Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Silhouettes


Do you know who this is?

That's right! Jane Austen! You know there are self-help groups out there for us nuts, right? For those of you who didn't know who this was, you'll be juuuust fine!

There's something elegant and sophisticated about a silhouette. They are so personal, individual, artistic, timeless...



... and not too hard to do yourself if you have the time and patience!

These are "ornaments" I made for my mom for Christmas. What I did for these was take a profile picture of each of my kids, sketched their profile onto drawing paper, outlined and filled in the sketch with black and then scanned them into our computer. If you don't have an artistic cell in your body, you could crop your picture online to the size you want, then use thin tracing paper to trace their outline. Then you could cut that out (either with sharp scissors or a craft knife) OR photocopy it onto white paper after filling it in. I'm still playing with different techniques. If you know of a better way, please let me know!


If this sounds too hard, then just send me photos of your kids and I'll do it for you! I am having so much fun over here trying out this new hobby that I'd love to have more practice!

Here are some more I did using decorative paper:

I chose paper that represented each child. My oldest likes technology, so I went with robots. My middle child likes music, and my youngest likes cars.

I also created some tiny silhouette ornaments for my sister-in-law's birthday. She was in Afghanistan at the time so I wanted to make them really small. She's got 4 kids: 2 older boys and twin girls who are 1.


My next project? Try out silhouettes with chocolate or on a cupcake. My youngest is getting baptized/dedicated at our church this winter, so maybe I'll try it for that occasion. Is that weird to eat an image of your own son? I might have to think about that...

5 comments:

  1. Super cute!! With your offer to do this for others, you may be a busy girl soon! Where did you find the beautiful frames for the silhouettes for your sister? They are beautiful!

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  2. The little frames I got at Michael's in their scrapbooking department. They are literally not even 2 inches high!

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  3. That's awesome! That would be a good birthday gift. I should come over some some day and you could help me (or do it..hahaha) with that.
    Super cute!!

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  4. Liz, I'd love to help you! (or do it...) I'm getting my craft room "set up", went to Ikea today...

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  5. Catching up on your blog posts (wonderful!), and enjoyed seeing the gang out around Christmas, all of the renovation pictures, and your really awesome silhouettes. What a great gift idea - if I did send you some photos, how much could I give you to create a few for me? Miss you all down here in Springfield - what fun the kids could all have on your gorgeous lawn! :) We might be home in June - don't suppose you'd be willing to host another movie night? I was so jealous to have missed that one...

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