Hello All!

I will start off by apologizing for my absence the past two weeks. We had an incredibly busy few weeks. Murphy’s law has been the status quo lately. We have had everything from a severe pipe leak to foot injuries!

My hiatus has ended and I have completed a few of the projects that I mentioned in my previous post, Upcoming Projects.

I fell in love with a Mr. Printables map of the US that I saw via Shannon Berrey’s blog post. There are several format options on Mr. Printable’s site for this particular map (Color, B&W, Grey, etc).

The first time that I printed the map 36″W x 24″H and  used the black and white option. I thought that it would be fun to use my rendering markers and pencils to do a custom color palette. That idea was great in theory, but not in practice. I rendered/colored a plaid design on the western states and realized that I hated how it looked and scrapped that idea. (I will spare you from the photos)

Next, I printed the map in color. As you may be able to see in the photo of the map above, the background of the map is a pale peach/tan color. My plotter printed this as a pin/salmon. I would have been fine with that print had I been hanging the map in a playroom or schoolroom setting. However, I did not think that it would jive with the green/blue/brown color scheme in that room.

So the issue became, How can I get the color version of the map without the peach background? Some of you may be saying, “Take it out with photoshop or illustrator.” Not an option because all Mr. Printables PDFs are locked to all editing. In the end, I decided to print the jisaw puzzle version of the color map and scale it to fit a tabloid size page (11″ x 17″).

By printing the map this way I was able to get the adorable colored states sans peach background AND it still would be the right size for the 36″ x 24″ frame that I was wanting to use.

Long story short, I cut out the states and ran to my local Target for a poster frame setting me back just $9.99.

States all cut out

Then took apart the frame, glued on the states, and put it all back together. *Note: make sure that you do not crack the corner of your plexiglass while on the way home like I did!

Framing the Map

Last, I used a handy-dandy Command hook to hang the map on Christopher’s wall.

Completed Map

And here is a view from the doorway:

I like that even behind the plexi glass, you can still see that the map is not all one piece. Call me crazy but I think that it adds character!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

I am loving the new artwork in Christopher’s room and I can’t wait to start pointing out and teaching him the states in our great nation.

Do you have any artwork in your child’s room?