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Saturday Special 1/30: Silhouettes

Hey ladies! I’m continuing on our extraction theme for January and focusing on something I’ve been meaning to try for a long time: silhouettes.  I’ve been meaning to make silhouettes of my kids as a gift for my mom and I got a chance to experiment while working on a project for my kids’ room. I was making a set of alphabet cards and wanted silhouettes of the kids to put on their initial. Here’s the entire set:

And here’s a close-up of my completed silhouette.

So ready to get to it? First up, take a profile pic of your subject. Be sure to shoot in a well-lit room against a light background. here’s mine:

Next: use your favorite extraction method to cut out your subject’s head. I use the polygonal lasso tool, but you can reference this tutorial from earlier this month for additional instructions. Extracting hair can be tricky, but for this project, you want a simple shape, so I just cut off most of the strays. I did keep my son’s cowlick because I thought it added character to his profile.

Last: Select the layer (in PSE hold down the control button while clicking on the extracted layer thumbnail in the layers pallette). Now that the marching ants are surrounding your photo, go to edit, and then fill selection from the drop-down menu. A pop-up box will appear and if you click okay, it will fill the photo with the foreground color. Ta-da! You’re done! Just drag the silhouette onto your project and you’re done!

And check out this page from Amanda (panders77) using Juno’s One of a Kind, Chelles Creations The Cutting Edge Templates, and Brittish Designs Dated Stamped and Doodlie Doo Borders. I love it!

These look great on scrapping pages, but also make great gifts. Just print out your silhouette, frame it and you’ll have the perfect valentine’s gift. Now on to the fine print: complete an extraction and post your project or LO in the gallery. Link up here in the forum to get one MOS point. Earn an additional point by using a new release. Finally, I’ll award a point to my favorite layout or project. You have until the end of February to turn in your entries. I can’t wait to see your creations!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 4:15 am and is filed under ScrapMatters, The Saturday Special, Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Saturday Special 1/30: Silhouettes”

  1. Terrah Says:
    January 30th, 2010 at 6:33 pm

    Lovin’ the silhouette idea. :)

  2. Friday Favorites — Daily Dwelling Says:
    February 12th, 2010 at 11:03 am

    Saturday Special: Silhouettes by Scrap Matters

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