Octopus Frame Print for a Pirate Room

I had a hard time getting a good picture of the final product with the frame but I love this technique. All you do is find an animal that you want to use as your focus. I'm currently working on my son's pirate themed room, so I found this great whimsical octopus. If you want to use a simple animal with a clean outline, google animal coloring pages for preschoolers and you'll find lots of options. 

 I just printed out the photo I liked - it was a very dark photo and I'm cheap with printer ink so I just lightened the photo until it was using less ink, which caused the weird coloring. 

Then I cut it out using an xacto knife

Here's the map I chose as the background, but you could use any type of paper. You can find tons of free maps through Google and even public government sites for most cities and states.

Place the cutout on top of the map and finish in a frame.If you look closely, you can see I kept a few of the cutouts from the mat that were between tentacles and added them to create some negative space as a detail. This would be a wonderful technique to use as a baby gift or for any kids' rooms!