Personalized Wedding Art

This past weekend I spent some quality time in a mini-van with my hubby and my in-laws during a road trip to Wyoming.  One of my husband’s cousins got married there on Saturday and the whole family was in attendance.  The wedding was quite memorable.  Let’s just say that to describe the wedding as “rustic” would be an understatement.

The bride and groom didn’t want to set up a wedding registry so most people just gave them cash.  I wanted to do something a little more personal than that so I created a special piece of art for them.  And by art, I mean a piece I made by copying and pasting pictures on the computer.


I love how it turned out and it was pretty simple to create.  I used Picasa to make it, which is free to download and works wonderfully for editing pictures.  I started with this plain white image that I downloaded from Centsational Girl.  Then I downloaded each of the letters for the newlyweds’ last name.  I chose letters from this awesome Flickr collection that has hundreds of choices for each letter (they’re free to download as long as you don’t use them for commercial use).

The next step was to arrange the letters.  Near the top of the screen under “Create” select “Picture Collage.”  Choose the folder to which you saved your letter files.  Select all of the letters and add them to the collage.  Under settings choose “Picture Pile” which will lay out the letters like a pile of scattered pictures.  Then rearrange the pictures to spell out the last name.  You’ll probably have to play around with the sizing of each picture for a while so that they all fit well into one line.   Once you’re happy with the arrangement of your letters click “Create Collage.”  This will save the picture and take you back to the main screen where you can now edit this image.

I changed my image to black and white, but this step is up to you.  You could certainly leave it as it, change it to black and white or sepia. or use another fun effect.  The last step is to add the text.  I love Picasa’s text tool, it’s very easy to use.  Once you’re happy with how the text looks you are done!

I printed mine at home on photo paper but you could also print it as a photo at any retail location with photo services, like Walgreens or Target.  I framed it in a cute wooden picture frame from Pier 1.  I really love how it looks!

Now Sarah and Joe have a personalized piece of art for their home, which happens to have the most incredible views of Devil’s Tower.



Pretty gorgeous isn’t it?!

*Linking up at Serenity Now*