Choosing a theme and design for your wedding can be challenging for any bride, but even more so when you’re a bride that likes a dark element to her style. Wedding themes are not typically dark… and while they are certainly becoming more popular, even dark colors are not the norm when it comes to wedding palettes. I faced that challenge when I was planning my wedding. I wanted to mix both traditional wedding elements with Dark Colors and Victorian Gothic details.
Last month, I gave you a sneak peek into my wedding… with a look at Incorporating Black into the Bride’s Ensemble. Today, I thought I’d bring to you one of the small decorating details that I created to work with my theme… Victorian Cameo Signs for the restrooms. That’s right… restroom signs. You see, as far as I’m concerned, there is no detail too small. Whenever I spend my time working on small details like this for any event I plan, undoubtedly someone will always comment… “no one is going to notice that anyway.. Why do you waste your time?”… It’s true.. not everyone will notice every detail.. But everyone will notice some of those small details… and all of those small details work together to create the bigger picture. For those that did notice my signs… you better believe I got comments… “Amazing – even your bathroom signs were perfect!!”
As for the design of the signs…. Cameos were popular in Victorian Era Jewelry. Even today, they are reminiscent of all things Victorian. I was looking for ways to pull Victorian details into my wedding, when I happened upon 2 matching oval carved wood frames at the thrift store… and an idea was born. They were the perfect shape for a Cameo. I could have probably used them on the backs of our chairs as Bride & Groom signs, but I thought restroom signs made for a far less common wedding detail. I’m all about doing the unexpected!!
I don’t have before pictures of the frames I had found in the thrift store back then…. so for this tutorial, I found other thrifted oval frames (the one pictured to the left, and a gold one which I left as is), so I can show you the full before and after. For this tutorial, I decided to try something a little different. Since I already have the completed signs from my wedding, I created a new one with a white silhouette on a black background for an optional look.
Because these signs were for our wedding, I created the cameo silhouettes based on the profile of my husband & I. I took photos of us as adults, but think it would be really cute if you could find profile images from when you both were children to use instead. If you ever made it to Disney World as a child, you might be lucky enough to have a silhouette already printed out for you! Anyway, with that in mind, I decided to use my daughter as a guinea pig for this tutorial… so the screenshots I use are a mix of shots from the work I did on our original wedding cameos as well as the new one of my daughter I created for this demo.
What you’ll need:
- Pair of Oval Frames
- Black or Gold Paint
- 2 Wreath Hangers
- Wide Ribbon
- Male and Female Silhouette Image (See below)
- Card Stock
If using Option 2
- Cricut Machine
(I used the original Cricut Explore, but there are new & improved versions out since I purchased mine years ago)
- Cricut Tools
and Cutting Mat
- White Craft Vinyl
- Transfer Tape
(I used the original Cricut Explore, but there are new & improved versions out since I purchased mine years ago)
and 
If you plan to paint your frame:
1. Remove the glass from the frame
2. Clean and or sand the frame as needed
3. Paint the frame using black or gold paint
4. Allow to dry
5. Using the glass is optional (but it’s not a bad idea to at least keep the glass to protect your design when you store the sign)
To Create a Silhouette image Using Adobe Photoshop:
1. Take a Profile Photo… hint – this process is much easier if you take the photo against a solid, light colored background.
2. Open your photo in Adobe Photoshop
3. In the Layers Panel, select Duplicate Layer
4. On the duplicate layer, using the Quick Selection Tool or the Magnetic Lasso Tool, outline your silhouette. NOTE – to be more precise, you may need to hold the ALT key to deselect areas, or use the bracket keys to make the selection tool bigger or smaller (more or less precise)
5. Right click, and select Select Inverse
6. Delete
7. Right click, and select Select Inverse (again)
8. Choose Black on your color picker
9. Click the Paint Bucket Tool
10. Click inside the image selection to fill the image as black (if the entire image doesn’t fill, simply continue to click on all of the areas inside of the selection until it is filled completely)
11. In the Layers Panel, Hide the original layer
12. Save your work.
13. Save as a PNG file.
** If you do not have Adobe Photoshop, you may not be able to use your own image, but there are plenty of images available on the internet that you can use. Simply search for Vintage Female (or Male) Silhouette in Google images, and save the one you like.
Option 1 – Completing the Cameo Design using a Printer
For the quickest and most simple way to frame the image… you can simply print the final design out using a printer and place it into the frame. This was actually the method I used back when I was planning my wedding many years ago. Depending on how good your printer is, you may want to take your image file to an office supply store and have them print it on heavy card stock….
1. If you were working in Photoshop: Adjust the artboard according to the size of your frame (I drew an oval outline to assist), Type Ladies or Gents below the silhouette you created, Center, Save.
2. If you do not have Photoshop: Insert your saved image file into any editing program you are comfortable with (Word, Paint, etc), Type Ladies or Gents below the silhouette, Center, Save.
3. Print
4. Secure in the frame
Option 2 – Completing the Cameo Design using Cricut Design Space
Since planning my wedding, my arsenal of craft supplies has increased, and I now own a Cricut Explorer. If I had owned this tool back then, I would have probably used it quite a bit for all of my wedding details, so for all of you DIY’ers out there that own one, I thought I’d add an extra tutorial for creating this sign using a Cricut… Truth be told – I like this version much better!
1. Import the image of your silhouette
2. Select Image Type: Simple Image and Continue
3. The Select and Erase page gives you an opportunity to clean up your image, so not to worry if the image you created in Photoshop has some unwanted jagged edges, or the image you saved from Google has extra lines or characters.. Erase all of that here and continue.
4. Save as a Cut Image
5. Upload the image to your project
6. Add Text – “Gents” or “Ladies” – I used font Footlight MT Light… While it would be nice to use a more Victorian-esque font, I’ve learned my lessons and stick to more basic fonts when working in Design Space.. Trust Me!
7. Send your image to cut. Design Space will walk you thru each step as soon as you click Go
8. Separate the cut image from the vinyl
9. Use Transfer Tape to adhere the image to either a piece of card stock , the glass of the frame, or even the frame insert … up to you. For my new frame, I actually painted the frame’s existing cardboard a gloss black, and attached the design directly to that. There are easy to follow instructions that come with the transfer tape for attaching the vinyl to it….. Be VERY careful when placing the image… the transfer tape and the vinyl letters work extremely well, and there is very little room to correct mistakes!!
Hanging your Signs
Because your wedding will likely be held in a venue that you do not own… it’s probably not a good idea to put nails or hooks in the rest room doors to hold up the signs… Instead, use wreath hangers. Attach a ribbon to the frame’s picture hanger, and tie the ribbon around the wreath hanger. If you are using a pop of color throughout your wedding, the ribbon is a good place to include that color. For my wedding, I had pops of deep purple, so I used a deep purple ribbon… otherwise, stick with a black satin ribbon.
Hope you enjoy this little Victorian Detail! Stay tuned for more projects for those looking to add a Victorian Gothic design element to your Black & White, Gothic, or Victorian wedding!
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