World Map Pin Board DIY

You know those times when you find something on Pinterest and you go "I could do that!"...Well this Pin, was one of them:

Originally from Landofnod.com

It's not on the original website anymore though, because this was for sale at least two years ago. And that is around when I originally pinned it and planned to do it... seriously, I bought the materials for this project on March 7th...2012!! (I have a history of putting off projects..oops)

Anyway moral of the story is it is done, and it was actually super easy!

Step 1: Assemble supplies
Foam Poster Board
Adhesive Cork Board (like this)
Scotch Tape
Skizzors aka Scissors
A detail oriented project partner (thanks Mike!)

Step 1b..realize you grabbed the wrong poster board, and aren't going to use the adhesive spray

Step 2:
Go online and find a blank world map...or use this link. I used Microsoft Publisher to resize the photo to be the same size as the board, and I also changed the grey to white so it would save ink. It worked out being spread out over 6 letter sized pages, so not a huge print job. I would recommend printing two copies

Step 3:
Cut out continents..here is where the detail oriented assistant helps...or mad focus. Don't worry about the little islands, that will come later.

Step 4: Tape continents to the Cork Board, cut out cork board. Meanwhile have your detail oriented partner cut out all the small islands (we did this mostly by eye, but you could cut out the template, and cut out those pieces as well.) 

"Hey, Africa"

Step 5: Next comes a little puzzle time, and this is where having a second copy of the map helps. We put the map down on the poster board, positioned the continents over it, then carefully removed the paper on the back of the adhesive, and the map itself, and placed the continent on the poster board. The second map also helped place all those little islands. 

Step 6: Step back in awe at what was accomplished in about 1 hour. 

Someone got overzealous with Hawaii (we corrected that before the final)

Step 7: 

Put some pins in it of places you have been or places you want to go, and hang it up on a wall. The benefit of this weighing all of nothing pounds (foam and cork are pretty light), is that we just put two 3M strips on it, and put it in place!

Two years later...

There you have it, a very simple craft, and it only cost me about 15 bucks, and I have lots of cork leftover. (Side note, I just googled the original pin, and a similar one costs...15 bucks. Well now).

Anyone else spend St. Patrick's day weekend doing crafts? Anyone else procrastinate like crazy??