Who wouldn’t want a life size cardboard cutout of one of their friends, family members, or a celebrity? The first thing you will need is the image. If you can, take the picture yourself as opposed to finding one online. This can be difficult if the person you want to turn into a cardboard cutout is a celebrity, but if it’s someone you know this should be no problem. Use a camera with the highest mega pixels you can find. If you don’t have a decent enough camera when you enlarge the photo to life size you will get a lot of pixilation and your cutout won’t be clear.
When taking the photo of your subject try to get them to stand against a blank background. The more stuff behind them the more work it’s going to be for you to isolate them from the picture. If you don’t have a blank wall hang up a sheet somewhere and have them stand against that.
Import your photo into Photoshop or another similar image editing program, and delete the background using your favorite method (magic wand tool, pen tool, eraser, etc). You can leave the background in if you want to print it that way and just cut around the person later. This will probably cost you more if you are bringing it some place such as Kinko’s to get it printed, as they charge by the square foot.
Now it is time to blow up the image to life size. This might take a while depending on how fast your computer is.
Once the image is life size it’s time to print. You have two options here. If you don’t mind there being seems in your finished cutout you can tile the picture and print it out on separate sheets of paper. Then you will have to tape or glue all the sheets together you get your whole picture. If you want it to look a little nicer I suggest getting it printed at Kinko’s. The price will vary depending on how large your person is. Taller people will cost more.
If you have your own wide format printer you can buy paper in rolls and print it as one sheet yourself. Of course it depends again on how large your person is whether or not they will fit on the size roll your printer takes. The type of paper you print on (glossy or matte) is up to you.
Once your image is printed it’s time to mount it. You can mount it to cardboard or foam core. You can buy large pieces of foam core that are 30″ by 40″ and most people can fit on two sheets. You will also need to build supports so the cutout can stand up.
Mount the image with the white background still intact. Spray adhesive is probably the easiest thing to use, although any glue will work. Be careful not to get any bubbles in your person while you are gluing them down.
Let the glue dry before you start trimming your cutout. Use an X-acto knife to trim through the photo and foam core at once. Take you time and don’t try to cut through both layers with one cut. Your edges will look much nicer and straighter if you take multiple passes with the blade.
Once it is all trimmed stand up your cardboard cutout and surprise your friends and family!
