Crafty mum creates adorable baby pictures drawing imaginative backgrounds around young son

THIS baby is going global at eight weeks old - thanks to his mum's super-cute animations that turn him into a caped crusader and much, much more.

IS it a bird ... a plane ... no, but these are probably the most adorable baby pictures you've ever seen.

American mum Amber Wheeler has created these gorgeous baby pictures of her two-month-old son by drawing gorgeous backdrops that show Ethan as everything from a punk-rocker to an astronaut.

The Minnesota-based artist said she came up with the idea as she wanted memorable photographs of her first born.

"I got a coupon to make a free photobook from Shutterfly and I wanted to come up with a different way to take pictures of him, and I thought of it one day after I spent some time editing photos for my Etsy shop," she told News Corp Australia, referring to the craft site where Ms Wheeler sells a range of Anime style hats, purses and soft toys through her Nerdy Kawaii page.

Watch out for the lasso (left); Ethan gets a look at outer space (right). Pictures: Amber Wheeler

Ms Wheeler - who says she "grew up surrounded by Hello Kitty, unicorns, and Star Wars" - has created 18 delightful images of her son set against a white background with hand-drawn touches including a superhero cape, scuba gear, a pitchfork and hay for his farmer look and a Popeye-style suit set against a colourful beach.

Anyone for spinach?(left); Ethan as a caped crusader (right). Pictures: Amber Wheeler

While the images have an effortless elegance and sense of humour, producing them was a labour of love.

They are reminiscent of famous images of a wheelchair-bound boy that placed the 12-year-old muscular dystrophy sufferer in a number of imaginary situations he could not experience in the real world.

Explaing her methods, Ms Wheeler said: "I took a video of him and went frame by frame to get the poses, then I just used a program called GIMP, which is like photoshop or MS paint, and just doodled over them with the basic brush tool."

Her husband also helped her create a few photographs.

"The hubby loves the pictures. He had some artistic input as well for some different ideas and things to make Ethan into," she said.

The images were uploaded on popular social media website Reddit a week ago and have gone viral, with her gallery attracting over 452,444 views.

Look I can ride a bike, already (left); Ethan's underwater adventure (right). Pictures: Amber Wheeler

While the crafty mum insists sharing the photographs was just a bit of fun, she never dreamt their reach would include websites in France, England and her native USA.

"I was so surprised. I only expected a couple hundred people to see them, I figured they would just get buried by new posts. I still can't believe how many people have seen it," Ms Wheeler said.

Let's rock (left) ; Ethan hits the disco just like John Travolta in Saturday night fever (right). Pictures: Amber Wheeler

While little Ethan has no idea that he's already a bit of an internet star, his mum is looking forward to showing him the pictures when he's older.

"I hope he'll love them. I'm going to keep the picture book so he can show them to his wife and kids someway."

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