Do you Instagram? I signed up last February and have been instagramming ever since. Something about those little square photographs with their rainbow array of special effects just speaks to me.
After about a year, I decided to do something with all the fun little photos that have been hanging out on my phone's Instagram app**. It's time to display them!
After about a year, I decided to do something with all the fun little photos that have been hanging out on my phone's Instagram app**. It's time to display them!
**If you're wondering, I'm a little slow to warm up to social networking (lets just call it... paranoia. that and having one more thing to keep up with), so my account is currently private. In fact, after 3 years of hemming & hawing, I just started a facebook page for this site... but more on that later. If I decide to make my Instagram account public, you'll be the first to know! :)
Click "Read more" for the how-to
Instagram Photo Heart
materials needed:square photos (mine are 2-inches)
chalkboard fabric (purchased mine at joanns with a 50% off coupon), or matte black wrapping paper (btw, paper source has a nice matte paper)
ruler or yardstick
paper cutter
permanent double-sided tape
24x32" poster frame or canvas
First of all, you don't really need Instagram for this project. You can always cut down regular photographs. Or, if you're a Photoshop guru, you can recreate filters and the square, white-framed look yourself. However, if you're on Instagram and want an easy, no-fuss project, there are a bunch of companies that will print your Instagram photographs for you. I used Printstagr.am and am happy with the result and the price ($19, including shipping for 48 miniprints). I justified that the quality is much better than my own printer (and about 10 times better than Costco), plus it's much less work to click a few buttons and have something arrive on your doorstep. And did I mention the cost of replacing ink cartridges?? I'm really good at justifying. :)
Printstagr.am's smallest square is 2.5-inches. I did the math and figured that this size would barely fit in my 24x32 inch frame. I wanted a little more space to play with so I ordered their miniprints and cut down the "polaroid-style" to a 2-inch square. A paper cutter makes this task a little easier (you will need to trim the top and bottom of each photo). If you have a larger space to work with, I say "make life easy" and go for the 2.5 or 4 inch squares.
For the background, I used chalkboard material. I like the matte look and I already had it on-hand. As an alternative, I also like the matte black wrapping paper from Paper Source.
I used permanent double-sided tape to adhere the photos to the background.
Just a few tips on layout--
Before you tape anything down, lay out your heart into the shape that you like. I played around a bit until I settled on the final shape. Also take a picture of your heart. Just in case someone walks by and messes it up. Not to name names, but a certain 4-year old did it twice!
Use your yardstick or ruler to measure the height of the heart. My heart is 18-inches tall and my frame is 24-inches tall, so that gave me 6-inches to play with. Since I wanted my heart centered, I allowed 3-inches of space at both the top and bottom of the heart.
The next step is to measure the bottom length of the frame and find the exact center. Place the first photo at the bottom center, then move it up 3-inches. This will be the point of the heart. So start at the bottom and work your way up. I just eye-balled it from there, but if you're anal like things perfectly even, use a ruler.
If hearts are not for you but you want to display your Instagram photos, check-out Printstagr.am's poster options...
I probably will be doing this with my 2013 crop of Instagram photos.
Have a nice week!
