Is it just my daughter or do toddlers really go through a kitten phase? Ever since I got her the Lampara storybook Ang Kapuri-puring Kuting by Eugene Evasco (writer) and Dominic Agsaway (illustrator) in preparation of her first year of daycare, she has identified herself as the titular “Kuting” (also the Filipino translation of kitten) and has thus become a cat.

Because of this, my husband and I wanted to give her a meaningful gift based off of this: an art print of Kuting. It will also serve as a reminder for us, her parents, of the countless nights of reading this particular book over and over and again… something that our daughter will probably not remember as she grows older. (They say kids don’t have memories before three years old, after all.) Here’s how we did it:

Purchasing the art print

I tried to look for a Kuting art print for sale at the shop of INK (Ilustrador ng Kabataan), but unfortunately couldn’t find one. There are also none found on the illustrator’s Instagram. No, I was never thinking of taking a screenshot and printing that. I wanted to ask him if I can pay for an already existing digital art. But there’s none as well.

So I had no choice but send a private message to Sir Agsaway’s Messenger and Instagram. Being an introvert, this was both challenging and scary. What if he didn’t answer? What if he left me on seen? But I had to do it because we really wanted to give this gift to our daughter.

To my surprise and further anxiety, Sir Agsaway responded! He said he was very happy to hear that my child loved the character. No, he didn’t have art prints of Kuting for sale, but he can make one, if that’s okay. Of course it was okay! It was the best news ever. I said yes.

A few weeks later, Sir Agsaway, sent the low-definition version over on Instagram. I loved it! He said he was inspired by my child modelling Kuting’s good behavior, so he drew the character doing simple things that kids should be doing. Again, I loved it! It was simple yet meaningful.

How much? For an original A3 digital art, just PhP 2,500.00 ($42.00)! I sent the money via bank transfer and he sent the high-definition file over to my email. It was that easy!

Printing the artwork

The next thing we had to do was have the art printed. Honestly, this is the first time I have ever encountered art prints, so I didn’t know what to do. How do I print it? What’s the best paper to use? Would it be good on canvass? Are there local stores that can print it for me?

Because I was busy with work, I set aside printing the digital art until I forgot about it. It took me almost a month before I finally remembered, so I started doing my research on the best way to print. And after lots of internal back and forths, I decided on my favorite company in the world: Canva.

(Sure, there are shops here in San Jose City that could maybe print it. But after all the free stuff that Canva allowed me to do since 2015, I want to pay them back a little. Anyway, the price for a poster is only PhP 580.00 or $10.00.)

Having it printed on Canva is easy. Here’s how.

How to print on Canva

1. Go to Canva and click the Start Printing button.
2. Select the type of design you want. Since I wanted this to be a poster, I selected Poster (Landscape). Click Start Designing.
3. Select the paper size. For this project, I chose A3. Click Continue, then Edit Your Design.
4. Create your design on the super user-friendly editor. I simply uploaded the HD file from Google Drive. I had to stretch it to fill the page.
5. Once satisfied, click the check mark at the upper right corner of the screen. (I was using my almost-four-year-old Samsung Note20 Ultra 5G while ordering, so I don’t know how it works on desktop or laptop. Anyway, it’s Canva, so I bet it’s user-friendly.) Click Continue. You might have to click Continue a couple times to make sure your design is final.
6. Click Add to Cart (if you’re ordering another design) or Checkout.
7. When you’re ready to pay, simply input your shipping address and payment details. There’s a section on delivery options but only standard delivery was available for the Philippines. Shipping was free! Click Place Order.
8. Done! All you need to do now is wait. As for this project, it was supposed to be delivered in 5 to 8 days, but that was delayed because of Chinese New Year.

Here’s the confirmation page for my order. I also received the confirmation and the invoice on my email.

Because of the Lunar New Year, the poster arrived on February 11 instead of 7 days after placing the order. What can I say? It was beautiful! The colors were clear and clean. It was placed in a carton canister, so it did not crumple during shipping. Satisfied customer here.

Now, it’s time to frame the art print. But I’m still looking for a local shop that carries A3 frames. No success yet, so that’d have to wait.

How much was the gift?

Here’s the cost breakdown for this custom art print of Ang Kapuri-puring Kuting:

• Commissioned artwork: PhP 2,500.00
• Printing: PhP 580.00
• TOTAL (so far): PhP 3,080.00

Honestly, that’s ALSO too much for a gift for our economic standing! But seeing the happiness and pride in our daughter’s eyes when she sees her very own framed poster of Kuting makes every hard-earned peso worth it.