Showing posts with label paintbynumber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paintbynumber. Show all posts

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Paint Everything By the Numbers!

Note: A few weeks late, but here's the second part to my post about paint-by-numbers. This is a solution for affordable yet custom home-made art for your home. Make your own! Use this software I installed more than a year ago, Paint by Numbers from the Color Wheel Company. It's incredible, a really good idea. I wish I had thought it up. You can turn a digital file into a paint by number diagram complete with the corresponding paint colors derived from three craft paint companies partnered with Color Wheel. You can even choose how difficult to make the project, by adjusting the amount of detail you want to capture which effectively limits the number of colors the software assigns to your image. After you've made those adjustments, the program will spit out a shopping list of which colors to purchase in order to make the combinations needed to complete your custom piece. My original plan was to use this kit to create canvases for my living room walls, much like this project from Better Homes & Gardens publications. I saw on a website that this process would be good in replicating a photo into embroidery or needlepoint patterns. How cool. This software could be used to make great gifts. Imagine, you could create a painting from a picture you took of a friend's new baby, the quick shot you took at a wedding, or a picture you took at your last get-together. Or you could go one step further (or back, depending on your point-of-view) and make this into a "gift kit".
  • Choose the photo or use a friend's favorite picture.
  • Buy a stretched canvas, create the diagram using the software, and transfer the design.
  • Print out the shopping list and buy the assigned paint colors.
  • Package these up with brushes, a little plastic palette, an easel, Handi-Wipes, and a nice frame.
Voila! A decorative gift and relaxing activity all in one.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Paint the whole world by numbers!



Many companies (more than you would expect) still produce and sell paint-by-number kits. Unfortunately, many that you see in craft stores are for children, which are not only limited in complexity but also in subject matter. There are far too many adorable baby animals and sea creatures available. Far too many.

However, the best quality kits are still available online and the best are landscapes, some of them vintage designs like mine below.

Autumn Gold

There is also a very modern New York street scene and a French cafe scene I've seen before that I would love to own, but examples like these are few and far between. If you find a great kit, snatch it up because I haven't seen that New York one in years!



I wish paint by number would catch on again. In a way it did after an exhibit at the National Museum of American History in 2001-2002. Produced at the same time was a companion book called Paint By Number: The How-to Craze that Swept the Nation. Here are some other books and combination book and kits on the craft that are available.

RealArt! The Paint by Number Book and Kit

Paint By Number Kit: Everything You Need to Re-Create 8 Vintage Masterpieces Complete Paint-By-Number Set

Painting By Numbers

Painting the Great Masters by Number

Painting by Number is definitely a great way to relax, which is why it was so popular in the post WWI years. They do not need a lot of skill or talent but still impart a feeling of accomplishment when done and hanging on your walls.

Here are some online sources where you can still buy
quality kits:

CraftHouse

Craft-Stop

Dimensions/PaintWorks - the best collection of the bunch

HobbyLinc

Hobby Masters

Jo-Ann's

New England Arts & Crafts

Reeves