{Joy to the World} map

I've really been loving some of the map & globe trends lately, so I really wanted to make something with that map or globe them with "Joy to the World" on it for the Christmas season. I also wanted it to be fairly big to take up some of my blank wall space in my living room. Here's what I ended up with and below I'll take you through the steps I used...

My inspiration really came from Lindsay Letters, an AMAZING calligrapher and artist whose handwriting styles are my absolute favorite.  Some things she have done that really inspired me are things like this:

A beautiful "Come Thou Fount" quote print

 & this:

A "Peace on Earth" canvas for a mere $200!

 both can be found on her website by the way.  I'd also seen tons of her work on Pinterest too and I looked at several of those items to try and copy her seamless, flow-y handwriting.

To start my project I gathered my supplies, I needed the map itself, I found one at Paper Source (location near me on the Plaza) for $4:

Also a cutting mat, rotary cutting tool, exacto knife, large ruler {owned all of these}, spray adhesive {$6} and a large piece of foam board {$2}.  I got the last two both from Hobby Lobby, and used a coupon on the spray adhesive to get it for less $!

I need to cut down the foam board a bit so that is what the large ruler and rotary cutter were used for.  Then I attached the map to the foam board using the spray adhesive.  To start that process it looked like this:

I just started on one edge and sprayed the corners a little and line it up with the foam board.  Then I gradually went along spraying about another 6 inches or so with the spray and carefully smoothing the paper out with my hand so I would not get any bumps or bubbles.  This process was much easier than I expected and it went on quite nicely.  I would suggested using some newspaper or other scrap paper around your area because the spray adhesive will get on your surrounding surface.

Next I drew out what I wanted my words to look like on just regular computer paper.  I made the letters the size I wanted because I also used this as a stencil.  Once I had them drawn out I cut out my letters {not my little swirlies on the side though} using the exacto knife.  Then I traced them onto the map and added my swirls and some of the other smaller details I didn't take the time to cut out.  Using the stencil in the first place was partly because I didn't want to keep erasing on this paper, afraid I'd erase off the map design or rip up the paper.  Here's the map after using my stencil on the word "joy":

Towards the end I got more comfortable drawing straight on the map and didn't stencil every single word.  After that I just painted in the letters with fine paint brushes and white acrylic paint.  I had to go over each letter several times to get good paint coverage.

To hang it I just used twine and a nail.  Taped the twine to the back of the foam board with strong clear packing tape.  And of course enlisted my handy helper...

I'm pretty happy with the results!

More on the rest of that wall and other Christmas decor later.  And no, that's not my BOO sign hiding behind the Christmas tree... okay it is... :(  That will be gone by next post!