Why is it that everything gets a million times cooler when it's either giant or tiny? I don't know what it is, but there's something about a dramatic change of scale that makes me love the item that much more (like our tiny photo magnets or these tiny photo books). I was getting a little tired of the printed scarf I had hanging above the Wurlitzer in our living room, and I thought it would be the perfect spot for a fun oversized photo. Rather than just print a regular photo, I wanted to use one of my favorite photo booth pictures of Todd and me that we took with the Party Party app this summer. I love the photo booth aspect of the picture because it gives you four photos to display instead of just one, and the photos feel much more candid and silly.
To get the best quality blueprint, take your photos in the Party Party app, save the image on your phone, and transfer the picture to a computer with Photoshop. Open the picture in Photoshop and go to "Image" and then "Image Size." Your photo should be at 72 dpi, but we are going to slowly increase the resolution to 300 dpi so you'll get a clearer print when you print it much bigger. You'll want to change your image resolution by slow increments of 10% at a time. So if you start at 72 dpi, you'll want to change it to 79, click "OK," then change to 87, click "OK," then 95, click "OK," then 104, etc., until you reach 300 dpi. Once you have the correct photo resolution, you can resize the dimensions of the photo to its final size (most blueprints will print up to 36" wide, so that's what I sized mine to). Save the photo on a flash drive and take it to Staples or Kinkos to have it printed. Mine is basically the largest square you can print, and it cost me under $9!
If you don't have access to Photoshop, that's okay too! Before I knew about the steps above I would just print mine without that step, and I was happy enough with the print quality. A bit of pixelation is part of the blueprint charm, but if there's too much distortion to your liking, you can always just print it a little smaller instead.
I've put up a lot of my blueprint prints with either just nails or tacks, and while I like the casual feel of that hanging method, I mounted this picture to foam core and painted a simple frame neon yellow for this special print. How cute would it be to do a series of giant, long, photo booth strips next to each other across a wall? Uh, oh! Looks like I'll be making a few more of these! xo. Laura
Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with Stella from A Beautiful Mess actions.
Love this! Reminds me a lot of those photo booths that you put money into and get a couple pictures. What a fun idea.
This is an amazing idea!
It would look absolutely stunning in my bedroom.
so cute!
xx nikki
www.dream-in-neon.com
This is such a fun idea! Love the colorful frame!
This is pretty adorable. I would love a family one.
xoxo, Laura
www.theaccidentalmama.com
Such a cute and fun idea!
xoxo
Taylor
Omg love this!!!
In non-technical terms, it’s just able to process the smaller jumps better than one giant jump so you end up with a better look at the end when you do it slowly 🙂
Laura
They are from a local flea market, I love them too!
Laura 🙂
I used the Party Part app to put them together with the Polaroid type frames and then printed one big picture 😉
Laura
Made it! 🙂
Laura
Interesting — may I ask why the slow increments? I’ve always just jumped my photo resolution to 300 dpi on the first go, and I’m wondering what I’ve been doing wrong, eek!!
Thanks y’all!
Lynda
Awesome! I am going to make one (or two) for our playroom of my boys!!
Cool pics. This is a very nice idea and it is perfect for a present. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, Laura! Where did you get those amazing gold unicorn bookends?! A unicorn is my spirit animal. Not sure if this will be answered or not, but figured it never hurts to ask. 😉
This is so cute,
I’m going to work on this tonight.
This is so fun! Thanks for all your decor inspiration!
tuskstails.blogspot.com
I did something similar in my room with washi tape! I swear by it now.
Thanks for the inspiration
http://mademoiselleaventure.blogspot.ca/2014/11/surviving-fall-coats-and-cappuccinos.html
This is gorgeous! I’d be worried about picture quality, but I love this as a present!
Liefs,
Yara