An Instagram Photo Book ~ The Perfect Gift

I love giving great gifts. I usually rack my brain trying to come up with the perfect gift for family and friends. For the most part I give good gifts; I desire to give great gifts. For years I have made photo books and calendars for my mom and mother-in-law for Christmas. The one year I didn't make the calendar I heard about it all year. My mom was completely lost for 12 months. It made me realize that she really loves that gift. She will get a calendar every year from now on!

When my kiddos were invited to a birthday party for a friend in my son's 7th grade class, I had just listened to the awesome ScrapGals podcast all about selfies. A few days later while browsing Michael's with my daughter, it hit me! An Instagram selfie album would be the perfect give for a 13 year old girl! I found this little 4x4 Becky Higgins two ring binder at Hobby Lobby (because Michael's didn't have it.)

 

The album was a huge hit! I'm not sure who was more excited, her receiving the gift or me giving it. The album I'm showing in this blog post is actually the second Instagram album I have made. When I saw how much everyone loved the first one, I decided to make one for my dear friend's daughter 'just because.' After all, sometimes the best gifts are the 'just because' ones. I can't wait to see her face when I hand it to her. :)

The book contains about 40 4x4 photos, no words, no embelishments, just photos. I used most of her photos from the past year, but not all. The cool thing is there is plenty of room to add more photos if she wants.

Let's talk about how I printed the pictures. I print most of my pictures at home using my Canon Pixma MG6320 and thought that would be easiest for this project. After taking screen shots of all the Instagram photos and a few failed attempts at printing directly from my camera roll (you will get 4x4's enlarged onto 4x6 photo paper.)  I tried using the Becky Higgins Project Life app; this would work if you want to print a 4x4 pic with 2, 2x2's on 4x6 photo paper, but that's not what I needed for this project. So...after taking the screen shot, I used the Diptic app and put the photos in the 4x4 template with a little white border. Next, I exported the photo to my camera roll and emailed it to myself. The last step was opening 4 photos at a time into Photoshop onto an 8.5x11 canvas, resizing and printing.

This little book turned out just as fabulous as the first one! Hey, there I am on the right ~ We love getting all the girls together for pedicures!

For the last page I took a screen shot of her Instagram cover page. Neat little capture of how many followers she has and how many she is following. I love her motto ~ It's really okay if you don't like me, not everyone has good taste.

In this day and age printed photos are rare. Our photos are being kept behind screens instead of in our hands where they should be.  So make someone's day (or year) and share some printed photos ~ they will love it, I promise!


 

New Friends and Tailless Pigs ~

Holy mother of icicles it's cold outside. I knew it was going to be cold today but are you ever really ready for that wind chill factor to slap you in the face? I'm not! We left about five minutes early this morning just in case the roads were bad, they weren't but it was still nice getting to school and knowing my kids wouldn't be racing to beat the tardy bell.  

This morning it was my job to feed our show pigs...14 pigs to be exact. Why was it my job you ask? Because my farmer is on a "pig trip." I was very quick to remind him before he left that our pig hotel is full. Our pig quota has been met. We need zero more pigs. Did I mention it's sub-zero outside. Oh I did? Ok. So I pull up to the pig barn and sit in my car for a few minutes wondering if I was going to survive. I took a deep breath and went for it. I honestly think if it weren't for the gloves my fingers would have fallen off. 

Speaking of "falling off," the nice man who carried my groceries out this morning asked me how my morning was going and after I apologized for buying groceries today in turn creating a reason for him to have to be in this frigid weather, I told him my sob story of having to feed 14 pigs. He asked me if I put Vaseline on their tails. Excuse me what? Yes, he says, if a pigs tail gets too cold it will fall off. I'm sorry, but this is where I draw the line. If my kids enter the show ring with tailless pigs, you will know why. :)

I have to share a picture that as of yesterday is one of my favorites...

I was standing at the kitchen sink watching K and our new friend M jumping on the trampoline and had a strong urge to grab my camera, not my iPhone camera but the big one that rarely, if ever, gets used anymore. I knew I had to capture this moment. I've been trying to put my finger on why I thought this moment was so important and as of right now I still can't explain it in words that can make you understand why at this very moment my heart was so happy.   

M is new at our school. She's in R's class. I love it when we get new kids at school. I try to force myself out of my shell, meet the new people and make them feel welcome; so when I saw M and her family the night of "Meet the Teacher" I just walked right up and introduced myself. Of course K was right there announcing to the world that it looks like her brother might have a new girlfriend. Yes, embarrassing, but what are little sisters for right? Fast forward a couple of months and I would adopt this girl if I could. She's super sweet to K which goes a long way in my book. She's helped feed and walk our pigs the last two days and helped me make gluten free cornbread...then, get this, she said it was good! I told her mom she is welcome at our house anytime! As far as the whole R has a new girlfriend thing goes...they act more like brother and sister which is just fine. :)  

Back to this picture and that moment...I think it's the smiles. :)