Mounting photos on foam board
A couple weeks ago, I asked all of you how to mount photos on foam core board and whether or not it was something I could do myself or if it would be easier to pay to have it done. The general sense I got from all the comments was that it wasn’t too hard to do and that I could certainly try to do it on my own.
Well, last night, I did and I wanted to share what I did with all of you…
Before You Start
If you need to mount your photos for a show or some sort of display, I recommend NOT procrastinating! I am a notorious procrastinator and, because of that, there is at least one photo that isn’t hanging at Springfield Mall for the next three and a half months. I printed eight prints online through RitzPix Saturday morning and picked them up Saturday afternoon at a local Ritz Camera. One of the photos I wanted to print was a panorama of Pittsburgh (seen in this post). While my panorama of the Jefferson Memorial turned out great, the panorama of Pittsburgh didn’t. The image got cropped to the point where it was only one segment of the city and unusable. Based on that crop, though, I know it would have looked fantastic! Unfortunately, since I waited until the last minute, I couldn’t really reprint it anywhere else. Live and learn I guess.
Equipment I Used
Click image for larger version…
The following is a list of the equipment I used and how it much it cost. All of the equipment that I needed to buy was bought from Michael’s Craft Store:
5 pieces of black foam board - $4.99 each
Tacky Spray - $5.99
Ruler - From the house
Mat - From the house
Rolling Pin - From the house
Razor Blade - From the house
Adhesive Foam Board hangars - Free from Michael’s Craft Store. They actually didn’t have much to hang foam board so I went to the framing department, told them I needed something to hang the foam board I was buying and they went in the back and handed me a few adhesive hangars. Not bad.
Some cardboard, paper bags, or newspapers - From the house
That’s about it.
Cutting the Foam Board the First Time
Since each piece of foam board was 20×30 and my photos were significantly smaller, I wanted to cut the foam board into a smaller piece so it was a little easier to work with. So, I laid the photo out on the piece of foam board, allowed myself about 2-3 inches on each side of the photo, laid the ruler down, and made the cut with the razor blade. Be careful with that blade!
Now, I’m left with a piece of foam board that will be a little easier to work with but not so small that everything has to be extremely precise:
Spraying and Gluing
Set aside the foam board and make sure it is not close enough to get residual spray from the glue you’re about to use. Bring out your cardboard, paper bags, or newspaper, lay it out in front of you and place the photo face down. Make sure the photo is as flat as possible. Have someone help you hold down the corners if necessary. Or, if your girlfriend is busy watching the latest Johnny Depp movie, place objects on the corners of the photos to keep them down**. Make sure whatever you place on the photo won’t be damaged if it gets extremely sticky!
IMPORTANT: If the photo is not flat, you will risk spraying some of the glue on the front of the photo! This is not good and could potentially damage the print. This glue is NOT easy to get off.
ALSO IMPORTANT: Make sure you’re in a well-ventilated area. I imagine that if you breathe too much of the glue in, you could get high, dizzy, headaches, etc. Of course, some people think that’d be a great time. Not me.
When you spray, spray evenly back and forth with the can about 6-8 inches above the surface you’re spraying. When you’re done spraying, slide it out of the way and bring your foam board back. You can let the glue sit for around 30 seconds to a minute. There’s no need to rush it on to the foam board.
When the foam board is back in front of you, lightly place one end of the glued photo to the foam board. Make sure that when you place it originally, it has enough room to fit entirely on the piece of foam. With one hand holding one end of the photo and the other hand on a rolling pin, slowly roll the photo on to the board. Of course, you could also have someone hold an end while you roll, but, just in case that Johnny Depp movie isn’t over yet, you’ll be able to do this yourself**. Just take your time and watch for bubbles.
After it’s completely rolled and flat, continue rolling while applying significant pressure for another minute or two. After you’re satisfied that it is completely flat and set, place some heavy objects (like your favorite photography books) on top of it. Let it sit for at least 20-30 minutes.
Making the Last Round of Cuts
Just like they do in cooking shows, I’m going to continue this tutorial with another photo that has already been sitting for 30 minutes.
You can see above how the left edge of the photo has almost run off the edge of the board. I wish I could say I did that on purpose to show you that it didn’t have to be precise, but I didn’t. I almost screwed it up. 
Now, carefully line up your ruler to the edge of the photo, take your razor blade, and make the final set of cuts, trimming off the excess foam board:
After you make your final cuts, you should have your final product: a photo nicely mounted on foam board and ready for display!
I hope that was helpful to some of you who have never done this before. Obviously, it’s not rocket science as long as you plan ahead, have backups in case of mistakes, and be careful with that blade!
