Monday, August 29, 2011

Disneyland Map Redo

Last December we took our first family vacation to Disneyland.  I had been there a couple times but my husband never had.  My boys loved every minute of it and were sad when we had to leave.  Being that my 5 year old really likes maps we picked one up for him on our way out.  It has been put up and moved several times so the edges were starting to look tore up.  I know we won't be going back for some time so want to make sure we keep it in the best shape possible.  After thinking of some ways to preserve the map I came up with a plan that I thought would look really cool.  I plan to do several map projects in his room with this being the first.

I started by taking the measurements of the map and then removing it from the wall.
 My plan was to have it look like the map had a border around it so I got 4 canvas' that are bigger then the actual map.  I painted them gloss black.  I started with acrylic paint but didn't like the way it looked so painted a couple coats of spray paint over the top.
 Next I cut around the edge of the map to take off the extra white boarder that was tore up.  I then cut it into 4 sections.
 After laying the 4 canvas' out on a table and figuring out the placement of each map section I used Mod Podge to stick them to the canvas.  I ran my hands over it to get the air bubbles out and make sure it was as smooth as possible.
 Once the Modge Podge was dry I let my son paint a top coat of Mod Podge to protect the map.  He loved being able to help on a project for his room.
I have not been able to hang it in his room yet so I took a picture laid out on our carpet.  I love the way it turned out.  Now my son can look at it and point out the rides without getting it dirty or ripping it.  He loves that he will now have his own piece of "art" to hang in his room.
 

1 comment:

Big D and Me said...

I think this is such a wonderful idea - both of my boys have loved maps and the Disney map was no exception. I used to just pick up extras but they would have loved this. Imagine a whole room filled with maps like this. It would look amazing