Creative Ways to Display Your Photographs

Project #2: Ginormous Wall Prints

I have always wanted to get gigantic canvas prints of my kiddos to hang in my hallway, but the cost of having them made always deterred me.  I am constantly changing home decor items and accessories in my house, and I didn't think $60 or more for each canvas would be worth it, just in case I tired of them too quickly.  So when I saw this tutorial online, I knew I had to give it a try.  This project was fun, quick and easy.  Three things I love in a project.  I only spent about $15 on the supplies for each one, including $10 for each print.  The first thing I did was choose my pictures and take them to a local office supply store on a jump drive.  They blew up the prints in the size I asked for.  I had them made on plain paper, because to have them made on photo paper was triple the cost, and I wanted this project to remain inexpensive.  They charged me $10 for a 2' x 2' print.

I started with a sheet of foam insulation that I purchased at my local hardware store.  This was the most expensive piece of the project.  The whole board was 4' x 8' and it cost $30.  I got 8 2' x 2' squares out of one board.  At this point, you could cut your board either bigger or smaller than I did.  What ever size print you want to have, is the size you cut your board.  My intent was to paint the edges of the foam board black with craft paint, but the cuts were not clean enough to leave the edges exposed, so I ended up wrapping the front and sides of the board with black fabric, just as you would if you were re-covering a cushion.

I cut the fabric slightly larger than my foam square, and then just stapled it on with a regular stapler.  The first time around, I tried spraying the front of the foam square with spray adhesive and then stapling the fabric to the back side.  That didn't work out so well, because it didn't allow the fabric to be pulled taut enough before stapling.  It was much easier just to staple it without the spray adhesive.

Here is the front and back of 2 of the squares after stapling the fabric.  If you wanted to, you could run duct tape around the edges of the fabric on the back side to help keep the staples in place, but I didn't feel it was necessary.

The next step is simply adhering your print, cut to size, to the front of the square with spray adhesive.  I simply sprayed the front side of the fabric, laid the print on top and smoothed it out.  I didn't take any pictures of that process, but it is pretty self explanatory.

One other tip I have: don't use spray adhesive for crafters, it is wimpy!  Use the construction grade stuff you buy at the hardware store.  It works much better.  When I originally started this project, I intended to mod podge over the print, not only as a sealant, but also to add texture.  Because I had the prints made on regular paper, the mod podge wrinkled the paper when I tried to do that.  I just ended up leaving the paper print un-altered on my project.  If I had spent the extra money and had the prints made on photo paper, I think the mod podge idea would have worked fine.  If any of you decide to do that, I would love to hear how it works out.

The finished product again:

  They certainly make a statement!