Fun Decorative Upcycled Road Map Art
I love to upcycle and reuse old maps, they are very affordable craft paper. There are so many fun things you can do with them. One of the most popular things I've made with them is beautiful roses (see here).
This time I've used my old maps to create some beautiful moths for fun faux taxidermy wall art. You can give these as a gift if you use a map of somewhere special.
What you need for this fun decorative piece for your home are old road maps and some wire. Friends and family pass me on their out-of-date road maps.
You can also pick them up really cheaply in thrift stores. With Sat Navs and phone navigation, not many people use road maps these days so they are easy to pick up cheaply.
There is a free template on my blog for three different moth shapes. You can download this for free from the link in my Bio at the end.
Draw around the template on the map. This is where you can personalize your map art by placing the template on a place on the map that is special to you.
Then cut out the wing shapes.
To make the body of the moth cut long triangular strips from the maps.
Wrap this strip tightly around a wooden skewer and then secure it in place with glue. This is also the way you make paper beads.
When the glue has dried, take the map bead off the wooden skewer.
Cut the wire and bend it into shape to make the antenna, then stick this in the top of the bead.
To give my moth wings more texture I stitched around the edge of them on my sewing machine. You can, however, leave this stage out if you don't have a sewing machine, it is purely decorative.
Both sets of wings were glued to the body to finish off the map moth.
I also gave my map moths faux Latin names (free to download) to add to the effect when framing them. They can be framed individually or in a group.
I like them both ways, so I have two map moth displays in my home, the individual ones on the mantle and the others on the wall. Also, to make this wall art more personal I have used maps of my favourite places to make the moths.
I love map art and I have even a really simple way to display all those maps from your favourite vacations as a cool piece of artwork for the wall that anyone can do (see here). The post also includes links to free printable vintage maps.
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Love this so clever great information!
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Thank you, it was fun to make.
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Fabulous!
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Thank you so much.
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Frequently asked questions
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Where did you find the small square frame?