( Carter Kustera)I bolted for the paint supplies.
I’ll probably update Soph’s once she gets some more hair & her head is less bulbous.
(Also fingers crossed I’ll have my master bedroom re-do finished in the next week so I can show you the whole room!)
All you’ll need for the silhouette project is:
- a canvas-size of your choice (40% off at Michaels this past weekend)
- a printed out profile image of your subject
- pencil
- some acrylic paint
I found some nice side shots of my girls then with a bit of cropping I printed them out to 8×10 size & cut along the outside of the image. (include all those little wispy hair pieces, they’ll look great later)
*tip* If you have a great pic but your child is looking down use the “straighten” tool in your photo editing software, here’s what that looks like in Picasa
(click on image to enlarge)
Next use your pencil to lightly trace around your image. Just use your non-writing hand to keep the image steady.
Now it’s as simple as painting inside the lines…
For those hair pieces I was talking about I just did some light quick strokes with a brush that was almost out of paint & slighly dry.
How easy was that??
Next I’m going to do silhouettes of the mutts. I’m thinking hot pink & lime green on little 3×5 canvases. How cute would that be displayed on a dresser?
Oh, & just in case you were wondering what those books on my nightstand were here’s a close-up…
And the face behind the books…
I just keep telling myself that ONE DAY she WILL sleep. Either that or she’ll be old enough to take Ambien.
Please do not copy & paste any of my content without prior permission, pictures of Samster & Sophie are strictly prohibited. Links to my post however are always welcome!
Great tutorial, but I love the end. I have the same books on my nightstand. I have a five month old and I feed her like crazy at the end of the day in attempt get her to sleep through the night (milk at 4pm, 6pm and 7pm with cereal at 5:30 pm). Thankfully it has worked like a charm (knock on wood). Good luck. I hope she sleeps for you soon.
I love the tutorial. I have seen a few different ways to do the silhouette but this looks like the fastest and easiest way. I am excited to give it a try!
very cute! what dress do you have in a shadow box? I think its adorable!!
I'm totally copying your idea for color. And I feel you on the baby not sleeping. We finally let our 10 month old cry it out so she'd sleep through. Ugh– long week. Good luck!
Love your version of this popular idea… it doesn't hurt that your girls are precious.
The good news about not sleeping is that time flies and soon you won't even remember those days. It seems like just yesterday I had those same books on my nightstand but now my kids both sleep really well. Chant with me "this too shall pass…"
Rock on the double nap though, love when the stars align and that happens!
that was so much easier then i would have thought! and I love the dress in the frame. I have the nightgowns my girls can home from the hospital in in shadow boxes 🙂
I dont know if this will make you feel better or cry, but my daughter didn't sleep through the night till she was over a year. She is now 18 months and sleeps OK… not great. 🙁 I have tried EVERYTHING. I think some kiddos just arent born good sleepers.
Love the tutorial, thanks! Am nesting pretty hard core right now and want to re-do the hall bath. Inspiration for wall art is always great!
I was looking for your email on your site so I could email you this instead but I couldnt find it, so here it goes.
I have twins and they were not the greatest sleepers, however, they sleep like champs now. Let me tell you what we did. First, schedule schedule schedule.
They are 8 months old by the way.
they wake up at about 7-7:30
bottle when they wake.
nap is at 9 for S and 9:30 for E (Ive learned that one needs more sleep than the other)
that nap usually lasts to about 10-:10:30
10:30 fruit
11:30 bottle
1pm – 3pm nap
3:30 bottle
5pm -5:30/6pm nap
6/6:30 vegetable
7:30pm bottle
8:15pm bed
with that said, the only way it works is for them to put themselves to sleep. the first 5 days were by far the worst. S would scream and cry for 20 minutes. We would go in, pop the binki in and then leave. let him cry for 5 minutes, pop the binki in again and leave. by the 2nd day the crying was down to 10 minutes till evetually there was no more crying. the only way I made it through was to turn the monitor off and forced myself to turn the tv up so i couldnt hear. Now everyday at nap and bedtime they know when its time to sleep because of the cues. the zipper blanket goes on, we walk upstairs to their crib, the fan gets turned on and i just place them in their cribs and out they go. I find that if I rub their head or kiss them before leaving, they freak out, but if I just leave without doing any of that, its no problem.
I hope this helps. Occasionally we hear them wake up at 5am "playing". We just ignore them and do NOT go in there and they will go back to sleep. But if we were to go in there, all is lost and awake they are.
Rachel
Love the blog! You are such an inspiration. I was ready to start a project but broke my wrist so I have had some time off from work to read all you past posts and craft ideas.
I have a 9 month old and she is just now starting to sleep through the night. My husband and I couldnt stand her crying so we always go in and take care of her when she cries at night or going to bed. We used the same books you have for advice. Dr Sears says children need help falling asleep for a yearso dont worry if she cannot put herself to sleep yet. We used a lot of suggestions in No Cry Sleep Solution to help her last for longer periods at night. The biggest thing we did was feed Alexa a bottle at night and lay her down awake. If she cried or fussed we would go in and rock her to get her sleepy but lay her back awake. First few nights were hardest but she did learn to fall asleep on her own. It just took a while to get her down for first week. I was going crazy with sleep. I cried at work twice I was so hopeless. I really think for Alexa she needed some comfort in night still or was genuinely hungry. It has not been except for last few weeks that she has slept 11 hours straight and I think she is just getting enough food during day to last. Hang in there. I know it is so hard. Soph will be sleeping through the night soon.
Do you swaddle her? One of my babies had to be swaddled til about 9 months. Otherwise she would wake at night. I would also recommend Baby Wise [http://www.babywisemom.com/2009/04/sleep-training-four-ss.html] its a boatload of information but very helpful. The part that really helped us was the Four S's of sleep training. We started doing this when they were 3 weeks old and by the time they were 4 or 5 weeks they were sleeping 11 or 12 hours straight at night. Also, do you do a "dreamfeed" ? [http://www.babywisemom.com/2009/07/dreamfeed-fa.html] Its when you feed her one last time between the hours of 10-11pm. The dreamfeed is scheduled about 3 hours after her final feeding for the day. [So if you put her to bed at 7pm then at 10pm you go get her out of bed, keep all nights and noise off, and feed her one last time. No need to even wake her for this feeding.] This is intended for newborns, to fill their bellies up one more time before you go to bed. This worked like a charm for us. Helped them to sleep much longer stretches. They have to be taught that night time is for sleeping. Not playing and eating.
In the end, sleeping is a life skill and it has to be learned. And rocking them to sleep, picking them up at night… only deprives them of the chance to learn how to put themselves to sleep. I always hear parents say "but I cant stand to hear him cry…" Well no mother likes to hear their baby cry! Its physically and emotionally painful. But for me, I feel like… I love my kids so much, I want to give them good sleep habits. And if that means that I have to suffer through hearing them cry for a few nights… its a small price for me to pay to give them an important life skill!
OMG I want to poke my eyes out with a blunt object. All these comments about sleeping babies by 9 months, one year, blah, blah, blah. 20 months and mine isn't showing signs of improvement. Maybe I need a nightstand full of those books!
Sophie looks like she's kicked back with a brewski with her beer belly sticking out. So cute.
I love this idea!!
Super cute idea. We are getting ready to create a playroom for my son (now 6 months) and I needed ideas for artwork. This is a great one.
I'm also LOVING Sophie's PJ's in that bottom picture. Where did you get them from?