The Map & the Ruler

I just completed this really neat world map project that I wanted to share.

The hardest part was taking apart the pallet. They are put together with these nails that act as screws and are quite difficult to get apart. Thank goodness I have a best friend with a very strong husband!!! THANKS CHRIS!!! 

The map was 24" x 36" so I knew I needed a pallet with 4 wide pieces to have enough room for the whole map. So I hand sanded each piece and then wiped them off with a damp cloth to get rid of any remains of dirt or dust and I used a rotary cutter up against the side of the wood to cut each piece of the map. I cut one piece then applied mod podge to the wood and applied the map piece. I did NOT put mod podge on top of the map at all.

I then grabbed my handy dandy grill lighter and tried to burn all the edges of the map but quickly discovered that my map and the mod podge glue under it seemed to be fireproof!!! I ended up getting a wood burner at Walmart for under $10 and burnt all the edges. That took about 3 hours to do all the pieces but I love how it turned out! This picture really doesn't do it much justice as the lighting in my living room doesn't always cooperate with my camera.

Before the edges were burnt

Finished! I love how the grain of the wood comes through,
sorta gives it a painted look.

This PIN is where I found and fell in LOVE with the old-time feel of this map and since we have a bunch of left over pallets from the The Pallet Garden  I thought wow! I could defiantly do this one! 

Now, if you click on the link on the pin, it brings you to the really lovely blog of Ms. Smartie Pants who did not make the map, she saw it in a magazine and did share how she thought it was made, so I just took her suggestions and made up the rest as I went along. :)


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A while back, I made a few of these, one for my 2 year old's room and one each for some really great friends:

This will eventually hang 6" off the floor.

I can not seem to find the original pin where I got the tutorial but if you put 'ruler' into pinterest's search, a ton of these will come up. VERY simple and cheap to make!!!