Photo Letters

Thanks to Laurie for reminding me about this one! A fairly recent trend (within the past few years at least) has been photo letters - you know, where people spell out words with artsy photos of objects that look like letters? Groupon still sends me deals from time to time for "Custom Alphabet Art" - and seriously, it's overpriced. I mean, this one was a deal at $50 (originally $150!) and this one was $60 for $135 worth of art. I'm sure the majority of the cost is in the framing, but if you can get away with matting (or at least a cheaper frame), this type of artwork is really easy and low-cost. In the past, I've taken two different approaches in creating this type of art - frame first and name first (yes, they rhyme).

Frame First: A few summers ago I found some three-photo frames at really low cost (*cough* Wal-Mart *cough*), and I was struck with the realization that hey, initials consist of three letters! So, I snapped them up and got to work! I knew I wanted to make a piece for my brother, whose initials are T-J-H, so I trekked around the outside of my parents' house in search of my letters. I found the T in a birdbath in the backyard, my J was a decorative lantern hook out front (I removed the lantern for the sake of the photo!), and I discovered an H within the mortar of the front steps. Collected, my original photos looked like this:

For a more polished look, I used iPhoto to recolor them, and the end results were this:

They fit pretty well in the frames, but I will add a word of caution here: Don't zoom in too much! I used my local Walgreens' Photo Center to print the photos, which means mere cents a print; however, it also means a bit of auto zoom/cropping. Add to that any insta-cropping that occurs when you insert the photo in the frame, and you might discover that your letters aren't so crisply defined anymore (which is important - if they bleed off the edge too much, they lose their clarity). My T above was a bit large, but it worked out fine in the end (whew).

For the seventh opening

Name First: In this case, all you need to do is choose your word (or name!) and begin brainstorming. I knew I wanted to make my friend Laurie's name, so I began scouting around for angles and curves around the house - some I found, some I artistically created. ;) The trick with creating an entire name is that it practically necessitates ordering custom matting. I found a 2-pack of 7-opening mats on sale from this site, but I would definitely recommend browsing around to see what's out there. Since Laurie's name is six letters, I added an artsy photo at the end to complete the piece. It's up to individual preference whether or not to take the extra step and frame the finished piece, but I thought it looked nice the way it was (frames can be so bulky... and, let's face it, pricey!). I don't have a photo of the finished product, but here's the next best thing:

As you can see, I made good use of my parents' yard again, but I incorporated a few indoor shots as well. All in all, a project that requires a few steps (pre-planning, taking photos, editing, printing, assembling) but results in a unique, polished bit of artwork that's special to both you and the receiver!

Here is a photo-lettering of my roomie's initials (also shows the three-pic frame mentioned earlier)