Tag: gift ideas for moms

How to have a custom portrait painted of your pet

Posted on by isadora

Ordering a custom painting of your pet in three easy steps!

Having a portrait painted of your pet is a fun and easy process! Just follow these three easy steps:

  1. Choose the style of portrait you'd like. Options range from colorful and contemporary, to stylized and dreamy.
  2. Take some great reference photos of your pet. A few tips are to get out into natural light, or take the photo by a window, and get down to "pet level" for the photo (often this means sitting or kneeling down on the ground to take the photo). Send quite a few photos to give me lots of images in my "tool box" from which to work!
  3. Let me know all about your pet. I want to know the quirks that make your pet unique, and stories that illustrate your pet's personality are fantastic! Again, this gives me a nice, full tool box while I'm working on your portrait! My goal is to make the painting or drawing "breathe" with the life of your pet, and every detail you provide adds to my ability to do so.

That's it! The rest of the process is up to me. I'll send you sketches, color swatches, and will keep you in the loop along the way.

Please let me know if you have any questions at all. I look forward to working with you to create a piece of art your family will cherish!

The Best Mother’s Day Gift Ideas – buy hand-made

Posted on by isadora

Hand-made gifts last a lifetime

Recently, when we gave one of my hand-painted, personalized jewelry boxes to a relative at Christmas, I was humbled by the response. My husband's cousin was absolutely thrilled and immediately got in touch to say how much the gift meant to him and his daughter. "This will last a lifetime" is the response we received. How amazing to think of a gift lasting a lifetime, when so much that people buy these days are throw-away items.

Mind you, this is a jewelry box that I sell for only about $30 in my shop. But what floored him was not the price, and that's the beauty of hand-made and personalized gifts. It was the fact that this gift is one-of-a-kind. We didn't run to the store at the last minute and buy something in a hurry. This is a gift that was thought out and created with care, just for his daughter.

The point of all of this is that we have a choice when we give to those we love. I encourage everybody to give thoughtfully, and if possible, to give hand-made from a small shop or individual artist. If it's something from my shop, thank you! I think my hand-painted gifts and pet portraits are fantastic gifts that will last forever. But even if it's not from my shop, I encouraging supporting any working artist while giving unique and beautiful gifts that come from the heart.

Happy Mother's Day to all of those amazing moms out there!