My middle sister is getting married this week!  I’m typing this post from the comfy, black-hole accommodations of our rental house in Destin, Florida. This house is RIDICULOUS. I’m sure I’ll run around taking some pictures of the decor this week, but for now, I’ll make some introductions and get back to my strawberry mojito. My future brother-in-law’s brother (I’ll pause while you reread that………) made the most UH-MAZING strawberry mojitos tonight. Seriously amazing.

Ok… FOCUS Dana. Back to blog-ville. You guys are going to LOVE today’s post. No joke.   L.U.V.

Karah is the coolest girl with a knack for thinking outside the box. If you like what she shows you today, you’ll definitely have to stop by her blog, the space between, and snoop around. I swoon over EVERYTHING she does. Did I mention she lives on an island?  Jealous??? Yeah…… me too.

Enough gabbing – let’s get to the important stuff. (Plus, I need a refill!)

Hey Crafted Nichers? Or, would it be Crafted Nichees? Hmmmm…

Anyway, how goes it? My name is Karah and I blog at the space between. I must admit, I have been cyber stalking Dana since I discovered this here blog last fall, so to be here guest posting is super cool for me. Thank you so much for letting me share your space today!!

Actually…just a little tease, but Dana and I have recently partnered in a few fun new blog things and we will both be posting about a super fun new project idea that is just getting ramped up tomorrow! Something that literally anyone can do…anywhere. I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Did I seriously just use the terms “super cool” and “super fun” in my first two paragraphs?!? Super!

But, back to today. See, Dana and I share one very important love in life … our dogs.
And I love the silhouettes she recently made, with just her printer and encyclopedia paper or craft paper. Brilliant!

I love the look so much, I put my own spin on it and made my very own dog silhouettes of my girls.

Pretty cool right?!? I heart them.

On a recent trip to the states (I live on an island…please try not to pity me) I picked up these uglies beauties at Goodwill.

You could easily just buy new white canvases but I rarely take the sensible easy way. These are 12 x 12 inch squares and only cost me $2 a piece. That ended up being the only money spent on this project. Booyah!

Now, many smarty pants have reminded me that I could have just primed them or used something called gresso…never heard of it. But, I didn’t have any primer and I will try anything before spending more money. That’s just how I roll. So, I flipped them, the how-to’s with some tips are here.

After getting your blank slate, er, canvas and you need to pick your pictures that you’re going to make into silhouettes.

I had a little too fun with this stage…don’t tell me you can go through all of your pictures and not get distracted by all the memories.

Look at this wicked cool pic my brother took of his boarder collie and a sheep out in the field on the farm.

But, back to the silhouettes, I was looking for profile pictures, so I picked these.

(I ended up using a different picture of Mico, the black dog, because once I had the sitting picture cut out I didn’t like the way it looked.)

After I had my pics selected I resized them so they would fill an 8 x 10 sheet of paper and printed them on regular paper on my at home printer. If you want a bigger canvas you could definitely resize the pic bigger and have it printed at a printer.

Or, have you heard of Block Poster? I haven’t used it but from the looks of it you can upload an image, enlarge it and then print it in blocks so you could maybe tape it together and follow the rest of the steps here.

If you have tried this, or try it now, please let me in on the deets, I’d love to know!

After the pics were printed I used my exacto knife to cut out, as true to detail as possible, around the outline of the dogs.

Then I traced the outline of the image onto the canvas.

Then I painted. I started with the edges of the canvas and then worked toward my traced image. Less chance of accidentally smudging my detail lines if I do them last, right?!?

I think I did a better job with some eye lash detail on the black canvas.

But overall, I’m in love with these guys.

And their spot in the one screw gallery wall.

Yes, that’s right…I hung this whole dealio from one screw.

So, what do you think of the canvas silhouettes? I hope you like them as much as I do.

If I’ve missed any detail, or you want more info on any particular step, you may find the answer here, and if not, please just shoot me an email.

I also put up a side-by-side comparison of the pics and the canvases here. Mico’s canvas might need some nose work…don’t look too close.

Do you know of any other ways to make a canvas silhouette for only $2? Or, have you made any of your own? If so, please link them up to my Facebook page, I’d love to see them.

And once again, a bit, phat Thank you!! to Dana for letting me guest post today. I hope she’s having a grand time on her vacation…and don’t forget to come back tomorrow for our fun project reveal.

And, if you come by the space between, please let me know you were there…I am all about meeting new peeps.

Karah

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