Wall Art: The Perfect Summer Mosaic
Are you looking for some art to cover a bare wall in your home or apartment? Are you looking to save some money? We have the perfect project for you. By searching online art blogs like Colossal or photo sharing websites like Flickr, you can gather images to create your own wall mosaic. In combining as many 4 by 6 inch or 5 by 7 inch prints as you want, the possibilities for sprucing up even the emptiest wall are endless.
Preparing the Images for Printing
As mentioned above, online art blogs or photo sharing websites like Flickr are the best place to gather images. On the former, you're able to find some of the most unusual images simply by browsing through blog archives. Colossal, for instance, has a hi-resolution collection of jellyfish photography in a recent post. On Flickr, the possibilities for images you can find are virtually endless. Do you have a vacation spot you visited recently and really loved? By typing the city name and a specific landmark into the search bar in the upper right hand corner, it's likely thousands of images will be at your disposal.
Some important things to note: When searching for images, ensure they have the highest quality resolution. Once you print them on photo-quality paper, any low resolution images will be pixelated. You will also be unable to download some images due to copyright settings; if this is the case, continue your search until you find an image with the appropriate copyright settings.
Getting the Images Ready
Once you've found an image you like, copy and save it to one specific folder or on your desktop. Keeping the images in one location will make them easier to access in case you don't gather them all at one time.
After you've purchased a glossy photo paper, cheap frames from the dollar store or other retail outlet, and ensured your printer has sufficient toner available to print out your images on a high quality setting, you can begin prepping the images. If you have advanced photo editing software, you can go ahead and use it. If not, Microsoft Word will serve as a great base for copying the images and resizing them.
When prepping these images, ensure you've adjusted your printer settings so that the document is formatted for the particular size of photo paper you are using. You can do this by clicking on "File" and selecting "Page Setup" from the dropdown menu. The exact location might vary depending on your version of Microsoft Word. Click on the "Help" tab if you have any questions on specific functionality. Before clicking print, double check that you are not printing in draft mode, otherwise the images will not appear correctly on glossy paper.
Assembling the Wall Mosaic
With all of the images printed, place them all on a large, flat surface like a table. Here you can adjust the images in the exact way you want before putting them on the wall. This ensures you don't have to adjust nails in your wall or waste double-sided adhesive tape when hanging them. If you want to be especially creative, you can also buy paint to give a plain black frame a little makeover. The scope of the project is up to you! You can be as creative and involved as you want, or as your budget allows.
Having access to colorful and interesting art has never been easier with the internet. With a wall art mosaic, you can minimize costs and time spent, while still creating visual interest within your living space. You can even impress your friends with your creativity, or teach your children a new craft project. Feel free to share your ideas for a wall mosaic below or share your favorite image from an online photo sharing website!