Square Art: December 2012

If you are a new mother like me, you would definitely know how precious time is. Since welcoming the arrival of my baby boy, my time has been largely centered around the feeding/pooping/sleeping schedule of Jared. So a lot of projects and me-time have been put on hold the last few months. But now that he's a little older and can amuse himself with his playthings at longer intervals, I find that I can now squeeze in some crafting time (with breaks every now and then when the baby calls).

So I would like to share a project that I've been meaning to do for awhile now - a mosaic frame for my baby. We took this picture of him sleeping when he was just a few weeks old. It's amazing to see how much changes have taken place in such a short time! Do enjoy this little tutorial!

Step 1

Gather the items and tools you will need:

A photoframe

A photograph to fit in the frame

Choose your mosaic tile colours. Blue seems to be the default colour for baby boys :)

These are the tools you will need: tile nipper (optional), square grid,
double-sided tape and some wooden stickers to add to the design.

I find that using a tweezer makes it easier to grab and stick on the tiles. Especially
when the tiles are as small as 5mm x 5mm!

Step 2:

Paste double-side tape on all sides of the frame.

Step 3:

Decide on your mosaic design. Think of these questions:

a) Do I want a conventional (uniform pattern and colours, even spaces) or fun design (no particular pattern, different tile sizes, etc.)?

b) Am I going to use grout? If yes, you have to leave ample space in between.

c) Does my design match my photo?

I decided on the unconventional, no particular pattern method. I already chose my colours so the next step is to decide how to put the tiles together. Because it's a picture of a baby sleeping, I didn't want it to be too funky so I kept it to muted blues and a neat, but not uniform, pattern. I also decided not to use grout as I liked how the black frame came out with the tile colours.

Step 4:

Start sticking the tiles onto the frame.

I started off by putting my tiles on the square grid. Then, turn it over onto your frame.

The square grid was also used for this and this projects.

Note: Remember the colours come out the mirror image of what you
first see on the square grid (because you have to turn it over).

Instead, I decided to take the easier route and used 2 tile sizes (10mm and 5mm ones) to create a design. This is my favourite method to mosaic. And this is how a finished section looks like: