Betsy Benn Home and Gift Blog

Personalised destination prints or bus blinds have become exceedingly popular in recent years with them making appearances in our kitchen spaces, living rooms, bedrooms and even bathrooms. We have created quite the trend for them, designing and making them from our small studio in Cheltenham since 2010! What makes them so cool and so meaningful is the bespoke nature and being able to capture particular places, dates and times. It all adds up to an artwork that is both beautifully stylish and sentimental.

They have quite the history too, you can learn more about the history of bus blinds and their journey on how they became one of the coolest and trendiest artwork pieces we know of.

The Different Types of Bus Blinds

Single destination bus blind prints – This type of bus blind features a single place or special destination. This could be your home city, home town, or a place that you treasure and love. Maybe something amazing happened there such as time spent at a university, a proposal or even a wedding.

Multiple destination bus blind prints – It’s in the name - you can list multiple locations which you feel are worthy of being on a print, framed on your wall! This personalised print is an ideal way to track a year of fun or a lifetime of adventures.

Metallic and Wooden Destinations – The evolution of the digitally printed bus blind, now available in several metallic finishes or in a wooden plaque. These beautiful engraved items are extremely popular for wedding anniversary gifts with wood being a traditional gift for 5 years of marriage and copper (7yrs), tin/aluminium (10yrs), steel (11yrs), silver (25yrs) and gold (50yrs) all being possible with the metallic finishes. Betsy Benn is the only company in the world creating these meaningful and heartfelt personalised prints in such a range of finishes.

Bespoke Destination bus blind canvases – the closest reproduction to the original form and nature of the bus blinds from the original buses. For a statement piece of art that has a real wow factor our bespoke canvases are just the (bus) ticket.

Capture Your Favourite Locations

You don’t have to be a traveller to have at least a few favourite location spots or destinations. Whether it’s your favourite town, a beautiful city you visited and explored with a best friend or even a holiday with a significant other where all you did for a full week was sunbathe, drink cocktails and eat too much. A personalised bus blind does what it says in the title, literally! You can personalise your artwork with the places that are most important to you and show them off. They are a great conversation starter too so, pop the kettle on, everyone will have questions.  Here are some ideas when it comes to personalising your own bus blind destination print.

For a friend – if you’re looking for an imaginative gift that captures your friendship, rather than simply list all the places you’ve visited together you could paint a picture of your friendship from the very beginning. You can do this by telling the story in chronological order listing places, events, hangouts and funny memories. For example, you could start off by listing your home city, followed by adventures you’ve experienced together, a specific date or time from an event that you feel was extraordinary and worth remembering, and you can finish the print off with both of your names.

For a love – being transported back to the first moment you fell in love is always a winner. A cheesy winner, but a good one at that. Many hopeless romantics personalise with the exact date so they can celebrate it but what could be more romantic than knowing every little detail? Not just the date but the time, location and the words exchanged. This can all fit on a personalised bus blind and we honestly think there’s nothing better. And why limit it to your own love story? If you know the when, how and why your favourite couple got together you could create the most amazing wedding gift for them.

For family – one of the very best stories to tell is the story of your family. From family trips to far flung destinations (or nearby ones) to your favourite restaurants and weekend hang out spots. Capture the essence of daily life and the fun you share together.

Design Your Story

You can create a bus blind to reflect any story for any person, couple or family. We take all the meaningful and special places and design an artwork that’s completely unique to you. It can sometimes be mind boggling to know where to begin, what to include and what to leave out. We recommend starting with three or four big parts of someone’s story and maybe build chronologically from there. If you’d like any help at all, some advice or just a chat about the details, feel free to give us a call and one of the team can talk you through it and help with some suggestions.

Below we’ve handpicked some of our favourite bus blinds that you can personalise. Take a look and get your creative side to say hello!

Our Top Picks For Personalised Bus Blinds

The Destination Bus Blind Canvas

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and as it’s a day of honouring your mother, it should be done perfectly. Before we get started on spreading inspiration for gifts on this occasion, you should probably mark down that it’s Sunday 31^st March you need to be prepared for. Got it? Fabulous.

Brief History Of Mother’s Day

Otherwise known as Mothering Sunday, it goes back as early as the ancient Greek times. The ancient Greeks dedicated an annual festival to maternal goddesses and ancient Romans also joined in on the celebration by having their own festival called Hilaria.

In the UK, this day is always the 4^th Sunday of lent – the 24 hours marks the maternal bond that exists between a mother and a child. This also does apply to other maternal figures, such as grandmothers, step mothers and mothers in law. Now, although hosting your very own festival for your mother would be absolutely spectacular, it would take quite a lot of work – personalised gifts however, not so much!

More than 30% of us in the UK say that our Mum is the most inspirational person in our life. We know many mums receive the more traditional gifts such as flowers, chocolates, breakfast in bed and a card, but let’s be a bit creative this year, shall we?

There’s nothing quite like gifts that show someone just how much you know them, whether it relates to one of their passions, love of music or even treasured memories. These can all be captured in innovative ways that last for years (because let’s face it, the box of Milk Tray chocolates won’t last long).

It’s the perfect opportunity to show the mother of the family just how much you appreciate and adore her, and it’s our pleasure to guide you on your gift giving journey. This way…..

Personalised Mother’s Day Gifts – Our Top 5

#1 Child Silhouette Modern Art Print

A personalised print is just one way of being able to capture something that you feel deserves to be framed and mounted on the wall. For Mother’s Day, our child silhouette modern art print can be created from your very own photograph. It is custom designed especially for you, so whatever image you have in mind it can be illustrated in a way that is captivating and sentimental to you and your mother.

You can also add your own personal message to make it a Mother’s Day to remember.

