Giant Map Ampersand

Recently I have been putting some time into making my studio a bit more presentable. Now that I can outsource all my messy work to Nottingham Hackspace I can focus on a more tidy space.

When reading my new favourite blog Apartment Therapy I noticed a penchant for giant letters.
As you can see from my logo (my avatar on here) I love ampersands, so it was only natural that I make a giant ampersand.

I also spotted a 'map' letter on Pinterest so I knew I had to make a GIANT MAP AMPERSAND

Here is how I did it with some double sided tape, a knife, some corrugated cardboard and an old military map.
(to make it super easy, it helps to have a projector and a computer)

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Step 1: Trace & Cut

There are three ways to trace your chosen letter onto your cardboard.

Use a projector to project the letter onto the card, then trace by hand
Print out a series of pages from your printer and tile them together
Use a small print out with some sort of grid reference and try and free hand it

I used the projector option as I wanted to use the exact same font as from my logo. So I took the computer generated logo and output it as a vector so I could easily scale it on the projector.

If you have a simple letter, like a H, or an N you can get away with drawing it by hand. If there are lots of curves I recommend printing lots of pages from your home printer and piecing them together. Obviously if you can borrow a projector at work, or at school it makes for an easy job.

Once you have your shape traced, use a Stanley knife (box cutter) to cut out your shape. Remember to use a cutting board, otherwise you will have a GIANT CARPET AMPERSAND and a GIANT ANGRY WIFE.