DLTK's Bible Activities Praying Hands Silhouettes Portraits and scenes cut from paper date back to ancient Greece.  The word silhouette comes from the Frenchman Etienne de Silhouette who lived in the early 1700's.  He was famous for his free cut portraits. In England, in the days of Queen Victoria, these same types of pictures were called shades or shadow portraits.

MATERIALS:

• printer

• printer paper

• scissors

• glue

• black construction paper or black paint depending on which method you choose

INSTRUCTIONS:  METHOD 1 (Black construction paper - older children)

• print the template
    

• cut out the center of the hands without cutting the edge of the paper (basically you have to start with a hole in the middle of the paper and then trim out the image).  The praying hands image is going to be discarded.
    

• You will be left with a piece of white paper that has a praying hands hole in the center.
    

• Trim the white paper to the size of square you want.
    

• Put it on the piece of black construction paper, so it looks like you have a black hands with a black border (see image above).
    

INSTRUCTIONS:  METHOD 2 (Black paint - younger children)

• print the template
    

• cut out the hands (this time we're going to keep the hands).  This step may require adult assistance and can be done prior to craft time.
    

• Make a roll of masking tape (or a couple of them) and put them on the back of the hands
    

• Tape the hands to a second piece of scrap paper.
    

• Have the children paint the praying hands with black paint (or you could colour with black crayons or markers).
    

• Remove from the scrap paper.
    

• Glue or tape the hands to a fresh piece of white paper. 
    

• Add a black construction paper frame if desired.

Template:  

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen. 
     
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers). 

Template   (B&W)

(There is no colour template for the silhouette craft)

Printable version of these instructions