Silhouette DIY

 I made some silhouettes of my niece and nephew for my mom for Christmas and many people have asked me how I did it, so I thought I'd do a quick post about it.

I had my sister take profile shots of both my niece and nephew.  I honestly think she had the harder end of the job because it's really difficult to get kids to stand still and look straight ahead for the picture.  I highly recommend having a friend or husband help you if you are trying this with your own kids.  I also recommend having the kids stand against a white wall (or maybe a darker wall if they are blonde) and wear a dark shirt so there is more contrast.  Also I like the way Ben's turned out better with his shoulders perpendicular to the camera....as opposed to Mary Ellen's which are square to the camera (mainly because the only way my sister could get her to sit still was if she was watching TV).

I also flipped Mary Ellen's picture horizontally in Photoshop so her profile is facing the same way as Ben's (although I'm sure it would look cute either way).

Once I had the pictures, I used Photoshop to outline their heads and then filled in their heads with a solid color (any color other than black will do, since you are tracing onto black paper).  Then I printed this out and cut it out with scissors.  I traced their heads onto black cardstock (fadeless), stuck them onto white background paper with double-sided tape, and placed them into a black frame with a mat.

 Trace around their heads using the Magnetic Lasso Tool.

Fill in head using Paint Bucket tool with any color (other than black).

If you don't have Photoshop, you can easily print out the kids pictures directly onto paper, cut them out, and then trace them onto the black cardstock.  That might actually be easier than what I did.  You can find a tutorial using this method here.

Give it a try and let me know if you need any help!  It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be and I was thrilled with how they turned out.

*Also, now that I know people are interested...if you'd like me to make these for you please let me know and we can talk pricing.  All you would have to provide is an electronic profile shot of your child.