Wanderlust; World Cork Board Craft

Wanderlust (n): A very strong or irresistible impulse to travel

 I saw a world cork board selling online and immediately knew I had to have one...better yet, I could totally make one! The actual crafting of the project took only about 1 hour all together, but getting creative with the gridded matting and finding the right type of corkboard took much longer.

Materials:

1/4" cork board from Marshall's - got it on clearance because there was a hole in it, didn't matter to me! I saved a bunch of money just to cut it up anyways
Gridded Matting that I spray painted gold
Cut-outs of continents
Box Cutter
Hot Glue
...for only $12 (for the corkboard)! I had all the other materials already at home and now I have an extra frame ;)

I didn't want just separate pieces of cork continents randomly placed on my wall and I remembered I had gridded matting just lying around from another DIY and it reminded me of the longitude and latitude of a map, so I now had something I could glue my continents onto that pulled the whole project together - win win!

How it was done: 
1) I spray painted the gridded matting turning it from old lady tan to shiny gold
2) I punched out the corkboard from the frame, which was surprisingly easy with pliers to yank out the staples

3) I didn't want marker showing the outline of the shape so I just lightly taped the cut-out onto the board and used a box cutter. (Here's Africa!)

It's important to get thin cork board because you don't want to make it impossible to cut - especially because there are no straight lines when it comes to the world map. You also have to watch out for cork board that's too thin though because it'll break too easily. My board was actually only a few mm of cork with a foam backing which works perfectly for this craft.

4) I hot glued the pieces onto the matting trying my best to get the distances right...I tried! After marveling at how amazing hot glue is, my craft was done!

After adding a heart to my hometown, I plan on pinning places I want to go I want with colored tacks and pinning places I've been with small pieces I've brought back with me.