Hi everyone, it’s Dani! I’d like to share the gift I made for daughter Cece’s 11th birthday. She’s been super into Sanrio for the past year so I decided to incorporate her favorite characters in a custom painting for her room. When looking for inspiration, I found her favorite Hello Kitty t shirt from Target that features mushrooms and a few Sanrio characters.
I love the mushroom house and decided to create a forest scene. Her favorite Sanrio characters are Cinnamoroll, Pompompurin, Marumofubiyori, and Littleforestfellow. I imagined the characters strolling through a forest on the way to visit Cece at her mushroom home.
First, I needed a canvas so I headed over to Hobby Lobby. I found a frame with a wood insert that was on sale for $4.49!
Next, I painted the frame blue, made a very light sketch with a pencil, and started testing paint colors.
I decided to outline the paint with paint markers since the Cinnamaroll and large daisy I drew are white against a white background. I used the paint markers available on Amazon here. I also wanted to make the frame more interesting and cute so I ordered mini half wood beads from Amazon as well, available here.
Initially, I painted a large bow surrounding the forest scene but I wanted to add texture so I ended up gluing pink fuzzy yarn on top of the painted bow. I twisted the yarn to keep it from being too fuzzy as I glued.
Anytime I’m working on a handmade gift, I add in something personal. Sometimes, it’s a hidden quote or inside joke. For this gift, I added the Japanese symbol for the word daughter. Cece loves learning about Japan and hopes to visit one day!
Can you find the Japanese symbol?
What would I do differently next time?
- I would try to find the wood beads as a strip or use a trim…it took a long time to glue each one on individually.
- I used hot glue for the beads which left strings everywhere that ended up getting painted😐 It would be better to use wood glue!
- The wood “canvas” part of this frame had a slick surface that my watercolor/acrylic paints didn’t stick to…I ended up using craft paint made for wood crafts.
I had so much fun creating this custom gift for Cece! The best part is how much she loves it and I’m so proud to see it hanging on her wall. Handmade gifts aren’t perfectly drawn or flawless…they are expressions of love, the greatest gift of all ❤
Did you know there are over 450 Sanrio characters? Which ones are your favorites?