Photographic Mosaic
By Nannette Dalton

Mosaics have always fascinated me, especially those made with photos. I think that they can be an artistic way of expressing emotion and how much something means to you.

I thought this would be a fun idea for a birthday card for my grandchildren, expressing how much I love them with their tiny photos making up one big photo—a little surprise for them to find.

This would also be a great idea for a Mother’s Day card, with a mother made up of smaller images of her children. Hey! I just thought of a good title for that card: A Thousand Reasons to Smile.

Are you ready to get started? Okay, let’s go!

Step One: Prepare the Workspace

• Create a new 1 x 1 inch document (File > New > Blank File) at 300 ppi with a white background. (Photoshop: Choose File > New.)

Note: If I was making this for a mom and wanted to use all of her children, I would make the new document 1 inch by how ever many children she has 4 children = 4 inches. I would use the guides to mark off each inch so that I could fit a photo into each square.

Step Two: Create a Pattern

• Open a photo of your choice (File > Open).
• Get the Move tool.
• On the document, click on the photo and drag it onto the blank document.
• Press Ctrl T (Mac: Cmd T) to get the Transform options.
• On the document, click on one of the corner handles of the bounding box and drag inward to resize the photo to fit the document. (Photoshop: Press and hold the Shift key while resizing to maintain proportion.)
• Double click inside the bounding box to commit the transformation.

Note: Make sure that the facial features fill most of the document.

In the Menu Bar, choose Edit > Define Pattern and click OK.

Step Three: Create Photo Mosaic

• Open the layered scrapbook page with which you wish to work.
• In the Layers panel, activate the layer to which you want to apply the mosaic.
• Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon and choose Pattern.
• In the dialog box, open the Pattern Picker and choose the newly created pattern. Check Link with Layer, adjust the Scale to your liking, and click OK. I set the scale to 25%.

• In the Layers panel, adjust the Blend Mode and Opacity as desired. I used a Blend Mode of Linear Burn and an Opacity of 30%.

On my layout, I have applied the mosaic overlay to the photo and to the background paper to help illustrate just how much I love my grandson. What fun ideas can you come up with for using this technique on your layouts and cards?

Credits:
Page & Photo: Nannette Dalton
Tutorial: Photographic Mosaic by Nannette Dalton
Kit: Celebrate by Julie Billingsley
Font: Comic Book
Software: Photoshop Elements 13, Photoshop CC 2014

Interested in digging in deeper?

Digital Mosaic Video Tutorial

by Jan Walker

If you love the artsy look of colorful mosaics, you’ll enjoy learning how to create them digitally, using an ordinary photo. Digital mosaics make great accents for any scrapbook page — and they’re super easy to make!

Photographic Overlays Video Tutorial
by Susie Roberts

Make an artistic overlay from a landscape photo and turn it into a sentimental piece of art that you’ll be proud to hang on your living room wall.

Bokeh Overlay Video Tutorial
by Christina Rambo

Create a beautiful Bokeh Overlay to be used on photos or on background papers.

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Author: Nannette Dalton | Contact Us
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