Create DIY Wall Art Using Waterlogue

Have you waterlogued yet? Is that even a word? In case you don’t know, Waterlogue is a phone app that creates a watercolor effect from digital photos.  I was so close to buying the app a few weeks ago but decided against spending the $3. I told you I am cheap  frugal, haha.

I finally gave in a few days ago and it was sooooo worth it! Which is why today I am sharing how to create DIY wall art using Waterlogue.

Create DIY Wall Art Using Waterlogue

I originally planned to use the app on a giraffe drawing I made 6 years ago and wanted to hang in my office. It wasn’t colorful though so I figured it didn’t need to look like a watercolor painting anyway. I wound up using illustrator to turn it into a grayscale vector image so I could blow it up without losing any of the quality.

You may recall seeing this on my Facebook page:

I’m happy to report that Mr. Giraffe has since been printed, framed and added to our living room gallery wall, woo-hoo! (I may move it into my office once I work on that gallery wall.)

The other day I was staring at this adorable vintage teacup my step-sister, Nancie gave me for Christmas and trying to figure out a way to keep it displayed in my creative office/studio. By the way, she said she picked it out based on my blog colors, isn’t that so thoughtful and amazing? The colors are PERFECT and I quickly realized this little succulent I had would fit perfectly inside. I was so excited I snapped a photo and sent it to the hubs.

It was just a crappy iphone photo, nothing special. It was then that I started thinking about the Waterlogue app and how this photo could turn into a fabulous print. We had just finished putting up our massive living room gallery wall, and I had frames that needed to be filled on a budget that required craftiness. So I decided to download the app and give it a try. It’s pretty straight forward to use, but the photos below may help if you’ve never seen or used it.

The waterlogued photo looked amazing but had a few extra white spaces in the leaves that I decided to fill in with photoshop. I still left quite a bit of white because it looked like light reflecting off of it, and honestly could have just left it as is. Here is what the final image looked like:

Ummm, AMAZING, right? I know this isn’t original art or anything fancy but for a girl with no budget for art this photo made me do the happy dance.

Here is what it looks like framed:

I couldn’t be happier with the outcome and of all the photos I’ve waterlogued since, this is by far my favorite.

So if you have a photo already on your phone you could use that, capture new ones with your phone’s camera, or even just email yourself some photos from your computer and then save them to your phone. Once you’ve “waterlogued” them you can save them as large or giant files (I used giant), print and frame them. Soooo easy!

I didn’t want to waste too much ink and had already planned on getting a few photo prints at Walgreens so I just added an 8×10 to my online order picked it up within the hour. I generally get my framed prints from Office Max or Staples, but Walgreens had a 40% off prints sale going on so it only cost about $2 to get it printed, not too shabby. It was glossier than I had anticipated but I actually love how it looks framed. I had a couple other photos printed but they didn’t look nearly as good and I think printing them on a matt textured paper is probably best. Oh yeah and I got the frame it’s in on clearance for more than 50% off at Target a couple weeks ago.

I wound up printing another photo on cardstock paper with my own printer later that night, and it turned out really pretty. You’ll be able to see that one when I share our living room gallery wall in a future post.

So what do you think? Do you plan to create DIY wall art using waterlogue? If you are looking for some affordable DIY wall art ideas I think it’s a great option!

You can read more about the Waterlogue app here. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s currently only available for the iPhone, iPad and iPad Touch.