How to Make a Mosaic Tile Portrait of Your Pet

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Jennifer Stern, contributor

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This is my new wall hanging featuring a mosaic image of my dog Emma.

Jen Stern

Here's the original picture of Emma before I cut it up.

Jen Stern

There are a bunch of different brands of Inkjet Fabric Sheets. I think Printed Treasures works the best. It comes in an iron-on version that's great for this technique!

Jen Stern

This is my new wall hanging featuring a mosaic image of my dog Emma.

Photo: Jen Stern

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My quest for fun pet projects has inspired me to decorate one of the blank walls in my new house with a unique portrait of Emma, my pet and beloved running partner. Some days I don't know what I would do without Emma; she motivates me to get out there and just do it! I was thinking that I didn't have any good pictures of her hanging around, so I took some—what a pretty girl, she loves to pose for the camera! I decided to have fun with the pictures—after printing them onto Inkjet Fabric Sheets, I cut them up into squares. After piecing a fabric background out of neutral tone-on-tone prints, I spent the next few hours playing with pieces. I have to admit, I wish I had more time to experiment with spacing them in an arrangement that was a little less traditional...I challenge you to see what you can come up with! When I was happy with the arrangement, I added a sprinkle of machine embroidery and a quick stippling job with some monofilament thread to hold all the pieces in place.

Just a technical note: I whacked my camera lens (and broke it—yuck). I had to use a 50mm without zoom...I did the best I could.

These printable fabric sheets are a little pricey (around $10 for three) and so are ink cartridges, so take care that you put them in the printer the right way. If your photo ends up on the paper side, you can try to print it again on the right side.

This is my new printer—I love it! The ink cartridges are all separate, so if I run out of blue, I don't need to buy a whole new color cartridge...I think that works out better.

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Comments (4)

littlednme writes: What a cool idea! I LOVE mosaics and my dogs! I can't wait to give it a try. Thanks for the idea!
Posted: 7:13 pm on July 19th

JenniferStern writes: Hi Meredith and Linda, Thanks for ringing in. I would use the fusible version from Printed Treasures, it works great, and you don't have to do the step of dealing with separate webbing. And, I've washed it in gentle and it stays fused and the colors stay pretty good too! Here's the address for Printed Treasures (that will take you right to the fusible version. http://www.printedtreasures.com/products/ironon/Pages/IronOn.aspx
Happy sewing!
Posted: 1:13 pm on February 15th

LindaPermann writes: this came out cute. do you have a recommendation (as far as brands, etc go) for the printable fabric sheets? i have been curious to try them, but the last ones i bought were not washable. thanks!
Posted: 8:31 pm on February 14th

MeredithP writes: I love this mosaic idea. Having never worked with the printable fabric, it sounds like there is a fusible version? That's cool, because as I was reading I wondered whether you could fuse some web on the back before cutting. My "subjects" would have to be locked away while working on this, they would love to help with all those pieces. This is a neat idea and any photo would work. Thanks for the inspriration.
Posted: 2:02 pm on February 14th

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