Disclaimer: I received free product from Canvas on the Cheap in exchange for my honest opinion. Post contains affiliate links.
I always have a hard time decorating with photos. I don’t want my home to be a shrine to my kids or our family’s faces… it just feels wrong. But then, I also hate really posed pictures and intentionally tell photographers to capture candid photos of us, so maybe I’m just a weirdo about photos?
In any event, figuring out how to display our family’s photos and incorporate them into our decor has been a learning process. Over the years, I’ve learned that one of my favorite ways to do it has been by printing our digital photos on canvases. It feels like a step up from framed photos, and when I use those candid shots, it’s even a bit artsy!
For example, I have a black and white canvas of my two oldest petting a goat at a farm; my son’s back is turned and my daughter is peaking over her shoulder. While it’s not the perfect photo of their sweet faces, I love the memories it evokes when I look at it. It was taken during our first long road trip to Michigan from Colorado, and it rests in my brain as my favorite summer trip with our little family to date.
So when Canvas on the Cheap reached out to me to try out their photo canvases, I jumped at the chance; it had been a while since I had added any new photo canvas wall art.
I had to think a bit about what photo to use, and I came across this one from our family photo shoot last fall. It is one of my favorite photos of my kids, because it perfectly displays their personalities!
My youngest is a troublemaker who doesn’t know what “sit still” means, my daughter is ever the mommy, trying to be in charge, and my middle son is just that – always in the middle, usually not paying attention.
I asked my husband whether I should use this photo or the one of them perfectly posed and he quickly said this one (I married the right man). So it was decided.
I wanted to create more of an art piece with this canvas, so I decided to create two split photo collage canvases. I have seen this done a few different ways, usually a square photo is split into 4’s or a 4×6 photo is split into three tall canvases. The composition in this photo worked well with two small square canvases.
How to Create Split Photo Canvas Wall Art
Want to know how to create your own split photo canvas wall art? Here are two ways to do it:
- Photoshop: In Photoshop, I created 2 canvases that were each 8″ by 8″. Then I resized my photo so that the width was 16″ and dragged my photo onto each canvas. I put the two canvases side by side and moved the photo right and left on each so until the edges aligned and they looked good to go. Then I saved each canvas as its own JPEG.
- Free Photo Software: You can also use a free editor like PicMonkey to create your two canvases using their photo collage option. Here is an easy way to do it:
1. Login and select “collage” at the bottom of your home screen:
2. Choose the first option “Ducks in a Row” with 2 images (you can obviously choose your collage layout appropriately if you plan on doing 3 or 4 split photo canvases instead of 2):
3. Doubleclick in each box to upload your photo. Upload the same photo to both boxes, then click the “edit” button in the middle of the canvas to resize and move your image so that the 2 sides align, as best you can tell.
4. Click “save” at the top of the screen to save this image to your hub.
5. Navigate to your hub, select the image you just saved, and click “edit flattened image” at the bottom of the screen:
6. Once it opens, you can use the crop tool on the left side to crop each individual square. Crop one, click “export” to save it to your computer, and then undo the cropping (using the “undo” button at the bottom of the screen) and crop the next square and export it to your computer.
Voila! You have 2 square JPEGS that align to now upload to Canvas on the Cheap!
- A note about margins: Some canvas websites require that you include a margin around your photo that will get wrapped around the frame. The great thing about Canvas on the Cheap is that you don’t have to worry about the margins for the wrap-around! Instead, they just print a mirror image of your photo edges to use as the wrap around; this way, it blends in with the picture on the front and saves you the headache of having to deal with margins. I thought this was genius! It would have been much more difficult when cropping my squares if I had to include a margin, and then I would have had to hope and pray that they frame it properly so that my canvases lined up.
Canvas on the Cheap also has two framing widths you can choose; I went with the thicker option and I’m so glad I did. I love the dimension these split photo canvases have against the wall.
These little photo collage canvases turned out so cute! It’s great that they are small enough that they can go just about anywhere without being obnoxious or overwhelming. I change things pretty frequently on my walls, so I stuck them up with 3M velcro strips so they can easily be moved to another spot (you know, like next week).
Where would you put your canvas art? Are you brave enough to try a split photo canvas?