Silhouette Ornaments - Handmade Holidays, Part 1

So here it is, my first project in the "Handmade Holidays" - Silhouette Ornaments.

These ornaments were inspired by 2 things, most obviously the Silhouette Ornaments created by Anjeanette at Roots and Wings.

And the reason these struck such a cord with me:

I LOVE silhouettes!!! I've wanted silhouettes of the kids for what feels like forever. I thought about faking them in photoshop, and then a friend volunteered to paint them for me, but then - at a local fair, we found someone doing authentic-hand-cut silhouettes. The stars had aligned, the kids sat long enough and I finally got silhouettes.

So I used them as the basis for our ornaments by scanning them into the computer. Then I created a whole page of each of the kids, with their name and 2009.

Also pictured above, 3" circles, purchased at AC Moore for $.25 each, scrapbook paper, I think I ended up needed 4 sheets and the ever useful modge podge.

Up next - cutting lots and lots of circles. Circles for the background, the matte effect and of course of the silhouettes themselves. (Excuse my antiquated craft tools - their like 10 years old, but they work and I don't like replacing what works...)

With 72 circles cut... (I was making 12 ornaments with 3 circles per side) I began layering the pieces.

 

 

 

One side of the ornament features our daughter, the other side our son. I had to be careful make sure while working on the flip side, that I kept them head to head so that when I drilled the hold for the string, I didn't have one facing up and the other facing down.

Speaking of drilling the hole - it's time to fire up the power tools.

 

And here we have the finished ornaments...

I can't wait 'till we put up our tree so I can photograph these in there "natural habitat."

My mind is racing with more ideas along this general them, they were so easy to make... I can see doing copies of school pictures, family portraits, general holiday themes, and even turning them into gift tags to go along with holiday gifts and goodies. Looks like I need to get back over to AC Moore to get additional 3" circles. Keep your eyes out for projects like this, and bug me if you don't see them.