Christmas Decorations, Inspired by Animal Print

Hand painted mini gourds - animal prints of course!

For most of my adult life, I have had a fascination with animal print when decorating. Since early childhood, I have painted almost every wild animal there is on canvas. I own furry slippers, blankets, throws, coats, scarves and jewelry with animal print designs. My favorite is 'zebra and leopard' in home decor as well as clothing. 

Even my dog and cat have their own zebra and leopard print beds. You could say that 'animal print' is a bit of my trademark. 

Re-purposed holiday wreath made with old frame and new ribbon

Over the past few years, I either handmade Christmas ornaments using animal print fabric or hand painted gourds and other items with a jungle theme. I enjoy recycling old ornaments adding gold threads, glitter and feathers. 

 
A few of my favorite ornaments have been purchased at Lucia's Boutique, in Lexington, KY. Lucia's offers fair trade products, allowing artists around the globe to improve the quality of their life.

This ornament was knitted in Peru. I bought it at a Church Holiday Bazaar recently from Lucia's. I imagined an artist or craftsman in a small town in South America, hand kitting this tiny zebra and wondered if they would know that the owner would eventually appreciate their time and work as much I do.

This year, I added my collection of 'animal print' inspire ornaments to a large tree in my den, along with lots of gold and silver bling. My new purchase was a $5 roll of gold mesh for my tree and some new metallic silver and zebra print ribbon for old frames that I turned into wall wreaths. 

Most of my ornaments have been re-purposed with gold and silver glitter. I hope my animal print decorations will inspire you to have fun. Life is short, find whatever makes you smile and share it with a friend. 

These are a few animal print ornaments that I have made over the years.

Oh and if you think for one minute that 'animal print' Christmas ornaments are unusual ~ think again. On a recent Google search for, Images for Christmas Decorations, Inspired by Animal Print, I discovered there were 67,800,000 links. Now I wonder where my Blog posting will fit into all of those pages?

GG's Pet Portraits

Growing up on a farm, I have sketched and painted pets as long as I can remember. Our pets are our joy -- they help us deal with the world around us. 

Below are a few examples that I've painted over the years. My style has evolved ... I once painted pets in oils, but later used pastels combined with acrylics. Now I mostly paint pets with watercolors, sometimes adding pencil or pastels to soften the image. Most of my prices begin at $95 for 11"x14", or slightly smaller if the customer prefers a smaller image. 

Click on image to enlarge

Click on image to enlarge

Click on image to enlarge

Price for each painting, 
(from your photo) is $95.
(Add an additonal $30 for background art.) 

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These are a few examples of pastels and acrylics combined.

Click on image to enlarge

Click on image to enlarge

Click on image to enlarge

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These are a few examples of hand-painted art of your pet, painted on recycled vintage dictionary pages. For each pet, I have selected a page that either describes the pet's breed or the pet's name. There is a special meaning hidden in each piece of art ~ unique to the pet owner.  These paintings are hand sketched and painted with acrylic paint on the vintage paper ~ this is not a reproduction printed on a printer!  

Click on image to enlarge

For the long hair chihuahua named 'Kovi', I have selected a page with the word 'extreme', printed at the bottom of the page. According to Google ~ Kovi means EXTREMES in fortune, health and spirituality.

For the Boxer named Molly, I found a page that had Molly in the text.

mol·ly noun \ˈmä-lē\

by shortening from New Latin Mollienisia, former genus name, from Comte François North Mollien †1850 French statesman

First Known Use: circa 1933

Final dimensions are approximately 8" x 10" and will look great matted and framed in either custom frames or standard frames from your local craft store.

Price for each painting, 
(from your photo) is $95. 

This price does not included professional matting or framing, but I will include a heavy card stock and special clear jacket that will protect your art until you have time to frame it. For future references, an 11" x 14" mat will work with an 8" x 10" opening.

Pet portraits on vintage backgrounds, make unique gifts and are environmentally friendly. A one-of-a-kind piece of art for your home, plus they make great conversation pieces for that special someone.

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None of the materials provided on this Blog may be used, reproduced or transmitted, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, printing, or linking without permission in writing from GG Burns. Removal of electronic copyright information, digital fingerprints, or embedded watermarks on any image is strictly prohibited