Welcome to those of you who have come over from Domestic Witch's blog to check out my homemade gift project. Dawn had this great idea of collecting craft projects from bloggers. A big thanks to her for organizing this -- it has been great fun to visit everyone's blog and read about those fabulous projects -- talk about enough ideas to last for more than one holiday! For those of you who are first-time visitors, here's a short introduction of myself:I enjoy taking photos as well as creating digital collages and Artist Trading Cards. Occasionally, when I have enough time at hand, I also love to use glue, scissors, papers, acrylic paint, rubber stamps, and all those neat odds and ends like brads, eyelets, ribbons, and charms. My creations often have a vintage or gothic touch. If had to name five fields which influence me creatively, I would choose Halloween, the Old West, southwestern design, Disney, and vintage images of all sorts. I live in Munich, Germany -- my hometown is called the "World City With Heart."
Anyway, now to my homemade gift -- it's a painted or decorated mirror. So what is a mirror? According to Wikipedia, it's "an object with at least one polished and therefore specularly reflective surface. Mirrors are commonly used for personal grooming (in which case the old-fashioned term 'looking-glass' can be used), decoration, and architecture." If you have some time, read the whole article at Wikipedia -- it's fascinating. In any case, let me just mention that mirrors have played a big role in entertainment, art, and literature for centuries, and that there are several myths, legends, and superstitions surrounding mirrors. All in all, a mirror is a common, yet intriguing object -- perfect for a personal gift.One of the best -- and most inexpensive -- mirrors for painting and decorating is the Malma mirror by IKEA. It's available in three colors -- black-brown (which is definitely more black than brown), pine, and red, and has a size of 10 1/4 x 10 1/4 '' with a comparatively large frame.
So far I have painted two mirrors as gifts -- one for a friend who loves otters and the other for my mom in a southwestern design. You first have to find the right motif for the recipient. Think of what this person loves -- maybe a favorite animal or candy or book (e.g. Twilight). If drawing and painting isn't really your strength, you can always turn to easy symbols like stars, hearts or letters. Think also of the recipient's favorite color and maybe the style of his or her place -- pop art, elegant, only pastel colors, or a simply black and white. Other than painting the mirror, you can always take out your glue gun and decorate the mirror to your heart's desire with gemstones, sequins, buttons, scraps of paper or fabric, photos, and little trinkets which reflect the personality of the person to whom you want to give the mirror.For the otter mirror, I started out with a sketch: 
As you can see, I leaned towards the art style of Native Americans from the Northwest. I wanted a stylized look of the otter which wouldn't be too hard to paint four times all around the mirror's frame. To copy the image on the mirror, I first cut out the otter and made little holes in the sketch with a sharp pencil. I then placed the sketch on the first spot on the frame, tracing its outline and then using the pencil on the ready-made points. With the help of those reference points, I lightly re-drew the whole sketch with a pencil. Then it was time to repeat the procedure three times. Once all the four otters were chasing one another around the frame, I used deco markers by Edding (pens with permanent water-based pigment ink) in red, black, and white to color the sketches.
Finally, I ended up with this:
For the southwestern design, I used deco markers (yellow, red, blue, black) again, this time just drawing freehand on the mirror.
I hope my sample mirrors give you an idea how to create a mirror for a special friend or family member. Thanks for visiting my
blog -- it would be nice to welcome you here again.
