Framed Silhouette DIY

I LOVE decorating for the holidays. As a renter I am limited on storage space so finding ways to repurpose things I have already is a must. I was inspired by this post on Goodwill Glam and created something similar to suit my home.

These are some lovely prints we have from husby's sister. See more of her work here.

I decided to repurpose these frames and change out the image inside; here are the finished pieces!

This DIY is very simple, and only cost me $1.50! The polka dot paper is some giftwrap I already had from Homegoods which I cut to be the same size as the photos that were in the frame (11x14).

I then found some silhouettes on Google to print and trace. I decided on a dove and a buck. If you are trying to do some other subject, say a disney character for a kid's room try searching for coloring pages if you don't find a silhouette that you like. Here are the images I used below, be sure to change your printer settings to fast draft quality as to not waste ink!

I cut out each silhouette and traced them on the back of some glitter cardstock from Michael's then cut that out. Depending on the paper you choose you might just be able to put that in your printer and only cut once. Unfortunately that was not an option for the 12x12 cardstock I used. 

When tracing, be sure to remember which way you want your images to face. You can either invert the images before printing, or just flip the ink side down when tracing to maintain the same direction as the original image. For images such as these this is not important unless you are dead set on having your silhouettes facing a certain way. If you use a phrase your letters will be backwards if you they are not inverted when being traced/printed.

 Here are my buck heads cut out. 

I originally did just the gold, but felt it looked too yellow next to the paper. Then I tried just red and thought it looked plain! I decided to see how they looked stacked and loved the shadow effect it produced. Many people seem to think everything goes well on the first try and if it doesn't they get discouraged. I am here to tell you even the best laid plans do not always pan out. Just be creative and play around until something fits. If you REALLY hate it, then toss it or start over but remember that one project that didn't work out is not going to define your ability for all projects!

Here are the finished frames in their new home! 

Thanks for reading and have a happy holiday season!