Quick. Easy. Art.

Immortalize your children in this clever pop art project. The only “art skills” you need for this amazingly easy, idiot-proof effort is the ability to trace and then color in an image. There are a number of free photo editing sites on the web. We chose pixlr.com for our handiwork.

What You’ll Needr

r
• Archival paper in the color of your choice (we used orange)

r

• Carbon paper (yes, it still exists and can be found at any office supply store)

r

• Pencil and black Sharpie pen

r

• Picture frame

r

• Your fave photo of your child, loaded onto your computer

r

rHow it Worksr

r
• Visit pixlr.com.

r

• Click on the PIXLR Editor program.

r

• Select the “Open image from computer” option.

r

• Upload the photo of your choice.

r

• Click the “Adjustment” tab in the toolbar at the top of the page.

r

• Then select the “Threshold” feature that you’ll find in the drop-down menu. You’ll see that a pop-up window has now appeared.

r

• Use the arrow in the pop-up window to manipulate your image to the desired effect. Hit the “OK” button.

r

• Don’t worry about any jagged edges in the image. We’ll fix those in a moment.

r

• Click “File” on the PIXLR toolbar and save to your computer.

r

• Print out your work of art.

r

• Using a pencil and carbon paper, transfer the image to the archival paper, which is important to use if you want to create an instant heirloom that will last through the ages.

r

• Smooth out any jagged or pixilated areas of the image in the tracing process.

r

• Use the Sharpie to fill in the remainder of the image and frame it up!

r

rHelpful Tips and Morer

r
• Not all images lend themselves to this project. A bit of trial and error may be in order before you find the photo that works best for this stencil-like vibe.

r

• Want to go big on this one? Put the original image on a flash drive and have your neighborhood copy center print it in any size you’d like. Do this step before the transfer process.

r

• Do you happen to have or have access to an overhead projector? Print the photo on a transparency sheet and ditch the carbon paper. Just project your image directly onto the paper and trace from there.

r

rVoilà! Your own Warhol-inspired wonder!