• 60 ideas
  • Checked October 2026

Map Art Ideas

Three map art pieces per press, with the map or paper each takes and the first cut, fold or line.

Map Art Ideas

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  1. A mosaic of punched map circles sorted into sea, field and townMap scraps, 3 colors. Punch a pile of circles, sort them by color and glue them in touching rows.
  2. Height bands painted pale to dark as the contour lines climbContour map, 1 sheet. Mix one color in four strengths and paint each band between two lines a step darker.
  3. A row of houses cut from city street grids with roofs of green parklandCity map, 1 sheet. Cut the walls from the densest blocks and each roof triangle from a park or a field.

Next step More silhouettes to cut and fillWatercolor washes to try

All 60 ideas

Shapes cut from old maps 12

  • A butterfly cut on the fold so the roads mirror each other Road map, 1 sheet. Fold the paper with the print inside, draw half a butterfly on the fold and cut both layers.
  • A feather cut from a map and snipped into barbs along both edges Atlas page, 1. Cut a long leaf shape with a river or road as its spine and fringe the sides at a slant.
  • A flock of birds cut from sea-blue map pages, flying across a white sheet Atlas pages, 2. Cut every bird from open water so the flock is all one blue, and glue them in a rising curve.
  • A garland of pennant triangles, each from a different region Atlas pages, 4. Cut them all from one card template and fold the top of each over a string.
  • A hot-air balloon whose panels are slices of six different maps Map scraps, 6. Cut six long petal-shaped slices, lay them side by side and hang a plain paper basket below.
  • A leaf cut where one main road runs up the middle as its vein Road map, 1 sheet. Slide a leaf template around until one main road runs up the middle and smaller ones branch off.
  • A mosaic of punched map circles sorted into sea, field and town Map scraps, 3 colors. Punch a pile of circles, sort them by color and glue them in touching rows.
  • A name spelled in letters each cut from a different map Map scraps, 1 for each letter. Trace wide capital letters on the back, reversed, so no pencil shows.
  • A row of houses cut from city street grids with roofs of green parkland City map, 1 sheet. Cut the walls from the densest blocks and each roof triangle from a park or a field.
  • A sailboat pieced from two map colors: tan land hull, blue sea sails Atlas page, 1. Cut the hull from a tan or green patch and both sails from blue, and glue them on plain white.
  • A tree with a trunk cut from mountains and a crown cut from lowlands Physical map, 1 sheet. Find the brown high ground for the trunk and a green plain for the crown.
  • A whale cut from ocean pages, with a strip of coast along its belly Atlas page, 1. Place the template so a little land runs along the lower edge. It reads as the pale underside.

Maps you draw 12

  • A compass rose designed first, with your own emblem for north Plain paper, 1 square. Fold the square in half three times to find eight directions and draw a point on each crease.
  • A kingdom with mountains as rows of small peaks and forests as tree marks Plain paper, 1 sheet. Invent three symbols, draw them in a key and repeat each one to fill its region.
  • A map of the backyard drawn for a beetle Plain paper, 1 sheet. Make a flowerpot the size of a mountain and label a puddle as a lake.
  • A sound map of your street: a symbol wherever something can be heard Plain paper, 1 sheet. Sketch the street plan lightly and add a mark for each sound, bigger where it is louder.
  • A strip map of the way to school: one road, no side streets, five landmarks Plain paper, 1 strip. Draw the route as one line and add only what you would tell a stranger to look for.
  • A treasure map with the trail counted in paces from landmark to landmark Plain paper, 1 sheet. Draw the coastline first, then three landmarks, and write the paces along each leg to the X.
  • An invented island whose coast is traced around spilled rice Plain paper, 1 sheet. Drop a handful of rice, trace around the edge of the pile and brush the rice away.
  • An invented town plan with every street lettered with a food name Plain paper, 1 sheet. Draw a river and a main road first, hang side streets off them and letter the names.
  • The route a story's hero took, mapped from start to home again Plain paper, 1 sheet. List the places in order first, spread them across the page and join them with a dashed line.
  • Your bedroom mapped from straight above, with a key in the corner Squared paper, 1 sheet. Pace the room, let one square stand for one pace and draw the bed as a rectangle.
  • Your day as a subway map: a colored line for each activity Plain paper, 1 sheet. Use only straight lines and 45-degree bends, and mark each hour as a station dot.
  • Your hand as a contour map, each knuckle ringed like a hilltop Plain paper, 1 sheet. Trace the hand, then draw rings inside the outline that close in on each knuckle.

Folded and layered maps 12

  • A fleet of paper boats folded from map pages on a blue sheet Atlas pages, 5. Trim each to a rectangle and fold the classic hat-into-boat, sea side out.
  • A hanging ball of map circles glued flap to flap Map scraps, 20 circles. Fold three edges of each circle up to make a triangle and glue the flaps together.
  • A lantern rolled from a map with a pinhole pricked at every town Road map, 1 piece. Prick each town dot with a pin, roll the map into a tube and stand it over a battery candle.
  • A paper crane folded from a square of open ocean Atlas page, 1. Cut a square that is mostly water and start with the printed side facing down.
  • A pinwheel on a pencil that spins a map into a blur Road map, 1 square. Cut in from each corner, bring every other point to the middle and pin it to the eraser.
  • A pop-up mountain range inside a folded map card Physical map, 1 piece. Fold it in half, cut slanted slits across the fold and push the peaks inward.
  • A rosette made from a pleated map strip fanned into a full circle Road map, 1 long strip. Pleat it evenly, glue the two ends together and press the center flat.
  • A stacked hill: card layers cut along a map's contour lines Contour map, 1 copy for each layer. Glue a copy to card, cut along the lowest line, then the next, and stack.
  • A tiny accordion atlas made from one long folded strip Road map, 1 long strip. Fold it back and forth into eight panels and glue a card cover to each end.
  • An envelope folded around a letter from a single map page Atlas page, 1. Open out a used envelope as the template, trace it on the map and fold on the same lines.
  • Hills torn from different maps and layered into one landscape Map scraps, 5. Tear a ridge line along the top of each and overlap them, the palest map at the back.
  • Two maps woven together: strips of land through strips of sea Map sheets, 2. Cut slits across one, cut the other into strips and weave them over and under.

