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Friday 2 July 2010

Family Gift

You know when you are doing art or a present for someone else, you try and think of what they would appreciate?  In my case its how far can I take the distressing effect without them thinking 'that's a bit scruffy,' lol.  I don't know about how your relatives and friends are, but very few of mine are into art or craft so its difficult for me to give them anything thats not too 'straight', if you know what I mean (hopefully, or I'm just rambling!)  I did try, with this family picture I have made for one of my brothers:


When we met recently, I was sad to hear that he was suffering from depression and I thought I would like him to think his family was thinking of him as he tries to come through it.  So I made him this family picture set  (I have left the tags blank to add some personal journaling). 

The background is foamboard (nice and light for posting!) painted with gold paint first and then blue on the top.  I then added the photos and the buttons.  I was thinking of adding paper flowers but realised that my brother would not appreciate those at all! So buttons it was. Then I started inking the edges of the board and the tags.  I love adding gold to deep blue, its such a rich combination that works so well together.  I could have stopped there, but no, I just couldn't resist adding some more gold, the rub-on transfer scrolls, that ended up being much more shabby than they should have been, because they wouldn't come off where I wanted but other bits came off on parts where they shouldn't.  Maybe it was because I used a pencil rather than the proper tool?  

Seemed to work OK though.  I just covered the errors with more rub ons!

Hopefully the finished piece will be 'straight' enough for him!

See you tomorrow,
qwiksave

5 comments:

Kandi said...

I know what you mean, most of my family think I am nuts and some of the handmade gifts I have given in the past have been openly scoffed at - they would have preferred somthing I had bought. Odd. This is lovely and not too arty but beautiful enough for him to be touched by it! Hope he finds the support he needs my family has been touched by depression and it's hard to deal with.
Kandi x

artydoll said...

My family must be like yours,they look down their noses at something handmade.
I love recieving something made with love rather than an after thought,quickly bought cos they nearly forgot your special day.
Maybe its an age thing ,I always made hand made gifts as a child and am still doing it at 64.

Unknown said...

My family is a bit of a mix. My close family, my sisters, Dad, Craig, Craigs Mum and my girls all love handmade gifts and are in their own ways crafty. One of my sisters is heavily into woodwork and glass etching, another into tapestry my younger sis is a phenomenal sketcher and amazing with 3D graphics, Craigs Mum is a knitter Craig himself makes his own bird cages (though call him a crafter and he scoffs loudly) but family outside that circle I wouldn't even bother. I've had looks and comments so they can go stuff themselves - not wasting my time and energy on them. :P I don't care what you think about someones hobby - if they are openly passionate about it who am I to go casting aspersions? I get really annoyed when people don't afford me the same courtesy. Those people don't usually get anything let alone something I have lovingly made :P

I adore ths picture and in all honesty think the buttons work perfectly. The gold bits are gorgeous and can't see where you went wrong it all works so well - I bet he loves it :D

Nicky Stevenson said...

Thanks crafters! I see quite a few of us have problems with relatives not appreciating our gifts made with love.

I haven't sent this one off yet so I don't know how it will be received but I'm thinking it will be OK. My brother will just be surprised I sent him anything as we don't usually bother with each other. I'm also hoping he'll appreciate the reason behind it which really is the main thing.

You can't really tell, but some of the transfers attached themselves to the faces on the photos! It was quite tricky getting them off without scratching the photos (and that is also why the tag is placed a bit close to my sister's head!)

Carole said...

this is lovely ! a perfect personal touch :)

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