I love the way this Silhouette Painting made by my toddler turned out! It makes such a fun keepsake too! The top one is the one he made and the bottom photo was made by his friend. This idea was inspired by a water color resist painting I saw over at 4 crazy Kings...... hers is done differently so be sure to stop by and check it out.
To make this silhouette painting, I first took side profile pictures of both the boys. This was a lot harder than I could have imagined but should have known that two 2 year olds wouldn't stand still long enough to take the picture... lol! I actually had to get my son to sit in a chair to finally get the shot.
Next, I printed each picture onto regular computer paper in a size 8 x 10.
We cut around our boy's silhouettes and then placed it on contact paper with tape and cut around it again. We used white contact paper- any color will do, but come back later this week to see why I used white in Part 2.
Trace a hand and a foot on the contact paper and cut them out.
Arrange the 3 pieces on 12 x 12 light-colored card stock until you get a pattern you like. Peel off the backing and stick it in place.
Have your child paint as much of the page as they want making sure to get around all the edges of the hand, foot, and silhouette (this creates the outline when you peel the contact paper off). I used Crayola kid's paint (washable tempera paint).
Lastly, I peeled the contact paper off before it dried...BUT WAIT! Don't throw away those pieces just yet! Check out Part Two to see what we did with these pieces.
Mama King says
What a fun blog you have. I am looking forward to checking out all your projects.I love how you incorporated the hand and foot print. Thanks for the link! I am looking forward to seeing the part II.
Gretchen Seefried says
LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!! Did I say I loved this!!! Well I do!!! So sweet!!! Great idea for a summer kid project!!! Please come over to Midchix and link this up in the Craft Mamas Flock!!!
Aiming4Simple says
My youngest turns three this week. This is a wonderful way to remember him at this age! Thanks for sharing it!
Anonymous says
I would like to use this project for some preschoolers. We did a practice run today on some scraps of clear, matte contact paper, and all the paint (washable tempra)fell off the contact paper. The outline part worked great, but we would like to be able to use the other parts as you did in part 2. Any suggestions?
artsy_momma says
Oh no! Sorry to hear. The only thing that I can think of is that we used Crayola's paints, which tend to be a little thicker than the other tempera paints. Or if it doesn't fall off right away, could you laminate it? Hope it helps! 🙂
Jessie says
I love silhouettes! Thanks for sharing this. Gonna RT! Jessie
artsy_momma says
Thanks for the RT Jessie!