Have you ever collected all your favorite pictures of your grandson or granddaughter? They probably ended up stashed away in an album in some drawer.
Putting them all in frames and finding room on your walls would be quite expensive and not too decorative.
Enter the collage.
Photograph collages were popular in the seventies.
They were created by gluing different sized photos on masonite and arranging them on a wooden plaque.
The process took a good amount of professional time and cost about $400.
00.
That would be about $800.
00 today.
If you are handy in the shop, you could do it yourself.
Choose seven to nine photographs and enlarge them to different sizes according to the head size in the photograph.
For instance, if the picture contains three children, full length and is an important picture, you could enlarge this photo to eight by ten for a center position on your plaque.
Medium shots cropped to the waist show up well as five by sevens, five by fives or eight by eights.
Close up images can be scaled down to four by fives or even three by three on super close ups.
After gluing on masonite boards slightly smaller than the photo, trim the photo flush with the edges of the masonite.
Cut riser blocks of varying depths out of scrap wood.
The eight by tens require a support block one and one half square by two inches deep.
The five by sevens need a one inch square block one and one half inches deep.
The smaller photos use block one inch square and one inch deep.
Arrange the photos so that the five by sevens peek out from behind the eight by tens, covering part of the photo but not any faces or important detail.
No two photos should line up with each other.
I.
E.
each photo placed at a different level.
Make the arrangement as compact as possible without hiding anything important.
In the shop, cut out a free form about twenty by twenty-four inches from seven ply plywood.
The shape can use kidney shaped curves in a free form style or an asymmetrical oval.
Bevel and hand sand the edges, stain and lacquer with a luster finish.
Make a brown paper pattern of your plaque and arrange the block mounted photos in a pleasing pattern according to the tips in the previous paragraph.
Mark the paper with the positions of the blocks with a pencil and transfer the marks to the finished plaque base.
Use carpenter's white glue and weight each photo for drying overnight.
Due to the heavy weight, hang on the wall using two spaced fifty pound saw tooth hangers.
For those of us who don't know what a phillips screw driver is, but can find their way around a computer, try the Google method.
Highlight seven to nine of your favorite photos and press the button labeled 'create collage'.
Each photo can be dragged to its final position, enlarged to the proper size, and tilted for a pleasing effect.
The background may be tinted to match the room décor or a photo can be used for a wall paper effect.
If you do choose a wallpaper background, lower the contrast, lighten the density and consider toning to a nice color or using a sepia toned effect.
This background treatment helps separate the photos from the background and prevents the background from conflicting with your photographs.
This finished collage can be burned to a CD and brought to your local photo store for printing into a wall sized photo collage.
Framed, matted and glassed, your finished collage will be the talk of your living room.