Branelle and I enjoy traveling together and as you may have noticed if you read my blog titled "Europe Travel Wall Project", we like to use creative methods to sort of encourage ourselves to go places we haven't been before.
http://srod23.blogspot.com/2014/09/europe-travel-wall-project.html
Back before the Europe Wall, the first thing we ever did to encourage travel was to get one of those 50 state magnet maps with the static map and rubber states that's designed to go on your refrigerator.
I didn't want to just stick it on one of our fridges though, so I went to Aaron Brothers and had them make a custom frame with a magnetic board and the map permanently attached with adhesive. They charged me a fortune and did a terrible job and after a few months the map was getting air bubbles and looked just awful. I thought about trying to re-adhere the map, but decided to just paint one myself on the framed magnetic board.
I cut the old map up like crazy to use as a template for the outlines. You have to remember, you can't just draw a map of the US, because on a fridge magnet map Rhode Island is the same size as Alaska. After I got the map traced out I went over the lines in white paint and then hunkered down at the dinette table to paint the water in.
Whenever you do anything even remotely interesting in our house you're going to attract a pair of cats. Unfortunately wet paint is extremely interesting...apparently.
It was tedious work but I found it kind of relaxing. I included outlines for all of the Canadian Provinces as well as DC, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.
The finished product! We only add magnets if we've done something substantial or interesting in the state. Just being in the airport or driving through doesn't count. Maybe we'll get them all some day....then again, we have a baby now so maybe not. ;-)
