DIY Silhouettes


I’m pretty obsessed with silhouettes…Carter Kustera, Karl Johnson, they’re all geniuses. While I love the tried and true paper cutting technique, I wanted to try something a little funkier for our wedding. Thanks to Photoshop, its INCREDIBLY easy to make your own silhouettes to use wherever you want! I’m thinking about using these near our cake or at the guest book table, but they can work as thank you cards, on your invites, etc.

  1. First off, take a profile picture of yourself and/or your guy against a neutral background like a white wall…Chad was my guinea pig for this experiment.
  2. Download the photo into Photoshop, or any other photo altering program [however, these directions are for photoshop].
  3. Using the magic wand tool, turn anything in the background pure white….even when you’re using a white wall as a backdrop, there will be shadows or imperfections that will challenge you later on so its best to get rid of them in the beginning.
  4. Once everything in the back is white, again use the magic wand to highlight the background, then inverse the image so that the figure is highlighted. Using the paint bucket tool, make the figure black.
  5. You’re practically there at this point! Now is where you can have some fun…..I scanned in some graphic paper I found at Print Icon and brought it in as a background for Chad’s silhouette. And voila! A very cool silhouette! I also tried making Chad’s silhouette itself a pattern, but as you can see, depending on the pattern, a lot of detail will be lost, so its best to keep it as a background.

Try experimenting with different textures like woodgrain, pebbles, wallpaper, even clouds! The possibilities are endless! [I realize I’m horrible at giving directions with stuff like this, so if you have any problems, just email me and I’ll try to walk you through it.]

[images by Brooklyn Bride]