Photo Art

I wasn't sure what to title this post. I've had this idea in my head for a looooong time, but never had the right picture to try it out with. Last week, while at a really cool park, I took this photo and decided to see if I could put my idea into action.

 Hard to tell from a photo of a photo, but this photo is large. Made up of 9, 8X10's. It is in our foyer above our front door and I love it! Quite awesome in person, at least I think so. I apologize for the not so great photo. The sun was shining in from the right so I had to take the photo a little on an angle. In real life it is actually perfectly level. I spent 30 mins about 12 feet up making sure (maybe higher- we have high ceilings there)!

Want to make one too? Probably fairly easy using any photo editing software. I'll show you how I did this using Photoshop Elements.

There are probably several ways to do this, maybe even some a lot simpler. I'm by no means a photoshop expert, I don't even usually edit my photos. If you know of a quicker, easier way to do this feel free to share in the comments! :)


What you will need:
- Your photos
- Foam board (you can find this next to poster paper in Staples)
- Double sided tape
- Adhesive to stick the foam board to your wall
- Level
- Ruler

Ok, let's start with the photoshop stuff (my blog is going to cut off part of these photos so ignore that but you won't be able to see the small print on my screen shots otherwise)...

Start by opening the photo you want to use in Photoshop.

Now go to "New", then "Blank File".

 In the box that comes up you need to choose the dimensions for the border that is going to be behind your photo. I wanted to have my picture made up of 9, 8X10's, so I chose 30X24. Choose 300 for the pixels.
If you wanted you could skip the border entirely and choose to crop your photo in a way that you could just break it up without the border.

Your new clean background will open. I decided at this point to color it black. Click on that little paint bucket to the left and then click on your background. In Photoshop Elements you may need to click on the "T" (text) button first and choose and color before going to the paint bucket.

Now go down to your photo (which you can see on the bottom in your "bin"). Click and drag it to your new black background.

At this point go up to your top toolbar and click "View" and then "Rulers". Then go back up to "View" and click on "Grid"

This is what you will have now. The grid will make it easier to make sure that you are positioning your photo evenly and making sure your borders are even. I didn't feel like going crazy trying to crop my photo to fit nicely so decided to make my side borders the same but have extra space at the top and bottom. It was important to me to try to make sure the kids were all on one 8X10 when I was finished. Cutting up their bodies would look strange. In the end I cut off my kids' feet, but it was their feet or their heads! :) I think this concept would work really nicely though if you just had a close up of a face though! So in this photo I have clicked on my photograph and dragged it to the size I wanted and positioned it on the back background where I wanted it to sit.

Go to your left toolbar and click on the "T" (text). Choose a font and write something. You could skip this but I wanted something in that space so it wouldn't look funny. Make sure your text is not going to be split up when you break this up into pieces. I have positioned mine so that it is between the 10 and 20 inch marks on my ruler.

 Now here is where I'm certain there must be an easier way. The way I'm going to show you is pretty easy though too.
On your left toolbar go to the "crop" icon. Watching your rulers isolate the top 8X10 corner. Click on that little green check when you have it.

Once you click on that green check this is going to happen. Go up to "File" and "Save As". Save this piece as number 1 or whatever you want to call it.

Now go up to "Edit" and go to "Undo Crop".

Look, your entire photo comes back! Phew!
Now using the "Crop" tool again isolate your second 8X10 by watching your rulers. Save and go back and "Undo Crop" again.

Continue to do this until you have all 9 pieces cropped and saved.

Now, once you have all of your pieces saved, print them or go and have them printed.
I dont have photos of the rest of this process, but it is super simple.

• Take your foam board and cut it into 8X10 pieces, or pieces the same size as your photos. 

• Using double sided tape, tape your photos to the foam board.

• Using a level and a ruler attach your photos to your wall using adhesive of your choosing (I used that wall adhesive that is like thin sticky foam). You can find it in the tape section where it says it won't remove the paint from your wall- we'll see! I placed my photos 1 inch apart.

 Such a cheap project and created something a little different from the norm to add some interest to a very boring space in our home.

I think this would be really cool also if the photo was turned into that "sketch effect". What do you think?

If you try this out I would love to see your photos!

If you missed the Snazzie Drawers Giveaway, QUICK, only one more day to enter!