How to Print Instagrams & A Prinstagram Giveaway

***Update: This giveaway has ended, find the lucky winner at the bottom of the post. Stay tuned for future giveaways right here at 17 Apart! *** 

Here's the story of how we created a little wall nook gallery from some of our favorite Instagram prints. We've also got a giveaway from the fine folks at Printstagram, the awesome printing site we used to print our own Instagram photos — find all the details at the bottom of this post after we show you what we did with our prints!

Ever since getting iPhones and becoming hooked on our Instagram photo apps, Tim and I have been snapping away — daily. Some snaps are just for fun, but every so often you really get one or two that stand out and you'd like to keep. After collecting over 200 shots stored on our phones and computer, we became increasingly interested in how to print Instagram photos into tangible prints we could display in frames around the house.

I'd taken the images on my phone to various big box printing places, but none of them had the ability to print in a square — they said the images would just be automatically reconfigured into their print sizes — boo. Outside of trying to size and print them on photopaper in our house, we were out of luck finding an easy local source for printing.

You can imagine our excitement when we stumbled across this fun up and coming printing company, Printstagram, completely centered around printing Instagram photos! We were really just looking to have the images printed out on photo paper so we could frame and hang them around the house, but were excited to see how many other creative projects you can create with Printstagram like stickers, books, posters and t-shirts. Good ideas to keep in our back pockets.

To get your prints, you just pick the product you want, then sign into Printstagram with your Instagram userID and it pulls up all the active photos on your account to easily choose which ones (and how many of each) you want to print. Then they FedEx your prints to you! It was $12 for 24 4x4" prints, so about 50 cents a print. Ours came within the week in adorable packaging, ready for use:

Is it weird we took an Instagram photo of the Printstagram package delivery? 

The photo quality was great — if any of you are familiar with moo cards (another printing company we love), the thickness and texture of the photo prints is very similar in quality, look and feel.

Once the prints arrived, I had a framing project all set and ready to get started. I'd picked up 4 matching matted 4x4" frames especially for the narrow blank strip of wall between the bathroom and basement doors in our mudroom:

They would fit together in a perfect line of 4 and after flipping through our new prints, we thought this little area would be just the right place to display 4 of our favorite views from NYC.

Since we have a long history with the city, dated long distance for 3 1/2 years while I lived up there and continue to visit on a regular basis we've collected a lot of memories from that special place together.

We went with views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges (both shot in DUMBO), a view of the building in DUMBO where they Etsy offices are located and a view of the L Train rolling into the station.

Once securely in each of the frames, it was time to get these guys in a line. To do so, we measured the distance between the two doors and hammered the first nail squarely in the center where we wanted the first frame to hang.

From there, we measured and even line down the center of the wall and placed the remainder of the nails 11 inches apart down the line to ensure each of the frames would not only be centered, but equal distances apart.

Then we decided which order we wanted which print to hang in and got them up on the wall. Here's what we're looking like now:

We're pretty smitten with the look of this little space now — it just feels a little more full with new added dimension, but still melds really well with the neutral palette we've got going on. We also love how all 4 of the photos show some of our favorite spots from the city — they are fun little reminders of good memories every time we pass them by.

Now that we've gotten our first batch of Instagram photos printed, we're in  love with the idea of using Printstagram again for prints — just think of what great gift ideas you could come up with for those you follow on Instagram. They could also be fun party favors for a special event or even a wedding (can you tell our wheels are turning?).

Stay tuned for the upcoming projects we have up our sleeves for using the remainder of our 20 Instagram prints and check out how you can enter for a chance to win a $25 Printstagram credit to try printing some of your own below!

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Giveaway Details

Printstagram has generously offered three separate $25 credits that we'll be giving away to three lucky readers to use and try Printstagram printing with your own Instagram prints!

To enter, simply visit Printstagram and come back to leave a comment on this post, letting us what type of printing product you'd try if you won the $25 credit.

Each of the following will earn you an additional entry:

• Any one or combination of the following: "Like" 17 Apart on Facebook, follow 17 Apart on Twitter, follow 17 Apart on Google+ and sign up for our mailing list by clicking the envelope button in our sidebar — then leave 4 separate comments on this post for each letting us know you've done so.
• Follow this blog by clicking the RSS button in our sidebar, then leave a comment letting us know you've done so.
• Share this post by clicking the Facebook Like button at the top of the post and leave a new comment on this post letting us know you've done so.
• Tweet about the giveaway including the following: "Ever wanted to print your Instagram photos? @17Apart & @SocialPS are giving away credits to try out Printstagram: http://tinyurl.com/d2g2vvm" along with anything else you'd like to include - then leave a new comment on this post letting us know you've done so.
• Like Printstagram on Facebook, then leave a comment letting us know you've done so.
• Follow Printstagram on Twitter, then leave a comment letting us know you've done so.

The giveaway will end Saturday, October 27, 2012 at 11:59 PM ET; the winner will be auto-generated using Random.org and updated in this post shortly thereafter. Be sure to come visit to find out the winner and good luck!

***Update: This giveaway has ended, the lucky winner is commenter #5, #15, and #44. Thanks to all that participated and stay tuned for future giveaways right here at17 Apart! ***