Paint and ink over a map 12

  • A big stenciled letter painted across a map Printed map, 1 sheet. Tape the stencil down, dab on thin paint with a sponge and lift it straight up.
  • A constellation made by joining towns dot to dot in white ink Printed map, 1 sheet. Pick six or seven towns that make a shape, ring each dot and rule a line from one to the next.
  • A deer left as bare map while everything around it is painted white Printed map, 1 sheet. Draw the outline, paint up to the line from outside and let the roads fill the animal.
  • A found poem: every word blacked out but the place names you keep Road map, 1 sheet. Circle a few names that read well in order and paint out the rest with black.
  • A night map: the land painted dark, a dot of yellow on every town Printed map, 1 sheet. Paint thin black over the land so the roads still show through, then dot the towns.
  • A river system as a tree: trunk at the sea, a branch up each tributary Printed map, 1 sheet. Find where a river meets the sea, paint the trunk there and let each tributary be a branch.
  • A watercolor sea: the water washed blue, deepest far from land Printed map, 1 sheet. Wet the sea areas first and drop the color in away from the coast so it fades toward it.
  • An animal found hiding in a coastline and inked in Atlas page, 1. Turn the page around until a bay or headland looks like a head, then add an eye and legs.
  • Every field between the roads filled with a different pen pattern Road map, 1 sheet. Treat each road as a fence and fill each space with stripes, dots, checks or waves.
  • Height bands painted pale to dark as the contour lines climb Contour map, 1 sheet. Mix one color in four strengths and paint each band between two lines a step darker.
  • Leaves printed over a map in see-through paint Printed map, 1 sheet. Brush thin paint on the veined side of a leaf and press it down so the map reads through.
  • One river inked in thick blue from its source to the sea Printed map, 1 sheet. Find the mouth, follow the line upstream with a pencil first, then ink back down.

Places that matter to one person 12

  • A bookmark strip that keeps the road you travel most down its middle Road map, 1 strip. Cut a strip that keeps the road down its middle and glue it to card the same size.
  • A family tree where each leaf is cut from that person's birthplace Map pieces, 1 for each person. Cut one leaf shape for all, write a name on each and glue them to a drawn tree.
  • A house-shaped window cut in card and laid over your own street Local map, 1 piece. Cut the house out of the card, not the map, and slide the map behind until home is in the door.
  • A luggage tag showing the lake where you learned to swim Local map, 1 piece. Glue the piece to card, cover it with clear tape and punch a hole for string.
  • A moving-day card with the new town showing through a cut window Local map, 1 piece. Cut a circle in the front of a folded card and glue the map behind it, the town in the middle.
  • A paper magnifying glass whose lens frames the block you live on Local map, 1 piece. Cut the lens hole from card, glue the map behind it and add a card handle below.
  • A pin map on cork: a pin for every place you have slept a night Printed map, 1 sheet. Glue the map to a cork tile and use one pin color for home and another for away.
  • A timeline of jar-lid circles, one for every place you have lived Map pieces, 1 for each home. Trace the same lid each time and glue the circles in order along a strip.
  • A vacation route stitched in red thread through the paper Road map, 1 sheet. Prick holes along the route with a pin first, then sew through them with a needle.
  • Three framed hearts in a row: born here, grew up here, live here Map pieces, 3. Cut the hearts the same size and write the place and the year under each one.
  • The towns of two friends joined by one stitched line Map pieces, 2. Mount both on one card, mark each home with a dot and sew a line of thread between the dots.
  • Your state cut out along its own border, a star punched at home State map, 1 sheet. Cut along the printed border and punch the star from the back with a small craft punch.

How it works

An old map is patterned paper: blue for water, a mesh of roads, names in small type. These 60 pieces cut it, fold it, paint over it, or start from a blank sheet and draw a new one.

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Choose the patch before the shape

On patterned paper where you cut matters more than what you cut. Slide a template around until a road runs up the middle of the leaf, the whale lies in open sea, or your own block sits inside the paper lens. Only then draw around it.

What a drawn map needs

A printed map carries a title, a legend and a scale, and many add a compass rose showing north, east, south and west. A treasure map or a made-up town reads as a map once it has the same: a key of invented symbols and a north point.

  • Draw templates on the back of the map, reversed, and no pencil line shows on the front.
  • Atlas paper is thin. Glue it with a glue stick, since wet glue wrinkles it.

Questions and answers

What are good ideas for map art?

Start with a place that means something: a paper magnifying glass whose lens frames the block you live on, a vacation route stitched in red thread, or three framed hearts for born here, grew up here, live here.

What are map art ideas for kids?

Maps you draw need only paper and pens: a treasure map with the trail counted in paces, your bedroom mapped from above, an invented island traced around spilled rice, or a map of the backyard drawn for a beetle.

What can you make from an old road atlas?

Cut shapes such as birds, a whale or a butterfly, fold boats and a crane, weave two pages together, roll a lantern, or paint over a page and leave an animal as bare map. Shapes cut from old maps holds twelve.

What is a contour line?

A line on a map that joins points of the same height, so each closed ring is one level of a hill. Three ideas use them: a stacked hill of card layers, height bands painted pale to dark, and your hand as a contour map.

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