Silhouette Gifts

I just love the look of old fashioned silhouettes- and of course, it's even better when the pictures are of people one knows and loves. Our family was fortunate to have an artist friend who made silhouettes of all of us when we were young. They have hung on my parents' living room wall ever since.

I got inspired to try to make a gift out of the shadow pictures this Christmas by Monica's post over at the homespun heart. She even explains how to make your own silhouettes from photographs if you don't happen to have any family silhouettes hanging around like we did.

First, I needed to scan copies of the silhouettes, resize them, and print them out. Then I used a pair of scissors and cut out the silhouette (some people use exacto knives, but I don't like them so I just cut with scissors and used a piece of scotch tape to mend the initial cut).

I taped the empty silhouettes to an apron that I wanted to give as a gift and used black fabric paint and a thick brush to create the pictures. They did bleed a tiny bit, but overall, it still turned out nicely. Next time, I would make sure to always brush toward the center of each silhouette and let my paint get a little thicker.