How-Tuesday: Map Silhouette Postcard

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handsoccupied

Story by handsoccupied

Published on July 31, 2012 in Make

The countdown to Craft Party on Friday, August 24, is ticking away. For this week’s How-Tuesday post, Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied and Craft Bar Chicago has shared a tutorial for a project that they’ll be making at the Chicago Craft Party! Her take on the Wish You Were Here theme combines old paper maps with a clever DIY lightbox trick.

Supplies You’ll Need:

  • Tag board
  • Plain white paper
  • Ruler
  • Scissors
  • Computer or other device with a screen
  • Camera
  • Pencil
  • Mod Podge
  • Paint brush
  • Non-glossy maps

Directions:

1. Cut tag board and white paper into 4 inch by 6 inch pieces.

2. Take pictures of yourself and your partner standing in profile. Pull them up on your computer and resize them so that they fit within the plain white paper’s 4″x 6″ space. Using your computer as a light box, trace the silhouettes with a pencil.

3. Create stencils by cutting out each silhouette.

4. Locate your hometown on a map and trace your silhouette onto the other side. You want to trace onto the back side the map so pencil lines don’t show up on your finished postcard.

Cut out each silhouette and set aside.

5. Paint a thin layer of Mod Podge onto your 4 by 6 tag board.

6. Carefully position each silhouette on the card so that they face each other. Make sure to line up the silhouettes so that they look like they’re “looking at” each other – if you accidentally place one so that it looks like it’s gazing beyond the other, the post card ends up looking really sad! Once you are satisfied with the placement, paint another layer of Mod Podge over the top of the whole post card to secure the silhouettes. Let it dry, and you’re done.

There are a lot of possible variations on this project. I used really white maps for one of the post cards I made (see above), and drawing in hearts for the eyes added some pop to it.

If you make your own map silhouette postcard, share a photo with us in the Etsy Labs Flickr group. What will you be making at your Craft Party? Let us know in the comments below!

Craft Party 2012 | More Things to Make

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  • AliciaLoh

    Alicia Loh from OpenquoteDesigns says: Featured

    What a great idea! I love it! This idea could work for just about any silhouette. One silhouette that would be cool is an animal with a map of its native area.

    289 days ago

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