My sister-in-law and I are huge paint by numbers fans. She (Lauren) is a photographer, graphic designer, and extremely talented painter. Lauren has more talent in her little finger than I have in my whole body, although I can also snap a decent photograph. But even with our disparate talents, we both love paint by number projects. This past summer, their family came to visit for a few weeks and we spent every evening at the dining table working on paint by numbers while we chatted.
A few weeks after she went home, we had the opportunity to take over this web site. We were so excited! What better way to take a deep dive into our love of paint by number projects than to run our own retail store? In addition to all of her other talents, Lauren is a wiz with website coding (she kind of makes me seem pointless, doesn’t she??), so the first thing she did was give the site a little facelift and pull some of the really cool stuff to the front where you could see it. So now, in addition to giving all of you easier access to all the great projects we have, I have a list a mile long of paintings that I want to tackle. I don’t have enough walls in my house. But since it seems that I have a lot of painting ahead of me, I did go on Pinterest and get some ideas for an art station in my room. It only took one afternoon for me to turn a corner of my room into a perfect place for my projects. This is how it turned out:
Sadly, though, Lauren and I could paint a hundred years and still not get the chance to paint all of the products we offer. But then we had an even better idea--what if we turned some of our own photos into paint by number kits? Her pictures are absolutely stunning, especially her close ups:
And I have a collection of travel photos from some of the most recognizable spots in the world. So I tried it. I went to Florence, Italy with my daughter when she was in college studying abroad, and I caught a beautiful picture of a wine and cheese shop on one of the back streets. I love that photo. I had it printed, painted it, and loved the painting even more.
I framed it and hung it in my living room. Didn’t it turn out great? If you haven’t read the blog post about the benefits of doing paint by numbers, then this is one of them—even those of us with less than stellar talent can create a decent painting.
So Lauren is hard at work creating a spot on the website for our originals. We plan on adding a few comments to give you the story behind each photo. Meanwhile, I get excited about all of this stuff, so I’ve already put a few of them up, even though she doesn’t have the collection ready:
We hope you enjoy our originals. They’ll take a bit longer to get to you, since they have to be custom printed, but you’ll have a unique piece that isn’t available anywhere else.
As I was converting one of Lauren’s photos into a painting, I thought about what a great mural it would make. I live in a log cabin in the woods, so a mountain landscape would fit perfectly on my wall. I scoured the internet, and I couldn’t find a paint by number mural kit anywhere. I discovered that PBN murals are a thing. The techniques for getting them from concept to completion, however, take a good bit of artistic skill. Lauren has it. I don’t.
There had to be an easier way.
I worked with the idea for a while, and I figured out a simple way to convert a canvas paint by number into a wall mural…yay! So we developed a kit and decided to share it with our fellow paint by number enthusiasts. We’re working out the paint colors as we speak, and then we’ll roll those out for you to try.
My husband also owns his own business. He’s a brilliant entrepreneur. We were at a friend’s house one evening, where the lady of the house and I were talking about my new venture. She mentioned that she was having a paint party at her house in a few days, which, to me, sounds like a lot of fun. So, of course, on the way home, I told my husband we should have one at our house. He responded that our web site should offer simpler projects as paint party kits. I so love that idea. So you can bet that’s the next project on my list. Keep an eye out for those soon, too.
Needless to say, Lauren and I are absolutely thrilled to be sharing our love for paint by numbers with you, and we’re happy to give you a peek at what’s to come. Please post your projects when you finish-we’d love to see them. And we’ll do the same.
Until next time!
Shawnassey and Lauren