Not a Shadow of a Doubt...It's Halloween!

A couple of weeks ago, I found half a dozen frames at Goodwill just screaming to be reincarnated into something for Halloween. Out came the black and silver paint, orange "gemstones", and glitter! It was a quickie project that followed up by posing the question,"What to put inside?"              

One of my very favorite things is a silhouette done of my daughter when she was two. Well...shadows are pretty spooky, aren't they? Not just ANY shadows, of course. How about a witch, since that is what she is dressing up as this year.

I had fun taking a profile photo of my daughter, and then utilizing Photoshop to drop out the background, fill in the profile and add a hat at a jaunty tilt. And I have to admit I was really giddy with the result!

But a non-Photoshop-friendly friend asked how she could achieve the same result without a computer. Ahhh...back to old-school methods. That was fun, too.

To demonstrate, I took this shot of my niece's daughter. All you need is a clear profile shot, without too much clutter in the background. Yep, it took a few tries. A one-year-old's favorite thing isn't to look in a single direction for any length of time. But finally: success!    

    

 I used tracing paper to capture the general outline. And remember the grade school trick of transfering? Just pencil shade the back of the paper, flip the shaded down onto nice cardstock ("outline side" facing up), and gently re-trace the outline, all except the top of the head...which is where you can roughly sketch a witch's hat.                                                                                               

I used a fine-tip Sharpie to go over the outline, and a nice chunky one to fill in the shape. 

Well, what d'ya know? The old-fashioned way looks just as good.

Just pop a couple into frames, along with some creepy antique photos found on the internet. They make a season-appropriate replacement for the usual warm and smiling family pics on the mantle.

Why not try one yourself? A witch, sorcerer, devil, or maybe a flat-headed Frankenstein! Let your imagination fly!

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