Instaframe

So a few months ago I framed my Instagrams:

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! This was a project inspired by my friend, Jess. She did this with her pictures and I loved it so much I begged her to teach me how!

When I brought it home, Kate was just elated looking at all of the pictures and pointing out people she recognized:

Daddy! Baby Emen! Gate! (Kate) Mommy! Margo! Gam (Gram)! Papa! Water!

This project was so easy and super fun. Most of my Instagrams aren't shared on the blog or FB, and I'm all about saving pictures, so I liked how this gave them a place to be displayed.

How many people Instagram now as a way of journaling, or in place of blogging? Yeah, me too. I blog (sure) but Instagram is quick, easy, and let's be honest, I take most pictures these days with my cell phone.

I even ended up making one of these Instaframes for Beverly's in Rocklin complete with a tear-off sheet of instructions. If you're in CA you should definitely stop by the store and check it out! Here are the quick, easy instructions for making your own Instagram collage frame:

MATERIALS NEEDED
16x20 frame of your choice
white foam core board
Instagrams printed (instructions below)
ultra thin glue dots (or double sided photo squares)
Xacto knife
scissors

 Go through your Instagrams and choose which ones you want to use. My phone is a droid and automatically saves my Instas in a folder in my pic gallery. For iPhone users you may need to screen shot and crop down to save each Insta you want to use.

The 16x20 frame ends up holding 48 Instas (6 across and 8 down). When printed, each Insta is about 2"x2" square.

Using the PicFrame app, change the ratio in the upper right hand corner from the standard "1:1" to a "2:3". Choose the 6 block frame and drop in your favorite Instas accordingly. My droid version of PicFrame only allowed me to do a 5 frame, so I dropped in 4 at a time. Either way will work! It should look something like this:



Save all these on max res.

Once you have your photos chosen, upload to the photo printer of your choice (Target, Walmart, Costco) and you can pick up in store. It's only about .13/print so you're essentially getting six 2"x2" pics for each 4x6 print! Mine only ended up being about $1 total.

From there, cut out your squares so that you have 48 individual pictures.

I cut down my foam core board with an exacto knife to fit inside my picture frame using the paper insert that it comes with. (You know, the piece that's like a placeholder for your future picture and tells you the dimensions of the frame.)

Lay out your Instas in any order you like. I did mine in no particular order. Just whichever way looked good to me! Put an ultra thin glue dot on the back of each picture one at a time to secure them down.

You can measure out the spacing if you want. I just eyeballed it.

We now have this hanging up in the hallway by the kid's room door. I absolutely love looking at it everyday! It's full of all our favorite people and memories. The flowers that Jon got for me the day I told him I was pregnant with Edwin, the sunrise on Kate's first birthday, the time we went to Portland for our wedding anniversary, Jon's 10 year high school reunion, my best friend holding Edwin at her baby shower for my new godson! It definitely brings a piece of California here to our new home.

Happy Crafting!