Holiday Present Idea #5 – Painted Canvases

    Hello! I know that it is not the holidays anymore, but I like to give gifts all the time! This is the fifth installment of the Holiday Gift Ideas blog post series, and this one is about painting canvases for people. This last Christmas, I painted a few canvases for people that were personalized to them.

     I really love making gifts that are specfic to specific people, because I know how special it makes people feel! I also recently realized that I can cover these paintings in resin when I am done with them, and then I can futher personalize the resin to the person’s liking.

     Even if you do not want to paint a canvas, or paint at all, there are still a bunch of different things you can make as gifts that are personalized. Other things that are similar to this one include melting crayons onto a canvas that are their favorite colors, doing some abstract painting for them, pouring paint on a canvas to create a cool design, and writing them a nice letter that is personalized to them.

     Personalized gifts, I believe, are the best kind of gifts. Having the person in mind while shopping for them is one thing, but then creating something with love in your heart for them is on an entirely different level. I know that I always feel like the person who gives me something like this really cares about me.

     I painted one of these for my good friends, and it was a recreation of some street art that we had seen while walking around downtown Las Vegas. It says “The president doesn’t care about you” and I colored it different colors than the original.

     This was the first personalized canvas I made for the holidays and it was a challenge. I had never before tried to recreate something so exactly, that was such a unique font. I am glad that I did it and I think it came out really well! It also helped me inprove my painting skills and open myself up to painting new kinds of things.

     The second painting I made during the holidays was the Bentley logo for my boyfriend. We had recently started painting car logos for him to hang up on his wall, so I thought I would add another to it! This one took a really long time and was also really difficult. I did make a few mistakes, but I am really proud of how this came out.

     I’m also very happy with the practice that I did while painting it. A few years ago, I would never have even imagined that I would be able to do things like this. I’m really excited to make more of these, and also things like this. I never knew that I could be good at creating logos with paint, or anything like that, so I am excited to see how far I can push myself in this area.

     The next painting that I did was a logo of a band that my friend really likes. I wanted to do something related to music for him, because that is one of the main things that we tend to bond over. After painting the other two canvases, this one did not present much of a challenge since I already had all of that practice before. It did take a while, and a lot of layers of touching up, but it turned out really nice.

     After I was done with it, I wanted to add a pop of color but wasn’t sure what would look best, or if something I did would ruin it. So, I finally realized I could cover it in resin. I put a little bit of purple pigment into it, since that is his favorite color, and did two coats. It turned out nice and glossy! The purple really shone in the sun and I am really proud of how the whole thing turned out.

     The last painting that I am working on (a few of these did not get finished during the holidays, and a few are not even started yet) is for my dad. I know that he really likes small flowers, so I made a vine design on a black background and put a bunch of tiny pastel flowers on top of it. I am still going to add some more flowers in the upper right hand corner to fill out the canvas.

     I was going to fill the whole canvas with these flowers, but then I stopped working on it when it was halfway done, and my boyfriend suggested that I leave it at that point, so I did. I may put shiny resin on the top, or just clear resin, but I am not sure about that part yet.

     I also have a few more ideas for other people that will be coming later in the year. When I give them to these people, I am going to tell them to just pretend that it is Christmas. If you decide to do this for your friends or family, make sure to leave yourself enough time for everything you have planned out.

     Thank you all so much for reading my blog post and supporting my journey! If you ever want to try out one of my gift ideas, please send me a picture because I would love to see it! I would also really appreciate it if you wanted to share this post with anyone you know, since I am trying to grow my following!

    P.S. If you or anyone you know has just gotten into resin or would like to get into resin, make sure to check out this blog post: Tips I Learned While Using Resin! This is a collection of all of the tips I have learned since I have started using resin. I am constantly updating this with all the new tips I learn as well!

    P.P.S. If you would like to read any of my other posts that I have made about gift ideas, here are some links: 

Holiday Present Idea #4 – Coupon Books

Holiday Present Idea #3 – Sun Phase Cards

Holiday Present Idea #2 – Memory Notecards

Holiday Present Idea #1 – Resin Ashtrays