Before we settled in to our current home, our family had two stops. Our first home was an adorable and tiny cape cod across town. Then we were briefly relocated to southern California and found ourselves in an idyllic 1930s beach cottage.
We have such fond memories of our lives in both homes. In our first house, there was so much excitement being newlyweds and later welcoming our first child. And in the California house it was a once in a lifetime adventure out west.
For our anniversary this year, I made sketches of both homes as a gift for Jason. Not only did they turn out pretty cute, they're a great way to remember when... Remember when we couldn't afford furniture and used lawn chairs in that living room? Remember all the shoveling from Snowmageddon? Remember the coastal breeze through the dutch door? Remember when I tried paddle boarding while I was super pregnant?
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Every place we live comes with memories and I think this project really captures those. If you'd like to give it a try, read along.
What You'll Need
Printed picture of the home you'll be drawing. For mine, one image was from Google Street View and the other was from an MLS listing.
Broad Sharpie permanent marker
Thinner Sharpie felt-tip pen - If you're feeling wild, just get a multi-pack
Straight edge
Double matting, because it's fancy - I used this white on white one from Michaels
Frame - I used this one from Michaels
Access to a scanner - I scanned and printed the finished sketches at a FedEx Kinkos
Directions
1. Place a piece of tracing paper over the photo of the home and begin tracing with your Sharpie marker and pen. While you can go very detailed and exact, I found a really rough, cartoon-like outline was much easier to execute and brought some personality to the image.
2. Don't worry about scale too much, because you can adjust that when you scan the image in. It's better to be too big than too small.
3. Feel free to take liberties with your image. For example, the California house had an old Adirondack chair out front that would be a little difficult to trace. I just left that chair out. I also decided that I didn't like the way the table and umbrella out front were looking and redid that section on a fresh sheet of paper by extending the flower box over the area where the table was.
4. Once your home is completely traced, you'll be ready to scan it in. When I scanned it in, I put another piece of plain, white printer paper behind the image because the tracing paper was semi-transparent.
5. If you are super skilled and super careful, you were probably able to trace your house without smudging, but I was neither of those things. I also needed to reconcile the two images I had to make the table and umbrella situation go away. You can definitely do this project without using Photoshop. If that's your plan, skip to step 7.
6. If you don't have it on your computer, the workstations at FedEx Kinkos often have Photoshop and you can use the software for some minor touch ups to smudging, or even for a heavier lift, like layering two images. I had to do this when I removed the umbrella from the scanned image and layered on the window and flower box.
7. Once your image is ready to go, send it as a jpg or pdf in an online print order to your print shop, or just talk to someone at the store and bring your image on a thumb drive. If you're unsure about dimensions, someone there will be able to help you and can assist with selecting a higher-quality print paper. I chose to print the house centered and smaller on a large, 11x17 matte paper. Printing both images cost me less than a dollar and time spent using the scanner set me back $7.
8. Finally, sign your work! Then place the matting around the printed art and pop it into the frame.
After giving these to Jason for our anniversary, they were promptly hung for all to enjoy.
Looking for more DIY art projects? Check out this roundup: Free (and Nearly Free) Art Alternatives.
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