Printstagram by Social Print Studio

Some of my favorite pictures I have taken of my family's daily life have been through Instagram.  I love the vintage feel that these square pictures have but have never printed any out.

So, I decided to give it a try with Printstagram.

From Prinstagram, you log into your Instagram account, and it automatically pulls up all the pictures you have taken through the app.  You then select the ones you want to print.  For $12 you get 24 4x4" prints or 48 2x2" prints.  I went with the 4x4" this time and absolutely LOVE how they turned out.  

The pictures are printed on photo cardstock, have a satin finish, and look very professional.  

Because they looked so good, I wanted somewhere to display a lot of them.

I had this frame from Hobby Lobby that we used at my sister's wedding reception.  I used craft wire, tied knots in both ends, and tacked it to the back of the frame.  I then used miniature clothespins to secure the pictures.  

Easy peasy.

I would highly recommend Printstagram for your Instagram printing needs.  

(oh, and another bonus....the pictures are sent by Fedex and require a signature.  I thought this was overkill at first, but then figured out, it's genius.  They are guaranteeing not to leave your package on your front porch in the heat, risking being ruined.  Genius, I tell ya.)

Happy Wednesday, y'all!

Rox

Coffee Table Photo Book DIY

Every Christmas (or New Year's.....depending on how together I am that year), my family tries to send out a photo card of our family.  Which, in turn, means we receive them as well.

{Side note: How strenuous is the process of finding the perfect Christmas/New Year's card picture?  I mean, seriously.  Since my kids are still fairly young, we are limited to pictures within a couple month time frame to ensure that they currently look similar to the picture.  Which, limits our already limited pool.  So, we have very few pictures (and 4 people in the family.....I highly respect all you families larger than mine who manage to find a great picture).  So, you sift through and find about 5 that even contain all members of the family.  The dog would bring the picture count to zero, so she's out.  Now, to find one that has the most people looking at the camera, let alone smiling.  Who do you forfeit?  The kids?  The parents?  Then, if the most family members you can find looking at the camera is one less than your family's total count, which picture contains the person that looks the best while they are NOT looking at the camera.  After all, we don't want that person to be crying or looking totally unhappy.  EVEN THOUGH, we all know that in order to have a decent family picture, there were tears involved at some point.  Oh the toil and tribulation we put ourselves through to have that one one, oh-so-unnatural moment captured in time!}

With that being said, I do love sending out a Christmas cards with all of our smiling faces.  

But even more than sending them out, I love getting all of our friends and family's cards in the mail!  There's something magical about snail mail.  (That was probably a weird way to put it, but you get the gist.) 

I love seeing how my friends have changed, how the kids have grown, and getting to display them as part of my Christmas decor.

BUT, I hate throwing them away after Christmas is over.  (Although, for all those who sent us a card this year, we proudly displayed them into the beginning of March on our stairwell wall.  A combination of love and laziness allowed that little miracle to happen.)

Then I remembered that my youngest sister Aly (our mystery sister) had mentioned one time that a friend of hers kept the cards and displayed them year after year on her coffee table.  That always stuck with me as such a great idea and memorable conversation piece for future years.  

So, I decided to finally take mine down from the wall, and make a coffee table photo book that I could put with my Christmas boxes in the attic and bring down each year.  

I first gathered all the cards and punched holes, equal distanced apart, on one end.

 Then, I created a cover in an editing program on my computer, printed it out, and (surprise, surprise!) laminated it.  

I punched holes in the edge just like the actual pictures and tied it together with bakers' twine.  That's it!  

Now I don't have to throw the Christmas cards away and can reminisce in years to come!

It's never too late for a good Christmas project, right?!?

Rox

***BY THE WAY!  Our readers (that means you!) are SO generous... we are just shy of 4,300 total views since embarking on this journey in November!  We can't thank you enough!!!  As a matter of fact... when we reach 5,000 views, we will have a GIVEAWAY!!!  And we really think you're going to like it.. SOOO.  Tell your friends, and their friends, and tell them to tell their friends... we can't wait!! AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!***

DIY Camera Strap Cover

I purchased a DSLR camera last year and have slowly been learning how to use it.  For all you experts out there, please don't judge me for how out of focus or crooked my photos are.  (And actually, the photo above was taken with my iPhone 4 camera.  I mean, if you can take a picture of your nice camera WITH your nice camera, you have some magical powers going on.)

And I'm about to reveal how much of a photographer I am not.  

Here goes.

From the beginning of my novice adventures in photography (i.e. How the heck does this thing work?, There are WAY too many options., and At least I'll look cool with this thing while I take blurry picture after hopelessly blurry picture of my poor kiddos.), the strap bothered me.  All I saw was this strip of fabric on which the wording served absolutely no purpose.  SO, while I may not have made much progress in the photography department, I know how to work some fabric magic.  (Second "magic" reference in this post?  I promise I'm not into that stuff.  Back on track, Roxanne.  Back on track.)

So, I got to researchin'.

