1,000 Days of Chaos: A Craft Project

As I said in an earlier post, I have been spending ~~way too much~~ time on Pinterest. Getting all sorts of ideas for stuff to do to our house {{Sorry, Honey.}} A friend of mine posted a very cute map framed art piece and then another one that had heart shaped maps with the words "We met," "We Married," "We lived" above them. We had talked about having a craft day and having this as one of our options. In the mean time we had been planning a craft day to do a Valentine's Day craft. The craft I chose for that needed a love quote and had me on the look out for the perfect one.

While I was out one day {{in my search for Fashion Fabulousness}} I decided to hop into a local boutique. The boutique wasn't what I expected but they did have an area where another vendor had quote signs for your house {{that's right I thieved one - the quote that is}} and I saw a quote that was SO perfect I had to put it on my "notepad" so I would remember it. The problem was that it was SO perfect I wanted to put it up where it could be read year round, not just in February. With the quote on my mind and the map ideas fresh in my head, my brain molded them together into what was sure to be an AMAZING piece of art for the house... if I could pull it off.

You know those ideas that you get and you have the PERFECT image in your head but when you try and execute it, you suck at life?

This wasn't one of those...

I started by purchasing a large poster board {{I wanted mine to be big, but this could be done at any scale}}, a map of the United States, some decorative scrapbooking brads and some laminate.

Then I laid out my items on my kitchen table to start work.

I started by prepping the map. I wanted a distressed look and after discussing cutting options with my friend, we decided the best way to do it would be to tear it. I was a little nervous about tearing {{I was worried about tearing it wrong}} but I guess tearing and distressing go hand in hand so I jumped in. When I finished tearing it down to the places we agreed upon, it still didn't feel done. I kept on tearing until I was happy with it. Then I smushed it into a tiny ball.

Once I was happy with the map, I was instantly unhappy with how white the poster board behind it was. I tried a few different colors of paper to see if I could layer some paper to make a nice background. But none of the pages I used gave me warm & fuzzies so I thought I'd give painting it a try. It was a $3 board and I figured at worst I would just have to buy another. I used a dry brush and made small "x" shapes for the cross hatch pattern I wanted.

Next, I used spray adhesive {{This is the first time I used spray adhesive. This stuff is AMAZING!!}} to glue the map down. Then spent some time on my computer deciding on fonts and word sizes by making a mock up of the board on Corel draw. When all the words were perfect, another friend and I used her Silhouette machine to make the letters. After I got the letters placed, I was SO excited!! I used the decorative brads I bought to mark the places we met, where we lived for the military and where we live now. I am SO happy with the way this turned out!

It now has a home above our crap shelf {{Crap shelf: n. Builder-built place in your home that makes NO sense, where crap will undoubtedly collect. See also, place where children will most likely hurt themselves one day climbing on things they shouldn't}} It isn't framed yet {{we have to make a frame for it, but I will post a picture of it completed when we do}} but I was SO happy with the way it turned out, I decided to post about it anyway.