Painting for Baby Hicks

Just finished a canvas for my sweet friend, Erin, who is due any day now with baby girl #2! She sent me pics of the bedding (super cute mix and match stuff from Target) and I picked up some receiving blankets last time I was there to match the colors better. Here's what the quilt looks like, plus some pics of the bumper, which is dots and stripes.

And.....here is her painting. It's on it's way to Colorado as I blog about this. She really wanted me to emphasize the brown, pinks, and greens.


I don't know baby's name yet, only that her initials are T. L. H. She asked me to do initials, plus a scripture, and the only way I could figure out how to do both in the middle was to overlap them. I was going for the initials to look like they are in the background, and the scripture laying on top.

Stripes for the sides

a little stitching around the pink rectangle to pull in the stitching in the pattern

Hope she loves the painting!

First Canvas

Some of you may know that I have been painting alot lately, usually name plaques that match some sort of baby or kids' bedding. Up until now, I had been doing all of my paintings on wooden boards, which works pretty well, but they are really heavy! This is kind of what you may be used to seeing.........

This one was for Charise, using the patterns and colors in her baby bedding. The scripture around the initial her mommy and daddy picked out. You've probably already seen the one I painted for Sophia's room to match her Pottery Barn baby bedding that was recycled into big girl bedding.......

the pillow pattern that I followed

Well, my friend Sara that lives in Ohio wanted me to paint something for her little girl Emily's room, and I didn't think shipping a huge piece of MDF would be so much fun, so I decided to try a canvas instead. Emily is almost 4years old, and this is a sham from her bedding that Sara graciously mailed to me so I could match colors and get an idea!

Here's her bedding that I went off of...

And here's her painting.....on canvas. There are a few things I learned about painting with acrylics on canvas. Sara - thank you for being my guinea pig!! I learned that canvas is much more unforgiving with paint than wood. Brush strokes are more easily seen and the paint dries faster, making it harder to make the color even and blend. Pencil markings aren't so hot on canvas. On wood I could just erase it right off, on canvas it was much harder. I don't always draw out everything, but I still draw out alot. I'm not talented enough to just take the paintbrush to the canvas without any direction yet! I don't trust myself. However, I do like painting on canvas because it is a lot lighter and easier to maneuver. I like these particular canvases from Hobby Lobby because they have a thick side that I can paint too.

like this.....
You can't really tell in the pictures, but I chose these particular patterns for the sides to match the vines and flowers on the bedding. The sides are a pale pink. I did stripes on the front because I didn't want it to turn out too "babyish" since Emily will hopefully have this in her room for awhile and she's a big girl now!
Here's the final product with the bedding. Sara - I hope you love it and that you don't see this before I ship it to you tomorrow!!