Book Review – Making Art From Maps

Making Art From Maps by Jill K. Berry $14.99

I love this BOOK! The only problem is I don’t have any maps, not even old ones. I think we have Google maps to blame for that. I am looking forward to grabbing some maps from garage sales and making something fun. I once made a bag like this one Playing Cards Purse using pages from an old atlas. This would have been around 20 years ago. I guess that makes me pretty cool doesn’t it ! You have to check out this book and be sure to add it to your Crafting Bookshelf.

Making Art From Maps : From origami to paper cutting and decoupage, love of paper crafting has soared, and with it the variety of paper types used by artists. Among these are maps – an apt choice for any crafter: they’re easy to find, often free, meant to be folded, and their colorful surfaces add an allure of travel to every project.Making Art from Maps is equal parts inspiration and fun. Jill K. Berry, author of Map Art Lab returns, bringing her expertise in maps and her wide-ranging skills as an artist with her.
With her cartographic connections, she takes you on a gallery tour, introducing you to the work of some of the most exciting artists creating with maps today. Designer interviews are accompanied by 25 accessible how-to projects of her own design that teach many of the techniques used by the gallery artists.

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Rina Stitch, a Ukraine-based cross stitch designer, has a wide range of cross stitch designs to suit a lot of different tastes.

Of their more than 280 patterns as of this writing, 69 fall under a Christmas theme, but there’s also Easter patterns, boho designs, flowers, gnomes and more.

Since it is the biggest category and we’re still sort of in that season, let’s check in on the Christmas cross stitch section. There are lots of fun, classic motifs like a Christmas tree in the back of a red truck, a snowman holding a heart ornament, bells and lanterns and gingerbread houses. There are hot chocolate mugs and lots of gnomes, penguins and bunnies in holiday situations.

One of their patterns to first catch my eye, though, was this Easter egg stitched in pretty pastel flowers. The design is 67 by 93 stitches, which comes to 4.79 by 6.64 inches or 12.16 by 16.87 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric. It uses 11 colors and includes full cross stitches, backstitch and beading. (There are beads in the centers of the flowers, which you could omit but it’s a lovely effect.)

Another fun section to check out is the lettering section, which includes letter designs made with flowers, as well as a script font you can use on other projects. You can buy letters individually, say if you want to make a project for a baby’s room or make the initials of a couple for a wedding present, or you can buy the full set as one download.

If you like the boho look, there are some fun projects here for you, too. Mountains, succulents, llamas and more can grace your walls with these fun designs. I of course love the cat in the window with plants, but that’s because the cat is black and I have a black cat, too.

Check out Rina Stitch on Etsy for all this and more, and let me know if you know a designer I should put in the spotlight!

[Photo: Rina Stitch]

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