Inside: How to make your own modern, custom family tree art using an inexpensive engineer print! Full tutorial for using Canva to find images and fonts, and how to size the poster for printing.
With Mother’s Day on the horizon, you might be on the look out for a sentimental gift that won’t break the bank. Well, today – I’ve got a super cute tutorial for how you can make your own custom family tree art with a modern twist that definitely does not cost a lot of money!
I’m not sure if this is family tree or a genealogy tree, but either way, this wall art is definitely more in line with the subtle decor that’s popular these days. It’s super easy to customize, resize and swap the images and it’s perfect to give as a gift!
If you’re into printing out neat photo art, I have a couple other posts too – including my Instagram inspired Family photo wall and this tutorial for how to turn family photos into watercolour art for super cheap!!
How to Design Family Tree Wall Art
I love using Canva to make my printables and graphics. It’s really user friendly once you get the hang of it and the best part is that it’s totally FREE to use!
When you log in on the home screen, select that you’d like to make a poster in an 18×24 size. Make sure you zoom your screen to 100% so that you’re able to really see the design properly. 
Create a text box (on the left of the screen) and write in your dates for your family members or the key dates you want on your poster. I used the font called Nixie One, which you can find in the drop down menu.
Then toggle over to Elements and search for Vintage Tree graphics! A whole bunch of options will pop up and at most, you’ll pay $1.00 for the copyright to use them. Slide your chosen tree into the centre of your poster. Check to make sure it’s aligned with your text and you are good to go!
How to Print your Engineer Print Family Tree
When you download your graphic from Canva, make sure you title it at the top in the purple bar and then download it as a high-res PDF (for printing).
Make sure you are only using high contrast black and white or the printing won’t turn out.
The next step is to bring it to your local print shop and have them print out your tree as an Engineer Print. These are literally the prints people use for house blueprints and architecture – so you can only use black and white. The amazing thing about these prints is they are giant and only cost $1.49!! I had mine printed out at my local Staples and it took them just a couple hours to do. 
I would call ahead to make sure your store can handle engineer prints first, as I think some places don’t have the printers on site.
Then I just popped my print into an 18×24 poster frame and it’s all done!
