DIY Instagram photo collage

A little while back I was thinking about what to get my flatmate for Christmas and thought a photo collage of our favourite pictures from our holiday to New York together would be a really nice idea. I wasn't really sure how to go about this project until I stumbled across this brilliant website! Printstagram is the perfect way to enjoy and share your Instagram photos. The website connects to your Instagram account where you can select your favourite images which you can then get printed in several options; memory boxes, squares, calendars, mini books, stickers or even a poster.

I opted for their squares to start my little DIY photo collage project after I had found some examples of making a collage with these in the Internet. For the squares they have two size options; mini squares (2.5 x 2.5 inches) in a set of 48 or their standard squares (4x4 inches) in a set of 24. Once you select the images you want, they are then printed on quality paper with a nice matte finish plus a neat white trim. You can pay via PayPay (easy!) and then they are posted out to you! I had a mix of NYC holiday photos and some of my other favourite pictures I wanted to get printed so I decided to get 2x sets of 24 standard squares which only cost $25/£15. It was so easy to order and when they arrived on my doorstep after about 2-3 weeks I was very excited! I LOVE them; they are such great quality and look super cute :)





Now the next thing I needed for my DIY project was a photo frame. I found this great simple large white frame at Marks & Spencer's but IKEA also has some lovely frames with cool raised edges (link).

 

The frame I bought came with a premade insterted border for 7 photos but I didn't need that so I just took that out and was left with a large white sheet of paper which I could use to adhere my prints to. Most photo frames come with these back sheets which is perfect but if yours doesn't, then don't stress, you can easily improvise by using any kind of paper/cardboard and cut it to size.

Next up was the fun part; choosing and arranging the photos. In this frame, it perfectly fit 20 squares (4x5) I had about 30 New York photos to pick from so it was still a tricky task to decide which ones wouldn't make the cut ;)

 

 

After a bit of playing around with the squares I was left with my final collage!

 

Now that you have the images all in their right position, all you need to do is adhere your photos to the white cardboard. For this you can use any kind of glue stick, nothing fancy required. So I got out my trusty Pritt!

Apply the glue to the back of the squares and then just stick them onto the sheet in the order you want. I was very lucky that with this frame it was a perfect fit and they all aligned perfectly which meant no little trimming tasks where needed.

 

It didn't take too long to do and quickly my sheet was filled with all the pretty squares! I popped the sheet back into the frame, placed the glass back on and TADA my DIY Instagram photo collage was done!

 

 

I absolutely loved the end result and couldn't wait for Christmas time to give it to her! We exchanged gifts on Thursday and she seemed to love it so mission accomplished :) I still have more squares left so think I will get myself one of the IKEA frames soon for my own personal Instagram photo collage!

 

 

Do you think this is a project you might try for yourself or as a gift? Oh and if you would like to follow me on Instgram, I am 'dutchessroz'!