Giant Picture Tutorial

When I saw this tutorial on how to make a huge photo on Sugarbee Crafts, I knew I wanted to try this in Mary's room.  I made a few tweaks to her tutorial and this is what I came up with.

Did you know that office supply stores can print your photos in huge sizes very cheaply?  They are called "engineering prints" and are generally used for blueprints and such.  These pictures only come in black and white.  I started by uploading this picture to Staples and a few days later I received a 24 inch x 36 inch copy of my picture in the mail.  The best part is that the print, including shipping, only came to $3.00.  You could also pick up your print in your local store, but since shipping was free, I had it sent to my house.

I also picked up a huge piece of styrofoam insulation at Home Depot for about $8.00.  It looks like this.

Do you like how Mary trimmed her own bangs?

As you can see, this styrofoam panel is really big.  I should be able to get a few of these huge pictures from one piece of foam.

Here's where things took a turn for the worse.  I sprayed the foam with some spray adhesive and placed the picture on the foam.  Next, I needed to trim around the picture with a utility blade.  It was so hard to get a straight line!  I also was left with millions of little pieces of styrofoam stuck everywhere.  You might want to do this in your garage.

Once the foam was trimmed to the size of the picture, I took some black acrylic craft paint and painted the edges of the styrofoam to give it a more finished look.

At this point, Sugar Bee Crafts was finished with her picture.  She advises NOT to use Mod Podge because the paper can rip.  Instead of taking the advice of a professional crafter, I decided to try using Mod Podge anyways.  I wanted my picture to have a glossy finish.  So, I went for it and brushed Mod Podge over the picture.

Uh oh....the picture started bubbling and doing weird things.

Not very pretty!

The black edges apparently were not dry and some of the black got smeared around in the Mod Podge.

Oops!

Not one to accept my craft as a failure, I grabbed some Command strips and hung this beauty on the wall in Mary's room.  Miraculously, the bubbling stopped and everything adhered nicely to the sytrofoam board after the Mod Podge fully dried in a few hours.

It still looks a little bubbly in this picture, but now in real life it looks OK.  I promise!  I've decided to keep the picture as-is.  I kind of like the vintagey effect the Mod Podge, black smears and texture give it.  If you want a perfect picture, follow Sugar Bee Craft's tutorial!

Don't mind the headboard.  I know it's hung too high and a little crooked.  I need Big K to help me fix it this week!

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