Embroidered photos | DIY

My favorite ways to preserve memories is through pictures. I love looking through old black and white photos of my (early) childhood and even when I can't remember the actual event in the picture, they mean the world to me.
I found this picture of my mother and younger brother at the baltic sea, in front of them a somewhat shapeless heap of sand that I think was supposed to be a pretty sand castle. Oh too sad! But why not add a little fun and pops of color to the photo and 'build' one for them ... with thread!?
This is a fun craft that combines photography and embroidery. How cool is that? I can remember I did this kind of photo-embroidery-thingy when I was a kid so it's also a craft revival. Yay!
Don't fear, you don't need any embroidery skills for this.

Step 1: Find a photo that you want to embellish and print it out. In order to prevent the paper from ripping at the places where I would have to push the needle plus thread through, I printed on 300g/m³ paper (this) and it worked really really well.

Step 2: Draw your design onto the photo. Using similar colors to the thread colors you want to use makes the lines practically invisible. I added boats, a fish, a bucket and a sand castle to the picture.

Step 3: Another precaution to keep the paper from ripping (and to make your work a lot easier) is to punch all the holes before stitching. I used a simple pin to push a hole in every corner and crossing on my designs.

Step 4: Now chose your thread colors and start stitching. Trace all the lines. You can also retrace lines in the photo or fill an area by stitching many lines next to each other.

And there it is - a very personal and colorful work of art! These make great gifts for your loved ones, too! I made this embroidered photograph the week before Christmas in order to give it to my mother but decided against it last minute (too many photo-related gifts in the past and they have only so much room in their house). Now its hanging in our work space and looks so cute that I'm thinking about making some more to keep it company and look extra cute together.

There are very cool versions of embroidery on photographs on the internet, too. Have a look at these awesome projects/artworks:

the glamorous housewife

Nichole Alvarado

flore gardner

do small things with love

photojojo

jose romussi

Izziyana Suhaimi