Embroidered Custom Canvas Prints

This post was inspired and sponsored by Tiny Prints.

Like most other mothers, I take an insane amount of pictures of my kids. This year, I’m really trying hard to not just take pictures but to print them out too. Thank goodness Tiny Prints came to the rescue! From stationary to mugs, photo books to canvas prints, they have hundreds of ways to help you enjoy your pictures in real life. You’re going to love all the ways you can create custom canvas prints!

The canvases are beautiful just by themselves but I wanted to add a bit of an artsy custom touch so I went with embroidering one of my favorite childhood sayings. The process was relatively easy but as time-consuming as most embroidery can be. I love how this print turned out so it was totally worth it to me!

The hardest part of this whole process was probably deciding which pictures I wanted to put on the Big Photo 10×14 Canvas from Tiny Prints. I went with two of my favorites, Jack kissing a newly-born Max and our Wild Things Halloween picture. While I absolutely love our Wild Things picture, it didn’t work at all with an embroidered overlay. The picture is busy and the words would have only made it busier, better to just leave it as it is!

Once I had decided to work with the Kissing picture, I designed and printed out the words “I Love You To The Moon And Back” on a piece of vellum paper so that I could kinda see what the finish piece would look like. One thing to keep in mind when you’re designing your words, keep it to the center of the print. You won’t be able to go all the way out to the sides of the print because of the wood frame the canvas is stretched around. I think an 8.5″x11″ sheet works nicely in the middle of the print.

Ok, now comes the scary part! After dropping a good amount of money on your canvas print, the last thing you’re going to want to do is punch holes in it. Don’t worry, you can do this! Tape the vellum sheet in place and begin punching evenly spaced holes around the letters with a small embroidery puncher or thumbtack. Take your time and make sure that the paper isn’t shifting at all.

With the holes punched, now you can start the lengthy process of embroidering the words. This isn’t going to be a 15 minute craft so you might as well pour yourself a cup of tea, start an audio book, and enjoy the calming effects of weaving thread in and out of tiny holes over and over again! I used three strands of floss to prevent the words from being too bold but you can do what’s best for your art.

It took approximately four episodes of Battlestar Gallactica over two days to finish this. Not bad when you consider I would have just been sitting there anyway!

Hope you guys enjoyed this fun way to create custom art with your own prints! Don’t forget to check out my Free Coloring Pages if you’re looking for more nursery art. The “I Love Everything About You” works perfectly!