Decor...

[cairistiona]

We... or I should say, mostly my hubby... spent a good chunk of the long holiday weekend refinishing our two big wooden decks. Before and after photos to follow in a future post, as soon as we put all the plants and furniture back.

On one of the many trips to the home improvement store (it took WAY more stain than we expected, always does), I picked up a home-decorating magazine, because I'm always looking for new ideas to help my boring fireplace and I was struck by the word "BUDGET", which is another thing I'm always mindful of when decorating.  My first glance didn't take in many details, just that it was a nicely arranged collection of globes and framed maps that I thought I might try recreating somehow:



But once I got it home and gave it a more thorough look, I *really* liked the mantel arrangement:



Though according to the article, she uses the quote as a tribute to her love of traveling, she nonetheless has good taste in quotes. *g* I'm wondering if I can somehow recreate that blocked quote, only overlaying it on a map of Middle-earth instead of a road map, and do it in a way that looks professional instead of something I cheesed together with my computer printer.

Hmmm.

Comments

[mikononyte.livejournal.com]

As as your local office depot or such store. They can sometimes do it for you IF you provide the map and what kind of template you want for the words. That might even look great in outline letters so you can see the map beneath. (Don't mind me; I'm full of hot air today hahaha)

That would be incredible! I'd love to have a globe of Middle-earth to set on my bookshelf. (Not that I have a lot of room for such but I'd MAKE room) LOL

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I wonder, too, if a print shop could do up the quote nicely. I can always buy an inexpensive replica/poster of the M-e map and cut it to fit as a background "matte".

A globe of M-e would be so cool!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

That is smart, isn't it? You could print in a dark colour onto coloured paper to give the centre-piece....

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Oh, now there's a very good idea. Our hobby stores are filled with papers of all colors and sizes, thanks to the scrapbooking craze of the last few years. I'd just have to find one to coordinate with whatever M-e map I find.

[shirebound]

I *really* liked the mantel arrangement

Wheeeee. :)

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the woman has actually read the books, or just spotted the quote somewhere and liked it.

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

I really liked the mantel arrangement too. Very wise-hearted lady, I see.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Hopefully she's actually read the books!

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

Something tells me she has, and that she's an Aragorn *appreciator* , though probably for reasons of copyright she's slightly misquoting Not All Those Who Wonder Are Lost.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

lol, it's a map of Illinois! ;D *now I wants*

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Ha, so it is! I hadn't looked closely enough to see that! Next time I'm lost somewhere in southern Illinois, looking for my relatives, I'll remember that not all who wander there are lost, even if it looks like I might be. *g*

[layne67.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking you'll have loads of fun thinking of Aragorn's quotes to put there :) Quick, quote one now :))

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

"You have put your foot in it, or should I say your finger!"
"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and if by my life or death I can save you, I will."
"In any case you might have noticed one of them has an old bird's nest behind his ear. That would be an unusual ornament for a live troll!"
"We have a long road and much to do."
"A plague on the stiff necks of Elves!"

Um... I could go on... :D

But I don't think any of those are mantel-piece material. Though maybe that last one.... *g*

[layne67.livejournal.com]

I'd choose the second one :)

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

Sorry if I pop in here out of the blue; I just looked over your journal entries the other day and spotted this.

If you have a file with the map you want that has sufficient quality to be printed out in this size, this actually might be easy. I'm using a ME map as background which might be large enough, and which was free to download as a background. I suppose there is nothing against using this file for creating a decorative object for one's own home.

The font needs to be found first, but there are so many free fonts available that something should be to your liking; or you'll perhaps even like some Tolkien-style fonts? I have a link stored somewhere, if you want I'll look it up. Putting the text over the image digitally is not difficult; I could do it for you. In fact, I just tried it out, this (http://winterwitch.de/temp/Middle_earth_mit_text.jpg) I did in less than five minutes, just as a tryout. I'm using a very simple software and don't have much experience, so the effects I can do are very simple, but it might be sufficient for your idea.


Printing out yourself, though, is not a good idea, as the quality of self-printed colour pictures fades rather fast, particularly if exposed to sunlight. I once made myself a calendar with fanart where I partly had the images done as photo prints by the professional online service and partly printed out on the own printer. The difference was incredible, and the pro ones are still there - the others have long since lost most colour.

I don't know if you have such services in the US, but assume you do; we're having online photo "shops" where you can order prints, gift cards, mugs, calendars and all kind of stuff with your own pictures. The ones I know also offer large size photo prints, sometimes even ready-framed, and at a really affordable price, too.

On the other hand, glueing the letters on a poster/map repclia could give a much more interesting result, as you then also have a kind of "physical" look to it, particularly if you cut the words out of thin cardboard or something. I'm not much of a crafter with paper and such, so I have no idea what is possible and would work well, but I can imagine it well enough.

I just also had the idea to cut out the letters of the actual book text: either copies of it or, if you have the heart for it, buying an actual book for it. I wouldn't be able to destroy a new book, but perhaps a second-hand or old book with broken spine or lost pages could be found which would find a new purpose like this. Using copies one often can have them done on structured/coloured paper, giving some texture feeling, or you can age the copies with black tea and crumple them a bit.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

*waves*
*hands you cup of tea*

I love pop in guests! :)

Those are all excellent ideas... I do think that having it printed professionally would be a better way to go. I've yet to be very impressed with anything my home printers have done. You're absolutely right: they're good for Christmas letters and temporary things like that, but not really for "art" projects.

And I love the graphic you tossed together. That gives me yet more ideas. I can do graphic arts type stuff pretty well on Photoshop (just don't ask me to do photo manips of people... ugh). I can probably come up with something doable, one way or another, but if I can't manage it, I may indeed come crying to you for help.

And the book idea... I'm like you, I could never tear up a new book, but if I found one already ratty and tatty, that'd be a good way to give it new life. Hmmm. *wheels are turning*

Of course, finding the actual time to do this might be the biggest challenge of all!

Thanks for the tips. And please, come by as often as you'd like, feel free to friend (or not--I'm easygoing that way), etc etc. :)

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

*waves back* *gladly takes cup* *happily friends back*

I'm not even as advanced as Photoshop, though I've meant forever to learn working with Gimp - the time for it is the main problem. *g*
I've now all kinds of ideas what to do with a tatty copy of the book and am going to search second-hand bookstores for suitably tatty Tolkien books.

ETA: I so would love to have a Middle-earth globe, too. The ideas seem just to be pouring right now; I've been thinking of buying a poster, cutting it up in suitable strips and glueing it to something fitting... *ponders*

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Thanks for friending... I've friended you back. :)

Good luck with the bookstore-combing. I love looking through old bookstores but rarely find much Tolkien. Not sure if it's because people around here hang onto their books or if there's just not a big Tolkien-book fan presence.

Be sure to post pics of the globe if you end up making it!

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

Perhaps they literally don't have a long shelf life, but get bought again soon? ;o)

I have given up used-bookstore-browsing some time ago because I was having serious shelf space issues. *g* But actually all my first English editions of Tolkien were second hand, found in Paris. I still have the Silm, but gave the Hobbit and LotR away in favour of new copies - the ones I had were too old and gilded for my taste and usage (and had too small letters, too) but still intact and good to be read. So perhaps I'm going to have another chance.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Have you noticed though how 'those' is always missing! I have a piece of driftwood up in my loo with this exact same quote burned into it but I might take it down before the Smial meeting as I just know everyone is going to comment on the fact it's not quite right!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

It doesn't bother me that it's a paraphrase... I'm just impressed a Tolkien quote made it to the cover of a home-improvement mag in the US!