 | ||
 | ||
|
|
||
| ||
 |
Whether Easter inspires Donny Darko nightmares or delightful memories of Peeps o’ yesteryear, it’s an egg-straordinary holiday that calls for some celebratory photo fun. No, we’re not talkin’ about the awkward Easter family portraits, or having your picture taken with the Easter bunny. We’re talkin’ about using your own fantastic photos to spruce up an Easter egg—mosaic-style! This DIY gives you the chance to showcase your pics while making your eggs look pretty, and you don’t have to deal with any messy dyes or markers. The Peeps approve. p.s. Our pals at Artsy Couture turn your photos into rad Gallery Blocks. They’re beautiful solid wood blocks with your very own photos mounted onto them!
Why It’s CrackingWho doesn’t enjoy decorating eggs for Easter?? It’s an activity where your creativity can let loose on a bunch of unsuspecting eggs. Not only does this photo mosaic method make decorating eggs even more fun and unique, but it also makes it possible for your photos to be friends with eggs. Cuz normally, friendships between flat objects—your photos—and round objects—the eggs—aren’t the smoothest! Mosaic Materials:
To preserve our lovely egg creations, we went with a nonperishable egg option. If ya want, you can do this mosaic on a hard-boiled egg (with its shell still on, of course). However, if you do use real eggs, please note that they are good for up to 2 hours at room temperature, and up to a week in the fridge. As pretty as your eggs will be, don’t let them get spoiled rotten! STEP 1: Prep that Egg-worthy Photo
Open up the photo file you want to use in Adobe Photoshop or a similar photo-editing program. Make sure that photo file’s DPI (otherwise known as resolution) is set to 300 DPI. This ensures your photo won’t be pixelated when you print it out. STEP 2: Copy & Crop
Make a copy of your photo file. Then, crop this photo file so that it is a 3″ by 7.5″ rectangle. STEP 3: Print it out Make sure you print true to size—sometimes your printer, by default, will resize your photos to fit the whole page, which you don’t want! We printed extras just in case. This mosaic business can get messy. While your photos are printing, see how many Peeps you can fit in your mouth! STEP 4: Mark it up
Use a ruler and one of your pens to measure and mark 3.5 inches in from the left of your photo Make a line from the top to the bottom of the photo from where your 3.5 inch mark is. STEP 5: Initializing Diagonal Mode
Take your right triangle ruler, and place its corner right on the top of the vertical line you drew. With your other colored pen, trace along both sides of the triangle ruler. STEP 6: Diagonal Get Down
However, only the left and right side of the triangles will be needed; the “bottom” side of the triangle will not be used. With your regular ruler, measure and make .5 inch marks along the left side of the triangle. From those .5 inch marks you just made, use your right triangle ruler as a guide to make diagonal lines parallel to the right of the triangle. Draw your diagonal lines past the “outline” of your triangle, to the edge of your photo. Now measure and make .5 inch marks along the right of the triangle, and use those marks to draw diagonal lines parallel to the left side of the triangle. Remember to have these diagonal lines drawn past the triangle’s outline, too. STEP 7: Work the Grid & Make some Diamonds
You want to continue making this diagonal grid until you cover the whole back of the photo. To do this, you’re going to be draw lines beyond the triangle’s outline. On the left side of the triangle outline, draw diagonal lines at .5 inches apart from each other that are parallel to that left side. Do the same to the right side of the triangle’s outline, making diagonal lines .5 inches apart that are parallel to the right side. Keep adding diagonal lines, using previously drawn lines as guides, until you have pretty much covered the back of your photo with a diagonal grid. These diamond shapes you’ve created within this diagonal grid are essentially the mosaic pieces for your egg. STEP 8: Label like a Label Machine
Labeling the pieces now will help you when you’re gluing the pieces onto the egg. This step is important, but may be slightly confusing, so please feel free to refer to the photo on the right to help you understand it! You’re going to be using one of your colored pens for this labeling action. First, the parts of the grid that aren’t going to be used in the mosaic are colored in so they won’t be accidentally labeled as a mosaic piece. Then the pieces that are going to be used in the mosaic can get labeled. These mosaic pieces are labeled in a backward sequence, since we’re labeling them on the back. We labeled each piece by “row” and their order in the row. For example, a piece labeled ” 4.3″ means that it’s the third piece in the fourth row. There are seven “rows” of mosaics, and 8 pieces in each row except row number 1. Row number 1 has only 4 pieces. Click on the photo for this step to get a better look on how we labeled our mosaic pieces in this step! STEP 9: Cut Out Your Mosaics
STEP 10: Let’s Get Organized
Lay them out according to their row as well as their individual number. Doing this will make gluing these pieces much easier and faster in the next steps! STEP 11: Glue from Da Top
Gluing will start from the top of the egg, with the 4 pieces of the first “row” of mosaics. Apply the small glue dots to the bottom corner of your mosaic piece and then stick your piece near the top of the egg. We use glue dots since they are less messy than using craft glue, but small dots of craft glue should work just fine, too. While you’re gluing, use an egg cup—we used a paint palette—to help prop your egg up. STEP 12: Gluing the Second Row
Glue the first piece of the second row between the first and last piece of the 1st row. Each piece in the second row will slightly overlap the previous piece, as well as overlap the first row of mosaics. STEP 13: Get the rest of your mosaic on
Before continuing, put on some good music cuz this mosaic biz-ness is about to real serious. Start your third row between the second row’s first and last pieces. Glue pieces in that row, slightly overlapping the row above it. Repeat until you have all the photo mosaic pieces on your egg. STEP 14: Your Egg-traordinary Result
If you used glue dots, your egg is ready to take on Easter. Admire it, show it off, and/or make some more as Easter gifts! The other eggs in your Easter basket will be green with envy, that’s fo sho. Mo mosaic, mo fun
→ See more Photo projects, DIY ideas, and Gear ← → Get it all free: Subscribe by email or RSS ←
|
|
|||||||
