Large Print Photo Experiment

School is out for the summer! Which means time for kayaking and sewing and spending time with friends and family at the lake. Unfortunately, we've started summer off with heavy rainfalls. Fortunately, that's given me some time to clean and organize and fiddle with projects.

I've been wanting to get large-scale prints of some of my photos. Over the past couple summers, I've travelled to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and have some nice landscape shots. I envision them on a blank wall with a big white frame, hanging over the couch. As I don't have a house yet, I have no such wall. However, I found an opportunity to try out a large scale print when we finally got rid of the bunk beds at the cottage. (Cheers to no more falling off the top bunk). Now that there's a double bed in the room, there is so much more wall space. I rearranged the room with the couple pieces of mixed and not-matched furniture and decided to try a large print above the bed.

Originally, I got a 24" x 36" glossy poster printed at Staples. With an online discount and a coupon, it only cost me $12. My photo was taken with my Nikon and the jpeg file size was 4 MB. Online, it said the print quality might not be high enough, but I went for it anyway and it turned out great! When I got it home I realized it was a bit too big...ha. We found an old framed art print in the attic that might work for the photo. I had it reprinted in a 20" x 30" glossy poster, which cost $15.

To make the print fit, I first tore off the backing paper and took out the staples holding the print in place.

Then I took some previously-used foam core board (also originally from Staples) and used a rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat to trim it to size. I used an old blade so as not to wreck a good one and it cut cleanly.

I tested it in the frame for size and had to make a few more cute before it fit right. Then I trimmed my photo to the same size as the foam board. I attached it to the board with clear adhesive strips, the kind used for scrapbooking. I imagined it like a quilt and smoothed it out with my ruler, starting in the middle and working my way out. 

Then I placed the photo in the frame and check to make sure it wasn't bubbling anywhere. I did have to slice a bit more off to prevent this. I used tape to secure it to the frame on the back. Luckily it was a quick job to move the hardware and picture wire so that the photo could be hung in a landscape orientation.

I debated painting the frame, but it matched pretty well an decided to leave it as it. There's no glass in  the frame, as it previously housed an art print. Since the photo was printed in a poster, I'm hoping that the finish stays nice and that the the foam board keeps it flat. If it doesn't, the whole thing only cost me $15, so I'm okay with that! I'm looking forward to getting it to the cottage and testing it out on the wall.

I love landscape photos and find them calming. What kind of photos do you like to put up? Have you been up to any decorating lately?