DIY Baby Shower Gift

Have you ever had to go to Babys'R'Us to buy a gift for someones baby shower? I have, and it was terrible.  One of the most overwhelming experiences to date.  I never knew there were so many options for onesies, wet wipes, diapers, baby nail clippers, and bottle nipples.  Needless to say, I vowed that from here on out I would craft or paint my baby gifts and you should too!

Start with a 5"x5" wrapped canvas and paint a basic background color.

Next, draw a cute sketch on tracing paper.  We are using tracing paper so that we can transfer the sketch to the canvas.

 *Hint! if you fold tracing paper over the image you can see how changes would look. I did this to see how the elephant would look with a beach ball.

Place your sketch over your canvas. Once you find where you want the image to go, tape down the tracing paper a piece of painters tape.

 Grab some transfer paper! I like Sally's from Dick Blick.

 Place the graphite transfer paper, with the darker side down, under your sketch.  Use a fine pencil to "re-draw" your sketch. The force of the pencil forces the graphite on the transfer paper onto the canvas.

When you take the paper away you should have something like this:

Nifty huh?!

As you add color, think of it as a "color by numbers.  By leaving thin lines as separators, you can go back with your outline.

Wait to add your outline until all the colors are dry.  Then use a fine tipped brush and black paint to add an outline. Try this Outliner (sometimes called a Highliner brush) from Dick Blick.

Outlining can be stressful and tedious. Probably a good idea to outline BEFORE you have a cup of coffee.  Jittery hands make for jittery lines.

Pretty darn cute!

M.