Photo Book Girl's DIY Art Gallery Wall & Review of Acrylic Print by Mixbook

Photo books are my favorite way to get photos off my computer and into physical form, but it's not the only way I've enjoyed my favorite shots. Many of you may be familiar with canvas prints and you may already have a few hanging on your wall, but recently many more options have appeared including prints made on wood, metal, glass, wallpaper and acrylic. I've had prints enlarged on all these media except for metal and wallpaper. What's great is these options are not just for pro photographers and artists, but are now more readily accessible by everyone - and it's a super easy process from start to finish. I was glad to see that Mixbook started offering acrylic prints in addition to canvas prints so I approached them about reviewing an acrylic print for our readers. I'm excited that Mixbook sponsored this post and provided this complimentary print for review purposes. I just received my print and I have to say it's pretty stunning.

I was looking for some artwork to go in the new area I created for my two little guys to make their own masterpieces. While I could easily go out and buy something reasonably priced and throw it up on the wall, you probably know that being the customization fan that I am, I had to use this opportunity to do something more inspiring. It took me a lot longer to figure out which photo to use than it did to use Mixbook's simple interface to upload and order it. Below is the acrylic print I just hung minutes ago along with two front opening shadow boxes I bought at my local Michaels. My two little guys made those pictures - I'm sure they'll be excited to see their artwork framed and displayed on the wall. I like that we can change them out whenever the mood hits. The two of them are quite prolific artists, so we have stacks of pictures from which to choose! This is just the start of our gallery wall and I'm really looking forward to adding more as time goes on. I'd also love to paint this wall at some point, but I feel like that one step will just set off a chain reaction of wanting to make more changes and I promised myself (and the hubby) to do a big purge of all of our unneeded and outgrown "stuff" before I do other more aesthetic projects. I think our gallery wall is on it's way and it looks great over the new storage area we put together. We're a lot more clutter free now that we have some new organizers from The Container Store and Ikea.





Mixbook's acrylic prints come in three sizes: 14 x 11", 20 x 16" and 30 x 20". A 6 x 6" acrylic block which could be displayed on a desktop or shelf is also available. The print I ordered is 30 x 20".



You can select either a horizontal or vertical orientation for your print. I chose a single photo, but you can make a collage if you'd like and there are 25 different layouts of various numbers of photos from which to choose. You can even add text if you'd like. Backgrounds are also an option and uploading your own backgrounds is possible too. Mixbook's design tools are one of the best out there for photo books, calendars, cards because of the ability to edit templates freely and easily and to move elements anywhere you want, so it's nice to see this flexibility extends to this product as well. Even with all the bells and whistles available, I think a simple single photo works best without any additional embellishment. Acrylic is a sleek medium so there's no reason to detract from it's modern simplicity. Keeping it simple also makes the process fast and easy.

#1. Add photo or photos you wish you to use in your project.



#2. Pick the size and orientation.



#3. Drag and drop into your desired layout.



#4. Edit if necessary. If you need to brighten or make other basic changes to your image you can click on the photo and a set of editing tools pops up. Typically I make all my adjustments in an outside program like Lightroom before I upload, but in a pinch when tweaking just a small amount (like increasing brightness) I've used Mixbook's in program editor and it's worked out great.



#5. Finally, just preview it to make sure it looks the way you want and order it.

I chose standard shipping and it arrived about 11 days after ordering.

It came very securely packaged and sealed with a hard white cardboard border all around the box. I didn't get a shot of it before I started to open it, but you get the idea.





Securely nestled in the box, wrapped in shrink wrap, was the print. Also included were instructions on how to mount it. I'm glad it's hung on a cleat - this will make it very secure to the wall which is important especially because I'm going to put it in the kids play area. Also, I liked that it came with everything you need to hang it. No frame necessary - which is great as you probably know that custom framing can get expensive. The mounting system comes pre-installed on the back of the print. There is a package of screws and two drywall anchors and the cleat that gets screwed into the wall. So you only need hang the cleat. The cleat system allows you to be able to slide it from side to side so you have a bit of play just in case you need to center it on the wall.



I snapped this picture about four years ago. I was practicing my nighttime photography and this has always been one of my favorite shots. Amusement parks at night are some of my favorite subject matter that I've admired from other photographers, so this was my attempt to further my skills using a tripod and remote shutter. I was also practicing with my new gear before I traveled to Disney World and the practice paid off!

The colors reproduced very nicely - crisp, well saturated and proper contrast. The acrylic medium really suits the subject matter. It kind of looks like a flat screen TV - as it's made of the same material. Had I gone with a more traditional canvas I think it would still have looked nice, but the acrylic is what really makes the image pop. The images are printed directly onto 1/4" acrylic.

This size print is $199.99 which makes it $70.00 more than a canvas print of the same size, but don't forget to check our deal tracker for discounts. This would make a great gift - don't forget Valentine's Day is right around the corner! Mixbook is running a big sale of 45% for orders over $149.00 and 35% for orders over $99.00. So, with the 30 x 20" size the cost drops down to $109.99 and the 14 x 11 is $64.99. I'm already thinking about ideas for the next add ons to our gallery wall. Next up, I think I'll add a couple of my favorite photos of my little guys.

Happy Acrylic-print making!

Photo Book Girl