And more silhouettes!

I made another set of silhouettes for a birthday present, this time for my grandma.  I used the same original photos as I had for the last post, but these were the ones that were printed out at 5x7 size.  As you can see, they fit very nicely into 4x6 mat openings.  This time, I left more torso just to see how I would like it.  And I think I like it!  Not for all of them, but I think it turned out really well here.  The background didn't show up as well, but it's a mottled blue/black, and I really liked it with the black silhouettes of boys.  I really hope my grandma likes it, too!  (I didn't make silhouettes of all her great-grandchildren, because I don't have access to profile shots of the other kids.  If she really likes these, maybe I'll try to get everyone to send me photos for a Christmas silhouette set....Or not.)

Silhouettes

I liked the silhouettes I made in December so well that I immediately decided to make some for my mother-in-law for her birthday.  I thought that they would seemed to fit her decor aesthetic.  So when my nephews were over for a day in January, I planned ahead and put each boy against the wall while I took their picture from the same spot on the floor, so that their pictured heads would have the same relative sizes as they do in real life.  (There's gotta be an easier way to say that!)

Fast-forward to April, two days before my MIL's birthday party, in fact, and I got around to printing out the pictures and getting to work.  I had actually pre-purchased my supplies - well, most of them.  I had bought one of the frames (the mats came with the frames, and each opening is 5x7) at Wal-Mart several weeks earlier, but wanted to check to be sure it looked good before buying a second one.  I had the scrapbook papers and the acid-free stickers.  So first I printed out the biggest boy's picture in 8x10 size and checked the size against the mat opening.  Hmm.....seemed too big - it barely fits.  So I printed out all the pictures in 5x7 size and cut out the heads.

*I should point out here that I printed the pictures on cardstock, so that it was easier to trace around later.  And I didn't crop the pictures at all, because I couldn't figure out how to crop them exactly the same and keep the relative sizing as mentioned earlier.

I really should have just printed out the smallest boy's picture in 5x7 and checked it against the mat opening, but I didn't.  (In the end, I printed all 4 pictures in both 8x10 and 5x7 size, and I ended up using the 8x10 pictures for this particular project.  However, all is not lost, as I'm going to use the smaller ones for a set of smaller silhouettes for my grandma and my sister-in-law, so I'm pretending that I planned it that way.)

After each head was cut out from the picture, I decided which way I wanted them to face and then traced the head onto the back of the black scrapbooking cardstock with a pencil.  I have to say that it showed up really well!  I cut out the traced outline, attached the background paper to the back of the mat using acid-free photo stickers, and then used the same stickers to attach the silhouettes to the background.  You can't see it from the picture here, but I also used a scrapbooking pen to write each boy's initials just under the back of the neck.  Just in case their doting grandma forgets what they look like or something. :)

I think they turned out really well, and I'm thinking that I'll be making more in the future.  I really like how they look on black with a patterned background.  And I also like the idea of putting initials and the year next to the silhouettes.  I can keep doing this for years!

Silhouettes!

I was browsing through magazines at Lowe's, while my husband was checking out, and I saw some framed silhouettes on the cover of one of them. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one now - oops! Anyway, I skimmed the article but didn't buy the magazine. Unlike most classical silhouettes, which are black on white, these were white silhouettes, backed with a bright blue and framed in white. I thought they looked really cool, and I decided I had to try it!

The article had discussed making the silhouettes and backgrounds from artist's foam, so I bought white artist's foam in 12x18 sheets from Hobby Lobby. The profile pictures I took of Things 1&2 were printed out as 8x10s, and I was able to cut both silhouettes from 1 sheet. When we decided roughly where we wanted to put the pictures, I went back to find burgundy foam for the backgrounds, but that didn't exist. It was all bright colors. So I found a mottled burgundy 12x12 scrapbook paper instead. I tried to find frames at HL, but I wanted white, and they didn't have any that I liked in an 11x14 size. Instead, I found these frames at WM.

Originally, we were going to have both silhouettes facing the same direction, but then my husband got the idea to have them face each other and put a smaller color photo of them in the middle. I love this one that I took at the City Museum earlier this fall. They look so happy, and the balls are so colorful - it was a no-brainer choice! I had that photo blown up to an 8x10 and then found the frame at WM again. We'll get these hung tonight, before we ring in the New Year.