(Un)Crafty - Silhouettes

Last fall I started to notice the trend to have silhouettes of everything...especially your kids.  But, any silhouette: from a vintage chair, to the eiffel tower is an easy statement to make in any room.  Take a look around blogland and you will find zillions of them!  Or, take a look around Etsy and you will find a million versions of signs, frames, and artwork featuring silhouettes.

Naturally, I decided to venture out and see what it takes to make a silhouette.  I have no fancy computer skills, no fancy cutting machines, no photography background.  So, if I am going to make something (I'm UNcrafty, remember??), its gotta be easy to do, cheap, and fast.

I was surprised to find that silhouettes are so easy!  I found Emily's tutorial here and decided to give it a go.  *Admittedly, this project was done a loooooong time ago.  In fact, it was done the same stormy weekend as this and this.  I had the photos but never remembered to post about this project until our friends were over for a playdate yesterday and said, "Where did you have the silhouettes done?"  Ha!  Here it is, Shelly...the easy crafty project.  :)

The first step is to get a profile photo of your kiddos (or whatever your subject may be).  This is the trickiest part because those kids don't want to sit still!  I had them sit in a chair and snapped a few quick photos, then uploaded them and enlarged them.  I have my photos printed at Target, but you could just print them out on computer paper.  Quality will not matter for this project.

Supplies:

1. profile photos

2. black craft paint ($0.49 at Michaels!)

3. foam brush

4. newspaper

5. white tagboard

6. frame

7. scissors

Cut out your child's profile, but don't worry about being too perfect.  The larger the profile, the easier, but small silhouettes sure are cute!  Mine were big to fit an 11x14 frame.  I cut them out carefully and then just started painting.  It took several coats of the paint to make the photos really evenly covered.

Once I had the photos covered well, I let them dry and then cut a piece of white tagboard (matte side facing up) and just glued the silhouette to the tagboard.  Then, frame the tagboard and VOILA!  Your very own silhouette!  Can you even believe its that easy?!

Ours found a home on this wall in our family room.

I've since added more frames to make this a gallery wall of family photos.  The silhouettes add a nice touch!

Happy crafting!