Razorback Football!

This is a painting I did for my brother's birthday. I've been wanting to do a razorback painting with this kind of border. I love it!

Sports, Fancy Pink, and a Guitar!

These three paintings are gifts for three special kids that I know. My husband's sister and her family lived in North Africa for three and a half years, and they just came back to America last week. They haven't found the house they are going to live in yet, but they are hoping to soon. So I did a painting for each of her kids to hang up in their new rooms. Each painting has a black ribbon on the back of the flatboard so that they can hang them up. The sports painting is for Cale, and he enjoys all types of sports. So I think this was a good one for him.

Becca's mom told me that she likes the color scheme of pink, black, and gray these days. Since she is growing up and definitely out of the little kid stage, I decided to do an "older" design of pretty flowers. I like how it turned out.

This painting is for the oldest of the kids. He is thirteen, and he has been interested in guitars since I have known him. He had to sell his guitar when he moved from Africa, so Sinclair took him guitar shopping this weekend. The gibson les paul is his favorite type of guitar, so that is what I painted. I loved getting to do these paintings for the kids. It was exciting to paint something that each of them were interested in. They are such great nephews and neice!

Decor Galore, Or Not

These are a few decorative paintings I have done. The first three are a set of small flatboards that I did when I first moved into my current house. My plan was to hang them together in the main bathroom. But, as many of my GREAT decorating plans go, it didn't work out! For some reason, my husband didn't think they were bathroom-type paintings, or at least not for our bathroom. This is funny to me because he really likes these paintings, and he doesn't want me to give them away! So they are still sitting in a cabinet in the bathroom, and the bathroom has yet to have any decorations other than a pretty shower curtain. I'm okay with that though. When I do hang something up in my house, I want Sinclair to really like it too. We are both just so indecisive with the whole decorating thing!

I think part of my problem with decorating is that I always have it in my mind that we will not be living in this house much longer. We have been talking about moving almost since we moved in. So I feel like there is no point in decorating much because I may not want those same things in my next house. I have been thinking this way for three years! We are just getting pictures and a painting hung up in our bedroom. Anyone want to come decorate my house for me?

This plate painting is actually one that is on a stand on my bar in the kitchen. (I am using this one!) I love daisies, and I liked how this painting turned out so much that I did a few more for Christmas gifts one year. My husband glossed it for me, so it helps add a little more color to my kitchen.

For the Little Ones..

Here are a few paintings that I have done for the nurseries of some little babies. I think I like doing paintings for children best because it's so fun to make these cute little designs. You would never want to hang these in your living room, but they are so fun! A lot of times when people ask me to do a painting for them, they tell me exactly what they want and sometimes even show me other pictures to give me a better idea of what they want, (which is sometimes easier for me!) But with these three, I basically just knew the name of the baby and the theme the parents' wanted. I don't see many people decorate with Winnie the Pooh anymore, so I thought it was cute that the mother loved Winnie the Pooh!

This next one belongs to a little girl whose nickname has become "Ainslee Bear." So her mother wanted a painting with a bear on it to represent that name.

 

I really love this last one! Jonathan is actually the new baby brother of Ainslee, so I got to paint something for both of their nurseries. Jonathan's parents wanted a firetruck theme, and I was proud to be able to get out my ideas in this painting. I wanted to have the hose from the firetruck rising up and spraying out the name in water, and the border is supposed to be dalmation spots, like the firetruck dog. I have a lot of ideas for paintings sometimes, but I can't always get them to work out how I want them to. I am such a PERFECTIONIST! But I am very happy with how this one worked out!



Woo Pig Sooie!

Who doesn't like to represent their favorite mascots? This post contains some of the paintings I have done with mascots. The first two are of the awesome RaZoRbAcKs! I actually did these several years ago as a gift to my husband before we got married. He is a huge razorback fan.. needless to say, I am too. What wife would not root for the team that her husband so enthusiastically roots for? I always prefer for that enthusiasm to be aimed at a win! At our wedding, we even had a razorback cake for the groom's table, and I set up these paintings on each end of the table.

These last three paintings were gifts for my grandmother and aunts in Alabama, who are Crimson Tide fans. These are only 8" x 14" canvases, just big enough to let everyone know which team you support. I can't wait to do a razorback painting like these. I especailly like the borders.. they help give the picture a little more spunk.



Words from God

These are a few of my paintings of Bible verses. The first one was one that I did for my living room. My husband and I both love the verse because it reminds us that we should always consider how our actions portray Christ. If we claim to be Christians, everything we do should positively represent Him. Those who do not know Christ look at us to see what He's like. Although we are sinners and make mistakes, we can still show Christ's grace and love in how we handle those mistakes and how we reach out to others to help them with their mistakes.

 

I love how these next two turned out! The first one was an order from a good friend to his sweet wife for a birthday gift. It has a great message about not worrying. Worrying will not help anything, so just pray about your worries and do your best to let God handle them. Yeah, that sounds easier than it is sometimes, but He'll give you everything you need! I enjoyed painting the flower in the background. I think it kind of helps with the message of having peace in God.

This last painting was an order for a verse to go above the door, which is a fitting place for this particular verse. I had fun making the footprints on this one. I thought they helped make the point that God is watching over you no matter where you go. I had trouble finding a canvas with dimensions that would work for the size of the verse and also fit in the space above the doorway. So, I had my hubby cut out a board with the perfect dimensions, and it worked really well. He's so helpful!

And The Name Is...

Okay! So I thought I would start out my first blog post by sharing one of my favorite types of paintings: Names. Remember in junior high when you would doodle your name and make each letter have its own design? Well, these paintings are just my upgraded version of those doodles! The first time I had the idea to create one of these name paintings was when I was trying to decorate my living room. I wanted to display my husband's and my last name as a decoration, and I came up with this. My husband, Sinclair, was sweet enough to cut out a board for me to put the letters on, and we both loved the finished product! So, the name decoration became a fun one for me when I wanted to create a personalized gift for someone.

Here are a few others that I have done. The first one was a birthday gift that I did for my neice. She had just decided that she wanted to decorate her room in black and lime green, and I wanted to help out! The other two names were gifts for baby showers that I did based on the colors and themes of the nurseries for the expected little ones.