Silhouettes

No, not the dream machine that I have yet to win in Blogland.  I would seriously love to have one though.
Today the silhouettes I am speaking of are profile shots of wiggly kids.  I remember doing silhouettes in Art class in Middle school.  I sat perfectly still in front of a bright light while a classmate traced my shadow onto a piece paper.
A couple years ago, I tried this method to make a Mother’s Day gift for my mom.  The kids were about 2 & 5.  Needless to say, I was in tears by the end of the afternoon because they just could NOT sit perfectly still for that amount of time.  Then my Wonderful Man suggested just taking pictures of the kids instead of doing the silhouettes.  Not what I wanted but then his idea combined with mine to a beautiful result.

Instead of tracing the kids, I took profile mug shot style photos.


I printed them out in BW on the most ink conserving setting I have.  I then lay contact paper on top of the pictures and traced the outline. 
Instead of using canvases, I went with my cheap love.  Plywood.  I am able to get a 2ftX2ft piece of plywood for about $3 at my local Mendards.  Using my trusty had saw, I cut in half lengthwise and then cut each half in half so I have 4 1X1 squares.  I sanded them down so they were nice and smooth, then painted them the color that I wanted the face.  I think it was Rustoleums Heirloom white.  When it was dry, I cut out my contact profiles.  I stuck them in the center of the squares  and smoothed out all the bubbles and pressed the edges as much as possible.  But since there is always the threat of paint bleeding, I sprayed the edges with the same cream base color.
When that was dry, I sprayed them with an Espresso color.

I hung them in our LLLOOONNNNGGG hallway between our bedroom door and G’s.  Instead of doing an eyeball job, I took the time to measure the space and figure out the right number to have an equal amount of space in between the tiles and the door frames which really makes the display in my opinion.  I just stuck them to the wall with 3M Command velcro strips instead of putting a sawtooth hanger on them and pounding nails into the walls.  Our walls are plaster instead of drywall and pounding in 1 nail results in the plaster falling off the wall in an inch around the nail. Since we are renters, this is the best option for us.




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