2009 December 07 | Beneath My Heart

Hey Ladies!

Just wanted to quickly share with you a project that I completed for my fireplace mantle.

I have always wanted to have a picture of each of my boys placed above their Christmas stockings. But since I have been blogging, I have fallen in love with silhouettes. So I decided to make a silhouette of each of my sons for my mantle.

Here’s how I did it…

First I took a profile picture of each of my boys. It’s works best to have a white or light colored background.

Then I made a photo copy of it on my printer. I shrunk them to 75% to fit on my tile. You could make them as large or as small as you wanted to. I also made them a little darker so I could see the outline of their faces even better for when I needed to cut them out.

(Okay, I am laughing here…is it just me, or do these look like “mug shots”? Hee, hee…my four little criminals!)

Back to the tutorial…

Next, I cut the pictures apart and placed each one on a piece of black construction paper.

Then I used my scissors to cut around the outline of each child’s head and here’s what I got…

I love them already!

Then I took my white tiles that I had left over from my coaster project and covered them with a layer of Mod Podge. I used a sponge brush to apply the Mod Podge.

(The tiles can be purchased at Lowes or Home Depot for about 20 cents a piece, and the Mod Podge can be purchase at Wal-Mart or any craft store.)

I placed the silhouette on top of the Mod Podge and let it dry completely. (I did have to keep pressing the silhouette down to make sure it was sticking and didn’t bubble up.)

Then I placed a layer of Mod Podge on top of each silhouette and let it dry completely.

I was trying to come up with an easy way to make the tiles stand up by themselves on the mantle, and here is what I found…

Little metal picture frames from the Dollar General Store! They were 50 cents a piece, so I paid $2.00 for all of them. (Duh.)

I just hot glued them to the back of the tiles.

Perfect!

I was going to add a gingham bow to the top, but it was a little to “girly” for all my boys!

So for now, I am going to leave them plain.

Aren’t they sweet? Not the tiles….My Boys! :)

I’d like to do a little more with my mantle, but my decorating skills are lacking a little right now. Too much “other stuff” going on during the Christmas season.

But hey, simple is good, right?

(I got the lanterns at Goodwill a couple of years ago, but this is the first time I have used them. They were missing the glass pieces. I think I paid 4 or 5 dollars a piece for them at Goodwill. I got the glass globes at Hobby Lobby this week for $1.5o a piece.)