Tutorial: Cross-Stitch Painting.

I found this online a while ago and I fell in love:

http://freshome.com/2011/08/17/innovative-decorating-idea-eline-pellinkhofs-wall-embroidery-video/

But I rent, which means that my landlady would be pissed if I painted this on my living room wall. I needed to take this mobile so I decided to bring the idea above to canvas.

I must say, I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out. It's kind of one of those, stand-back-and-you-get-the-whole-picture thing. Now, I'm going to show you how you can make your own.

1. First, you'll need supplies. I borrowed the cross stitch design book from my mother-on-law and found a pattern. There are also lots of free cross-stitch patterns that you can find online.

Next, I went to Wal-mart and found paints according to the pattern. I wanted to do the same colors as the patterns so I didn't have as big of a melt down like I usually do when making the decision of what colors to get.

You will need:

-Canvas

-Pattern

-Measuring tape

-Pencil

-Brush

-Paints

*Tip* When choosing colors such as light pink, medium pink, and dark pink, try to stay as close to the same tone as possible. My colors were a little too much of a jump from one shade of pink to another and I think it would have looked better if I would have only gone one shade lighter or darker.

2. Find a pattern.  I liked this flower the best sans bow.

3. Trim, if needed. Since my canvas was a 24x18", I went easy and outlined 24x18 squares so it would be easy to transfer to canvas.

4. Measure out your canvas and mark accordingly. I only needed to mark every inch.

*Tip* Only mark a tiny portion on the side because pencil doesn't erase easily from canvas.

5. Set your squares. Now, this is something that I struggled with. Pencil doesn't erase on canvas but I needed a way to make sure that I was somewhat strait. I used small glass beads and eyed it between the small marks I made.

I thought about using thin tape but I only had scotch and I didn't want big gaps between my "stitches". If you can think of something better, be my guest.

 

 

6. Start following your pattern and make those x's. Read and reread the pattern because it is so easy to mess up. Just go line at a time and it should all turn out.

And that's that! You're done!  

It really isn't hard to do, you just have to have patience. Mine took me an hour or so to do but depending on how intricate you want it, it could take longer. 

Good luck and I want to see pictures of your cross-stitch paintings!