Sixth anniversary

This one is all about keeping it simple.
If you're new to le blog, let me tell you that I try to make a piece of art for The Husband for our anniversary each year. This time around, I wanted to make this year's piece relatively quickly. Last year's was great fun to make, but it was quite labor- and idea-intensive. And for our three-year anniversary, I had to put off making the art until Father's Day.

But I didn't want to delay again. And now that I have Kids instead of A Kid, who knows how long it would take to finish. Even though we're pretty much settled into a routine with TwoBoo, he's still 4.5 months old. You never know when he'll decide he wants to hang out and socialize instead of sleep.

So I decided to go monochromatic. One color, varied textures. That way, I narrow down the possibilities in a creative way and maximize the time I have to actually put the piece together.

As background, I used this white paper with twig inclusions I'd bought years ago (when I first discovered my paper jones). I also found a lotería card, which could be toned down with a scrap of cream lace paper.

Then I flipped the orientation of a childhood picture of The Husband, in Photoshop, so the transferred image would face the right way. (Remember, kids, if you're going to do a transfer, your images are going to be mirror images of the original.)
I layered a picture of The Boy and me on top of the larger picture. Both images are transferred onto watercolor paper which has just enough texture to make it interesting. I just used a regular old (acid-free) glue stick to adhere everything. It's drier than glue or matte medium, and would not make the lace paper disappear on the lotería card.
Finally, I pinned the piece into a shadow box. It's a much better composition than the first shadowbox I did for The Husband -- that one I kinda threw in everything but the kitchen sink.

But where's TwoBoo? I know, I know. But I couldn't really figure a way to incorporate his image into the piece without it looking shoe-horned in. TwoBoo is in there -- I'm five months pregnant in this picture. You just can't see it because The Boy is sitting in my rapidly-shrinking lap.

Recurring artistic choices: transfers, textured & lace paper, bright colors muted (by layering).