The Fickle Hobbyist

For a long time I had wanted to make silhouettes for the girls’ room, I just hadn’t had time to get around to it.  I had the frames all picked out already and set in my office (thank you 50% off at Hobby Lobby!), but I couldn’t be bothered to make them.  Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I thought “Would it be awesome to make and cut the silhouettes out and float them between two pieces of glass?”  So then I thought “Well, shoot, now I have to go get another piece of glass to finish this project.”  (why do I do this to myself?)

As luck should have it, I decided to actually open the frames I had purchased just to check them out.  (mind you, I’d had these frames for a few months at this point.)  And what should I see??  TWO panes of glass.  SCORE!!!  I didn’t have to go find another piece!!  So this psyched me out and I immediately grabbed my camera and ran to take pics of the girls.  Luckily they were in the bath so I didn’t even have to drag them to a solid colored background!

Now, let me be honest here.  I think the hardest part of the whole thing was actually getting a GOOD silhouette shot!!  Who would have thought?  If your angle isn’t right on, it looks weird.  Take a ton just to be on the safe side. 

I edited my silhouettes on Photoshop, but I know people have done it where they have cut a picture out and traced that onto black paper, and a bunch of different methods.  They all work, but I’d rather just do it in photoshop because it’s quick for me.  Here’s what I did.

1. Take a photo on a solid colored background.
2. Import to PS and use the magic want tool to select the background.  Click around various areas to see which one gives you the cleanest silhouette all on its own.
3. Once you have an area selected that you want to remove, push the delete button.
4. If you can’t successfully use the magic wand anymore without cutting into the silhouette, then it’s time to grab the eraser.  Smooth around the rest of the photograph.
5. When you’ve got a shape that you like, then hold down CTRL and click on the layer  palette.  This will put marching ants around the shape you have just selected.
6. Grab your paint brush tool and (while the ants are still marching around your shape!) paint all over the whole picture.  Only the area within the marching ants will be paintable if you did it right.
7. Now, you should be left with a black shape.  If you like it this way, then you can leave it, but if you’d like to cut the bottom away like a true silhouette, then click “Select” and then “Deselect” to make the marching ants go away.  Grab your eraser and erase along the bottom to get the shape you like.
8. Print this to whatever size your frame is.  From here you can either leave it this way or cut around it and sandwich it in between two pieces of glass for the “floating” look.

Here are the two I made of my girls.  I haven’t yet actually hung them in the room because I’m still trying to decide how to arrange the room.  Their room is so oddly shaped because they have one long closet with two swing out doors. 

I think it would be really cute to get some vinyl lettering to go on the top with their names done in some pretty font.  I still might finish it off that way.

I hope that was easy enough to follow, and I hope some of you try it!  If you do, don’t forget to show us.  We’d love to see any finished projects you make.

-Autumn

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