I am always interested to find projects that use repurposed materials. It is amazing to see all the creative ways that old materials can be used to give them a new lease of life. The July edition of Marie Claire Idees (#79) has a fun article on using old maps and globes. Here are a few pages…
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| Love the Decoupaged Boxes |
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| Great covered notebooks and shelf edging. |
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| Great display of globes. Check out the sweet bunting. |
I have a stash of old World Book Encyclopedias (1975 edition) that I rescued when my parents were doing a clean up at their place. I tore out a few pages featuring maps for some geographic crafting of my own (with a French influence of course!)
First up, I used a map and some Japanese masking tape, to make a fun gift tag.
A map of Paris and an Eiffel Tower die cut were used to make this greeting card. My high school French was given a workout coming up with some French greetings.
Using the cricut, I was able to make up a small gift bag out of a map – perfect for a gift card or small gift for a traveller.
I would love to find an old Atlas at the Op Shop that I could use for wrapping paper. What repurposed materials do you love to use?
Oooh!! I’m a cartographer by trade, so anything map related makes me happy!! I’m going to have to get my hands on a copy of this!
One of my favorite items to repurpose is the huge stack of aeronautical charts that my husband accumulated when he was a flight instructor! They’ve been used for tons of crafty things around here!
That globe vase is so precious.
I’d love to find an old Atlas to repurpose for crafting too, like the one from ‘Sense and Sensibility’ that the youngest sister is reading under the table (but then again, that would probably be an heirloom, oh well).
I have recently been repurposing cushion covers into bags 🙂
Those map projects are fabulous — thanks for sharing them with us. Your cards turned out great too — looks like you’re having lots of fun with your new toy!
You did a great job, putting your ideas in the mapping paper. Looks lovely!
I once made Christmas cards with my children from the Christmas cards we go at work. It was fun.
Thanks for sharing all this marvellous inspiration. I think it’s fantastic, and I love to repurpose things. Right now I’m quickly making my way through a stack of old manilla folders I found!
Also, on the subject of maps, I’m pretty sure Studio Calico’s challenge this week is to make things out of maps. Or at least they had a very similar post earlier this week with map-inspired projects. Maybe you should check it out?!
Hi. Love the maps and globes! I have seen maps used in decoupage, and it really looks excellent. It has a certain charm about it. Imagine what you could do with some material like that! Thanks for sharing with us. Kind regards, Anita.
Oh boy! That’s got me going! Guess what I’ll be doing after work today? What fun! Thank you for fab inspiration! Lots of love, Amanda xxx
oh my Lisa these are AMAZING soooo gorgeous, and anything French to me is a must, how lovely
How about some old-fashioned candy crackers made from recycled cardboard tubes (my personal favorite are the ones from inside the foil box). You can see what I mean here: http://cutestuffinside.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-is-coming.html
and here:
http://cutestuffinside.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-wonderful-world.html
S.W.A.K.
I love these and love the way you recycled.
Clever and lots of fun. I’ve always thought it’d be fun to paper a wall with old maps. Happy hunting.
Love love love all of your projects, dont forget about old music books and sewing patterns if you could bear to part with them oh and sewing spools are in at the moment i believe. I am off to find an old atlas, that gift bag is fantastic.
xx
Great projects using old maps. So many clever uses!
I loved this article too – especially the bunting. Thanks for the link too!
Love the ideas using maps. So very cleaver. I am going to “grab” some of those great ideas. Enjoy.
I have borrowed my girlfriends CRICUT machine and have been having a ball…everyone’s gift tag has their initial…thanks for the inspiration I am going to drag it out again before I give it back to try a few more tricks I have just discovered the discs she has include some gift bags….ahhh let me at it..its addictive isn’t it!
I love maps. At the “brocantes” they sell pages of old, 19 C atlases and one year I searched and found maps of the places where friends have country houses. THat was my Chritsmas gift for them.
I love what you show us, very creative, as usual!
These were great map ideas!!!
Years ago when my parents took an anniversary trip to the east coast I made them a journal and the outside was covered with our state with the city where they started marked and then there were pages for each state on the inside and I used parts of the map pages for each state! They had places to glue pictures and places to write all about their trip! It was a great way for them to document their trip and then to share with all of us!!!
I love this idea! When I was younger I had maps plastered all over my walls (every inch) – I love them, and it’s great to see them put to so many uses!
What a beautiful idea, i have been recycling things ever since my youngest daughter learn’t about it in kindy ( last year) but now we call it repurposing.
This is GREAT. I love old maps and repurposing things, so this is perfect for me.
I once bought a piece of jewelry on Etsy that came wrapped in an old Atlas page and I thought that was also a nice use of a map.
Just lovely:)
I love the covered box idea. I saw some maps with rubber stamping and found items art on them on Etsy, really cool.
Old maps and globes are so wonderful!! They seem to be everywhere stylish at the moment. I love what you’ve done with the tags and bag – I found an old atlas at a thrift store not so long ago and I’ve had a ball making envelopes out of some of the pages, but now I have a whole lot of other ideas (I especially love those boxes in the top piccy) Thanks so much for the inspiration!!