Instagram Art

 

Wondering what how to get all those awesome Instagram photos off of your phone and into your home? This project is for you!

 

You’ll need scissors, Mod Podge, 4×4 mini canvases, a brush and some Instagram (or other square) photos. To print out your Instgram photos, pull up the image on your computer, right click and ‘Copy Image’. Paste the picture into Microsoft Word or another document and resize to just over 4 inches.

You can use the rules at the top to make sure your photo is the right size. (Yup, I’m still rocking Microsoft Office 2003! If it ain’t broke…) I printed my pictures on standard office paper using the photo setting on my printer.

Use a your mini canvas to make sure the photos are exactly the right size. Alternately, you can make them slightly smaller and leave a boarder of the canvas visible, tear the picture edges instead of cutting them, or print the photos larger and wrap the picture around the edges of the canvas. give it the look you want!

It’s Mod Podge time! Spread a layer of Mod Podge on the canvas making sure to cover edge to edge.

Lay the picture on top and cover evenly with Mod Podge, starting from the center and working outward. This should help prevent wrinkles or bubbles, though if you see some sneaking in you can carefully lift the corner of the photo to smooth it out.

The images will look cloudy while the Mod Podge dries, so let them sit for 30 – 60  minutes.

And then find a great place to display them! Thanks for Bri (Whimseybox Director of Operations) for letting me use her great pictures of the Houston Heights in this post! 

Here are the links and a description to each of the pictures I used:

1. Crawfish Boil, a TX/LA tradition!
2.  Bayland, a beautiful Heights street
3. Antidote, a favorite local coffee shop 
4. Local St. Arnold’s Beer from Downhouse, another neighborhood fave

Are you an Instagram addict? You can follow the Whimseybox team too! We’re: aliciadirago, pn and brianna_land.

Alicia DiRago

Alicia DiRago is the founder and CEO of Whimseybox. She has led DIY events across the country and been featured in the Wall Street Journal. Alicia is a lifelong crafter and former chemical engineer obsessed with making everything from bracelets to (homebrewed) beer! You can find her personal DIY, fashion and design blog at dismountcreative.com.

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13 Comments

  1. Jillian 05/02/2012, 3:25 pm Reply

    I have a bunch of those little canvases tucked away and obviously tons of Instagram photos. Thanks for the great idea!

    • alicia 05/02/2012, 3:30 pm Reply

      You’re very welcome :)

  2. David 05/15/2012, 9:39 am Reply

    What’s the purpose of the Mod Podge layer over the image? Does it leave a glossy finish to the photos or is it for protection/durability, or for some other reason? Thanks!

    • Alicia DiRago 05/15/2012, 11:14 am Reply

      It does, because we used Gloss Mod Podge. It also comes in Matte and other varieties. Covering the image with Mod Podge helps secure it to the canvas and make it actually feel like one piece as opposed to a canvas with a piece of paper glued to it. This is particularly good in this case because we just printed the photos on ordinary printer paper so the Mod Podge protects the image and adds a nice looking finish.

      • David 05/15/2012, 12:02 pm Reply

        Awesome, thank you! Will give it a try.

  3. Lauren Cioffi 05/17/2012, 10:07 am Reply

    I love this minicanvas idea! I found your link on A Beautiful Mess. I’m going to browse through your site, check out mine if you’d like! I just made a post about 10 cool things you can do with your instagram photos.

    http://cookieswithcronkite.com/iphone-photography-instagram-share-pictures/

  4. Coasting anon 05/21/2012, 2:49 pm Reply

    This is great! Thanks for stopping by the Flor blog today and sharing this in the comments.

    Miriam

  5. Amy 07/02/2012, 12:05 pm Reply

    Cute! I’ll try this with some of my Hipstamatic prints. I think it’d work well to paint the sides of the canvases to match the photos, too.

  6. emily 08/05/2012, 3:57 am Reply

    You could also take acrylic gloss medium, put the medium down on the canvas put the picture face down and let it set then remove the paper with a sponge and the acrylic gloss medium will keep the ink in place and you will have a direct image copy, it will be backwards tho so print the picture backwards so it is the correct direction when finished. It is crucial to use some sort of scraper to get the air out from between the image and the AGM, or you will have places with no ink

    • emily 08/05/2012, 4:01 am Reply

      When removing the paper with a sponge wet, wet the sponge and press firmly on the paper, and move in circles, the paper will come off in bits and pieces, when you get as much as you can off, let it dry then repeat the previous until all of the paper is gone then voila :) you can even cover it with more AGM, to add a painted looking texture.

      *Acrylic gloss medium will look white at first but it dries clear

      • Susan 09/07/2012, 6:21 am Reply

        Emily will this work with photographic prints or just inkjet printed copies

  7. Maranda 10/15/2012, 8:55 pm Reply

    This is such a perfect tutorial! c:

  8. Limefish Studio 11/11/2012, 3:13 pm Reply

    your wonderful tutorial was featured in the #18 spot on my 2012 Ultimate DIY Gift Guide (101 projects & recipes)

    http://limefishstudio.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-ultimate-diy-gift-guide.html

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