Engineering Prints as gigantic inspiration posters for party decorations

I've seen loads of posts about using engineering prints to make large posters.  These are perfect for cheap and cheerful decorations for Jamies year 6 party.

I chose the best 6 photos that I had of a large group of the children during their school trips.

The photos came from the school camera and unfortunately they are not the best quality images. I was concerned they would be unusable when blown up, but because they were in b&w, it was fine. They added to the atmosphere and were good enough.

I cropped the original images to fit the correct ratio / dimension for printing, and annotated with slightly cheesy inspirational quotes.  I tried to find quotes from people that would mean something to the kids.

These can be printed in colour, but this was too expensive for the number I was doing and our budget. (Though staples made a mistake, and gave me one of the prints in colour).

The kids and parents appreciated being able to look at the pictures of the kids time at school.

To add some colour to the black and white, and to make the words stand out I embossed a couple with foil.

It looked fantastic, but having done a couple I realised it would take me ages, and not be noticed particularly in the big marquee space.....(and I was using up all of Abbis foil sheets) so I used chalk markers to do the rest.

They gave enough change of tone that the words could be seen on a light and dark background.  Ah trusty posca pens what would I do without you.  The chalk markers def weren't as nice, but Im sure nobody other than sad old me would have noticed.

The quotes I used came from this fab website brainyquote.com.  Enter the name of the person you are looking for, or search by categories; education, sport etc.

I wanted people or subjects that I thought would be meaningful to our group of 11 year olds.

The ones I chose were:

"If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals" Sirius Black (JK Rowling)

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible" Dalai Lama

"Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world" Nelson Mandela

"Leave people and places better than you found them" John Ridgeway
(John Ridgeway was the first man to row across the atlantic and founder of the Ridgeway Centre where the children do an adventure course as part of their year 6 school journey)

"We're just enthusiastic about what we do" Steve Jobs

"I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that came out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot" Bill Gates

" It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be" Dumbledore (JK Rowling)

These posters would look awesome as wedding decorations with b&w photos of the bride and groom as babies, and at various other ages until they meet.

For our posters, rather than throwing them out after the party, some of the kids that are leaving London post graduation took the posters as souvenirs.


A couple of other ways to use these plan (or engineering) prints are shown here.

truebluemeandyou.tumblr.com

howaboutorange.blogspot.com

For this last one, I pinned it a year or so ago from pinterest.  

When I tried to find the source blog to credit it here, and a tutorial to link to, I couldnt find one.  

It would appear the image is from an advert for the furniture (but dont quote me on that), and it most likely not an engineering print. Its probably a hugely expensive piece of art!

Anyway I included it, as I thought it was a fab idea, much pinned elsewhere...no real instructions needed.  

If anyone wants to correct me on the source, or add links to any other engineering print ideas please do.