DIY Cork Board Travel Map with the Cricut EasyPress 2

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Make your own DIY Cork Board Travel Map to record your journies and plan your next travel adventures! This would make a fantastic easy gift idea for the travel lover in your life!

DIY cork board travel map with hanging banner
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Last month, I headed out to Salt Lake City for the Cricut Mountain Make-a-Thon where I got to spend a fun-filled week teaching classes to a BUNCH of incredible women crafters (and a few crafty gentlemen as well!). I co-taught a class called “Cover Your Bases” with Cheryl from That’s What Che Said, and we shared the many, MANY reasons why we love working with iron-on and how we like to experiment with using iron-on on practically ANY surface! It’s SO much fun figuring out all of the unique projects that you can make with it!

family memories cork board

In our class, we had a ton of fun making these sweet “Family Memories” corkboards, and I couldn’t wait to try more cork + iron-on projects when I got home! If you want to make your own Family Memories cork board, simply follow the same instructions below, and use this file in Cricut Design Space!

DIY Cork Board Travel Map

cork board map supplies and easypress 2

What You’ll Need

map svg file in cricut design space

I started by opening my USA Map design in Cricut Design Space (CLICK HERE for the PROJECT) and making all of the states a single color. My kids requested a single-color map for this project, but mixing things up and making different colored states would also be really fun, too – and it’s super easy to customize! Simply detach the group of states, change the individual colors, and re-attach the different colored groups before cutting.

cutting iron on with the cricut maker

I used my Cricut Maker machine to cut white Everyday Iron-on for my travel map. I use my Maker for at least 80% of the projects that I create these days, and I honestly couldn’t live my best crafty life without it! The Maker cuts everything from fine crepe and tissue papers to fabric to leather to heavy matboard. The recently released Cricut Maker knife blade even cuts WOOD! It’s seriously an incredible machine!

weeding iron on vinyl with cricut weeding tool

After I cut the iron-on, I weeded out the excess pieces. If you don’t have a hook weeding tool yet, drop everything and get one right now (seriously, go do it! I’ll wait!). It’s my most favorite Cricut hand tool, and I use it for EVERYTHING! That little hook on the end makes weeding excess vinyl a breeze, and it grabs even the teensiest little pieces!

map design on cork board and cricut easypress 2

If you have visited our blog before, you probably already have heard about my love for the Cricut EasyPress, the incredible easy-to-use game-changing machine that made me fall in love with iron-on in the first place. Seriously, I’ve written a TON posts in the past few months that all gush about how awesome the EasyPress is! BUT, today, I have even MORE exciting news!

Cricut is releasing an ALL-NEW EasyPress 2 that has even BETTER features than the original! cue squealing noises

The EasyPress 2 is just as simple to learn and easy-to-use as the original EasyPress, but the new version features a faster heat-up time, hotter temperatures (up to 400 degrees F) on its smooth ceramic-coated heating plate, and an insulated streamlined safety base that keeps your EP2 in a protected resting position while also protecting your crafting surface below. Best of all, the new EasyPress 2 will be available in THREE different sizes to suit all of your crafting needs! 6×7 size is perfect for onesies and smaller projects, classic 9×9 is an ideal general-use size, and the large 12×10 size allows you to press larger shirts and projects in a single pass – SO exciting!  Plus, that chic new raspberry color is pretty awesome, right?!

For this project, I set the EasyPress 2 at 275 degrees and 30 seconds and let it warm up while I positioned my map on the corkboard. When working with unconventional surfaces and iron-on, I always tell people to start low and slow on the temperature/time and work your way up if necessary. In our Make-a-Thon class, we had to slightly increase the temperature for a few of the Family Memories boards that our students made, but I don’t recommend going any hotter than 290 degrees!

hand applying pressure over diy map corkboard

I covered the surface of the cork board with a piece of parchment paper and pressed for 30 seconds using firm light pressure. After allowing the iron-on to cool for a minute, I gave the project one more 30-second press and then let the iron-on to cool before peeling off the plastic backing. When working with unique base materials, I find that a cool peel generally works best regardless of the iron-on recommendations for that particular type.

map cork board and easypress 2

Tada! Isn’t that super cute? I contemplated adding a quote to the bottom of the map, but again, my kids requested that their travel map be simple and minimalistic. Honestly, I’m thinking that I might need to make my own colorful version with “Family Adventures” on the bottom, what do you think? I love that this project can be customized in so many different ways! (Hint, hint…that also makes it a wonderful DIY gift idea!)

cork board map and easypress 2 and push pins

Now for the extra fun part – adding your pins for past and future travels!

cork board travel map with cricut easy press and flag tacks
california pin on travel cork board map

Our first pin in the map marked our home sweet home in Northern California.

push pins on diy cork board

Followed by our favorite family vacation in Maui, Hawaii!

diy map cork board and cricut easy press 2

We decided to stick pins in only places that we’ve visited in the past year and build upon there, so our travel map is looking a little sparse for now, but we’re excited to watch it grow! We also decided not to add pins for any destinations within a 3-hour drive from our hometown, or else the entire middle part of California would have been covered! What can I say? There’s a LOT to do around where we live!

DIY cork board travel map with hanging banner

The kids decided that the small pins will mark places we’ve visited, and the flags will mark the destinations that they’re hoping to travel to next! Looks like we’re headed to Las Vegas and Charleston next! 😉

Image of text that says Heidi

Check Out These Cricut Craft Ideas:

Pin this Travel Map Cork Board for Later!

DIY travel map cork board

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3 Comments

  1. HI! I love this project and am hoping to make it for our living room gallery wall. I clicked on the link for the map and when I am taken to Design Space I receive a message that the file is not good. Would you mind checking the link for this?!?

  2. This is so cute! I can’t wait to make one for the boys! Also had so much fun teaching with you! #teamironon