How to make fingerprint Art

I’d seen a few examples online of fingerprint art, but I wanted to go on a grander scale for my project with the pallet in our Master Bedroom Makeover. I had a bunch of leftover planked boards (that resemble pallet pieces) from my Girls Fancy Bedroom Makeover project in my garage, so I slapped the pieces together, then cut them in half to make a piece for each side of the headboard.

I love how the two fingerprints come together to make a heart. First, I got an ink pad and grabbed the fingerprints of myself and my husband.

I then scanned this paper on my scanner attached to my computer. It made this a .jpg image which I opened up in photoshop. I cropped in on the one fingerprint that I wanted of each of us. I worried it would make the final image too small, but it didn’t and I was SO happy! I then played around in photoshop and made a “mock up” of what I wanted as my final product–a heart. I didn’t quite account for the thickness of the fingerprints, and my board was tall and skinny, so I had to adjust the lettering I originally wanted.

Here is a little collage of the process. Once I had 2 separate .jpg images, I turned to my Silhouette machine to cut the fingerprints out of vinyl.

If you have a Silhouette Machine, follow these instructions. If not, contact your favorite vinyl artisan (I recommend Staci or Landee), and ask if they are willing to make your fingerprints into vinyl and send it to you.

Here are the steps if you do it yourself:

Open .jpg file in Silhouette
Trace icon (top left) and select trace area
Highlighted area, set trace settings so the yellow cut lines are clear
Click trace on menu
Drag red cut lines away from image
Paste those images into a new sheet
Cut

Once I had my vinyl and transfer paper, I adhered it onto my wood and pulled off the transfer paper. As you can see, not all of the little pieces came out…