Silhouette ATC

Ladies and Gentlemen of Amberleigh,

Whilst waiting on my master Mr. Launcelot Penn esq. I like to while away a spare minute, cutting a portrait with my scissors and blackpaper. Have you ever tried cutting a silhouette? It is surprisingly easy and there are a few ways to achieve a good result. I do hope you will join in and cut your own silhouette for your partners journal.

Kindly in service,

Horace Lofthouse, a Gentlemans' gentleman.

FOR THIS SWAP:

You will have 1 partner for this swap, a silhouette ATC and a pretty letter with a seal to accompany.

Choose your side on profile as your Amberleigh characters face, or maybe select a 'fictional' villagers profile (eg, Good Tom, Alice Powel, Jasper the gamekeeper, Mrs Pimm, the Highwayman, your husband/wife etc) from your partner you share life with. They might enjoy having you cut their silhouette.

You might choose one or more ways to try your hand at cutting a silhouette of your profile. There are a number of sites online that will guide you, or you might follow one of these suggestions.

1 - Have someone take your photograph on your profile, that is side on, like the image above. You might try a selfie.

Upload the image if it is easier, and reduce the size of the image to fit on an ATC (2 1/2 inches x 3 1/2 inches). Print out 3, or more one for yourself, one each for your future partners. Yes folks this is a recurring swap. I am sure you would want an image of yourself in your journal. With black paper glue behind your image on the reverse of the printout. I am assuming it is a photocopy here,. Cut around the profile of your image, including any curls or ponytail or collar etc. finish under the bust somewhere. When you turn the image over it will have your cut silhouette ready to glue onto your prepared ATC card.

2 - You can of course take a photograph of yourself, and with scissor s and black paper cut a freehand silhouette like the traditional natural way to cut one out.

3 - The third option is how it is shown in Sense and Sensibility in the Emma Thompson production, using a candle and shadow. But that seems like a lot of hard work unless you like the challenge.

4 - Don't fancy cutting any of the above? Would you prefer a fictitious character for your silhouette? There are many many on Pinterest and other sites on silhouette cutting, print it out and cut it to fit on your ATC.

SO, once you have your silhouette in hand, prepare your ATC to be in the flavour of REGENCY era, but in this case please, less is more. Keep it subtle, flat, and let the black silhouette be the star. Usually a silhouette is on a plain background or feint patterning. Your ATC does not need to be thick like the traditional rules, it need only be placed on light cardstock or watercolour paper. You might border the ATC with a hand drawn line or two. NOTHING 3D. That is right, no fancy embellishments. These will be going into your journal, and will be a regular feature every now and then so that we get all our villagers by our books end. On the back of the ATC write your characters name, your swapname and the swap on the back.

To accompany and to enclose your ATC within, Write as your Amberleigh character to your partners character in Amberleigh in a sealed little letter, the way shown on our blog.
https://welcometoamberleigh.wordpress.com

I hope you will join us in this more unusual swap. Any queries, please write below or message either one of us.

Anna and Jane, Nickalli & Pam