Paper or Plastic?

I have to admit, that when Mother’s Day rolled around this year, I was so caught up in party preparations, I had pretty much neglected my usual duty of doing something for my mom and the Hubby’s mom. Yes, I am normally the one who does both moms. Don’t ask.

Luckily, the Hubby decided that after 15 years of me remembering to buy his mom a card or gift, this was the year he was going to do it all on his own.  He took the time to send her some beautiful flowers with a heartfelt note. They were adored and appreciated.

That took care of one mom – but what about my Queen of a momma? Thursday morning before Mother’s Day an idea popped into my head and I quickly got to work.

I emailed my siblings an asked each of them to send me a profile photo A.S.A.P.  My younger brother was vain enough to wait until he got a hair cut the next day.  I had the Hubby take a profile shot of me.  Once I had all four photos, I spent a little time editing the photos to a similar size and changing the  contrast to lighten the background and darken the subjects.

Next I used a small, sharp pair of scissors perfect for cutting out every detail of each face and head. I then used a large Sharpie to blacken out the silhouettes, coloring over the already dark photograph on both sides. I did this until I was pretty much high on marker fumes and couldn’t take it anymore. Then I mounted each silhouette onto some pretty white on cream scrapbook paper.

This gift was down to the wire.  I was at Michael’s craft late on Saturday afternoon crossing my fingers that I would find the perfect frame . . . and I did. 

I know it is more typical to have a silhouette of your children when they are young, but since our sister wasn’t with us then, I thought my mom deserved to have our silhouettes as adults.

And since I’ve always {and I mean always} pretty much hated my nose, I decided to shave a teeny bit off my bumpy profile.  Don’t judge me . . . I’d never get plastic surgery, but a little paper nose job is right up my alley!