Boot Scootin' Boogie

Happy Monday!

So I have been painting these beauties for about a month now, and I have been spending a lot of time on them because there is so much detail involved in painting cowboy boots. Taylor and I talked a lot about what designs she might want included on her boots, and this is what the final product looks like:

The boots have maroon, white, and a hint of turquoise in the detailing I did with my handy dandy paintbrush. What you can't see very well in the photos, much to my dismay, is the hint of sparkles and glitter I added on top of the maroon. It really looks great when the light hits that glitter! I also added a few rhinestones here and there to add a touch of glitz. It's always fun to have snazzy shoes- especially for game day!!

Let's take another look. Here's a picture of what these kicks look like from the front, back, and side!

(The front is my personal favorite!)

texas a&m custom painted boots

 Now let's take a look at the back! Taylor wanted me to include her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, onto her designs, so I painted "Kappa" in turquoise to match the detailing I painted. Another fun touch was adding tiny rhinestones to the "T" in the Texas A&M logo.

texas a&m custom painted cowboy boots

 Now a glance at what the boots look like from the side:

texas a&m custom painted boots

 I hope y'all enjoyed reading about one of my many projects from this summer. Don't forget to follow @bkraftydesigns on Instagram to get another glance into all of the designs I have been working on lately. It's tons of fun! If you are curious about how to place an order for custom painted boots, shoot me an email at bkraftydesigns@yahoo.com.

Have a great week!
-Bethany

Heart of the Hills

Good afternoon, blogging world!

So yesterday was opening day for the camp I spent ten summers of my life going to, and it is breaking my heart not being there. There is so much excitement and happiness going around, I can practically feel the camp magic when I think about it. In honor of opening day, I thought I would share some of the things I painted for a camper during first term and a few other little things. The snapshot above was actually from last year's opening day! Can you imagine what people must have thought driving past us? Like, "Who are these people jumping up and down on the side of a highway with paint all over themselves?" Well, it's a camp thing.

the wonderful sixteen year olds from last summer

There is no way to sum up all of the wonderful stories and experiences I had at the Heart in just one blog post. In fact, if I were to even try to do that it would probably end up being more like a novel, but thought I would share some artwork I did for a camp friend!

all 22 Andromeda canvases! 

One of the biggest parts of camp is war canoe. This year I was asked to paint canvases for a first term camper named Phoebe for her war canoe gifts! I will admit, I was a little nervous to make 22 identical canvases, but I wanted to create something that the girls would love. Because I was a camper and in war canoe myself, I was well aware of how special the moment is when you get your first war canoe shirt and how unbelievably awesome it feels to wear it around camp. Those memories inspired my design for Phoebe's canvases.

Phoebe with her canvases! You can see the can canoe shirt as well.

The gifts are supposed to be very special, and they are given out during a devotional with your team after the practice race. I really wanted to make them special since it was Phoebe's last year of camp, so I decided that for each canvas, I would paint it exactly like their war canoe shirt. Shawnee War Canoe is called "Andromeda" and so on top of the design of the tshirt, I decided to do "Andromeda" in gold script. 

I don't know about you, but I'm seeing twenty twoooo

close up of the Andromeda canvas

Meghan was my special delivery helper for the order! Can't thank you enough!!

Although I wasn't a Shawnee, it brought me an insane amount of joy to have been able to paint these canvases.  I hope all of you first term Shawnee War Canoe girls love them! Congratulations on winning the race! 

ps flyers

(I had to slip a picture of Pawnee War Canoe, too! Just for good measure. Boom boom boom boom xo)

Love love love,
Bethany

The Lone Star State

Happy Monday, y'all! I have been getting a lot of requests for texas flag canvases lately! Whether they have "Texas Forever", a name, or a monogram, the flag design looks great with anything. Below you'll see just three examples of variations I have done with the Texas flag design recently. 

I have also seen a few other people who sell canvases trying to copy my design (and when I say this, I mean my script and everything), so I just wanted to let everyone know that this is the place to find the original Texas Forever canvas! I know pictures circulate on Pinterest, but if you're looking for that design, this is the best place to be!

texas flag canvas by bethany kelm with freehand  "texas forever" script

texas flag canvas by bkrafty designs with freehand personalized name

texas flag canvas by bkrafty designs with freehand monogram

Don't forget to follow @bkraftydesigns on Instagram and favorite my shop on Etsy!

A little bit of Lilly

Hey everyone! So I was asked to make another canvas with the Delta Zeta Lilly Pulitzer pattern recently, and I was also asked to do another Lilly rose pattern. The Delta Zeta Lilly canvas I did last year is actually one of my most popular blog posts. If you haven't seen it before, you can see it by clicking the Lilly Love Post link. 

final product of the two Lilly bible verse canvases

 This pattern is one of the most beautiful Lilly Pulitzer sorority patterns. I think the roses are just lovely, and even though I am not the biggest fan of pink, I think the different shades are beautiful. The bright colors really pop against one another.

beginning stages of the DZ Lilly canvas

 For this canvas, the custom order request was to include the Bible verse Matthew 5:16: "Let your light shine before others, that they may see your goof deeds and praise your Father in Heaven."

final product of the DZ Lilly canvas with Matthew 5:16

Thank you for reading! I finished a huge order of 22 canvases last week, so I look forward to posting more about that soon. Remember, if you see a canvas you like, feel free to comment or email me. If you're interested in ordering a canvas, email me, and we can discuss designs! 

Texas bound!

university of texas themed canvases

 Happy Tuesday, everyone! I know graduation season is pretty much coming to an end, but I still would love to share these Texas inspired canvases I painted last week. One of my wonderful friends named John showed his mom my blog, and she asked me to paint these two canvases for her niece and a friend. The two canvases both have a little longhorn that I freehanded in the left corner. I've been working on that for a while, so I'm pretty proud of it! Let's get a closer look at each canvas:

soccer ball pattern with a little burnt orange accent

 For Cara, I painted a soccer ball pattern because she will be playing soccer at UT next year! ! I really liked the concept, and I thought the burnt orange ("Persimmon" by Americana) detailing brought a fun element to the design.

burnt orange and white chevron

Chevron has officially taken over as my most requested pattern! It has been neck and neck for a while, but I think chevron edged it out this week. For Caroline's canvas,  I did a fun chevron pattern with her name in a dainty script font- complete with another freehanded longhorn, of course!

I hope you girls love your canvases! Thank you Mrs. Curtiss (and John and Emily, too!) Congratulations, and Hook 'Em!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever! Even though I chose the "evil empire" over his Texas Tech Red Raiders, he still loves me. However, he is yet to wear burnt orange. Have a great Father's Day, dad!