How to Use a Silhouette to Make Invitations

Silhouettes can be created of just faces or whole bodies.

A traditional silhouette is created from the outline of a person, cut from thin black paper and shows no features. It is basically a shadow showing the strongest features of a person's face, including the forehead, nose, chin and hair. The image created is clear, without any artistic interpretation. A professional silhouette artist could cut a silhouette portrait by hand fairly quickly, but for the amateur, a little photo editing magic will do the trick to create a simple silhouette. Adding a silhouette to birthday or wedding invitations gives a more personal touch to the note.

Things You'll Need

• Digital camera
• Photoshop or other photo editing software
• Printer
• Cardstock
• Scissors or craft knife
• Glue stick
• Prepared invitation with space on cover for the silhouette

Instructions

1. Photograph the subject(s) of your invitation from the side. Shoot against a white wall to make it easier to remove the background if you don't have Photoshop.

2. Open your photo editing software, and remove the background from the image. If you're using Photoshop, use the Magic Wand and click on the background to select it. Go to "Edit," and click on "Cut" in the drop down menu. The background will disappear. If you do not have Photoshop, you may need to use the freehand crop tool or something comparable to remove the background from your photo.

3. Remove the color from your photo. In Photoshop go to "Image," "Adjustments" and then select "Desaturate." In other photo editing software, it may be an issue of adjusting the brightness to remove the color from the photo leaving you with just the silhouette.

4. Resize your silhouette to fit the space on the cover of your invitation.

5. Print your silhouette(s) in black onto white cardstock.

6. Cut out your silhouette(s), completely removing all white edges from the images. If you are only doing a single image in your silhouette, rather than cutting out the silhouette, leave a frame of white around the image.

7. Glue the silhouette directly onto the front of your invitation, or mount it in on an oval of cardstock to create a frame that coordinates with your invitation theme.

References

• Photoshop essentials: Silhouette