Pastel Babies

This months More Than Words challenge was especially fun with me as both of my little brothers became father's within a week of each other earlier in the year. So, I had been planning on what to do with the baby pictures, and this challenge provided just the thing. Now I'm not usually a pastel person so that was the harder part lol.

I started with a 16"x20" board and took bright colors and just added a whole bunch of white to make them more pastel. Using a pallet knife I just smeared the colors randomly over the board, and they still seemed a little bright to me, so I mixed white paint with matte medium to thin it down and again using the pallet knife smeared it over the whole surface. I loved the very rough look it provided.

After that I went in with a light grey paint and stenciled some dots and a harlequin pattern on the board, just to add some fun and depth to it.

Then I added layered black and white photos of my niece and nephew, and name/birthday tags.

The final touch was the solid black wood frame. I was originally going to splatter some of the pastel colors all over the frame but decided I liked the way the black made the whole thing pop. I really enjoyed this project and can't wait to make it back out to Iowa to see these two adorable babies and how much they have grown.