DIY Silver Leaf World Map

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DIY Silver Leaf World Map

This project has been in the back of my mind since I pinned it over a year and a half ago.  I wanted to do it, but never quite got it started until the day I went to Hobby Lobby and all the canvas was 50% off.  That was motivation enough.  Frugality is the mother of invention too.

Gold really isn't in the color palette in our home so I choose to use silver leaf instead.  This truly was not super difficult, but it was really time consuming and tedious at times.  The steps are minimal, but plan for a few days because after a while you will want a break.

Step 1 - Tracing the World

Trace an outline map of the world onto the canvas.  I am lucky enough to be a teacher with access to a projector.  I simply searched an outline map of the world on the iPad and traced lightly with a lead pencil.  Now, you might have a tv projector at home or even a teacher friend that can help out, but if not, fear not, you can always make your own projector at home.  Some people are so innovative.

You'll see that there are many variations in perspective on the world maps, some with Greenland lower, or higher and some leaving out Antarctica altogether.  Choose your favorite.

Step 2 - Leafing

I choose to use liquid silver leaf and paintbrushes.  Outline the coastlines and the islands first, then fill them in with a larger brush.  You can see the strokes and even what order it was painted, but I think that adds character.  This process took two nights of about two hours.

Make sure you are in good light when doing your final touch ups.  The silver leaf can play tricks on your eyes.  When bringing the canvas outside to be sprayed, I noticed many areas that had missing silver leaf.

Leafing with actual silver leaf involves many intricate steps, especially with the world not being perfectly straight.  If you are up for trying, you need to buy the special adhesive and the leafing.  The good thing is that the leafing will only stick to the adhesive, but you would have to be very precise with where the adhesive was sprayed.

Step 3 - Cleaning

After all the painting is done, go around with your handy eraser and make sure you don’t have any pencil lines or smudges on the bare part of the canvas.

Step 4 - Border

With a small roller, I painted the sides of the canvas to create a frame effect.  I also added some curvature to the earth by edging onto the front of the canvas.  It made it look a bit old school, which I liked. To make sure the curves were equal, I measured in eight inches from each side corner and used a circular Tupperware top to create the arc.  This way, they were all symmetrical.  I actually free handed the curves with the paint.

Step 5 - Spray Sealing

This was a recommended step on the bottle of silver leaf that I purchased.  This acrylic clear coating was a matte finish.  I didn't want a glossy finish to take away from the silver leaf finish. Let it dry for a few hours before mounting on the wall.

Overall, I am pleased with the way this project turned out.  I do wish I hadn’t chosen a map with the perspective with Antarctica so large.  It somewhat looks like we are looking at the world from an angle below.  If I was to do this again, I might have totally left Antarctica out in the cold (get it?).

<3 mk

DIY Wood Block Art

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Inspiration for this DIY project came from a show on HGTV.  They did the project on a much larger scale - an entire wall, and it looked amazing.  I wanted to do this on a smaller scale and add some color and portability.  The project was relatively easy, but a little time consuming. 

Here are the steps I took to create this DIY art.

Base - decide on the size of the art you want to make.  Remember, you might want to hang this on the wall, so size is important.  I choose plywood cut at Lowes to 24”x 30“.

Color - This project can be natural wood or any color or colors you choose.  A bright red color was my choice.  I used Rust-oleum spray paint in Sunrise Red.  For the entire project I bought three cans. If you are going natural, you will want to buy wood that is nice quality but it will be a bit more expensive.

Wood Blocks - There are many different sizes of wood you can purchase.  The wood came in poplar sticks in varying sizes.  They should be located in the section with the moldings. I chose the 1x1 sticks.  Just make sure you do the math so the amount of blocks attached on the base wood will fit perfectly. I bought about 20 wooden sticks and hand just enough for the entire project.

Spray paint the base plywood using your choice of paint color.  Don’t forget to get the sides and some of the back.

Spray paint the wood sticks.  A few coats are needed to make sure good coverage is obtained.

Using an electric mitre or chop saw, cut the wood sticks to varying lengths.  Try not to go more than 2 inches long.  You don’t want the wood protruding too far out .  You can double up on cutting a few pieces at a time, but remember, that will create too many identical sized pieces and the goal is for variation.

Using the electric saw makes cutting the wood really easy, but some of the sides will splinter.  You will need to hand sand the sides of almost all the pieces unless the blade is appropriately sized for this type of wood.  Usually that will mean smaller teeth.  However, most electric saws do not come with blades that have small enough teeth to cut using this wood without needing to sand.  The sanding takes a lot of time, but will result in a clean look.

Place the wood blocks on the base to make sure the wood is not at the same heights.  The pieces also have different wood colors and you will want to put them in different places.  Try to do this in L-shapes (length and width).  Then, glue the pieces on with wood glue. 

When gluing each piece of wood, make sure the borders (length, width) don’t shift.  I had to adjust the sides numerous times until the glue dried. 

This project took me many days and working in random spurts.   I could only imagine the time it would take to do this on an entire wall.

To hang this wooden block art on the wall, I didn’t use just any hook and nail.  Jeff actually came up with the idea to use a small TV wall mount that came with a smaller flat screen TV.   

Project Cost-

Wood base- $9.97

Wood sticks 20 X $3.50 = $70

Spray paint 3 x $4.24 = $12.72

Wood glue - $3.97

Wall mount - free

Total- $96.66

I saw one recently on Etsy.com that was selling for $220.  A little expensive for my tastes, but if you aren’t in the mood to DIY then that would be the other alternative.

If you are interested in actually doing an entire wall similar to the art, LOWE'S has it as part of its creative ideas tutorial.  If you have a weekend, some cutting skills, the proper tools, and about $500 you can have one for yourself.  Maybe on my next home I will have my own wood block wall.

I love looking at this every time I walk up my stairs.  It looks different from every angle and it's so diverse depending on the lighting of the day.  I hope this inspired you to make one for your home that makes you equally happy.

<3 mk