Hello Maja Design fans and friends!  Nancy Hanttula here, and I am back again to share another mixed media project.  I created this piece using absolutely every single paper from the gorgeous Sommartider paper collection.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with maps.  I have maps and a budding collection of globes in my studio, as well as all over my house.  I’m not even sure why I love maps so much…but I know that something about them makes my heart happy…and makes me want to create.

I was inspired to re-create a map of the United States mainland using the gorgeous array of prints from the Sommartider collection…. (and yes, I mean no disrespect for Hawaii and Alaska, they just didn’t fit into my scheme of things.)  I am going to share with you how I did this map….so if you feel so inclined, you could do this with any map, for any country, or area.

My inspiration originally came from one of my kiddo’s puzzles….a map of the United States.

After I put the puzzle together, I took some tracing paper and outlined all the individual states.

After all the states were traced….I made a copy of the traced image via my printer.  I did this so that I would have a “base” to glue my states down onto once they were cut out of the different patterned papers.

I then turned over my traced image, and using a soft leaded pencil, I shaded the lines.  Basically, this works like carbon paper.

Once you have scribbled a generous amount of soft pencil lead onto the back-side of the tracing paper, you just flip it over, place it over the patterned paper of your choice and trace over the lines of the “state” using a fine, but hard, ball-point pen.

This is how you are able to transfer the shape onto the patterned paper exactly as you traced it.  By using soft-lead pencil, you are then able to erase these same pencil lines AFTER you have cut out the shape.

Once the shape has been cut out and the pencil lines erased, I then glued down the shape into my “copy” of the tracing.

After all the shapes were created, I then cut out the entire piece as a whole.

And that is how I created my “map.”  I won’t lie…there is a bit of a time investment in this process.  But I hope it has inspired you to give it a try.

Other ingredients used in this project include.  Crafter’s Workshop stencil: Subway; Ranger Archival black ink; Staz-On archival ink in Teal Blue; black Sharpie marker; black and grey Faber-Castell pens; Stampendous Alphabet stamps; Tombow permanent adhesive; & clear acrylic stamps from CTMH.

Thanks for looking! & I hope this has inspired you to create something today!