Child's Painting Silhouette

I am SO excited to get back into crafting. I spend a lot of time doing things that are a total waste of time and then long for all my project ideas to be completed.  I know I'm not the only one out there who does this. Am I right? I've made a conscious decision to be better about it and it starts with this project.  Total time it takes: around an hour or two (including dry time).  Total time it took me: about a month.  BUT IT'S DONE. Completing this project has opened the door for me to make time to be creative and to finally start marking off all those projects from my list.

I got the kids involved in making this project extra special but if you don't have little ones at home, it would work with any cutout or painting you'd like. The possibilities are endless!

I love hoarding treasuring the precious artwork that my children create. But my kids LOVE to create so there is a lot. A lot, a lot. I needed a new way to keep their creations without just having more paper lying around.

Then one day I shared this photo that I found on pinterest (there was only a broken link attached to it. I don't know the original creator to give credit. If you do- let me know!) to my craft community facebook page Crafts & Coffee Support Group.  A member of the group commented that it could be made with paintings done by our children and I thought that was brilliant!

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Now I need to point out that my kids would never sit still long enough for me to actually trace their silhouette so I found an easy way to make my own template using photos of them!  That way, they don't have to sit still and I still get the actual shape of their head!

I also took this opportunity to update some boring decor that hangs in our house (stock photos of nature that my husband had when we got married) with something that means a little more.

[Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to products you can use for this project. Purchasing through these links pays me a small commision at no extra charge to you. Thank you for supporting my blog and for helping me to create future projects.]

Here's how to make it:

First, grab some Acrylic Paint and white cardstock paper. Let your kids get creative and paint whatever they want all over the paper.

While the paint is drying (or even while they are painting!) snap a photo of them facing sideways. It doesn't matter if the background is messy as long as it's a good side profile of them. I took these photos at different times spanning a few days:

Next, you need to size and print your photos so that they can be used as a template. I have a terrible printer and didn't want to waste ink on printing the background so I used Picmonkey to erase some of it away. If you have ink to spare you can skip this part ;)

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[Using Picmonkey to clean up the background and waste less ink]

1- Open your photo by clicking "edit" on my main screen and uploading your image.

2- Next, go to "overlays" (the butterfly icon) and choose the rectangle shape.  Change the colors to white.

3- Make the white square large enough to cover your entire photo.

4- Using the "eraser" tab in the "overlay" box, start erasing away the white box where your child's face is.  If you erase too much, just click on the little paintbrush next to it and that will 'brush' the white back on. This doesn't need to be pretty or perfect, all we are doing is creating blank space for printing.

5- I suggest resizing at this point so that your entire 'saved' picture is the size you need.  To do this, go to the top icon on your lefthand bar (the 3 lines with the balls. Just a few above the butterfly icon you already pressed) and crop the photo to your desired size.

To figure out what size to make it, measure the inside of your frame. My frame was about 4.5 inches wide so I decided to make my photo a 4x6 to allow a little extra room on the sides.

***Pick back up here if you skipped the editing portion***

Now it's time to print your photos. Open a word document and insert your photos. Make sure to double check that the photos are the size you need them to be (especially important if you skipped the editing section)

Once everything is good to go, print your photos! If you have a terrible printer like I do, don't worry! The quality of the photo doesn't matter because it's only being used as a template.

Now you need to trace the outline of the heads/faces. Using a crayon, marker, pen, pencil, etc. trace along the outside and down the torso slightly.  I had to make a new line for my daughter's torso because it was twisted in the original photo and wouldn't show her chin outline as well if I'd kept it the same. You'll be able to get an idea of how it will look as your outline is drawn.

Cut out the heads. Be careful not to cut off any little noses or lips! The next couple of photos show the backside of my templates because it's easier for you all to see in pictures ;)

By this time your paintings should be dry. Place your templates on top of the paintings to make sure there is enough to fill in the silhouetted space.

Good to go? Great. Now trace along the outside of your template onto the painted picture. 

Carefully cut out the silhouette from the painted paper.  After that's finished, cut some solid colored cardstock (the blue and pink on mine) in whatever size your frame is. It's easiest to do this if you simply trace the backing or mat from your frame.

Using stick glue (that's an awesome deal on them if you go through a lot) or whatever choice of adhesive you desire, attach your painted silhouette to your solid colored cardstock.

If you wish to add details like name and age, do so with extra solid colored cardstock. You can also print directly onto the carstock before attaching the silhouettes (for me it was an afterthought so I had to add the pieces of paper at the end).

Finish it up by putting everything into your frame and hang!

I love how these turned out and love even more that my kids had such a big part in making them! It was total coincidence that my son's painting looks like his face/hair where the colors change and that makes it even more cool!

Thanks for following along. I hope you feel inspired to make your own.  Please join my craft community on Facebook to get inspiration and tips straight to your news feed and please share your projects with me there or on my Facebook page. I love to see how your creations turn out!