Custom playing cards with your crest or your firm’s mark
A deck of cards with your own arms or monogram on every back: as a Christmas gift for a family, a thank-you for clients or a game for the first night in a new house.
Portraits
A portrait begins with someone you know. Explore painting styles, photographs and ideas for portraits of people and pets, from the first choice to a place on the wall.
Grace, Storm or Colonel? Three Romantic-era portrait styles compared
Velvet and pearls, a gathering storm or an officer's dress coat: compare the current examples and choose the one that suits the person on the wall.
Reading a coat of arms: lions, stars and trees
Learn to look at a heraldic design before choosing symbols for your own: the shield, its charges, the crest and the story around them.
A family portrait from your photos: three styles with room for everyone
Toddlers, grandparents and the dog: how Royal Autumn, Colonel Baby and Storm handle a household, and what Renoir got right in 1878.
Monogrammed stationery for your own letters
Personal monogrammed stationery: letter sheets, correspondence cards, bookplates and gift tags, and how to make a set with your own initials.
Anniversary portrait ideas: choosing a couple portrait from your photos
Court dress by candlelight, a toast at sea or an autumn landscape with the dog: three current styles for two, and how to pick the one that fits the couple.
Irish and Scottish family crests: tradition and a design of your own
How heraldry works in Ireland and Scotland, what a clan crest badge is, and how to have a new decorative crest that honours an Irish or Scottish story.
How to turn your photo into a masterpiece portrait
Choose the painting first, then the photo. Four approved before-and-after examples show what changes, what stays yours and what to check.
Is there a coat of arms for my surname?
Why a coat of arms belongs to a person rather than a surname, what the mugs and plaques get wrong, and how to have a design of your own instead.