How To: Create a DIY Travel Map

Inspired by my sister-in-law, I decided to create a map to plot all of our travels!

It is was fun to remember all of the amazing places we have been... and to see all of the places we have left to explore.

Materials:

• Map (Cavallini World Map Wrapping Paper from Paper Source, only $3.95!)
• Frame (20"x28" Ribba Frame from IKEA, only $19.99)
• Cork (24"x48" roll from Michael's)
• Spray Adhesive
• Contact Cement
• Utility Knife
• Foam roller or brush
• Scissors
• Roller
• Map Pins (Staples, only $2.69)

Step 1: Cut the Cork

Using the fibreboard from the back of the frame as a template, use the knife to cut the cork to size to match the frame.

Step 2: Adhere the Cork

Using a foam roller or brush, coat the fibreboard and cork with a thin layer of contact cement. Allow the cement to dry to tacky as per the instructions on the bottle.

Once tacky, glue the cork onto the fibreboard, sticky sides together, and roll smooth.

Weight down the cork and allow the glue to dry.

Step 3: Adhere the Map

Coat the cork and back side of the map with a generous layer of spray adhesive. Make sure to spray in a well ventilated area and to well protect your work surface - everything is going to get sticky!

Allow the glue to dry to tacky as per the instructions on the bottle. Place the map onto the cork, sticky sides together, and roll smooth. Trim if required.

Step 4: Frame the Map

Once the adhesive has dried, place the map into the frame.

Step 5: Pin Away!

Of course, I could not just randomly pin our map... I had to come up with a colour coded system... red is my travels, blue is David's travels, green is our travels together, yellow is places we have both been but not together, white is significant locations (our home in Calgary, the location of our wedding in Tofino) and black is where Scout has travelled on his own (Silversmith Farms, South Carolina).

Now we just have to work at filling the map up!

Amy

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How to: Make a Paper Garland

I was quite excited to decorate for Christmas this year now that our house is complete enough to justify it.

 

I had managed to rescue most of our Christmas ornaments from the levelling cement Dave had accidentally managed to encase them in but still did not have enough ornaments to do our tree justice.

 

So, inspired by Pinterest, I hauled out my boxes of craft paper and made myself a paper dot garland.

 

This project was surprisingly easy and best of all - free! 

  

Materials:

 

• coloured craft paper
• paper punch
• thread
• sewing machine

Step 1: Punch Paper

Using a paper punch in your choice of size and shape, punch out a large pile of paper shapes. I used a 1 3/4" circle punch from Stampin' Up.

Step 2: Sew Together

Prepare a sewing machine with your choice of thread colour. Setting your stitch len to about 6, slowly slide each circle under the foot as you sew.

You can sew about three stitches between each circle if you want a sparse garland. I feed my circles in immediately after one another.

 Step 3: Repeat

Repeat this process again... and again... and again... until all of your paper shapes have been used up. I kept the sewing speed quite slow and was still able to make about 20' of garland in well under an hour.

Step 4: Enjoy!

 

Amy

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How To: Remove Paint from Hardware

When trying to restore an old house, paint removal is a common occurance. We went through gallons of paint stripper taking the paint off doors, door trim, the stairs and the fireplace brick. The typical paint removal process went something along the lines of:

Soak in paint stripper for a couple hours...

Scrub with steel wool and a wire brush...
Take Advil for pounding headache...

Soak again...

Scrub again...

Vacate the house due to the intolerable level of noxious fumes...

That was until I read a post by Mrs. Limestone about boiling off paint using nothing but water and baking soda. Needless to say I was extatic - anything that avoided paint stripper was worth a try.

So when it came time to remove paint from our cast iron vent covers, I set myself up in the kitchen to try 'poaching' the paint off. The results were not immediate, it took several iterations of boiling and scrubbing to remove the multiple layers of paint and it still did not remove 100% of the paint from the recesses and detailing but overall I was impressed.

I believe it would work extremely well on metal without much detail such as the door plates Mrs. Limestone did. I will definetly be giving this a try in the future before I ever reach for the paint stripper again.

Materials:

• Large pot
• Water
• Baking Soda
• Paper towel, rags, newspaper

• Rubber gloves
• Tongs
• Wire brush
• Steel wool
• Scraper or putty knife

Step 1: Preparation

Locate a pot large enough to hold the hardware - make sure it is not a pot you intend to cook in ever again! I used foil baking pans purchased for $1.50 from the grocery store, which I doubled up just in case.

Prepare a work surface near the stove - you will not want to travel far with the hot, wet hardware. Protect the surface with old rags or newspaper.

Remove any loose peices or screws from the hardware.

Step 2: Simmer

Place the pot on the stove. Put the hardware into the pot and fill with enough water to cover. Add baking soda to the water - Apartment Therapy suggests using 1/4 cup of baking soda for every quart of water but this process will also work without any baking soda at all.

Bring the water to a gentle boil and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes. The water will turn murky and you will see the paint start to bubble off the hardware.

 

Step 3: Scrub

Remove the hardware from the water with tongs and place on the prepared work surface. Wearing rubber gloves, immediatly start scrubbing the paint off with what ever seems to work - steel wool, wire brush, paper towel. Once all the loose paint has been worked off, rinse under running water and wipe with paper towel.

Step 4: Repeat

Repeat as necessary to remove all the paint.

Step 5: Finish

After all the paint is removed, rinse and dry thouroughly. Clear coat or polish the metal to prevent corrosion. We had our vent covers nickle plated.

Amy