Easy-to-do Mosaic Scrapbooking!

My daughter-in-law takes the most awesome nature shots and she made the most of her abilities while visiting the Tropical Dream Center in Okinawa. I wanted to get as many of these gorgeous photos on the page as I could, so I turned to Wish In The Wind products to help me make this mosaic. There are nine 3 1/2 x5 photos on this one page and the whole layout only took me about one hour to complete.



Want to know how to get started? You'll need some tools: a self-healing cutting mat with one-inch grids; a craft knife with a fresh blade; some repositional glue (tape runner, xyron machine, glue stick - any type of repositional will do); a cork-backed ruler; and some grid paper. http://www.wishinthewind.com/ has all the tools you need to get started, plus they sell the pre-printed grid paper in tons of colors. The grid paper makes laying out your mosaic super easy as the spacing is all figured out for you.


You'll also need to choose nine or ten photos and some cardstock in case you want to mat a photo or leave room for a title. It's best to choose some photos that are close-ups as well as some with a bit of background scenery for visual interest.Once you have chosen your photos, coat the back with the repositional glue and choose the photos that you would like to be your main focus. For Paradise Found, I chose three photos and a journaling block to start my page.




First, line your photo up on the mat so that one side and either the top or bottom edge are lined up along the dark guidelines on the mat.


Lay your ruller along the dark guidelines and cut your photo into squares using the craft knife.

Tips: If you are going to cut your photo into 1-inch pieces, be sure
your
subject's face falls between the dark gridlines. You don't want to cut into
their face or cut them off at the neck.

Also, if you are going to cut a
photo to fill more than one grid, you must
add 1/4 inch to each photo.

Once you have cut your photo into squares, it will look like this. I used 3 1/2 x5 inch photos. There will be a bit of extra on one short side and one long side of your photo. You can see in this photo that the squares on the bottom are definitely too small. And the squares on the right are just a tad too small. You don't want to use these. Just discard these bits. If you use 4x6 inch photos, you may not have extra bits.

Lay your main photos and journaling block on the grid, then begin filling in the grid with your one-inch squares. Don't be concerned if you cannot fit the entire picture in the empty spaces. This will give interest to your page, but don't throw out those extra squares just yet! You may be able to use them to fill in an empty spot. In 'Paradise Found' I used bits of green from the top center picture to fill in a space above the bottom yellow flower. I'll bet you did not notice until I told you so!

Have fun with this technique. It is quite easy once you get the hang of it and the final result can be stunning!