Mother’s day, Father’s day, Christmas and Birthdays are always a great reason to think about, and give gifts to, those we love and hold special in our hearts. I love the idea of putting my own personal touch on a gift (or getting your kids to put their own special touch on it).
It might be a gift made from the heart, something repurposed or upcycled, or as in this post where I take something new and personalise it for someone special.
You can apply this technique to almost anything really. Even checking out second hand-shops for funky objects that can be painted. Here I purchased a salt and pepper grinder and salad servers from Mitre 10, but you can buy similar kitchen gifts from many different places.
I also used brown paper to create some funky personalised wrapping paper. And I think this makes it just that little bit more special!
I really love the idea of personalising something with your own design. I’ve given you a step-by-step process here for how I created these. But this is definitely a craft idea where you should let your creativity flow.
Personalised Gift Ideas
Salt and Pepper Grinders, Salad Servers and Wrapping Paper
You will need
Wooden salt and pepper grinder
Wooden salad servers
Brown Paper
Resene paints – Fluoro Pink, Dust Storm, Norwester, Reinee
4 paint brushes in various sizes
Resene Aquaclear or similar varnish
Masking tape
Salt and Pepper Grinder
What to do
1. Tape off the top quarter and bottom quarter of the salt and pepper grinders.
2. Using Dust Storm and your largest brush paint in a few curved strokes.
3. Using a middle sized brush, paint in the Reinee, making sure to start over the taped edge with a few of the strokes.
4. Using a smaller brush, paint in a few Norwester stokes. Don’t be too worried about where each mark goes just choose different, random spots and fill up the spaces.
5. Put the grinders to one side and let these colours dry completely before adding more layers.
6. Once your first coat is dry, just go through steps two to four again, until there are no more gaps. It’s fine to paint over some of your earlier marks completely.
7. If you like, fill a paint brush with paint and drip some pink around the grinder. This helps break up the pattern a bit. Then leave again to dry.
8. Once your grinders are dry to the touch, add some swipes of the Fluoro Pink and set aside to dry.
9. Once the paint is completely dry, carefully pull off the tape. Finally, add a thin layer of semi-gloss, water-based polyurethane over the entire grinders, being careful not to paint the gap where they twist.
10. To make sure the grinders are food-safe you must leave the varnish to cure for at least 48 hours.
Salad Servers
What to do
1. Tape off the handle of the salad servers.
2. Paint the handle in Rainee and let it dry. So you don’t ruin your paint work stand your servers up in a jar, or large glass to dry.
3. Now swipe on a few strokes of the Dust Storm and Norwester.
4. Dribble a small amount of Dust Storm onto the handle.
5. Set the servers aside to dry.
6. Using the Fluoro Pink put your last few marks onto the servers.
7. Once the paint is completely dry, carefully pull off the tape. Finally, add a thin layer of semi-gloss, water-based polyurethane over the entire grinders.
8. To make sure the grinders are food-safe you must leave the varnish to cure for at least 48 hours.
Wrapping Paper
What to do
1. With 4 different sized paint brushes chose a colour for each brush. This will give your lines different sizes and more interest to your finished piece.
2. With your biggest brush add some large swipes of Dust Storm around the paper (or whatever colour you chose first).
3. Now add the Reinee with the next size brush. Do this by placing it next to the Dust Storm. And then add a few lines on with Reinee around the page with the very tip of the brush.
4. Using the next smallest brush paint on the Northwester next to the Dust Storm and Reinee. I also added a few single ones randomly around the page.
5. Lastly add in a few swipes of Fluoro Pink and some dots.
If you liked this project make sure to check out some of our hundreds of other craft ideas.
