Digital photography has brought an end to the mysterious process of creating a photo - leaving your film with white-coated people who'd return an envelope of prints days later that'd have you murmuring, 'Who's he?' and 'Did I really look that bad?'.

Now we're in charge. We can see pictures immediately, share them instantly, print selectively and manipulate them in any way we want. We're the authors of our pictorial storytelling and, frankly, don't want to see red eye or greasy 'T' zones ever again.

Using these images to personalise our environment is a natural extension of this ownership and a much more compelling proposition than IKEA prints or books full of yellowing snaps.

The key to creating great photo art is knowing that there are some techniques that you can do in a lo-fi Blue Peter kind of way and others that are best left to the professionals (in this case, assume the role of art director). Start by building confidence in your pictures - print off a stack of photographs that you like. If you're worried about your choices get a second opinion; jobs like this are much easier and more fun with a friend on board, preferably one who'll tell you if you look hot or not in pictures.

Then get into the groove of thinking 'Why not?' to having a picture of your own holiday/husband/horse on the wall, if you've taken one that's good enough. After all, your pictures will mean more than someone else's picture will.

Silver backing
Silver backing adds luminescence, accentuates colour and reflects light; it'll basically make any image look more zingy.

If you want a modern unframed finish, get this done professionally. If you intend to frame the image, and the picture will not be compromised by being of a lower resolution, you can do this yourself. Photocopy or print your picture onto acetate. Buy a piece of Perspex and silver card the same size. Squirt a LIGHT veil of spray mount onto the silver card and press your acetate image over the top, then frame (see opposite). I created a black and white picture of my husband pulling my skirt up, using the DIY method (2), while Learn to Dream, a top-end company that specialises in photo art, created a professional colour plate of my brother's attempt at elastic flight. (1)

Montage picture
DIY collages belong in the bin with clip frames. Nobody is interested in every last detail of your trip to Magaluf, not even you. Modern, well-spaced montages, however, are a different matter. Get a piece of A3 paper and select some photos (from a period in your life or a specific event) that look good together, or that actually look better when grouped and telling a story than on their own.

Ask a professional to rejig the composition and blow the whole thing up to a bigger, more impressive size. Nothing is more boring than photo-sized photos. I used images from my own wedding, my brother's wedding and my parents' for a three-weddings-no-funeral montage. Learn to Dream sorted them into a snappy composition and added in some coloured squares. Perfect. I didn't even get my hands dirty. (1)

Matching frames
Grouping together framed pictures can be really effective. Just buy a load of old frames in varying styles from charity shops and car boot sales, and spray-paint them to match. Bright colours tend to look awful, so let your pictures do the talking and opt for simple matt white or glossy black. (2)

Rejuvenate an old picture
The horse and cart photograph (1) is my parents' favourite wedding picture. The photo is faded, damaged and forty years old. The process of rejuvenating an old photo is definitely one to be tackled by a professional, unless you're an absolute whiz on Photoshop and have your own darkroom. In which case, you're probably a photographer already. By meticulously retouching the damaged areas Learn to Dream reproduced the photo as if it had been taken yesterday - albeit with a few dodgy hairdos.

With old pictures the media you choose is critical. I went for photographic paper, which tends to work best for old prints (a zippy new material sometimes looks like it's working against the image).

On a final note, don't go overboard. A couple in each room is plenty. Any more and you will look a little selfobsessed. Especially when you go large-scale like this. If you can't help yourself, put pictures out on rotation - like your summer and winter wardrobes.

More crafts by Danielle Proud

Excerpted from House Proud by Danielle Proud, priced £16.99, published by Bloomsbury.