What Moms Want for Mother’s Day – Make it Unique with a Custom Portrait

Ideas for Mother's Day can be hard to come by sometimes. What do you get for the woman who raised you and continues to love you more than any other human being on the planet, despite everything we put our moms through over the years… I mean, let's be honest here. From writing on the walls to stomach bugs to broken vases, our moms have cleaned up after us and loved us through thick and thin! They deserve something really special on their special day.

Never fear, I have you covered!

Moms love something that is unique, made just for her. Order your mom a custom portrait of her favorite pet, or of her grandchildren. Next to you, there's nobody she loves more!

If time is getting tight, you can still do it! I offer gift certificates for my custom portraits as well, which allow your mom to be a part of the process as I create the portrait for her, with her input along the way. It's a fun process and again, something so unique she'll treasure it for years to come.

Christmas Gifts for Pet Lovers

It's time to start thinking about Christmas gifts, especially if you want to give a unique, custom gift such as a hand-painted pet portrait. I already have half-a-dozen orders in for Christmas. I love those early orders, because they give plenty of time for me to spend making their portrait just right!

I have many options available for the pet-lovers on your Christmas list. Check out my Pet Portraits page for a variety of styles of custom-painted portraits for everybody on your list. I offer everything from traditional pet portraits, to bold and colorful pet portraits, to tattoo-style paintings of you pet… even Day of the Dead style pet paintings! A custom pet portrait is a one-of-a-kind gift that is surprisingly affordable and sure to be treasured for years to come. My portrait options start at less than $100!

If you're looking for something a little different for the dog or cat lover on your Christmas list, try browsing around my Etsy shop. I have many ready-made gifts such as hand-painted tote bags with a variety of art on them, already painted dog and cat art, prints and more. Explore, and find a hand-made gift for everybody on your list!

Happy holiday shopping!

Click on any of the images below to order a similar style of pet portrait! You'll see all of the size and pricing options right on the page in my shop.

Pet Portrait Sale – Custom Pet Portraits 10% Off

I don't do sales very often, but I'm doing one now… that means that my pet portraits, prints, hand-painted tote bags, hand-painted jewelry boxes, and original art are ALL on sale! Check out my Etsy store at www.artbyisadora.etsy.com to browse all of the awesomeness that you an save on.

For the month of April, everything in my Etsy shop is 10% off when you use the coupon code SPRING at checkout!

Check out some of the great items I have on sale. If you see something you like, click it and it will take you right to that item in my shop!

Now selling on Vango Original Art

I'm happy to announce that you can now shop for my original artwork on Vango!

Vango is a website dedicated specifically to original artwork. It's a great way for buyers to shop for quality pieces outside of a brick and mortar gallery while supporting indepent artists such as myself. Shopping on Vango allows the artists to continue beautifying the planet with their creations, while allowing you, the art lover, to decorate your living space with hand-made goodness.

Please swing by my page on Vango to see my latest creations!

vango

Custom Pet Portraits Make Great Gifts!

Best Gifts for Pet Lovers

When it comes to people who adore their pets, you know what kind of gifts they treasure most. Gifts that relate to their pets! Even better are personalized pet gifts. The challenge can be finding items they don't already have, and ones that will last a long time.

The best gift for the dog, cat or horse lover in your life (or bird, reptile, you name it!) may be a portrait of their pet. Looking at the responses I've received from some of my clients who have commissioned a portrait of a friend or loved one's pet, it's a surefire win in the gifting department!

Click here to order a portrait!

"When I saw the painting for the first time I was amazed and knew my wife would love it… [it] even brought her to tears. This one painting symbolizes so much for me, my wife and our puppy Rey…"

"Beautiful. I couldn't think of a better way to honor the memory of my dog… I love it!"

"Such wonderful paintings! I can't wait to order more!"

"Perfect gift for a family that recently lost their pet."

If you'd like to order a portrait, the process is easy and fun! Click here to view available sizes and pricing details. You can also give a gift certificate for a portrait to allow your friend or loved one to be a part of the process as I create the painting.

Bottom line: the perfect gift that will last a lifetime is a click away. How easy was that?

How to have a custom portrait painted of your pet

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!

Rockabilly and Tattoo-Inspired Gift Ideas

Searching for "tattoo gifts" can lead to some pretty terrible, cliche suggestions. Below are a few that are actually cool. Enjoy!

Personalized Traditional Tattoo Print

This print is beautiful, and can be personalized with any names or phrase you would like.

It makes a great wedding or anniversary gift with the sweeties' names in the banner, or you can have any phrase you'd like placed in the scroll, such as "True Love" or "Never Forget".

It's printed on a really heavy, textured, beautiful paper with gorgeous inks, and it's under $20, no matter which size you choose (8x10 inches or 11x14 inches, which will both slip right into a standard frame).

Click here to get it!

Pin-Up Jewelry Box

Have you bought some jewelry for your honey, and you need the perfect box to put it in? You're covered…

All three of these boxes are pretty fantastic.

Vintage-style pin-up girl: This sailor-style beauty is traditional and gorgeous. Click here to get it.

Swallow on red box: This one comes personalized on the front with your sweetie's name. Click here to get it.

Custom pin-up box: Have a box created with your sweetie as a pin-up, along with her name! Totally unique. Click here to get it.

Personalized Throw Pillow

Here's a gift that can be snuggled up to every night… and it is personalized!

Click here to get it!

There are some other designs in the store, including an anchor and scroll, or a heart and arrow with a scroll. They're all great.

Koi Fish Traditional Tattoo Print

This is another gorgeous print.

Traditional Japanese tattoo-style art with swirls of water and koi in a yin-yang design. It's printed on beautiful, heavyweight paper and cmes in perfect sizes to drop into a frame. An easy gift that'll look great on the wall.

Click here to get it!

Create her name in hand-painted letters!

If your sweetie likes cherry blossoms, here's a great idea. Order the letters of her name painted with traditional wind bars and cherry blossoms.

Or, order a word, such as "love" in the letters.

No matter how you do it, this is a gift that will last for years and will be enjoyed every day.

Click here to get it.

Tattoo Art Gift Tags

Top of your gift with one of these gift tags. The scrolls on the fronts of the tags are blank so that you can write the name of your gift recipient in them. What a unique idea for gift tags! The name becomes a part of the art (and the art, by the way, is really beautiful)!

Also great is the fact that these tags aren't made from paper, like most gift tags. They're made from a heavy-weight card stock, so again, not a throw-away item.

Click here to get them!

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

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!