I turned ‘terrible’ homemade wedding present into a lucrative side hustle – everyone mocked me but I’m raking in £1,000s

A DAD who was mocked for his "terrible" homemade wedding present said he's now raking in thousands of pounds for his creativity.

Jamie Matthias's wacky business started by accident after he painted a "terrible" portrait of his wife Kate.

He said: "Kate was making a comment about how bad mine were and I said I would paint one for our wedding day, as a joke.

"It was brought out by the kids during my wedding speech and everyone loved it, it was hysterical."

Kate thought the artwork was so funny she posted a picture of it on social media and within days it racked up thousands of views and comments.

Jamie, 41, has since been inundated with requests from people desperate for him to create funny versions of their own photographs.

The dad-of-three, from Alsager, Staffordshire, now juggles his art business with his full-time accounting job.

He said: "I actually don't mean to paint badly and I'm doing my best to recreate the photos I get sent but it's just the way they turn out.

"I try and create an alternate universe where proportions have no meaning. I've painted for years but I had no idea they were so bad until people started telling me."

He spends roughly two hours every evening painting his commissioned work and charges just £25 for an acrylic on canvas, including postage.

Jamie added the family have always been keen painters and at half-term the couple get the canvasses out and paint with the kids.

Over Christmas he decided to start painting friends and family, joking that one day he might start trying to sell his for money.

He set up spoof social media accounts called Terrible Art by Jamie Lee and was amazed at the "priceless" reactions.

"It just kind of blew up," he said.

"We've got orders all over England, Scotland, Wales and even Northern Ireland, people all over the country seem to be really enjoying it," he added.

Many have taken to social media to express their delight over his artwork with one user saying "everyone should have one up on their wall".

Another said: "Genius idea from a genius".

A third added: "I love it... it's great fun".

Since he launched the account on January 2 he's received 71 orders and has racked up almost 2,000 followers on social media.

"We joke Kate is head of financial distribution and her bridesmaid Kate is head of marketing," he said.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive, said Jamie, who added some of the pictures he's been asked to paint are "amazing".

"They clearly get the humour,"; he said.

The dad, who said he's been painting like this since he was a child, said the reactions to his artwork are his real motivation.

"I'll keep forgetting to paint someone's nose and have to keep mixing paint and add it later. It adds to the comedy value," he said.

"I think everyone has seemed to appreciate them in some way. They are terrible but Kate just said it's so much fun, she appreciates it."

"This is my standard, there's no risk of it getting better. I am absolutely not an art teacher.

"We just do it as a family, I actually didn't like art at school.

His wife Kate, 40, added: "It's just the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen. We've had so much fun laughing at his inability to paint."

Jamie isn't the first person to bag good money from a weird and nifty side-hustle.

Earlier this week, the Sun reported on a savvy woman who shared how she raked in a whopping £113,000 in just one month with her fridge magnet business.

Alesia, from Ohio, uploaded a video showing how she makes her product at home while watching Gilmore Girls.

Her photo magnets cost £20 for a set of nine.

On her Instagram account, she wrote: “December results are here! Keep in mind, these are different from the holiday results. 

“The holiday results included only 19 days: one week of November and two weeks of December.”

Elsewhere, another side-hustler revealed how she turned a 30p jumble sale bargain into a £16 profit.

Emily turned her reselling passion into a profitable business, and is a pro at finding gems at local sales, boot fairs and charity shops.

She revealed that buying vintage toys and reselling them was a sure-fire way of bagging some extra cash.