There Are Places I Remember (Part 2)

I printed the states from online

We now have covered canvases. Part 2 will show you how I cut out the state shapes and affixed them to the pretty stuff.

I found the graphics online. To get the right size, I again, was very technical. I opened a word document and drew a square the same size as my canvas. Then I copied my state into the square and stretched/shrunk to fit into the square. Then I printed. Fancy! 

Trace the shape with black marker

I decided I wanted to cut once. We don't need no stinking stencils. So I traced each state with  Sharpie (mmm, love that smell!) That way, I'd be able to see the shape through the back of the plain old printer paper (we don't need to stinking tracing paper either). 

Glue/tape BACKWARDS to the paper

 Because it was handy, I decoupaged the printed states onto the decorative paper. I might have just used tape or something had I thought ahead. Let that be your lesson. My states have TWO layers of state on them. That's ok, but not the best way to go about it.


Then, cut out, following the dark lines! Again, make this easy on yourself. Unless you have a lot of GIS people over to your house, its probably ok to not be totally exact. Florida was hard, but I ignored the Keys. Indiana and Kentucky both have those dumb Ohio river borders. I guess Iowa does to, but who am I to knock anything Iowan <3 . If you can hurry up and move to Colorado before you do this project, that would be idea. You can handle a rectangle. And I love having more friends in the area! 

Cut along the lines

Then, decoupage the state onto the canvas per usual. 

Glue on the back of the state

Lay onto canvas and glue over the top

Again, I wasn't terribly careful and didn't get out a ruler, compass, t-ruler (?) or whatever to be sure they were centered. I just went with it. Guess what? They look homemade.

Let dry and move on to Part 3!