I’ve wanted to do this for a while.

Yes, to have a post up earlier enough in the day for normal people to read! Not those of us who procrastinate doing coursework into the wee hours of the night by typing up blog posts.  Definitely not those.

But also to make this corkboard map. I mean, when I first saw it, I fell in love with the idea of visually documenting my travels as a piece of art….

Okay, so that’s a lie.  The first time I saw something like this was back in like the year 2000 or whatever while watching an Olsen movie (howwww is that almost 20 years ago!?).  At the end of the movie they would throw darts at a map to choose their next movie location.  I mean, that totally trumps art, doesn’t it?  Regardless. It’s all about the aesthetics now.  Not a map with a ton of ripped holes because I am epically terrible at the sport.

What you’ll need:

• poster map
• 24 x 36 frame*
• 24 x 36 piece of cork covered Styrofoam, about 1/4″ thick (or cork board, cut to size)
• Modge Podge matte
• map pins

How to do it:

• First, purchase what ever type of map you’d like to use.  I ended up using an antique style map because of the style I was going for.  However, this colorful one would look absolutely beautiful.
• Put a layer of modge podge down on the cork board and let it sit until it becomes tacky.  As you can see in the photos (down around South America), I was in a bit of a rush with little toddlers running around and put my map on immediately after laying the modge podge.  This caused my poster to wrinkle slightly.  However, I feel like it’s less noticeable in person.
• Place two more coats of modge podge on top of the poster, allowing it to dry completely between each coat.
•  Remove the glass and back from the frame you purchased and push the board through.

• Determine a pinning system: I was a little iffy on how I was going to go about doing this.  I was uncertain if I should put my travels from before Audrey since I’ve been to places she’ll probably never go: Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.  Or if I should just document our life and travels together.  I also didn’t know if I should change the color pin for each new year of destinations.  I ultimately decided to keep it to just our travels together and to mark our home with red and all of our travels with white.

* I used a frame that I purchased from Michaels on clearance.  It was more gray with white in it, which wasn’t what I was going for, so I ended up spray painting it black.  Also, when I removed the back portion of the frame, I had removed the hardware to hang the frame along with it, so I had to put a couple sawtooth hangers on the back.

The pins seem a little sparse don’t they?  Well, she IS only one.  Hopefully one day it’ll be full of pins!