Is anyone else just SOOOO ready for Fall? Here in Virginia, things feel like they are melting it’s so hot. Reminds me of that awesome Perrier commercial they have running all the time these days:

Love that for some reason.

But anyways, I’m back today to give you the final run down of my silhouette project! As I majorly hinted in yesterday’s post (or rather flat-out told you), I finally got around to tackling this sentimental little art piece and couldn’t be more pleased – Both with how simple the process ended up being and how sweet the final product is.

I’ve heard of people Photoshoping a picture of someone in profile to cut out everything around the face, etc. etc. but I wanted to go a bit of an easier route…I don’t have Photoshop on my personal computer and, while I’m familiar with the software because I use it all the time at work as a page designer, it just seemed like an energy/time waster. I’m also just lazy like that 🙂

So I first tracked down a photo of myself in profile and one of John. The one of me was pretty easy to find:

But the one of John was more difficult. Let’s just say that there are a little over 850 photos tagged of me on Facebook, while John has 24. He’s a hard guy to catch on film…But I was able to find one of him finally, I just had to zoom in REALLY close to get it. It’s blur-tasktic (and really small), but it’ll do as you’ll see in just a moment.

I printed out both photos in black and white (although it wouldn’t have mattered if I printed them in color – I just wasn’t about to waste the ink in my printer for color photos I was going to mark up). Then I grabbed a Sharpie marker and traced around the faces.

I was kind of winging it at this point but am happy to report that, after flipping over, I had two great beginnings for silhouettes since the Sharpie ink bled right through onto the back of the photo print out.

I decided to use these two art pieces in our master bathroom – We are probably the only two people who really care to see each other’s silhouettes…So I chose a light teal color for the actual cut outs. It will match the shower curtain we have in the bathroom:

Here’s a photo of the scrapbook paper remnant I ended up using – It worked well for our purposes and color palette!

This is where I have to chuckle at my process a bit…Although it was a silly idea, it totally worked! I took my traced photos, held them up to the studio window, layered the teal scrapbook paper on top and drew along the Sharpie line! Easy as pie. Maybe like lions and their natural instinct to hunt, woman are born with the random ability to know how to make a silhouette.

See how the Sharpie marker outline shows through for a perfect guideline while tracing?? Thank goodness it was a sunny day and I got good tracing light…A couple of seconds later, I had my shapes ready for the scissors!

Using some rubber cement, I glued the two shapes to some plain old white printer paper and stuck them temporarily in two black mats I had on hand.

I didn’t have any pretty frames to put them in just yet, but I knew they needed to be behind glass if they were to live in the bathroom – Exposed paper and steam from showers do not mix well. But here they are in their temporary surroundings!

This past weekend though, I finally found a moment to get them their glass homes – I picked up two 11×14 frames at Ross for $8.99. The frames actually came with cream-colored mats, but I figured I’d remove those since I had the silhouettes all done up with the black mats. Once I got them in the frame though with the black, it read a little too dark…So out went the black mats and in went the cream ones again! Here they are in their complete state 🙂

I’m glad to finally have my own set of personal silhouettes. I’ve seen sooooo many other people do this project and just love how quaint and sweet it turns out! One of my best friends actually did one of herself, one of her husband and one of each of their dogs – Adorable! They are about to have their first baby too, so I can’t wait to see the new silhouette get added to their collection. Maybe John and I can make one for our two cats and dog!

We’ll keep you posted 🙂

Good morning!!! It’s good to be back in the blogging seat again…The break was definitely a necessity though – Last week was nuts to say the least. Between my second week at the new job (which is going well by the way!) and housesitting, my routine has been so off the tracks that my blog entries would have looked like this had I attempted to keep up with it:

“We wiped down the counters today. They look less dirty. See you tomorrow…”

Needless to say, I don’t think many of you would have gotten much out of them. But on a positive note, I had a LOT of time to mull over the little ole’ blog and dream up some exciting things for our to-do/to-share list in the near future! I also devised a few tweaks for the blog features too, the first of which you’ll see today!

But before I get to that, I just want to extend a heartfelt “THANK YOU!!!” to the handful of readers who left replies to last Monday’s reader survey!!! The tips, feedback and suggested direction I received were invaluable and I’m definitely going to take it into consideration. However, I KNOW there are more of you out there…According to my calculations and daily WordPress read stats, I’m pretty sure that these 4 faithful followers aren’t refreshing the DreamGreenDIY page 75 times each…But that’s okay – I’ll let the rest of you off the hook for now 😉 While our home and projects are the stars of this site, we are sharing things just as much for your benefit. So please feel free to drop us a line anytime with suggestions or comments! As always, the email is DreamGreenDIY@gmail.com.

So back to my first feature update – I decided that my “Monday Inspiration” posts need a new title…The original title is pretty mundane and, while I really enjoy spouting off about my latest design trend obsession each week, I think we could do better on the direction. So starting today, Monday’s will be all about my “Weekly Pinspiration”!

Does everyone know about “Pinterest” yet? I hope so, because this is easily one of the best suggestions I can make to anyone who scours the internet for inspiration. It’s also a FABULOUS way to organize your ideas (a lot of the feedback from Monday was about organization – I’m definitely going to ramp up my suggestions in that area, starting with this!). I know that I’ve talked it before, but maybe not in huge detail?? Well we will today 🙂

Meet the bliss that is Pinterest…

Here’s a scenario: You’re reading a blog or browsing a major website like Real Simple or Better Homes & Gardens, and come across a room that you just ADORE! The colors are right, the accessories just speak to you and the couch in the photo looks a heck of a lot like the one you already own…Instead of printing it out and putting it in a folder (although, as you may remember, I’m not totally against this idea as seen here), why not “Pin it”!?

Once you get signed up with the website (you actually have to go on a bit of a waiting list but it usually takes only a week or two) you can download the “Pin it” application to your browser. This will enable you to essentially grab any photo you’d like off of the internet. You click the button and the website you’re looking at suddenly turns into a big list of pictures. For example, here’s the CraftGawker website before clicking my “Pin it” application:

And now after! See how the photos are now lined up and ready for easy “grabbing”??

Once you find and click on the one you want to “Pin”, another window pops up. You sign in to Pinterest and write a little note/caption for the photo – Something like “Love this color” or “Clipboard as wall memo art – Gotta try this!” to remind yourself of what inspired you. Then you can go to your Pinterest site for inspiration when you’ve got the time to work on a project!

It’s so simple and so much fun…Plus, you can “follow” other people with similar taste and “Repin” their ideas to your “Board” – It’s a global mecca for A-Type design hounds looking for ideas and projects! Can you tell I’m excited? I have a Pinterest board for DreamGreenDIY, wedding ideas, outfits and random “Just For Fun” things.

So anyway, that’s where I got the idea for my “Weekly Pinspiration” posts – I have soooooo many happy little pins living on my Pinterest boards (which can be found here if you’re already a member and feel like following my design whims. There’s also a button you can click on the right side of our blog to find my boards). Lately though I’ve noticed that I haven’t done much with my pins. So this new weekly feature will give me a little push to tackle a couple of pin projects a week. Or I’ll at least be able to focus my daydreaming a little bit more!

This past weekend, I found a little extra time to work on one such pin project – Here are two quick clues from past additions to my virtual inspiration board:

That’s right – This week’s “Pinspiration” is none other then silhouettes! I’m not going to share the final product of my own silhouette project today, but stay tuned tomorrow for the big reveal. I was AMAZED at how easy this art project was!

See you tomorrow and thanks again for being patient while I took a little vacation from the blog – Hope you’ll stick around to see what’s next 🙂