Have your photos become normal? It happens to everyone; even seasoned photographs. When you photograph the same thing repeatedly, no matter who or what it is, it will feel normal. That is likely to be why multi-photo frames of prints containing travel photography are so popular. Those photos contain experiences that are not familiar.
Unfamiliarity is what can create unique art. Something that you look at and feel inspired by. Especially when it is a homemade piece.
Draw inspiration from these three creative art projects.
Overlay a photo with a detailed texture overlay
This is a form of post-processing within digital photography known as double exposure, but all you really need are two photographs. In photo editing, these are applied as layers. The photograph you want as the primary object is placed behind an overlay, such as a detailed texture image.
Examples of detailed textures are sand, snow, raindrops (or rain streaming down a windowpane), gravel, rocks, wood, twigs, and wind chimes.
Anything small enough with ample space between the objects to let an image show through is ideal as an overlay texture.
Photos within a silhouette
Silhouettes can be created just by cropping out any shape from a photograph digitally. The alternative to digital editing is to cut the photograph into a shape, similar to what would be done for scrapbooking. Another method would be trimming a shape from a picture mount into a shape and placing the photo behind it.
The result is a photograph shown within a silhouette frame, such as a heart, diamond, or a letter of the alphabet.
If you do know your way around any photo editing software, the only two tools required are the crop function and layer. The crop can cut out any shape of an image, such as a headshot, or full body image. That can then be enlarged, then layered onto a photo of the stars at night (as an example) creating stars within the shape of a head.
Silhouettes and double layering let you get creative with what may otherwise be bland photos.
Embroider a photograph
Embroidering a photo is tricky to do because it is threading a needle through paper. The thicker your photo paper is the higher the probability is that it won’t rip. Much better would be to use canvas, but with a thin needle and the threads separated. By working with canvas, there is less chance of tears from pin holes being too close together. A gel pen can be used to create a trace outline from a photograph rather than freestyling it.
If you have never experimented with embroidery before, it would be wise to start with the cheapest materials. Print your own photographs, use a thin needle and ultra-thin thread (manually separate the strands to make it easier to work with), and experiment with just filling in the shapes.
Where the creative aspect really shines with embroidered photos is by only partially stitching them. That way, you have two textures. One is the ink on paper, the other is the thread over some parts of the photo. For example, embroider the petals of flowers and leave the stem and leaves as print only. The result is likely to be more vibrant colours highlighting certain parts of the photo.