Map all the great places you and your military family have called home!

When you move as often as a military family does you get to call a variety of places home. So far we are on our 6th house at our 3rd location. You may wonder why 6 houses…apparently we love moving so much we can’t even manage to stay in the same place for a full tour. We have high hopes that this location will only consist of one move!  I wanted the opportunity to honor all the places we call home. So I decided to make a home is where the military sends us map! Here is my DIY to make a map of your own…

Materials Needed:

• Wood Canvas-you can find these at craft stores
• Paint
• Brush
• Antique Wax
• Carbon Paper (or a make your own version described below)
• Pen
• Thin Sharpie
• Gem Stickers

First you want to paint the wood canvas. I decided to use a calk paint, because I love the way it looks in the end!

While this is drying you can print out our map. I used this map. In order to make it the right size, I needed to print it out and scan it at 200% over 3 pages. I found it easiest to cut up the map so I could work in small areas rather than trying to tackle the entire map at once.

Carbon Paper would have come in very handy in the next step…however I didn’t have any carbon paper and the little miss was sleeping so it was time to improvise. I took a piece of paper and a pencil and scribbled all over it, covering it completely making my very own at home carbon paper.You want to place your carbon paper, with the carbon (or pencil markings) on top of the painted canvas. Then place your map piece on top. Trace over the outlines of the  states with a pen, hard enough for it to transfer. Your only pushing too hard if your map tears.

After each section I would remove the carbon paper and map and trace over the lines with my thin sharpie. By doing this a little at a time it gives you an opportunity to take a break and walk away if you need to calm your nerves. If you make any mistakes while tracing with the sharpie-its okay! All you have to do is take a small paint brush and paint over any mistakes!

 The next step is adding the antique wax. Do this in light random strokes.

You final step is to add your place sticker. I used gem stickers I found in the craft store. From a distance it they just have a light shimmer!