#2 Velvet Personalised Map Cushion

It’s no surprise that velvet has captured the hearts of many of us within the last few years, with it’s soft and luxurious touch we just can’t say no to a quick stroke! We have, however, created the perfect velvet personalised map cushion where you can choose a favourite location and map. The intricate detail of this can bring back memories and nostalgia and it’s one to treasure throughout the home.

Are you looking to bring your mother back to her favourite place of all time with the personalised velvet cushion? Or maybe you’re hoping to capture a particular place where you both made memories that brings you nothing but happiness. In addition to your own custom map you can add a line of text to make this extra personal. One of our favourite lines we’ve seen lately is “Home is where your Mum is.” This gift is ideal for those who can’t get enough delicious velvet on their sofa.

#3 Mummy and Me Photo Memories

Photographs are a snapshot of our memories and spark all sorts of joy and warmth as you remember the day, the scenario and the best moments you had together. Collate your favourite photographs of your most loved times with Mum in this gorgeous Mummy and Me personalised print. Mother’s are quite often the ones behind the camera, so if you can find any of her in front of the camera then that’s even more special!

Fill this personalised memory print for your Mum with your own family images, photos of places you have visited together and some occasional round pops of colour. A gorgeous and sentimental piece for your mother’s walls. Please note we cannot be held responsible for any “Mum tears” when she unwraps it but we will totally claim some of the glory when you reinforce favourite child status!

#4 Family Tree Paper Cut

An art piece for the whole family! If your Mum would love a statement design that celebrates her favourite people on the planet, this could just be the icing on the cake for them this Mother’s Day.

The personalised family tree paper cut is a creative family tree design based on the circles in the trunk of a tree. Betsy spent an eternity (okay – actually about a month) hand drawing the rings of this tree to create a spin on the usual family tree design. It is incredibly intricate and is precision cut by our super whizzy laser. You can customise this with the names of family members (people and pets too!) and choose from a range of divine colours. Mum’s going to love it.

#5 Leather Artisan Apron

The gift made for the chefs who just might be the next Jamie Oliver and the bakers who could maybe give Mary Berry a run for her money. The denim faux leather artisan apron provides practicality and the opportunity for personalisation, which is great if you enjoy funny one liners that you know will make your mum laugh, or potentially an inside joke that only the two of you understand.

This apron can be used in the kitchen to cook some magic up, or in the garden where you put your skills from Alan Titchmarsh to good use, or even an artists studio if you’re looking to get your paint game on.

You can add up to 4 lines on the front pocket of the apron, so we suggest you get your thinking cap on for Mother’s Day. You can always take inspiration from the one in the image below – “Greta’s first rule of cooking, add red wine, to the food or the glass, either works”.

There are days when serendipity seems to guide you to the perfect conclusion. A chance meeting, something in common, a shared interest, or just having the perfect colour of something that makes a product just sing!

We first met the buying team from Museum Of London at Top Drawer in September 2017 – our Christmas decorations caught their eye and we added them to our wholesale newsletter distribution list. We didn’t have anything that sparked their imagination enough to create an order right then – but we are patient humans (most of the time).

Christmas zoomed past us in a whirl of reindeer wooden tree decorations and we managed to raise our heads again in January and take a breath. Isn’t Christmas always like that? No matter how prepared you think you might be, you always feel like you come sliding in by the seat of your pants. But a new year is so full of inspiration and new ideas and time to create again, and this was the energy we took with us to Maison et Object in Paris – a gorgeous trade show that is definitely in my calendar again for next year.

And it was here that we started seeing the velvet trend embed itself from tentative emergence, to confident and bold newcomer, owning the show! It was everywhere we looked – or maybe it’s just what spoke to me – because we came home with a deep velvet love and ideas a plenty of what to develop and how to make it a reality.

Meanwhile, back in the City of London, the Museum was finalising their Votes for Women exhibition. A celebration of the centenary of the Representation of the People Act. And as any museum or gallery will appreciate, a new exhibition means a search for new mementos for the shop. A search that had started months earlier looking for the right style, the right price point, the right turnaround times and most critically low minimum orders. Because a temporary exhibition definitely needs stock. Not so much that you are still holding it 12 months after the exhibit has closed, but not so few that you run out of the popular items and lose potential sales. And the relevant colours for this particular exhibit are deep purple and emerald green – who on earth works in those colours?

Back to Betsy Benn and fast forward to Spring Fair in Birmingham (yes – a lot less glamorous sounding than Paris – but one exhibition hall is much like another and it certainly took less time to get to!) Plums, burnt oranges, deep blues and teals, mustards, blush pinks, jade and emerald greens – the rich jewel tones of the velvet cushions I’d just found from a supplier at Spring Fair were STUNNING. We’d spent three weeks experimenting on velvet fabric and what we might be able to achieve with our laser and got some great results with maps so now we hoped we could get the same results on cushions. Our own exhibition at Pulse in Olympia was coming up and we had some total wow factor products in mind.

Our stand was going to look totally different to anything we’d done before (including a whole wall of velvet!) So completely different that anyone who had seen us before might not actually recognise us. Just in case, we dropped a quick email out to all our wholesale newsletter gang to let them know where we were going to be and what delights they might expect to find. The team at Museum of London were one of the first to say they’d come to find us and that’s when something magical happened in the creative processes in the backs of our brains.

We redrew the iconic “Votes for Women” slogan from a photograph of suffragettes on a march and created the design on the purple velvet cushion JUST for Museum of London and when the team spotted it on our stand, they loved it.

We were delighted to develop the idea further and create a similar cushion featuring the slogan Deeds Not Words and are proud to say that both cushions are now available in the gift shop and to order online.