Silhouette Pendants

If you are one of my sisters-in-law with an upcoming birthday, please stop reading now!

Here's what I put together for them! I had intended to make them out of Scrabble tiles as is all the rage these days, but I couldn't find a thrifted game and wasn't about to dig into ours. The idea for this project came from these posts at Chasing Cheerios.

At Hobby Lobby, I found these squares of wood - they are 1.25". I really looked hard for glass tiles but didn't find an affordable option, plus they'd have been smaller. I painted the wood squares black with regular acrylic paint, applying two coats with the appropriate dry time in between. (I also bought my bails at Hobby Lobby.)

To make the silhouette, I took several pictures of Goose from the side. I opened the best picture in Paint (a program that came with my computer) and drew a black line around Goose to outline her. I then went bit by teeny bit and erased everything inside the line plus everything within a box around her head. It was tedious at best! I colored the inside of her silhouette to black and did some touching up. For example, I decided to remove her pig-tail because it just didn't look right. I also smoothed out her hair.

Then I opened a document in Microsoft Word and inserted the picture, and resized it to the dimensions I needed. I copied and pasted so I had two copies, and printed them. It was a bit of a trick to trim them down as cutting straight is NOT my strongest suit but I got it eventually. You'll remember that at this point, the squares are painted black.

I coated the front of the pendant with Mod Podge and stuck the silhouettes on. I then put two more coats over the top of the picture, and let it dry. I put a few coats of spray acrylic sealant stuff on both sides (again mostly sticking to recommended dry times) and then this afternoon, I used super glue to attach the bails. I think technically they are backwards, that they should be attached to the front, but it didn't work that way with what I wanted to do.

Now all I have to do is put them in the mail! (Well, I'll wait for one birthday to get here, first.) I thought they turned out pretty well, and if nothing else, they can use them as a Christmas tree ornament.

For more frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom.