Whatever My Little Heart Desires

There are times when I have been asked by customers to paint something for them to give away as gifts.  Many times people sneak pictures of the nursery or find out the name of the bedding to give me something to work with, but sometimes people just want me to paint whatever my little heart desires.  Sure, I may get some hints as to colors to work with or what NOT to paint or to just paint something "girlie and swirly." 

I feel two different things when I get these types of requests:
1.  I get SUPER EXCITED because I can sometimes paint something that I have been wanting to paint but haven't gotten the opportunity.  Many times "my little heart" desires this type of freedom in my painting.
2.  I get really nervous because I often don't know a thing about the person I am creating art for... if I paint polka dots, what if that is the one thing that they absolutely cannot stand?

Then there's the times where I actually can't think of what to paint!  It is sometimes way easier for me to have some "kidspiration" to work off of, however, in the end, sometimes painting whatever my little heart desires can turn out to be my favorite pieces of art.  If I'm ever stuck, though, I just Google some ideas and eventually something will pop up that inspires me :-)

Whatever my little heart desired:

My friend Katie asked me to paint these for her friend's baby-in-the-belly, Celie.  We talked a little bit about colors and then she told me to "have fun with it!"  I had been dying to paint cupcakes, so I went with it...

Then months later, Celie's mom asked me to paint coordinating letters for Celie's big sister, Elle!  I was so excited to hear how much she liked Celie's letters because they are some of my favorites!  My only rule about Elle's letters was that they couldn't be the exact same... and so, the lollipops were born!

The only hints for this bulletin board were "pinks and browns" which was great because I really wanted to try to paint birds for the first time.  I also hadn't done many whirly swirlys, so BINGO!  

Allison is mommy to daughter Kennedy and son Jackson and wanted to create a message center in her kitchen.  I custom cut these cork boards to fit her slender space so she could hang these one on top of the other.  

I wrote a post about the free fence panels I retrieved from around my neighborhood after Hurricane Gustav swept through Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  A few months later, my husband and I renovated our courtyard and I decided to add some art to the space.  I chose to draw a twiggy tree with four birds... Bo's at the top looking down upon my bird who is close to the kids, James' bird who is learning to fly and Leyson's bird who is still close to the nest.

My sister, Crista, who also paints for Kidspired Creations, had some leftover burlap after her wedding, so she was inspired to paint something that she had seen when surfing on the internet one day.  She wrapped a bulletin board in burlap and painted this adorable owl on it!  I looooove how it turned out!

More to come from my little heart's desires, I'm sure!