Did anyone else do it differently? Anything to add? Let me know in the comments!
**Just a clarification… My girlfriend did help me and I ended up turning down her offers of help after I got the hang of it just to see if I could do it myself. As some of my readers already know, she is undoubtedly the greatest girlfriend ever. Thank you baby!
Good tutorial and congrats once again on showing your work.
Thanks Damien (x2)!
And for anyone curious - I enjoyed Sweeney Todd very much!
Haha… Thanks baby!
I did it slightly differently. I placed my photo on the foam board, and then marked the edges with a pen (generally only two edges, using existing straight cuts). Then I used my metal ruler and a sharp xacto-like knife with the break-off ends. Having a VERY sharp knife is important so you don’t end up dragging and tearing the paper on the foam board. Then in the garage I sprayed the photo with 3M Photo glue, waited 2 minutes and pressed one edge of the photo, checking other edges to make sure they match. Once I got it aligned, I used a clean paint roller to carefully attach the photo to the board.
I ended up not leaving a black border around the photos because I too was doing this last second yesterday and I didn’t want to deal with any alignment issues placing a photo in the middle.
The photos turned out great, and I’ll probably end up hanging them in my cubicle at work once the mall display is complete.
Thanks Gyuri! I was thinking of doing something similar regarding marking with a pen/pencil but I figured if I had enough to work with I could just cut after I glued the photo and not worry about messing up my measurement.
Next time, I think I might leave a border… but then again, I kinda like how it looked without the border. Hmmm.. Maybe I’ll try it next time.
Thanks!
Well Done Shawn, good to hear you did not get the vapors!
Haha… Thanks Mike! I almost did actually. After I did the first photo, I remembered to turn the ceiling fan on. That’s strong stuff!
Very nice Shawn! Definitely a cheaper and quicker alternative to getting a framer involved. I suppose this technique would work just as well with some Gatorboard.
Thanks Brian! I’ve never worked with Gatorboard but I imagine it probably would.
Thank you very much for this information. I’m going to post a link to it on my blog!
You’re welcome Jen! Thank you for the comment and the link! I’m glad the article was helpful!
Gonna have a go at the weekend - thanks
Cool! Let me know how it works out!
Quick question…
first let me say thank you…I am going to try it…but my question is was the photo printed om photo paper or something special?? Thanks for your help!
You’re very welcome Stacey! I’m glad you found it useful!
The photos were just uploaded and printed online at RitzPix.com and I picked them up at a local Ritz Camera.
Hope that helps!
OK ….. now how do you get the foam board to stick to the wall?? Need to hang from “museum hooks” (so the wall doesn’t get damaged.) Museum putty (for some unknown reason) does not stick to our walls. So I am assuming we have to put some kinda string on the back of the foam board. Anybody heard of foam board hooks? How do you mount string to the back of foam board????? Yikes …. we are driving ourselves crazy!!! Think we have it solved and then the picture drops off the wall cause the string mounting has failed ….. failed …… failed!!!!
Hmm… That’s a good question Yvonne. To be honest, I don’t have an answer for you. The presentation that I was preparing for when I wrote this article was going to take care of the hanging for us.
My best recommendation would be to talk to your local crafts store. I’ve noticed that the staff at Michael’s crafts have been particularly helpful in the past.
I wish I had a better answer for you. Thanks for the comment, though!
Hi shawn!
Just stumbled on your tutorial while googling online. Nice tips that you came out with. I’m planning on creating large, sliced posters from images to be put up in my room (slicer from Block Posters). Planning on sticking the printed materials on a mounting art board and sticking up on the wall.
I would like to ask for your opinion; I’m divided between using an adhesive spray and double-sided tape. Which would you recommend? As for the mounting, would you recommend double sided tape as well, or some sort of adhesive tape (like the 3M mounting and replacement strips)?
Thanks for the advice, and will showcase my artwork in the near future!
Justin
Hi Justin! Thanks for the comment!
I have never actually used the double-sided tape for mounting the photos on the foam board, so I can’t say for sure which is better. However, the adhesive spray will help make sure that the photo is absolutely flat on the board. That might be tough to do with tape.
As for mounting on the wall, the 3M strips you mentioned have always worked well for me.
Hope that helps!
Just hung and exhibit of foam backed photos. Foam hooks were inserted in the back and taped in so they would not pull out. (On some wires had already been stretched between the foam hooks but I did not use these.) I used large plastic covered paperclips slipping the large end through the foam clips (two per photo). I knotted 6 lb fish line to the two paperclips with enough line between the clips to hang at the right height from the hook on the picture rail.