Watercolor Projects Make Great Gifts

In my husband's family, there are 10 kids. So to simplify (and make it manageable!) we have a rotation of who gives gifts to who each year. The stipulation is that it has to be handmade. In the past I have been really bad about putting these things off, and typically we've broken the rule and bought gifts last minute. For whatever reason, I knew I absolutely did NOT want that happening again this year. So I racked my brain on what our family liked and what was personable and what was not. Thanks to Instagram, I had been seeing a lot of cute watercolor families being made....and everyone loves those right?!

I've always had a thing for watercolors. In my high school art class I was officially introduced to them, but it wasn't until college that I felt that I loved them the most (second is pen+ink for me). I picked up my watercolor paper at Hobby Lobby. I could not find any gummed art paper tape anywhere, and that was driving me nuts, so I just ordered it online through Amazon here. Then ended up at Michael's to grab something else, when I spotted this cute little watercolor set! You guys it ended up being like $2 with a coupon I had. There was no way I was not getting it.





Now would you like to see where I worked my magic? Dun da da daaaaa.....







Okay so you can't really tell, but this is my bathroom counter. Yup, the bathroom is where I paint. It's so super. And contrary to what the picture's lovely lighting is telling you, it actually is the best lighting in the house at 10pm...which is sad and depressing actually (we're renting right now and haaate the lighting in this place...but that's another story for another time).

I started out by sketching their family onto plain printer paper, and then transferred it to the watercolor paper when I was ready (with graphite paper like this). I was so happy about how it turned out, and totally felt proud of myself for getting their gift done before Thanksgiving. Major victory there folks. Here's what I did for the rest of the gift:





I think I'm going to need to make a large one for myself of the "i love you"s. Also, I keep throwing around the idea to start offering these watercolor families or homes-like i showed you on my Instagram a few days ago-in my Etsy shop, but just keep talking myself out of it. I've had peeps tell me I should. What do you think? yay or nay? Would you want one? Would you buy one?