Ornament Progress - 4 down

I got the first four ornaments I'm doing finished this morning (the stitching, that is - I'll be doing the finishes together all at the same time sometime this coming week).  I am so pleased with how they came out!  I wanted them to look like a set and tying in the border from the first one I did for my daughter did the trick.

I used a variety of sources for the three animal silhouettes (and will get those credits posted when I show the finished ornaments - I don't have them at hand right now).  The green used in the border is DMC 320, but most of the other threads used are variagated floss, which let me play with some interesting shapes within the silhouettes to give them a more three dimensional feel.

This is the first ornament I did - I got a better picture of it, so I wanted to share it one more time.  You can see better how the red variegated floss created a nice brick texture, as well as shadows under the eaves.  My eldest daughter, Tanya and her husband Bruce were married this year, and I wanted their ornament to reflect that milestone.

Elizabeth is Tanya's oldest daughter and my first grandchild.  For her ornament, I used the same border as in the first ornament but changing the colors to yellows and oranges and golden browns, for a very warm and sunny motif that reminds me of her sunny personality.

Emily is a few years younger than Elizabeth, and very much about the pink and girly - so for hers I used shades of pink, purple and blue.  I also modified the lower part of the border to extend it out a bit to account for her shorter name.

Derek is my newest grandchild, born just a couple weeks ago.  For him, I used a stag instead of a bunny, and made the surrounding colors shades of blue.   I had to shorten up the sides of the border a bit to make room for "1st Christmas" without changing the finished size of the stitchery - that way, each ornament will be able to be finished the same.

I had so much fun doing these - I'm really jazzed to begin work on Daughter #2 and her family - those will be in a very different style, as I've gotten requests for specific motifs from them.  I am mulling how to tie together what will be very different images, either by using a common border, or a finishing technique that pulls them all together.

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