Embroidery Hoop Silhoutte

I love silhouettes. And silhouettes are all the rage right now, it seems. I wanted to try something new to create keepsakes of my little guy as he grows, and came up with this inexpensive embroidery hoop option.

I started by taking a photo of my son in profile, in front of a lit window. I printed the photo as an 8x10" on cardstock, so that his head was close to life-size. With my scissors, I cut around as many details as possible from the neck up.

Using a large embroidery hoop from JoAnn's, I cut my fabric large enough to fill the hoop and inserted it. It's also helpful to put some Elmer's glue around the inside of the hoop, to lock your fabric in place and keep it from getting loose. When it was tight like a drum head, I placed my cardstock cutout on the fabric and traced it in pen.

I already had some basic black acrylic craft paint...a small bottle will be plenty. It helped to have a small detail paintbrush for the outline and also a large craft sponge/brush to quickly fill the empty space with paint.

To help me remember how old he was in this silhouette, I'm thinking I'll attach a small hang tag from the brass top that says, "18 mos." Wouldn't it be cute to have a wall of these in the nursery of all different sizes, fabrics, and stages of growth?

For some professional silhouette keepsakes, head over to Vana's site, Le Papier Studio.

My favorites are her lockets (have one, love it!) and new vinyl wall decals.