How to Make a Unique Tile Picture for Less Than $3!

Want to make a unique piece of art to decorate your empty walls? Or to make the perfect gift for the grandparents or in-laws?

Here is a simple way to make this modern and minimalistic design using just tiles, tissue paper and a laser printer.

It is time to amaze your friends...

Step 1: Getting Started

You will need:

1. Nice photo
2. Computer
3. Nine pieces of 10x10cm tiles
4. Five sheets of printer paper
5. Five strips of 10x20cm tissue paper
6. Double sided adhesive
7. Printer
8. Exacto knife
9. Decoupage glue
10. Paintbrush

Step 2: Picking and Editing You Photo

First you have to pick a nice photo. Make sure you pick a photo in which you will not cut away vital parts (such as eyes) later on.
Chose which part of the photo you want to use and cut out a square. Put the square in a new document.

On this new document you can:

Change image size to 30cmx30cm.
Desaturate the image.
Change brightness and contrast until you get the desired result.
You might want use the paintbrush to get rid of unwanted details in the background.
You might want to reverse the picture, otherwise you will end up (like me) with a mirror image of your original photo.

Step 3: Dividing Your Picture Into Smaller Elements

In order to print your paper you will have to take a few extra steps.

Make lines on your edited photo at 10 and 20 cm. This is just to make the next step easier, if you find it hard you can skip this.

Cut out the squares between the lines. Cut 0,5 cm away from the lines! Otherwise you will end up with a distorted face in the end. If you did not make the lines just check the ruler and make the cutting free hand. Each square will measure 9cm in each direction.

Paste the squares into 5 new documents, 2 in each except for the last one which will have just one square.

If needed, rotate the new documents to make them printable.

Step 4: Printing Your Photo on Tissue Paper

Obiously it is hard to put tissue paper into an ordinary laser printer. This is a nice trick to make it work.

Take your strips of 10 x 20cm tissue paper. Put double sided adhesive on upper and lower side.
Attach to middle of printer paper.

Do NOT use common tape as it will melt in your laser printer and make it useless (take my word for granted, I have tried)

Print the 5 documents on the 5 pieces of tissue paper

Step 5: Cutting the Parts

No need for longer explanation. Cut all nine squares. Try not to cut your fingers as well.

Step 6: Time to Use the Glue!

Put decoupage glue on tiles. Adhere tissue paper.

If you want a softer look, adhere pieces with printed side facing tile. (That is the reason you might want to reverse it earlier). For a more detailed look, adhere printed side out.

When dry, add at least two more layers of decoupage glue on top of tissue paper.