities and one is a state, it’s because I’ve lived in a few different places in Virginia and didn’t want to make one for each. I stuck a heart in the place where we own real estate :)
Mandy @ Sugar Bee Crafts says
loved this tutorial! glad blogger is back to normal, it was crazy there for a while
Natalie says
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Natalie says
awe I love the NOVA one! That’s where I live too!
Linda says
So….where’s your FL canvas?? :)
Christie @ A Lemon Squeezy Home says
I love these! Thanks for sharing!
Abby says
I LOVE this idea! We’ve moved quite a lot – what a great way to display where we’ve been!
Sabra says
super cute! i heard one night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble…
Kelly's Korner says
That’s super cute! One of my fellow digi scrappers has graphics of the US States and some of the other countries around the world. You can snag them at the link below if you want to save time making the shapes!
http://ahhhscrap.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=49_67&products_id=3471
Jess says
adorable! Bah on blogger for eating comments and posts. :D
Christene {WhipperBerry} says
I {heart} maps too! This is so adorable. Thanks for some great ideas!
Taylor's says
Super fun and super cute! And I love that you featured my home state of VA – oh how I miss and long to live there again!
Annie says
I love the VA one! Had no idea you were in NoVA too!
Kathie B. says
Yea for all the crafty people in NoVA! :}