You know, really never know what the web is going to throw at you next. The great people over at Stamen Design (if you’ve never heard of Stamen you are really missing out – they are probably the best data visualization company I know) have created a watercolor version of Open Street Maps.
Why?
Because they can.
It’s a wonderful example of how you, with the web, you can build on what others have done. Pictured below my home town of Vancouver – I suggest zooming out a little as the city really comes into focus when you can see more of its geography.
Some Bonus Awesomeness Facts about all this Stamen goodness:
- Stamen has a number of Creative Commons licensed map templates that you can use here (and links to GitHub repos)
- Stamen housed Code for America in its early days. So they don’t just make cool stuff. The pitch in and help out with cool stuff too.
- Former Code for America fellow Michael Evans works there now.
eaves.ca 
Not to be too picky, but I believe you meant to say OpenStreetMap maps rather than Google Maps.
Michael – You have every reason to be picky! It is Open Street Map. I suspect that OSM’s license is more permissive which is what makes this type of re-use possible.
Wow, this is a rock’n map. I like OSM approach, it is nice to see maps owned by a community and not a corporation. I have created custom maps using cloudmade (base maps provided by by OSM) and you can style it yourself, but this map is much better looking (in certain circumstances at least). Thanks for posting.