A Little DIY Artwork

My friend Jessica is wishing her baby girl a very happy second birthday today!  Happy Birthday Jill!  Man, does it go fast!  Their family just moved into their very first home and Jessica requested that I paint something for Jill's room.  Jessica, who is a very savvy seamstress, has been holding on to this vintage fabric for a long time waiting to have her daughter's permanent room to decorate.  Isn't it gorgeous?

The inspiration

So, she let me borrow the fabric so that I could match the general colors.  She also noted that she would like Jill's name up in the room too.  So, why not get two birds with one stone?  Here is the final product (not in it's final destination, of course).  So, Jessica, if you don't want to see this before tomorrow...stop here!

I think it turned out pretty darn cute.  Here is a close-up of each individual painting:

Now, I don't think that you have to be an artist to create something similar.  Here is what you need:

• one canvas for each letter of the name (these are 8" x 10")
• acrylic paint
• paint brushes in varying widths

Once you have all of the basic materials, start to generate ideas.  I played around with different fonts (there are tons of online sites to try - I like http://www.fonts.com/) until I was happy with the layout.  Then I came up with some simple background ideas.  If this part scares you, try stretching pretty fabric over the canvas - that would be sooo cute!  Now, it's time to paint.

For the striped ones, I did the background first.  Just use a straight edge and mark your lines evenly apart with a pencil.  Now, with a steady hand (or tape), paint the stripes.

Next, paint the letters...I don't think there is any way around freehanding these...unless you want to spend money on a stencil.  But, feel free to draw it out on paper first and then cut the letter out, and then trace the outline on the canvas.  Paint in your letters.

Finally, embellish the backgrounds.  I also added a contrasting outline around each of the letters just to make it pop out a little.

Your final product:  A very cute, personal, and inexpensive piece of artwork.