My new photos picture frame for the wall

(Click on this photo to enlarge it for a better look...as well as any of the photos below.)

I was shopping the other day and came across a hugh framed portraiture gallery for the wall. (This image you see above has not been put back into the black frame. You have all these fabulous pre-cut photo spaces. Since I wanted to have a collection of family photos all in one place in the house I thought this was the way to go.

I have a special love of black and white photos, especially the old fashioned ones that use to be slightly coloured in the 60's and 70's. I mention this special love of mine in a recent posting on my portraiture artwork that was inspired by these old photos.

So I thought I'd collect all my photos on the computer I wanted to put in the frame, I put them individually into Paint Shop Pro and turned them all into black and white images and printed them up onto quality card paper. (no gloss like a photo)

I then chose some to colour in varying degrees with coloured pencils, the effect is just like the old photos of long ago! Some stayed black and white, others just slightly coloured in feature area of that photo, some coloured lightly all over, it was a great effect when you looked at all the photos together in the frame.

This was cheap and very effective, here are some of the photos featured that I'll talk about below:

This photo I coloured heavily, the boys were in blue and girls in pink (as they were in the orginal coloured photo) they were photograped with a backdrop of grass and a smattering of purple flowers that had fallen to the ground from a tree above them. So I lightly coloured the grass and the individual flowers.

In this shot, my girl dressed as st therese, the photos stays in black and white except for the posy of flowers she holds. My dh's mother has her lips and cheeks very, very subtlely coloured.

In this shot dh's photo stays black and white but baby Anna who was in a hot pink jump suit that day, has her outfit and her hair coloured, this one looks really great! My photo with baby Anna stays black and white.

In this shot my dear uncle who passed away last year, has only his lorikeet coloured, in it's usual, vivid colours! The group shot next door stays black and white.

In this shot, my old childhood photo has been coloured, the water in the bucket and spilled to the ground, my typical 70's leary patterned swimmer bottoms and the slight touch of lemon in my hair which was blonde as a child. My ds next to it stayed black and white in his photo.

In this shot, my mother and ds have a beautiful backdrop of hedges blooming with little blue flowers like forget-me-nots. So I coloured the flower heads only and mum's top. The photo next to it stayed black and white.

My 'Little Miss Cheeky' was heavily coloured, right down to the delicate flower pattern on her dress.

And look at her here! The photo stays black and white except for the butterfly stickers, this just looks fabulous in the gallery!

These two sisters are in delicate pink..little Anna's delicate flower pattern has been carefully coloured in pink and green sprays. They have those beautiful flowers behind them, this time I coloured the greenery as well as the cornflower blue flowers.

My dh's father was coloured in his photo, my dd's confirmation photo was not.

This one is stunning. My sister and her husband's photo stays black and white except for the gorgeous bouganvilla bush to the side that was in full bloom! Beautiful sprays of burgandy pink which you can see that I've coloured in a dusky muted pink! this shot doesn't do this particular image and it's coloured effects justice IMO.

Lastly my two sons above sitting in a rock cave with lovely rocky textures around them, and their clothes slightly coloured. My dh's photo stays black and white (a younger dh, BTW!) I asked ds aged 4 who this person was and he said that he was my oldest son aged 14. I said, "no, guess again." He paused for a few seconds and said, "a man" he didn't recognise his father when he was in his early 20's.

I believe that this is a lovely gift giving idea. You could buy a pre packaged photo frame with just a few pre-cut photo spaces or even one and do something like this. I'm sure it would be a well loved gift! I intend to do this on a smaller scale for some family birthdays coming up this month..