On Pinterest, of course.

(I mean really, are there any other legitimate websites out there?)

I found everything from a tutorial on how to construct the entire strap, including all hardware, to a camera strap cover.  I viewed this project as something purely fun with not a whole lot of purpose (I don't NEED this), which helps me decide how much time I want to spend on it.  In this case, as little as possible.

So, camera strap cover it is.  

I used this tutorial from Doodles & Stitches as a guideline.

1.  Measure the length and width of the fabric part of your camera strap.  Add an inch to the width measurement and 2 inches to the length measurement.  (Mine was 23.5 in, x 1.5 in., so I cut 2 pieces of fabric 25.5 in. by 2.5 in.)

2.  Next, I ironed the pieces flat as well as folding the ends under once and ironing and then again and ironing again.  I straight stitched the ends to keep them from fraying and keep the ends folded under.

3.  Placing fabric with wrong sides together, I straight stitched each edge (longways) at the 3/8 in. marker on the sewing machine.  (Use pins to keep your fabric straight and together while stitching.

4.  "Serge" the edges.  On a regular sewing machine, turn setting to the zig zag stitch and let the far stitch go right over the edge of the fabric so the thread wraps around the side, creating the "serge" effect.

5.  Turn tube of fabric inside out using pencil with eraser to catch on the fabric.  Iron flat.  Pull camera strap through tube of fabric.

6.  Without back stitching and set at the widest straight stitch, sew the ends to the actual strap.  This keeps the strap in place but also leaves it easy to remove.

7.  Reattach camera strap to camera!

This project took about 30 minutes to complete from cutting out the fabric to putting my sewing machine and supplies away.  

Just use scrap fabric for a FREE and easy project!

Happy Sewing!

Rox

Thrift Store Canvas Frame to Chalkboard

I go to our local thrift store every once in a while to look around, usually with nothing specific in mind to buy.   This is a good way to shop because you can end up getting a better deal this way.  The times I go shopping  with something specific in mind, I end up paying a higher price because I want to purchase that item that day and will basically pay what I have to (within reason).  When I don't have anything specific in mind, I will return home, a lot of the time, with nothing in hand unless I find some amazing deal I can't live without.  

I digress.

SO, on one of these trips, I was looking around in the home section - I usually go there first - and saw these chunky wooden frames with a painted canvas inside.  I forgot to get a picture of the original artwork, but I think they were some sort of nature scene.  Anyway, I had this BRILLIANT idea that somehow I would magically transform into an artist and be able to paint something so spectacular on them that I would want to hang them in our home.  And what basically happened was this:

{ can be found here }

I don't know what I was thinking.  

Please.  Please.  Control your laughter.

I then had two epiphanies.  The first was that I am not and will not ever be a painter.  End of story.  Second, chalkboard paint covers an array of messes.  And that's exactly what I needed.

Plus, it does not require much skill besides a steady hand.  And you only need that if you are in too much of a hurry to tape anything off like someone I know. {Cough}

I have used the spray chalkboard paint in the past and it works fine but ends up being more expensive because of the number of coats.  I bought this and used it for the first time on this project and LOVED it!  

This is my beginning to paint picture.  Notice, I am painting (or acting like it) with my left hand because I cannot operate a camera with my right hand.  There are so many things about this that are just WRONG.  It made me laugh when I looked back at it today, so I thought I'd share the humor.  Ha!

This is after just one coat of the chalkboard paint.  I believe I ended up painting 3 coats to make sure my failed painting was good and covered.

And here is the end result!  I have a perfect spot in mind in our master bedroom.  They'll go above our dresser that I should begin refinishing soon (and of course, with corresponding blog posts).

Oh, and just to leave you with a little laugh - this is what happens when you try to take pictures for your blog with your children around.  He just couldn't miss out on a post! 

Fall Family Photography Mood Board

I'm not sure why picking our outfits for our Fall family pictures was such a difficult task.  Seriously, how hard could it possibly be?  Where do I even begin?

Well, I started on Pinterest looking at mood boards of family outfits.  My goals were to find a palette I liked and would have to buy the least number of items to complete the look.  I continually gravitated towards a neutral palette and finally settled on browns, grays, and jeans as our color sheme.

The only items I lacked were a shirt for my husband and a shirt and jeans for my youngest.  My husband found the perfect gray button-up at Target on the sale rack (yay for sales and teamwork!) and I found my youngest's white button-up and jeans at Old Navy.  All items were ones they will wear again, so I purchased nothing solely for the pictures!

{ Oh, and I forgot to mention that we planned these pictures last minute - less than a week in advance - so I was scrambling to get the outfits together - aggghhh! }

So, here is the mood board representing the clothing I finally picked out.

Fall Family Photography by roxanne-ofdwellinganddress featuring phase eight

And here are the pictures!  I'm glad I went with the neutral palette, not only because I have a love for neutrals, but also because they'll fit with any color scheme in our house - and that's something that is ever evolving......more on that later!

{ We love Whitney Jade Photography! }