Here's a really easy personalised idea for a child's room or nursery.

I sometimes find it hard to buy a gift for a baby or little person that I don't see all the time. What toys do they have? Are their parents already bemoaning all the stuff they have and where are they going to keep it all? I usually go with clothes as that seems safer but when someone was born in January and you gave them clothes for Christmas sometimes you just need something a bit different.

I made this canvas for my cousins baby/toddler for his first birthday. He's the baby I made the Diamond Crochet blanket for - time flies!

It was really easy and inexpensive. I went with a motor racing theme as that is what his parents are really into and as it's not babyish it should last as he gets older.

To make one similar you will need:

• A blank canvas

• Acrylic Paint & brush

• Nice quality printer paper

• Glue, Scissors, craft knife, computer & printer, sharpie

The canvas I used was 8" x 15" (20cm x 34cm), it was from a pack of 3 from Wilko's which was less than a fiver. 

I painted the top surface with 2 coats of red paint, leaving the sides white.

Next I used Picmonkey's design feature to write his name in a chunky font called Smash. I made the letters a really pale grey then printed them reversed. To do this I just imported the picmonkey image into a word document then flipped it, how you do this depends on what version of microsoft or whatever your computer runs on. 

I did a quick google search for "racing car silhouette images" and "racing flag" and found some that are royalty free, and printed them too.

I cut the letters and pictures out, mostly with scissors just using my craft knife for the tricky bits, then spent a ridiculous amount of time arranging and rearranging them on the canvas! Then I just glued them, grey side down, with Mod Podge.

Next I went over the top of the letters and pictures with a coat of mod podge to seal them.

After this all had dried I used a sharpie to draw a very simple chequered flag design round the canvas edge.

And that was it - done! A unique personalised gift which hopefully he will enjoy for years.

If motor racing is not your thing you could do pretty much any theme. 

The other themes I considered were a bit more traditional like:

• Pirates - I was thinking blue canvas, simple pirate ship cut out, maybe a Jolly Roger flag. The edge could be waves perhaps.

• Jungle - green, with vines round the edge. A couple of animal shape cut outs.

• Knights - maybe a grey canvas with a brick pattern drawn on? The edge could be castellated, then a knights helmet and lance silhouette added. You could make it 3D with a feather coming out of the helmet!

• Mini Beasts - green canvas, with ladybirds, snails and other mini beasts added. The edge could be grass.

• Diggers - yellow, with a silhouette digger. The edging could be like hazard tape.

Honestly the options are endless! You could cut an image from a sample of wallpaper or wrapping paper instead of a silhouette if you like. Have fun!

Julie

I'll be linking up this project at some of these lovely link parties