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Tutorial: Paper Portraits with Silhouette Cameo

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I’m always racking my brain for creative products for Silhouette and Cricut users to make and sell in their small business. Today, I’m showing you how to make paper portraits using your Silhouette Cameo. What I love about paper portraits is that they are cheap to make, and will sell for a high profit.

Supplies

Paper Portrait Tutorial

  1. First, choose a photo.
  2. Next, you’ll want to use a photo editor to change the photo to black and white. I used Photomania, which is free, however feel free to use whatever photo editor you’d like. Once in Photomania, choose “Artistic”, “Camera”, and “Black and White”. Save your photo and download it. Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com
  3. Using Photomania, reopen your black and white photo and posterize it. In Photomania, choose “Artistic”, “Pop Art”, “Posterize”. Save your photo and download it. Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com
  4. Open your photo in Silhouette Studio. (“File”, “Open”.) Using the “Draw a Curve Tool” (I circled it in the photo below) you will manually trace around each color in the photo, starting with the outline of your subject. You can see my outline in red in the image below.Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com
  5. Repeat step 4 and manually trace each color in your photo, starting at the darkest color. In my photo above, I first traced the hair, then the eyes, then the shadows on the outside edges of her face, and so on. For each color, you’ll want to change your line color. Here’s what my photo looks like after tracing each color: Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.comTutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com
  6. Once you’ve traced everything, it’s time to cut. It’s easiest to use the advanced cut settings and cut by line color. When setting up your cut, choose “Advanced”, then “Line Color”. For your first cut, cut the outline of your subject from the darkest color cardstock you have. Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com
  7. Repeat step 6 to cut out all of your traced shapes. Remember to go from darkest color in your photo to lightest color in your photo using first the darker cardstock and ending with the lightest cardstock.
  8. Use repositionable adhesive spray to assemble your paper portrait from the bottom up. A few notes: 1) A little spray adhesive goes a long way. 2) Spray adhesive is sticky. I found the Pick Me Up tool to be invaluable when assembling the picture. Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com
    Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com
    Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com
  9. Once you’ve assembled everything, frame it and you are all set! Below is a side by side of my original photo and my paper portrait: Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com

If you plan to make and sell paper portraits with your Silhouette Cameo, consider the mood that is conveyed through different color schemes. For example, black, white, and grays convey sophistication, while reds and pinks set a feminine mood and so on.

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Tutorial: DIY Paper Portrait Project Idea with Silhouette Cameo - by cuttingforbusiness.com

Alli

Tuesday 11th of October 2016

Could this be done with a Cricut?

Christine

Tuesday 11th of October 2016

Yes, the machine has the capability to cut the paper portraits, however, this would be difficult to do in Design Space. You could try with a third party software, but I do not use those.