Sweet Silhouettes

I don't know how it began, but I have an obsession with all things silhouette.  

Thankfully, I also have a long standing friendship with GIMP, a freeware that is similar to Photoshop. After I spent a ton of time online researching all the different children's silhouettes out there, I was able to whip up a couple portraits of my own rugrats.  

I've also become quite taken with digital scrapbooking paper.  Love that stuff!  It's so inexpensive, emailed to me within a day (usually from Etsy), and I can use it over and over again.

Here are the silhouettes I made for the twins' room:

The silhouettes were made in GIMP by tracing an actual profile picture I took of them when they were 12 months old.  Then, I just added some cute digital paper and frames!  It was very simple!

I wish I could have taken a good photo of the pictures hanging on either side of the window, but unfortunately the light in their room is not ideal for that shot.  Here's a pic of them framed:

I'm thinking about redoing Finn's picture and filling in the space behind his silhouette with green as well.    Although I like the look of it individually, it definitely looks like it's missing something when next to Lulu's silhouette.  

I loved making these.  I might have to make a few silhouette ornaments for the Christmas tree this year.  Is it too early to start on Christmas decor?!?

Mixed Media Painting

My first gel image transfer painting!

I so enjoyed making this painting.  Not only because I got to try out a new technique, but because of the sentiment this painting holds for me.  I love to see my daughter reading.  My twins were both given literary names because of my love for the written word.  Don't laugh, but "Story" was actually on my list of names for my daughter (hey...I said not to laugh!).  

This painting is going to be part of a collection of 3 paintings for above Lulu's bed.  The other two, I hope, will include one mixed media with a bird theme and one of Lulu and her twin brother.

These colors are a very true representation my little girl's spunk.

A favorite quote from one of my favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird.  Underneath the quote is a torn piece of scrapbooking paper with a little girl taking a book off a shelf.

Just under and above Lulu's head is a page torn from one of my childhood books.  It's the last page to The Incredible Journey.  I like to look at this and imagine the words that go through Lulu's head as she's reading.

It was difficult to get a decent picture of the painting because of the way the light reflected off the gel image transfer.  This was the best I could do...

Can't wait to get started on the next two!