Flat Twins

While Billy was on his epic Asia Tour, I had the idea to make something he could take with him from the kids when he went on long business trips. I had the idea to blend the Flat Stanley idea with that commercial where the dad takes the little girl's monkey stuffed animal with him and takes pictures of the monkey in all the cities he visits. And that is how Flat Colie and Flat Sebby were born.

Making them was easy enough, if your standards for craftiness are as low as mine. Like the silhouettes I did, I found a nice, smiling picture of each of them, cropped it and pasted it into a powerpoint document. I printed it out in color and cut out the faces.

I wasn't sure what the best size would be so I printed a smaller and bigger one of each

For the body, I went with the Gingerbread man outline. This one is free handed (as you can probably tell) but its very easy to find a nice template online.

To get the kids involved, I cut out the bodies and let them decorate it before I put the faces on. They have been really into stamps lately so that was our medium of choice. Once they finished, I glued on their faces to both sides:


They really loved the finished product, which was laminated for protection. It was actually kind of hard to get them to give them up. They gave them to Billy but then wanted them back about 4 seconds later. He had to tuck them away in his briefcase while they were napping.

Colie, admiring her flat self

Billy just left for St. Louis and will hopefully be getting some good shots of Flat Colie and Flat Sebby at the Gateway Arch. I'll be sure to post 'em when he gets back.

I didn't want to jinx it

That's at least one reason why my Valentine's Day post is 2 days late. The other being that I am a bad blogger.

Valentine's Day was pretty uneventful this year. No exchanging of gifts. Just a nice dinner out with me and Billy. Cards to one another. Flowers. The kids did some crafts:

Collette's Valentine to Daddy

But it was Sebastian who made this a special Valentine's Day. He gave me the gift of going a whole day without crying. To be honest, I'm not sure if that was the first time or not. But it was the first day that I ever noticed that he didn't cry. So, either way, it was a big deal for me. Maybe he is turning some sort of corner, developmentally. His language is doing much better but he is still progressing at his own, slow pace. Or maybe it's just his age. In which case, I hope this is more of a permanent shift and not just one of those phases. I can deal with crying every so often but everyday, multiple times a day crying fits over (seemingly) meaningless things is hard on me. Oh ya, and him.

By the way, yesterday was also a no-cry day. He almost lost it over a new car puzzle during our EI session but held it together. We'll see how today goes. So far, so good.

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On a separate note, thanks for your input on the preschool thing. More on that later.

Craftiness: Silhouette Portraits

Every so often, my crafty side makes its way to the surface. Lately, it came around to help with Christmas. It knows I need it.

Specifically, I needed help getting a cute gift for the grandparents that wasn't a typical picture of the kids is some picture frame that says "LOVE" or "FAMILY" on top. Luckily, a week or so ago, I saw on the Zimmer Zoo a post about silhouette portraits. There is a very talented local artists who does them free-hand (ya, amazing, I know). She was in town but I didn't have my act together to make an appointment. Shocking, right? But I still loved the idea as something a little different but just as nice to give to as a gift. So, I was on a quest to do it myself.

My Google search for how to do it resulted in a lot of professionals, which would require time and money, two things I don't have lots of. But, I found another blog (I would link but for the life of me, I can't find it now...) that showed how to do it yourself. She used Photoshop. I don't have Photoshop so I had to improvise. If you, like me, are short on time, money and Photoshop, here is how you can still do your very own silhouette portraits:

Step 1

Take a picture of your child in profile. Catch them while they are watching TV or something else interesting. You may already have a photo that works - check your albums.

Step 2

Using whatever software you have (I use Picasa), crop your picture so that you can zoom in just on the head. Then, to save on color ink, switch it to black and white or grayscale.


Step 3

Using MS Powerpoint (or MS Word, but I prefer PP), insert your photo onto the page and adjust it (keeping the ratio intact) to your desired size. The first ones I did were as big as possible and now will barely fit into an 8X10 frame. Learn from my mistakes and do them a bit smaller. You could also fit two on one Powerpoint slide and that will give you portraits appropriate for a 5X7 frame.

Step 4

Print out the slide. With a pen or pencil, trace along the outline of the head and face. Then cut out very careful along your line. Be especially careful around the nose and mouth as those areas will really tell you whose portrait it is.

Step 5

Take your cut out and trace it onto very nice black paper. I found this paper at a craft store. Its much heavier than regular card stock but regular card stock would work just fine. Just don't use construction paper - it's not a very dark black and won't look as nice in the end. Cut out along your lines, again very carefully, especially on the face.

Step 6

Now you can mount your portrait. I sued the same kind of paper for my mount (not shown in the picture below) in an off-white color to give it an antique-y look.


Step 7

Place in your frame of choice, wrap and give to Grandma.

A Father's Day Project

For Father's Day this year, I figured the kids should make their own father's day gifts now that they have some motor skills. Finger painting seemed as good an idea as any and I was lucky enough to have Auntie Kim over yesterday to help out. Both Sebastian and Collette enjoyed this new activity in their own way, both staying true to their budding personalities.

"You want me to get my fingers dirty??"

"Yay! I'm making a colorful mess and no one is yelling at me!"

"OK, I'm liking this but I'll just use my fingertips."

"This paint feels so gooey ALL OVER MY HANDS!!!"

This is definitely a project we will have to repeat. They were pissed when I took the paints away but bedtime was calling and the paper was getting pretty soaked and I feared for my dining room table.

Any other "mediums" you suggest for 18 month old artists?? We tried stickers but, apparently, they look too much like snacks. Ditto for crayons.