Saturday, August 13, 2011

Turning a line art image into a silhouette (digital or stamped image)



Today a whack of pictures with the teeny details
of these 2 Amber Ink Hostess with the Mostest cards...
&
...a general how-to for turning line art
(digital or stamped) into silhouettes.

Card #1...

Amber Ink Hostess silhouette sq_mel stampz
(for this one, I hand cut the silhouette & adhered it to watercolour paper)

& Card #2...

Amber Ink Hostess as silhouette_mel stampz
(for this one I just printed the silhouette & cut with an oval cutter)

The silhouettes are an Amber Ink line art image that
I filled in PhotoShop to get a silhouette:

mini invite & envelope & sihouette detail Amber Ink Hostess

They're embellished with mini things like this
teeny tiny dinner invitation with a folded mini envelope
(made with paper, thread & printed text bits).

Here are the insides of the 2 cards:

insides

The square card says "What's Cookin' Good Lookin?" inside.

The tall card has this little salad bowl in it
(which is also part of the Hostess with the Mostest set):

Amber Ink salad bowl silhouette inside card
(It got the same silhouette treatment as the hostess.)

They both have matching envelopes:

One paper envelope:

(how to line any envelope quickly here).

And one upcycled organza bag:

organza envelope
(It used to have silk undies in it! *giggle*)

I stuck a mini tea towel & recipe card on the
organza envelope to hide the company logo:


teeny recipe card & tea towel

The tea towel was made by printing a small section of
this ipaper onto Sticky Back Canvas and
wrapping it around a bit of cardstock & fraying the ends

The recipe card was made by printing a part of a recipe
sized to a 2 point font & cutting it out to measure
just under 1" x 3/4"



1... details: DIY mini card embellishments
2... the image Hostest with the Mostest from Amber Ink
3... how to make a line art image into a silhouettes (plain & patterned)

-1-


Some mini things made of paper:

mini pencil-recipe card & book

To make the mini pencil out of paper,
I rolled it like a paper bead.

Here's how:
  1. Cut a wee scrap of patterned paper about 1 inch by 1/2 an inch.
  2. Stick a teeny bit of double-sided tape on one side of it.
  3. Roll the paper on a needle (adhering the paper to itself).
  4. Slide the paper off of the needle.
  5. Then cut the tip of the rolled paper with scissors to shape it into a point like a lead.
  6. Draw on details (the pencil lead & the eraser) on with black and silver pens.
The recipe card is identiacl to the one on the
organza envelope above (again, 2 point font).

mini recipe book pages side view

To make the book, I cut & folded some tiny little pieces of paper
(patterned and copy paper) and doodled on them.

stitching & thread on mini recipe book

...then stitched the pages together & wrapped some turquoise thread
around the cover and pasted on a tiny printed label.

-2-

(in digital or stamps)

This Amber Ink set is called
Hostess with the Mostest:

I used the digital version:


...but they also have


Do you prefer stamping?

You can find the stamps here.


I also used these 2 digi papers:

ipaper Schoolgirl Plaid


& Swiss Dots Sunny Yellow tiny


My printer a Canon MP240 prints colours funnily,
so I added green to these papers (+100 green)
before printing.

-3-

...create silhouettes from line art images:

DIGITAL SILHOUETTE:

Open the silhouette in Photoshop
(or other digital software that is
capable of filling images with solid colour.)

Fill all the areas of the line art image
Then print it & use your image:

amber ink Hostess use paint bucket to fill Black 78%

This digital fill is how I did the ones I used on the cards above
(but not with a deep black. I like using black at 80% to get a silhouette
that reads as dark, but still shows some of the line art of the image.)

You can even get a funky patterned silhouette:

fill with pattern for a digital silhouette

Simply fill the image with a pattern
(Please see this tutorial post if you'd like
to see how pattern filling works).


STAMPED SILHOUETTE:

Stamp the image & then simply colour it in:

stamp & colour silhouette

To create a patterned stamped silhouette:

Amber Ink Hostess_magic pattern silhouette

Stamp the line art image, then stamp & heat emboss a pattern over it
(with clear embossing powder) then colour it in.

...and here are the cards again:


measurements:
square card: 4 1/2" wide x 5" tall
tall card: 3 1/2" wide x 6 3/8" tall


Thanks for having a look.
Hope you & yours are doing well,

15 comments:

Suzi said...

I especially like the patterned one that was stamped, embossed and inked. You are too clever! Thanks for sharing!

Nancy S said...

What a great technique! And your tutorial is so clear and easy to follow.

So glad to see you back online so often! I hope that means you're feeling better.

Annie said...

wow so cool
Ann xxx

Pam said...

Magnifique! I kept looking and looking - thinking somehow you had cut these in a traditional black card silhouette technique. What a little empty head I have! This is brilliant! Every tiny detail just amazes. The recipe book, the bead work, the pencil, the tea towel! OMG, the tea towel! That is a single post in itself. Vous ĂȘtes magnifiques!

Deebi27 said...

WOW, what a fantastic creation Mel...Love this! I have access to Photoshop and am soo tempted to get it, suggest a Photoshop for dummies help please!

Laura (scrapnextras) said...

Beautiful! Love the pencil and your colour scheme! Great tutorial!

Tamika said...

You are so innovative and creative. I would not have thought to just color my stamped image in like that!

sunghee said...

genius, genius! I'm just amazed at all the detail. So fabulous of you to show us different techniques. Absolutely amazing!

Kim Etherington said...

I LOVE these cards, the image is fabulously fun and I want a cinnamon bun right now please. ;o)
Another fabulously delicious job!

Erum Tasneem said...

fabulous fabulous! So cool. I wrap fancy paper on my pencils too... mostly hallmark paper as it is thin and also good quality!

Dawn said...

amazing once again kiddo!! thanks again for more great ideas and instructions!!! wowza!!

down time now! woohoo!!!
xoxo

Unknown said...

Fabulous tutorial but that little paper pencil is adorable!

Merry said...

oh wow.... what a fantastic technique. I so love your beading and stitching on your cards too. Thanks for sharing all the info.

Lucianna Dilsaver said...

Wow, such great details!! Love all the extra's you have added, wonderful :)

Lindsey said...

Wow, this entire post is filled with brilliance! Love the cards, and all the detailed information you shared!