diy - glitter state art

Have you ever walked into a craft store and saw something that you knew you had to buy but had no idea what you'd use it for?
If you answered no, you need to live a little! If you said yes, you're my soul sister/brother.
Before the holidays, I walked into Michaels to pick up about 40 pinecones and 10 packages of pom-pom's for the Christmas craft that I was in charge of leading for all the little cousins. FYI, this is what we made - pinecone trees:

Well when I walked into Michael's that day, there was a piece of shiny, lovely, glittery paper staring me in the face begging me to pick it up and look at it in all of it's glory. So I did. Geesh, I'm such a pushover. Once I held it, I knew there was no putting it back.
In the cart she went.
So what do you do with one single sheet of glitter paper? Ya get creative, folks!
When I bought this, I was in the middle of doing the picture mural wall behind the TV in the living room, so I decided to use it in one of the photos that would be part of the mural/collage. To make a long story short in the way Jason and I met... we met in Cincinnati, OH. It's a city that we both love. So why not celebrate that?!
With that said, I now present to you..... the Glitter State Art DIY!

Because the top drawer of my dresser is full of craft supplies, I had everything on hand to get started. I just needed to print a map of Ohio. Easy peasy! So you'll need the LOVELY glitter paper, a state map of any state you want to do, a ruler, scissors, tape and a piece of paper to put the glitter state on. It'd be really cute on a big black/white stripe piece of paper. But because of the living room colors, I went with turquoise.

Step 1: Cut out your state. This would be ideal if you're doing Colorado, Wyoming, Utah or New Mexico. :)

Step 2: Place the state cut-out on your glitter paper just to make sure it's the size that you want. Don't tape it down or anything, this is just for a visual!

Step 3: Turn the piece of glitter paper over. Sad day, glitter has to look at the carpet.... but once you flip the glitter paper over, tape the map to the back. IMPORTANT: When you tape the map, tape it so that the front side (where there may still be outline showing) is facing the back of the glitter paper. Like so. Then cut away! The piece you cut out makes a great stencil!

Step 4: Once you've cut it, turn it over and let the glittery shine, shine, SHINE! Love it. At this point, I just wanted to put this on the wall. But I knew I should finish.

Step 5: Place the glitter paper on your colored background sheet to make sure you still love it. You will. The next part is completely optional. I wanted to highlight the city of Cincinnati as the rest of Ohio doesn't really hold any significance to us (except the fact that I lived in Cincinnati for a few months and we loved visiting the Columbus Zoo and Cedar Point in Sandusky...). But you get the point. Cincinnati is a significant city to us because that's where Jason was lucky enough to meet me! ...And I was lucky enough to meet him. Blah blah blah. So I decided to cut out a little heart in a darker turquoise color so that it'd pop a little on the map. Check it out below.

Step 6: The next step is preparing to tape the bad boy onto your background! The ruler is necessary if you want to make sure that your map is actually in the center of your page. If you're not anal about that stuff like me, you can just slap it on there. 

Step 7: Tape, tape, tape! I would suggest using double sided scrapbooking squares instead of tape, just a personal preference!

Step 8: Put it in your frame and Ooh and Aah for hours. And hours. And hours. And then send a picture to your significant other and frown at the fact that they're not as excited as you. 

I personally loved how it turned it and I love that it adds a pop of turquoise to the new wall collage that is filled with black and white pictures, a modern clock, and a pop of red. It's just so nice.
Here it is on the wall.

I'd like to send a special shoutout to that shiny piece of paper that begged for my attention that morning at Michael's. She's now one of my best friends.