I came up with the project just a few weeks before we were planning to move. Not a great time to start a time intensive project, however, most of it was completed while sitting at the splash park while Zoe played, or on the long drive to California for a wedding reception.
Materials:
- Funnel Cake Digital Stamp from Studio Calico (The template I used was a limited time digital stamp, and is no longer for sale. However, you could use a digital map template and free hand the letters, or watch for the actual digital stamp to be returned, sometimes Studio Calico will put old stamps back on sale for short periods of time.)
- Needle
- 6 colors of embroidery floss.
- 6" embroidery hoop
- flour sack towel
- 12x18 canvas
- graphite pencil/water soluble pen
- staple or glue gun.
I re-sized the map to 11x17 in Photoshop, and printed it on two sheets of paper. I taped them up to my window and then taped the towel on top of it, pulling it taught, but not enough to distort the image. I used a graphite pencil to trace because I knew this project was going to take more than a couple days and sometimes the water soluble markers fade.
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| Tracing took about an hour. I did not trace all the fun accents for this project because I wanted to be able to clearly read the states and I was worried about the small spaces. I was right in this assumption and I'm glad I didn't add them, even though they are awesome! |
I used a back stitch for this project. If you are not sure how to do a back stitch or need a reminder, there is a great tutorial here. Small stitches make the cleanest lines, they take longer, but look better.
Having it mounted on the canvas makes for easing hanging. This bad boy will be on our gallery wall with some other pieces of art I've collected. For now, it's sitting on top of my bookshelf.
The stitching took about 40 hours. It sounds like a lot, and it was. Texas took over an hour to stitch, but the finished project is so worth it! Once I finished the stitching, I ironed it out. I starched it quite a bit to get it nice and stiff, before mounting it on my canvas.
I centered the map on my canvas and then tightly folded the edges and stapled. You could also use hot glue, but I would wait until you are sure each side is cool and dry before moving onto the next one.
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| The back of my canvas. My trimming was not very neat. |
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| Finished Project |
I hope this project encourages you to make use of your digital stamps. Digital stamps have so many uses and are great items to invest in. This is one of my favorite projects to date.
XOXO,
Holly & Co.
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