When one of my very good friends and her new husband bought a house this year I knew I wanted to give them something to commemorate their new home, and remind them of their wedding day. You know, the one that occurred like two months earlier. Just in case she has a short term memory like me.
The thing is, I have trouble giving decor to people. How someone decorates their home is so personal, and even if you think you know their style it can be so hard. I decided to give it a shot though on this rare occasion, and I let her know if she hated it I would have no problem if they tossed it and used the frame for something else. I wanted to make sure it was something I diy’d just for them, so I got to crankin’ the old bean for ideas.
I’ve always enjoyed silhouette art, and was particularly enamored with some of the custom prints I saw of state silhouettes on Etsy, like this one from Cloudless Sky Studios.
I loved it so much, and I felt like Jess & Sam would appreciate it too.
As an FYI, I diy’d this in Inkscape. It’s a free open source vector editor, kind of like Adobe Illustrator, that I use all the time. It can be downloaded here. I can barely qualify as an amateur in Inkscape, so I highly suggest using their Wiki and other tutorials on how to use it. There may be an easier way of doing it, but this worked for me great. In fact, I did mine slightly different and harder – but I cut out all those parts for you and am giving you the easiest way I’ve found.
1.) Go here and get a PDF version of the map you want. Save and extract the file to your desktop.
2.) Open Inkscape and open the PDF.
3.) Click on the name of the state, and the scale that shows up and delete.
4.) Click on the picture, and then choose your colors from the pallet. Right click on the color you want and set the stroke and fill to your hearts content. I kept mine the same colors to get the look I was going for.
5.) Save this pdf template and open it in Inkscape. Just click File, Open and then choose the PDF. StatePrint.
6.) Go back over to your vector state from above. Choose the vector, and then click copy.
7.) Switch back over to the template and click paste. Replace the state of Maine in the template with your state.
8.) Replace the text with your text. To change any colors of any of the elements, just click them and choose the color from the Inkscape pallet.
9.) You can print right from Inkscape, but if you have issues do File, Export and then export it to your desktop and print from that.
Ta Da!
My state looks a little different than above, because as I mentioned, I did mine a little different {and harder}. It’s all the same in the long run though. I changed the name to “the bowies”, which is not my friends last name. I absolutely chose this name after David Bowie. I am in no way ashamed. What babe? The babe of the power.
(photo from manilovefilms.com)
In order to make the photo pop, I chose to use a white frame so the focus would be on the art. I picked up this 11×14 frame at The Christmas Tree Shop for $6.99, and it was already matted.
I simply slid the art in, and was done. I had to photoshop their last name out (and am not skilled enough to put it back in and look natural), but you get the idea.
Thankfully, Jess really seemed to like it, and it unknowingly fit the colors of her house well! Whether she keeps it up or not is totally up to her, but I know no matter what she appreciated the gesture completely since she’s such a genuinely grateful person. Whether you do this for someone else, or just for yourself, it’s a fun piece to make and to have. Maybe that’s just me being partial. Ok, it’s totally me being partial.
I fully plan on doing something similar for our home, based on the heart map idea here. I’ll blog about it. Obviously.
(Photo from http://pinterest.com/pin/142352695/)
xo,
Heather
