Silhouettes

I made these silhouettes of my boys last year.  It is easy to do, but I will warn you it takes some time.  Here is how I did mine:

1. Take a picture of your child from the side.  Ok, take like 20 of each kid.  Use a plain background behind them and keep them far enough away from the background that you don't get a shadow.  Then choose the picture that you think looks the most like them and shows off their features.  Try to get them to just look natural and hold their head in a neutral position.  They can smile just slightly.  For girls, put their hair up off their neck in a ponytail or some other up-do.

2. Print the pictures on cardstock.  Size them to the size that you want your silhouettes to be.  You can just print them in black and white.

3. Use some tiny and very sharp scissors to cut out your silhouettes.  The things that make them look really good are all the little hairs.  All the hairs I cut were not actually there, but I tried to make each kid's hair resemble what it does in real life.  Also, make sure you cut in an eyelash.  I could see the eyelash on the little boys but my teenager's nose bridge has gotten more defined as he is becoming a man and his eyelash does not extend past that.  I cut him in an eyelash anyway. 

4.  Use some spray mount on the back of what you just cut out to adhere it to your black paper.  I used a textured cardstock I had on hand.

5. Cut around your white cardstock to duplicate the silhouette on the black paper.  SO, yes, you cut the heads out twice.

Actually, this is when I cut all the little hairs in more detail.

On the eyelashes, I think I cut off the white paper because you could kindof see it behind the black.  For the rest of the edges you won't really notice the white once you get it mounted on your white paper.

6. Use spray mount again to adhere your black silhouettes to your white background paper.  Use any kind of paper you want, but I like a good quality artist paper.

7. I wrote their name and age on the back of their shoulders with a black felt tip pen.

8.  I bought an oval wood plaque at the craft store that I traced to make the oval around the silhouettes.

9. Frame them however you want.

Do you see some of the little hairs?  The white spots you see on his head are from the flash.

I am planning to do these for my kids at least every other year, hopefully every year.