OHIO Proud

I haven't been blogging much lately because I've been busy making and painting items for my daughter's vintage show later this month.  I've mostly been working on accessories to go with the furniture she's painting, but now and then I pick up my brush and give it a go. Trying to keep my work load lighter since I'm also trying to keep up with my gardens and get some of the outside of the house painted before winter. Here is my latest creation made from a piece of plywood and an old map of Ohio.  

  I wish I had remembered to take pictures during the process, but I always get so excited when starting a new project, that I forget.   I started with a map of Ohio and although it was already old, I rubbed it down with brown shoe polish to give it an aged look. This is a close up of where I live in Columbus.  

   Then I traced the shape of Ohio onto tissue paper and used that for my pattern for when I would cut out the shape on plywood.  After that, I cut out my map and added at least an inch around the edges of the state so I could wrap it around the edges of the plywood.  

  The hardest part, I won't lie, was cutting it out of the plywood.  I used a jigsaw for this and it was a slow process and a little tiresome on my hand.  But with patience, I ended up with a great piece for mounting the map on.  I sanded the rough edges of the board and then mounted the map with Mod Podge.  

     I applied a light coating of Mod Podge to sections of the plywood, working from one side of the state to the other, slowly pressing it down and smoothing out wrinkles as I went.    After that came the slower process of clipping the sides and sticking them down with the Mod Podge.  I filled any gaps with small cut leftover pieces of the map.   The back of the board was covered with a blank sheet of brown paper that was cut from tracing around the map.  A final thin coat of Mod Podge was applied over the front and back of the map for protection and hardware was attached to the back for hanging.  I may hang it in my house so I can enjoy it for a few weeks before it goes to the show along with this vintage OHIO brick I purchased at an auction.  I was able to get two of these bricks and may just have to keep one for myself.  

  I don't know about where you live, but here in Ohio, there seems to be a lot of decorating with the shape of the state.  A new fad I guess, but it's nice to see people being "OHIO" proud. ~ Linking with   Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphasis Monday ~ Mod Vintage Life for Mod Mix Monday ~ StoneGable for The Scoop