Painted Silhoutte Project

WARNING: This is a great LAST MINUTE Christmas gift craft...and very fun...and addicting...ok, you're good to read on...

I have been busy recovering from my boutique last weekend...so this week its back to making handmade lovlies for Christmas. I have always had a hard time figuring out what to get my mom and my inlaws. This year I've been having this obsession with silhouttes...we went to Disneyland in May and I wanted to have them done there, but just couldn't bring myself to pay for them.

I knew then thats what I wanted to make my family for Christmas. I don't have great skill with scissors, so I decided to go a different route. I made stencils out of pictures and then painted the silhouttes onto cardstock!



Here's what you'll need:

Camera
Printer
White Cardstock
Black Paint
Paint brushes, a few different sizes
These wooden plaques from JoAnn's
Modge Podge, I used matte finish
Scissors (I love my Fiskars for cutting the details)
Sandpaper
Grossgrain ribbon
Ruler
Pencil

First thing I did was take profile shots of all my kids. I had my husband hold the baby...this works best in front of a bright window during the brightest part of the day.

These are the unedited images...

I used Photoshop to darken the shadows and increase the contrast, I also increased the levels, do whatever works to get the best shadow to cutout. Print this onto cardstock, make sure it will fit into the size of plaque you use. My plaque was 5X7.

Next, cut out your child's face. I used a pencil to draw around where I wanted to cut, especially important to make the bottom look kinda fancy. Its fun to cut out the hair, to give the silhoutte your childs personality.

Tape the side where you cut into the cardstock at, this is now your stencil!

First, tape your stencil onto a clean sheet of cardstock.

Now its time to PAINT! I took a small detail brush, keep it dry...and paint the outline carefully. Then take a larger brush and fill it in. You can use the detail brush to go back and clean it up.

My sister did one technique that worked for her, I used another. You might make a few mistakes, so be patient and find what works best for you.

I did take the small brush and added eyelashes to my daughter and some more flyaway hair.

Ok, so take your plaques and paint them black on one side and paint up the edge on the other (I didn't get a picture of this step). Leave the part where you will mount your silhoutte clean of paint.

Trace the plaque around your silhoutte and trace it, cut it out. Use the modge podge to glue your cardstock onto the plaque. Use a thin layer and get all the bubbles out by smothing it down.

Get the sandpaper and use it to sand away the excess cardstock. So the cardstock becomes one with the plaque :) I also sanded some of the black paint off around the edges, gave it a cool shabbt chic look!

Modge podge a thin layer over the top

And when the front is dry, do the back!

Cut a 4.5" piece of grossgrain ribbon and glue it onto the back of the plaque, once the modge podge is dry. This is what you'll use to hang your picture, the plaques aren't heavy at all.

I made little bows out of the grossgrain and added them to the front of the silhouttes too. On the bottom for my boys and at the top for my daughter.
I am so excited to give these to my and my husband's parents.

This was a fun project to do in one evening and a GREAT last minute Christmas gift craft! Feel free to email me with questions or with pictures of your finished projects!

Here is where I linked this project: