Map Art

Our little guys share a bedroom, I love that. I shared a room with my older sister my entire childhood and some of my most favorite memories took place there. After we dropped her off a college, I cried the entire 2.5 hour ride home and several days after. True story.

Our boys seem to be making many memories as well; they've been known to play for hours, pretending to be pirates sailing across ferocious seas or Star Man and Lightning Man, on a mission to save the neighborhood.  Until recently, their room sported both a race car and firetruck toddler bed. Not the most aesthetically pleasing pieces of furniture in our home, but both vehicles played an important part in their adventures. For this reason, I was somewhat reluctant to give them up recently. But really, they had outgrown the beds and I started to worry that we might stunt their growth if we didn't provide proper room to stretch their legs...
                                                 
Knowing that these beds were temporary, we never did too much in the way of decor. Or maybe that was me just procrastinating, but some new bunk beds inspired me to add some things to the walls.

I had been saving some maps that I knew I wanted to use in the room and this is what transpired:

The M and L are for their names, they are cardboard letters purchased from Hobby Lobby. Oh MY. This was my first trip to the craft store wonderland, and I liked it. When I got home, JD had a suspicious look on his face. His exact words were, "I've known about this store. I was worried that you might someday discover it". I'm not used to that sort of betrayal from him. Lucky for him, it closes at 8 PM AND, I'm not one to hold a grudge (usually ;). Anywho, I used a spray adhesive to glue the maps onto the cardboard letters, although I think I prefer a good glue stick over the spray.

The canvases are an acrylic paint background with different maps matted and glued on. I didn't realize that I would need a special glue for the paper to stick to the canvas, but a fabric glue is definitely in order here. The yellow canvas is my fave because it has each of the streets that Jason and I grew up on, and the first two places we lived after being married.

I was mostly happy with the end result. The boys were totally excited though, which is what mattered the most for this project.

With the map art, some airplane sheets and metal plane wall art (a la Hobby Lobby) , we have a travel theme going on in their new room.

Not all issues have been solved though, we are still working out who gets the top bunk. We began with an every-other-night rotation, and now we are switching on a weekly basis. We're planning to work out a month-by-month deal once the novelty wears off. We shall see.

One thing is for sure though, there are going to be many more voyages taken in that room which will perhaps, include some flights around the globe. And when the first goes off to college, there will be tears. They might be mine, but  there  will  be  tears.