Try These Fun Projects & Get Your Photos on Walls!

I’m a creative soul, a maker and a lover of little projects. Which is lucky because coming up with outside the box photo display ideas is a big motivator for me to actually print my photos and get them on the wall!

I know you know what I mean… this one time, I opened my photos folder on my computer… and couldn’t help but note a folder within titled “2012”.

The significance of that discovery lays in the fact that once I’ve printed my photos, I move them off my computer. So the very existence of that folder meant I hadn’t printed anything personal for 3 years. That’s right… three years.  That folder was a flashing neon sign reminder that I’m a guilty slacker!

When I was a child, one of my greatest delights was to take the family albums from the hallway cupboard, and sit on the floor “reading” them. I’d gaze for a very long time at every image, looking for clues as to what was happening on that day, outside the frame. I’d read them over and over and I’d always find something new in photos I’d seen a thousand times.

Also, my grandparents had a wall crammed with framed family photos. Over 80 years of family history was right there, for me to devour every time I visited… even as an adult, it still mesmerises me.

But my kids can’t do that if our own photos are on my computer! At one stage I took the cheats way out – I convinced myself saving images digitally for my kids to share with future generations is the way of the future. So I organised them into folders on a CD, smug in the knowledge I just saved myself a crap load of work.

I didn’t know at the time that very soon hardly anyone would have the hardware to read that CD. I do now.

I want them to be able to “read” our family history too, and be mesmerised. And the best way to do that is to get them printed, in albums, and on the walls in photo displays.

So I’m on a mission, and it will be a fun one, and I’ll take you along with me (bring your computer!).

Not only am I going to print some shots (gasp!), I’m going to get them on my walls with creative photo display ideas! Don’t roll your eyes, this is going to happen!

Get Organised!

So first up I created a folder and titled it “To Print”. Then I created two sub folders within titled “Walls” and “Albums”. I started with “2012”, and dragged and dropped the photies I love into those folders.

I think it’s at this point peeps often get stuck… what to put on walls and what to put in albums? This is what I tell all my clients when they can’t decide which images to print BIG… ask yourself which images you have trouble tearing your eyes away from. They are the shots that when hung on your wall, every time you walk past, you’ll pause, look, smile, remember, and your heart will swell. They’re the money shots. They’re the wall shots. Everything else goes into an album.

Decide what size you’ll print your wall images after you work out how and where you’re going to hang them (eg. frames, canvas, foam core, collage, etc).

Let the fun begin!

Yellow Is The Happiest Colour

I bought a bunch of cheap, white frames (some timber, some plastic, it doesn’t matter) in various sizes ranging from 6×4 to 8×12. I also found some in op shops and garage sales.

I decided this display would be yellow, and bought some spray paint. Next I laid them out on a large drop sheet, and sprayed them all very lightly until they were fully coated.

This is key when spray painting – it can be tempting to coat them all in one hit, but that’s how you end up with drips.

Be patient, keep it light, spray from at least 20cm away at an angle, and let dry fully between coats. It should take a minimum of three coats for a professional finish.

Once fully painted and completely dry, I hung them on the wall before I decided which photos I’d frame. I didn’t spend too much time working out which frame would go where. This wasn’t to be a precise design – it was completely haphazard and quirky.

This also means I can add to it later more easily. On a side note, I’m sure the crookedness of my frames is making some of you twitch… hehe.

Then I made a list of each frame size and it’s orientation, went back to my folder of photos to be printed on the wall, selected which image would go in which frame, and made a note of the size they would need to be printed, cropping if necessary.

Also, I had a few cards I’d collected that I loved, and had been sitting in my desk drawers waiting to be loved in public. So I took the opportunity to finally do something with them, and mixed them in with the photos.

Pegged and Hung

This idea was easy to execute in that I didn’t need to match prints to frame sizes. I just chose a bunch of images I loved, printed them all in 6×4 inch with borders. Using 3M hooks I strung red butchers twine then hung the photos using tiny wooden pegs I found at an art store. Yes, my spacing is a little off… I’m just not that precious!

Framed Collage

I bought a frame with included mat from a discount store, and measured the opening of the mat, which in this case was 10.5 x 13.5 inches. I then created a collage of multiple images in that size using Blogstomp, but you could use any program that creates storyboards.

In this instance I created it using client images, and hung it on my wall just to show you (I’m helpful like that). I use this frame when I donate photography session vouchers to school and charity events.

But I love it so much I’m working on one with photos of my kids, from birth to now. So that’s a slightly bigger project in that I need to go through 15 years of archived images and therefore wasn’t ready at the time of publishing this post.

I’m even considering making it much larger, and printing it on a foam core mount. Or buying a much larger frame (poster size), and spray painting it a funky colour. Or…. well, my thinking cap is on anyway!

Tadaa!