You can indeed create your own designs. The way I did it was to draw the design on graph paper with each square representing a yarn. So you can draw your patterns small but rely on them scaling up accurately. Yarn and canvas can be bought in bulk. My first try was a 2 ft x 3 ft Christmas design. I think your first try should be no bigger than that until you get accustomed to the idea. You will develop some tricks of your own, but for starters you will probably simply count squares which actually works, but takes a lot of time. I use markers and transfer the outlines to the canvas so I don't have to count so much. Children's water color markers work best because they wash out cleanly without leaving a stain. By Drawing the letters on the graph paper, you can actually make up several different fonts if you like. Making a copy on graph paper, I have actually scaled up photographs. A lot of fine detail gets lost, but overall the images are very good.