Scrappy Silhouettes

I made some silhouettes of my boys a while back and have had several people ask me how I did it.  I figured it was about time I made a tutorial on it. 

Silhouettes seem to be all the rage these days.  I had wanted to make some for my boys' room but wanted them to be a little bit fun at the same time.  First let me tell you, I am sure there is some tech-savvy way to do this . . . but you're not going to find those instructions here.  I'm all about simple and this was the simplest way I could think of to do this project.  I recently re-did the silhouettes (because I needed one for baby H) and I'll give you my step-by-step.

First, you'll want to take a profile picture of your subject.  It doesn't have to be a great picture.  I took mine on my ipod (because I couldn't find my camera!) before church one Sunday.  (I had to take them before church because the boys' hair was actually combed!) 

See?  Not a great picture in the bunch . . . but that's okay!

Next, after you download your picture, you'll copy and paste it into Word.  This is where it gets tricky.  You'll want to crop your photo so it's just their head and re-size it to your liking. (To do this you'll right-click on the photo, go down to "size", and then you'll see "crop from". . . just start cropping until you get it right around the head) I tried to make all the pictures about the same size since I was putting them next to each other. (To re-size you'll stretch the photo from the corners.)  Once you have the sizing just right you'll bring them up on some cardstock.  Here's what I got:

It's okay if the pictures aren't clear . . . all you really need is the outline.

Now you'll get to cutting.  I use my cutter bee scissors . . . they are perfect for getting little details--like J's long eyelashes.

Next I wanted to paint them.  This is where you can get creative . . . you can paint them any color you want.  I chose a neutral brown.

Since I flipped my silhouettes to the white side I just did one quick coat of paint.

Lastly, I looked through my mound of scrapbook papers and decided what I wanted to mount these on.  Glue them on with a little glue stick, frame in a cute cheap frame, and voila!  You have yourself some new decor!