I always see giant cardboard cutouts at stores and can't help but want one. Companies always overprice them which made my dream of having a giant Bob Ross out of my reach. That was until I decided to take matter into my own hands and figure out the secret to making DIY life size cardboard cutouts for WAY cheaper than the companies price them at.

Supplies

Supplies for this project include:

printer paper + printer
cardboard
hot glue + hot glue gun
thick wooden dowel rods
sharp object that can cut cardboard

Step 1: Creating/Sizing the Image

Once you have selected your image, I choose the legend himself, Bob Ross, go to rasterbator.net and click create poster. Once you have clicked create poster, there will be 6 numbers at the top of the screen to represent which step you are on.

Step 1 (image):

For this step you can either enter your image's URL or you can upload the image from your files. Once you have loaded the URL, click the button that says load. For the file, press upload.

Step 2 (size):

For the paper settings, make sure you change it to US Letter. Depending on how large you want your cutout, you can choose to make the output size different. I personally scaled mine to 3 sheets wide.

Step 3 (effects):

On step 3 click no effects then continue.

Step 4 (color):

Just press continue.

Step 5 (options):

For this next step, click complete (amount of pages will vary) page poster

Step 6 (rasterbate/print):

A PDF file will pop up on the bottom of your screen and you will need to click it. Once you have opened up the file, print it out.

Step 2: Cutting and Taping the Image Together

When all the pieces have fully printed, cut them out. Once you have cut the pieces out, tape them together in order to make the giant image. Take your giant image and place it on a giant sheet of cardboard. In order to make sure the image does not move when you trace it, use tiny bits of masking tape to secure it down. Using a pen or pencil trace around the image. Remove the image and using your preferred tool, cut out the cardboard.

Step 3: Combining the Image and Cardboard + Adding Supports

As precisely as you can, hot glue the image and the cardboard together. On the back of the cardboard, you may notice some bending. If so, hot glue wooden dowel rods to the places with the most bending.

Step 4: Adding the Stand

Take a long piece of cardboard and glue the cutout to the end of it. About 1/4 of the way in, curve the cardboard up and glue it to the cutout. When you glue the stand to the cutout, make sure the cutout rests in a position that makes it look like the image is standing upright. Cut off an excess cardboard that doesn't line up with the image's width. If the stand starts to bend, you can always add wooden dowel rods for support.