DIY Mother’s Day Toddler Art Silhouette

We’re celebrating Mother’s Day at home this year and working on this easy, but lovely, DIY art project—a great gift for moms and grandmoms! It’s a way to show off your child’s artwork in a unique way that’ll last longer than a Mother’s Day card.

Mother’s Day Toddler Art Silhouette

Start off by having your child paint on either some thick watercolor paper or on blank canvas. Depending on their age you can use fingerpaints, watercolors, or tempera. All these supplies can be picked up at your local craft store or any shop that carries art supplies.

Take a profile photo of your child. You may need to borrow someone to keep them looking to the side while you snap the photo. I just took a quick photo with my phone—you don’t need anything fancy!

Print the image (choose the image size based on the size of your paper or canvas). For reference, the painting on the left was a 4″x6″ canvas, and I printed my daughter’s profile on a 4″x6″ piece of photo paper.

After you’ve got your image printed, cut out the profile using sharp scissors.

Once you’ve got your profile cut out, put a bit of tape on the front of the photo and position it face down in the middle of your canvas.

Use a pencil to trace around your child’s profile.

Now, this next bit is really not kid-friendly for your littles, but if you have an older child who wants to collaborate on this project, you can have them do the next step.

Using black acrylic paint and a stiff brush, paint around the inside of the traced profile. Just a heads up if you’re letting an older child work on this, acrylic paint is permanent and will not come out of clothes! I also suggest a stiff brush because it’ll be easier to get a nice crisp line.

Go slow and keep your hand steady.

Once you’ve gone around the perimeter in black, paint the silhouette inside. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can carefully paint around the sides of the canvas for a more polished look.

Cute, right?

Now, you also have the option of doing the opposite of what I just told you.

Instead of painting the inside, you can paint around the outside of the profile.

Trace around the outside of the profile and then paint to the edges of the canvas.

Wait for your pretty silhouette to dry completely before wrapping it up and gifting it for Mother’s Day!

If you try it out, post it on Instagram and tag us (@dallas_moms) so we can see!

Happy painting!

This post was originally published on May 7, 2014.

Need a Mother’s Day activity to go with this cute gift idea? Check out our post on Mother’s Day Activities & the Best Brunch Spots in Dallas.