DIY Silhouettes Gallery

A few months ago, I ran across an image on Pinterest, and didn’t repin it.  It haunted me for months.  I couldn’t find it, but I wanted to do something like it – and alas, I finally broke down and did it.  The image was a silhouettes gallery on BHG.com.  To this day, I can’t find the image on BHG.  However, I did finally find the image that has haunted my dreams:

I know, right? How freaking cute is that?

So I decided I wanted one for my family.  First, I collected frames from random thrift stores. Goodwill, Volunteers of America, Craigslist and Garage Sales.

Beauties, aren’t they? Especially the 1970 plastic wood look frame.

First order of business after getting the frames I had picked out home and situated? Tear those suckers apart.  I pulled out pictures from them, took out glass, tossed them all in the sink and scrubbed them down with regular ole Dawn Dish soap.

TIP: Set aside any pictures or backing that was in the frames to begin with. This makes a great template for your fabric.

THEN…

I spray painted them.  I went to Hobby Lobby and bought five colors of Krylon Spray Paint (all Glossy): Emerald Green, Yellow, Plum, Silver, Light Blue, and then some white primer.

I had a heckuva time getting that orange circle one to cover. I ended up with the “friggits”, and painted it blue.

AFTER THAT…

I pulled out the fabric that I had picked out at Hobby Lobby.  When I went to the craft store, I knew I wanted to get three fabrics that matched color-wise but were a bit different.  I got a yard of each.  While I was there, I also picked up a yard of black felt.

I pulled out the fabric, and decided which fabrics I wanted to go to which frames.  From there, I used the original backing to the frame as a template to cut out that fabric.  I cut out the largest frames first, and then the smaller frames last.

Finally, I placed them in the frame, and hot-glued the fabric down to the backing so that it would fit in the frame snug.

Now we’re getting somewhere. How cute are they? They WANT to be on my walls. They NEED to be on my walls.

NOW…

Silhouettes? Right. This is a silhouette project. I almost forgot with all those adorable colors.  So the next step is to take out your iPhone, Droid, Camera, stone and chisel, or whatever tool of choice is yours for recording history onto something tangible.  Ask your subject to stand, shoulder to the wall and get a decent shoulder up photograph of them.

TIP: If you have boys, they will do something heinous every time a camera lens points their direction.  Do not be discouraged. Grab some hair gel to smooth down the scary fly-aways, and have fun with it. 

Print the image.  It’s ok if they have smudges on their face, or a John Cena shirt on. No one will know.  When you print – choose the size that corresponds with your printer. I got some really funky sized frames, but for the most part, I used 8×10 print settings.

Once you’ve printed the image, cut it out. For the shoulder part, remember that you want that little dip at the bottom to be longer in the front of the image than on the back.

Next – flip it over. It’s so much nicer to cut black from white than black from dark.  So, when you flip your printout over, it’s nice and stark white and you’ll see what the finished result will be.

And finally, use that white cutout as your template on the felt.  Use sharp scissors, because nothing sucks quite as bad as trying to cut eyelashes and lips on felt with old, dull scissors.

It should look a little something like this when you’re done: 

No need to hot glue your silhouettes onto the fabric – they stick by themselves.  Just pop them on and there you go!

Hope you love it!

Tagged as: DIY Art, Gallery Wall, Silhouette Gallery, Silhouette Tutorial