Crafting: 3-D Silhouette Mother's Day Art!

I have been wanting to make silhouettes of my children

for the last year or so.

I finally got to it this week!

Just in time for Mother's Day.

And I love, love, love the way they turned out!

And they're 3-D! How awesome is that?!

There were 2 products that really helped me make these...

DiscChangers- - it makes it SUPER easy to hang these plates!!
And, my favorite craft glue- Gorilla Glue- - the stuff is like liquid plastic.
It hardens up so good. That's how I got the "3-D" effect.

_____________________________________________
If you'd like to do this too,

I'll share the steps with you to making one. :)
There's still enough time to make this project
for Mother's Day for yourself- like mine- -
or for your mother or grandmother, too!
This would also make a great present for a birthday, too.

__________________________________

1st- I transformed plates from the clearance rack at Walmart...

to this...

using Mod Podge to attach the paper

then, I added a cut up doily to my girly one.
You know me and making things girly! haha.

And now they're ready for those beautiful silhouettes!

__________________________________

2nd, I took some profile pictures of my 3 kiddos.

Let me tell you...

it took about 25 pictures apiece

to get the right one.

My kids are all very young though.

I'm sure it wouldn't be quite so time consuming

if the subjects were over the age of 4.

 But mine weren't! lol.

See, your pictures do not have to be perfect either!!

Just look at mine,

and this was after 75 clicks!

________________________________

3rd- I opened these pictures in Photoshop.

Here's the steps in photoshop/elements for 1 silhouette:

1. Duplicate Layer. Change Layer Mode to Screen... or if your subject is on a white background, then the opposite- - Vivid Light. This is to make your subject's outline easier to see, so do what works best for your photo.

2. Select the Magnetic Lasso Tool. Using the magnetic lasso, outline your subject, making sure to leave a little bit of the chest area, and leaving the neck area long. You may have to subtract and add to it as needed. Flatten this Layer.

3. Using paint brush or paint bucket tool, paint area black or desired silhouette color until completely filled in.

4. Invert Selection. Then Create a Layer via Cut.

5. Open New Blank File, 8x8 inches or make it larger if so desired.  

6. Copy the Layer with just the silhouette onto the new blank file. Move the silhouette around so that it is the correct size for your project. Then save it!

7. Print, or like me, you may want to put it in a Word Document, change your printer properties to Fast Draft/greyscale, then print.

They will look like this when you have printed them out:

__________________________________

4th- Once the silhouette is printed, cut it out. Tape it to the back of the glitter paper (Michaels sells this paper). Then cut your paper out! At this point you can attach it to the paper & frame it...

__________________________________

5th- Or you can create a 3-D effect like mine by using  1 " painted blocks & gorilla glue!

I really wanted my silhouette to pop off the background a bit,

so I adhered it to a piece of cardboard 1st

 to keep it from curling in this horrid humidity,

 then gorilla glued it to the painted block

and gorilla glued the block to the plate.
(Those glass plates on top of the silhouette are to "clamp" or weight down the silhouette while drying with the Gorilla Glue.)

__________________________________

Here's another look at the finished project.

Pretty adorable, right?!

I'm actually thinking I might create a little

"Featured Artists" plaque to go above it...

since I'm hanging these currently above my Mama's Brag Board.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mamas out there!

I'm adding this project to the brand new DIY Club!!
Go check out all the other great entries there too.
 

Also linking to a few of my other fave blog parties found here!