Soldiers of God Decorations Photos: Part One

For anyone who has not read the decoration posts from other years, the basic jist of what we do is this: we take line art that we find in coloring books or on the internet (most of it this year came from the Open Clip Art Library), and we trace it onto overhead transparencies with wet-erase markers. Then we project it onto a bulletin board, thumbtack up some posterboards, and trace the lines onto the posterboards with pencil. Then we hold a Paint Day, which anyone can help with starting from about age 8 or so, wherein we color in the images with poster paints. It's not necessary to stay completely within the lines, because any deviation less than a marker-width gets covered up in the next step, when after the paints dry we outline them with black marker. Also, even if a little gets slopped too far outside the lines for the markers to cover, honestly, we're our own worst critics. (Once hung, the decorations don't typically get scrutinized that closely.) Anyway, after we outline them, we cut them out and stick them up on the walls with Sticky Tack, or one of the various off-brand versions thereof.

Although, we put this one in the big front window up with clear packing tape.

This one was mounted above the stairs, where you see it on the way down...

Continued in Part Two