Toddler aliens are cute: how we DIYed our daughter’s alien-themed photo session

Warning: if aliens freak you out, you might wanna close out your browser… now. If they don’t, get excited: we ran Nicole’s alien abuduction-themed maternity photos in September 2011 and this year Nicole’s back with another alien-themed session. This time around, her now-18-month-old daughter, Taylor, is all decked out in homemade alien regalia. Here’s the scoop:

What she used

• One black 4×8 MDF board
• One saucer chair
• One orange twin sheet
• Glitter foam sheets
• ribbon
• Boxes
• Aluminum foil
• Craft items for props: pipe cleaners, pom pom balls, googly eyes, construction paper

The details

Except where noted, everything was handmade by Nicole, Taylor’s mom. To begin, she drew white planets and stars on a flat black 4×8 MDF board for the background. She found the saucer chair at a store and put an orange twin sheet around it, and then cut an alien mask from glittery foam paper and put a ribbon around it to hold the mask on Taylor’s face.

Next they tackled the aliens (made with boxes and aluminum foil) and stars on the wall. The goal was to make them look like Taylor could have made them — think lots of googly eyes, construction paper, and pipe cleaners!

Says Nicole, “We continued to keep the alien theme because she was our little alien when she was in my belly for obvious reasons, and she is still our little alien. 18 months, not knowing our language fully, not knowing how to navigate this new world properly. Everything is so new and exciting just like if an alien came here for the first time. I was also inspired by this post from The Peaceful Parenting Whisperer: Your child as an alien.”

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