I have hundreds of Instagrams that hardly any of my family have ever seen. As a result, I think I suffer from #Instaguilt - that feeling you get when you realize your child will have no memories of her childhood because you never printed out the darn photos ;) I needed something to put on the basement walls so it was time to print out those photos! But how to display them?

A quick search of Pinterest showed me only a few ideas... mostly photos clipped to a wire or photos displayed in a giant frame. I liked the wire idea because you could move the photos around and add new ones but it was a little rustic for my taste. The giant frames looked good too, but frames that large can be expensive and you can't touch the photos once they're behind glass. So I came up a DIY Instagram frame:


All you need for this project is an inexpensive roll of contact paper:


1. Get contact paper from your local hardware store. Make sure it is the type with Adhesive Covering.
2. Decide on the dimensions of your frame. Cut out the outer rectangle and the inner rectangle.
3. Mark the midpoint of one side.
4. Working from that midpoint to the outer corner, make a wavy design.
5. From that corner, make a wavy design down to the midpoint of the next side.
6. Fold the contact paper into quarters with the "good" side on the inside.
7. Holding the paper folded, use sharp scissors to cut out the design.
8. Unfold and you should have a frame.

Contact paper is typically 18" wide. If you'd like to make a frame with at least one side longer than 18", you'll have to cut two vertical strips the length you want. Draw the wavy design to the midpoint of one of the strips, place the strips on top of each other, fold in half and cut as above. Once you've cut out the four sides, mitre the corners (cut at a 45 degree angle) so they meet up nicely.


Remove the paper backing and attach the decal to the wall. Gently smooth out any folds or bumps. The decal can be repositioned or removed and doesn't leave any residue!


I attached the photos using washi tape (which also doesn't leave any residue). I mixed 4x4 and 3x4's in a grid in this frame...


and placed these ones more randomly. Chloe has already been rearranging them :)

 
Oh look, one of her art pieces snuck in! You can use these frames to display just about anything. I'll be adding more frames to the wall over time - I still have thousands of photos left to print after all ;)

Have you printed out your instagrams? How do you display them?