Monday, August 6, 2012

{How To Print Your Instagram Pics}

I'm slightly addicted to Instagram.  To me its like blogging, but in real time, and with no words, just hashtags.  You get almost immediate responses and it takes only a few minutes to answer comments or like and comment on other peoples photos.  I love it.  I take part in challenges (including Fat Mum Slims #photoaday challenge) and take photos of everyday life and random things that catch my eye.  Its a non-themed free for all, and you don't have to have things in order or a set way ready to write a lengthy blog post about or around.


Do you print your Instagram pictures?  I must admit most of the photos I've taken I wouldn't need to print, but some of my earlier photos are from when I was on holidays in the US/Canada, and most of these I wanted to have copies of.  Plus every now and then I really surprise myself and take a good picture!  So it would be nice to have these little reminders around and not just out there in internet cyberspace.

There are some good companies that you can upload your Instagram pictures to and get prints in the mail.  But I'm too impatient to wait for them to come from overseas.  I tried one company and couldn't get it to work properly and even after emailing them for help, received no help at all.  So besides being impatient, I also hate spending money.  If I can't thrift it or successfully DIY it I don't really need it!

Which led me to search for a way to print my Instagram photos at home.  I have a half decent printer (that is quite a few years old, and hardly used!) and photo paper.  I have all I need to print them, I just need to know how.

Enter the wonderful Jennifer from SimpleScrapper.  Jennifer has kindly done all the work and provides a free (requires registration) template to use in Photoshop.  (I have Photoshop Elements) And Jennifer provides an easy to understand video tutorial on how to use the template.

First you will need to download your Instagram photos.  I used instaport.me - this is a great tool to use if you want to download direct from your instagram account (an added bonus is you have options about what you want to download.  Either all your prints, ones uploaded on certain dates, or with certain hashtags). After downloading the ZIP file, saving and extracting the files (takes only a few minutes, depending how many photos you are downloading of course) you now have a copy of your Instagrams ready to play with.  


After watching the video tutorial, and a few minutes playing around in Photoshop Elements.....

Taa Daa!  I now have an A4 size photo page with 12 Instagram prints. (One page printed, another 100 to go!!)  Now my dilemma is what to do with them.  Turn them into magnets, put then into a travel scrapbook, make posters, frame them.....the list goes on and on with whats possible!

P.S.  You can find me on Instagram as @iheartsunnydays or you can see my #photoaday challenge photos on my Pinterest board!


7 comments:

Simple Home said...

I never thought about printing my instagram photos this way! I don't have photoshop, but I have emailed the photos to myself, saved them to my desktop computer and then printed from there. The quality might be better your way though. I really need to get photoshop! Thanks for the info :)
Blessings,
Marcia (calibeachgal on instagram) :)

Carmel's Closet said...

My name is Carmel and I am an instagram addict. I just can't help it. Haven't thought about printing them before - thanks for the tip.
Carmel
x

Ann said...

I love instagram too.
I just made my own template in Photoshop for printing, like you I can't wait too. Sometimes I make a wrapper out of my instagram pics.

Sydney Steenland said...

I love your tips, I still haven't worked out how to out the pinterest widget on my blog yet, but I'll keep trying.

Sarah

Unknown said...

For just $6 you can print 12 of your favorite IG shots on the highest quality lustre finish fuji photo paper through Snapstagram! www.snapstagram.com

Unknown said...

Love instagram. It's twitter with pictures, and fast speed blogging! Thanks for sharing how to print the pictures.

Samantha said...

A great find. I've only tried to print from instragram once and I ended up e-mailing to myself or something.