Wednesday 9 October 2013

Made: vintage map artwork


I'm obsessed with maps and with all things personalised, so when my friends Cara and Dan got married I wanted to make them a gift that combined the two.  To buy, a framed map artwork is mega-bucks, but I knew it would be easy to make myself... and so much more personal, too.

 
I spent months scouring the shops for suitable maps to make this and a similar gift for The Boy.  Charity shop bookshops are great sources of vintage maps from all eras, and I think the finished product looks much nicer if you combine different maps rather than having all the cut-outs sourced from the same map.  In the end, I lucked out with some old Ordnance Survey maps of Devon (where Cara and Dan got married), a London road map (featuring Crouch End, where they live), and a vintage map of Scotland (where they got engaged).

 
So, once you've chosen the maps, you need to make your heart cut-outs.  My heart hole punch came from eBay, and is my favourite new toy.  It made making the heart shapes a breeze - I just cut a square from the map, centred the place-name in the middle of the heart, and punched it out. 

 
I used some heavy duty craft card with a nice textured finish - from Paperchase - to mount the heart shapes.  I'd recommend using Spraymount to affix them to the card, as it allows you to reposition until you're happy with how they're all lined up. 

I put the finished picture into an Ikea frame and et voila!  One completely personalised yet completely bargain wedding present. 

9 comments:

  1. Thats really thoughtful and sweet. I love the giant hole punch!

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  2. I want to make some of these as Christmas presents, might have to order that heart hole punch!

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  3. I've seen this on Pinterest and immediately pinned it, it's such a great idea! Can't wait to bring it to use once. Lovely idea to make it as a wedding gift as well.

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  4. It looks great! Just like one you spend loads on buying, and as you said even more personal that you actually made it by hand.

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  5. That looks gorgeous - you are a clever lady!

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  6. LOVE this idea! It looks fantastic :)

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  7. Thanks all! I'm already making some for Christmas gifts, they make such a great present.

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  8. They look awesome Janet. What a great idea. I have a similiar stunning New York brooch ;)

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  9. I totally have this on my to do list as well. Just need to get around to finding maps!

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