California map, cut to the state line

Start with cities, because that is where the buyers are. San Francisco is the standout: the hills give a city street map depth even before you add terrain, and the bay frames it. Los Angeles works best at neighborhood scale. Nobody wants all of LA. They want Echo Park or Manhattan Beach.

Then the big outdoors. Tahoe is a top-tier lake depth map because the drop-off is so steep. Yosemite, Mount Whitney and Joshua Tree are topographic maps people buy after the trip. Wine country sells as a heart-shaped map for weddings in Napa, Sonoma and Paso Robles.

Golf rounds it out. Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines are bucket-list courses, and a golf course map is the souvenir.

Do not forget the inland towns. Fresno, Bakersfield, Modesto, Redding and Chico get skipped by most map sellers, who focus on the coast. Hometown pride is just as strong there, and a state ornament with a heart on a valley town stands out because so few shops offer one.

California is long and leans. At 4 in tall it gets narrow, so inside detail has to be minimal. Use I-5 down the Central Valley, US-101 along the coast, the Sierra crest if you add terrain, and the big water: San Francisco Bay, Lake Tahoe on the east line, the Salton Sea in the south. A heart on the hometown and you are done.

Consider going 5 in for California. The Studio's ornament preset offers 3, 4 and 5 in, and the extra inch gives the bay and the coast room to read.

Two notes on the outline. It is simplified and traces the mainland, so the Channel Islands and Catalina are not in it. And the Lake Tahoe edge sits on the Nevada line, so a heart on South Lake Tahoe lands near the frame. Check the outline in the Studio before you finalize.