Map Covered Letters

January 25, 2013 | 6 comments

I have a love obsession with maps. New, old, simple, nautical…. any types of maps. It’s always been there, but I never really had any ways to show it until I found Pinterest. I’ve already decided that when I move out, I want a map theme for my room. So much so that I’ve already started creating decorations for when the time comes (and making necklaces out of maps but that’s another tale for another time).

This is a REALLY SIMPLE way to decorate any letters you have, so if you want to know how to make your own map covered letters, continue reading below!

Materials Needed

- Wood (or foam, whatever you have really) letter.
- Mod Podge. I used the matte, but if you want it to be glossy you can use that just the same.
- A map. It doesn’t have to be old, but one that you don’t need anymore.
- Scissors/exact-o knife
- A pen
- Paint/glue brush

This was my letter that I bought at Michaels after Christmas:

(Ignore the bandaid. That’s what happens when your cat isn’t friendly with other cats)

I had no idea what I was going to do with it at the time, but I knew I’d eventually find something. It was 75% off the original price and I think was around $1.50 when I bought it (they did go even more on sale later, but didn’t have the M so thankfully I got it when I did). It wasn’t until I was sitting at home on a Saturday night with my mom (talking about maps, I can’t remember why) that I decided on what I was going to do. My mom told me that we had an old road map from 23 years ago when they drove to Florida. I’m talking tattered, older-than-me, no cover, falling apart map. I’m sure if my dad was home he would have protested me cutting it up, but since he was at work he couldn’t say anything! As soon as I found the map in the basement, my mom started questioning why I was SO EXCITED about a map. I just really love them, okay?!

If you want an idea of how old is it, look at this nice rip right through South Dakota:

You can see that it wouldn’t be used for much anymore so it was the perfect candidate for this! That, and I’ll be able to use it for a bunch of other future projects. I’m gonna need a LOT of maps to have a whole room themed.

Pick whichever part of the map you want on your letter. I chose to use a map of Tennessee because it is currently (and has been for awhile) my favourite state. To start, trace around the letter on the BACK of the page you’re using. You could do it on the front if you used a pencil to trace and erase it after, but it was a lot easier to see with pen. If you’re tracing it on the back, make sure it’s placed like this:

It should be BACKWARDS on the wrong side. I did this perfectly fine the first time (resulting in this picture), but the second time I somehow ended up with a backwards M from the side I wanted. Luckily for me, the M was pretty similar backwards & I just had to improvise on the top edges and collage it. That won’t work out as well on all letters.

This is how my tracing turned out. It does not have to be perfect, as long as you have the same shape. I just cut mine out using scissors, but if you want it to be more exact you can use an exact-o knife. I found that its easiest if you cut the shape out a little larger than needed (not by much) just so you have extra room to work with. You can always trim it down, but it wont look quite the same if it’s not big enough to cover the entire surface. Since the shape was pretty big and it wasn’t one of the more difficult letters to cut (no inside circles, not an ‘s’, etc…), scissors worked really well for me.

That’s how mine came out and I am NOT the best at cutting straight lines. I’ve had a bit of practice since going to school (pop up greeting card shapes are NOT fun to cut out), but even my mom -who was sitting IN THE ROOM while I did this- questioned how easy this was. You can tell that it’s not PERFECT, but if you’ve cut a bit extra and fold them over the edges you won’t be able to tell at all.

Next, get your mod podge & brush to apply it with. I started on the back of my letter just because I knew it wouldn’t be seen as much so I could practice first (you can tell that I learned my lesson because the back has a lot more air bubbles than the front). What I found to be the best was to do it one section at a time. For mine, I brushed the mod podge onto the left side of the M first. Apply a generous amount, but not so much that it will drip down the sides (that won’t be a problem since the sides will be later covered anyways, but just for less of a mess). Line up the map slightly above the letter until you have it placed where you want. Gently place it down and smooth out all air bubbles. You will have a little bit of wiggle room to move it around when you first put it down, but it will soon be pretty stuck. Once you have it lined up & stuck down, do the next section the same way. Just hold up the rest of the map letter with one hand, and apply the mod podge with the other.

Once it’s all done and has dried a bit, you can apply a layer of mod podge on top to seal it all for extra protection. Repeat the same steps for the back of the letter. If you know that you’re going to hang it on a wall or somewhere the back won’t be seen, you don’t really HAVE to do the back. But I chose to do the back for when it was leaning up against something and the back could still possibly be seen.

For the sides, you could do what my friend Danielle did when she made her matching letter and cut the front/back large enough to cover the sides as well. Just cut slits where there are curves and fold everything over. What I did for mine was cut strips of map using a paper cutter (I didn’t actually measure, I just eye balled it and it worked out pretty well. Any that were too big, I just folded over onto the back side) and put mod podge along the edges. It was pretty easy to slowly apply each strip and then follow the shape of the letter.

That’s how my final letter came out! I took the picture as it was still trying, hence the wet/unperfect look. But now that it’s dry, you’d think I bought it that way! (Not really but, I can dream right??) It’s a really quick and simple craft to do, and I can’t wait to hang it on my door

I’m linking up with Craft-o-Maniac and Show & Tell Saturday!