B marks the spot

I love maps and I love typography, and when I was in Iceland last October the hotel we stayed in had some cool map-covered wooden letters on the wall.  Etsy seller Little White Dog makes beautiful bespoke map-covered letters and other paper sculptures that would make amazing gifts for a wedding or special birthday, but at £25 a pop I couldn't justify the expense.  So I decided to have a crack at making something similar myself.  

 

Tending towards the slapdash when it comes to crafting, I naturally bodged it up a little bit, putting too much PVA glue on the map I used (a vintage New York City transit map poster from Baileys Home & Garden in Ross-On-Wye) but all told I'm thrilled with the effect. 

The cardboard letter was about £2.50 from Hobbycraft, with the 'B' standing for both Brown (my surname) and Brooklyn (the part of the map I used for the letter, and where I've spent many a happy trip visiting cousins).  As I have a drawer full of interesting vintage maps that I picked up in Hay-On-Wye, I can see map letters becoming my new go-to gift.