Get Crafty- DIY Pin Board Map

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." - St. Augustine 

For those who love to travel.. I hope you'll love this DIY craft.....a Travel Pin Board.

Andrew and I love traveling together so we created this board to mark the places in the states we have traveled together. Not only will it serve as nice homemade wall art but we can keep track of our adventures together (at least the stateside one's ...we'll have to come up with another craft for our international ones). It hasn't been 'pinned' yet but we plan use some thick red push pins to mark our travels.

Now let's get started:

1. Find an old pallet and tear apart the boards (this is harder than it may look...pulling out nails without splitting the wood is a good work out and takes some skill). 

Can you tell which tool was mine and which tools are Andrew's?......I'll give you a hint..... P I N K  :)

2. Once all nails are gone and your pallet boards are free.. stack the wood the way you want it for your perfect sized wooden canvas...and then reinforce it to stay together with 2-3 pieces of wood nailed to the back to hold them all together.

3. Once your canvas is complete take a pencil and start sketching your map and states. And don't fret if you have to erase a few times.. I definitely did! I just googled a map and blew the image up on my computer to get a good look at the shapes of the states.

4.Once you are happy with your sketch pick your colors (I used acrylic paints) and start painting!  I recommend painting from left to right and I did not use any water with my acrylics because I didn't want the states to run. 

5.Once you have painted it all the final step is to write in the states. I used a silver sharpie for the lighter state colors and a white paint pen for the darker colored states. ( Note: For several of the East Coast states I just abbreviated due to space constraints)

6.Last place...start pinning the places you have traveled and find a place on your wall to hang it up!

(Picture not shown..... we are still deciding where to hang our map at the Purser household ) 

If you are pinning the board of places you've traveled with a love one (like me and my Andrew) I recommend listening to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' song Home while doing so.... "Home is wherever I 'm with you, Home is when I'm alone with you" ESMZ

Happy Crafting!