Photo "Tile' Wall Art

Late last week I teased with a picture, promising a reveal as to what I had done with it. I considered just blowing it up, but since that could be expensive and also just too simple, I decided to split it into individual 4x6" photos and hang a 'tile' art piece on the wall in our dining area:

Curious to see the work-in-progress? I had the original photo (which I took) and then split it into 36 parts in photoshop, giving me this: I then had the 36 pictures developed at my local drug store and bought a bunch of Ikea Clips frames (at $0.99 for 4, such a steal!) - I wanted the frames to be almost invisible and visually disappear, so I knew these would perfectly do the trick. Then I sat down in front of some trashy reality tv (not required, but helps the time go by!) and put my pictures into the frames. I carefully labeled each one of the 36 pictures with the row (1-6) and column number (1-6) where it belonged - each assembled frame ended up with a post-it note labeled something like "2,3" (2nd row, 3rd column). Before I could hang the (many) frames, I had to determine where each one would go. I gathered my supplies: painters tape (I used the width to measure the gaps between frames), my laser level (invaluable for this project), a measuring tape, and a hammer and nails. I determined where the middle-top of the whole thing would go and then measured from there. I used the paper that came in the frames as a measuring guide and did a row at a time. As I comleted marking off each row, I hung the frames for each row to determine where the nail would go - the clips weren't always perfectly centered, so I could ensure that the nail was in the right spot to make it hang straight. I then took down the frames until everything was marked and all nails in the wall. Then... almost done! Take down all the tape and hang the frames, and it's complete!