Do you have a bunch of Fujifilm Instax or Polaroid film prints laying around the house (or stowed away in a box)… never to be seen again?
The best way to gain joy from our photos and bring back great memories is to see these photos frequently. That means making it as visible as possible.
So here’s a fun way to showcase those Instax you don’t know what to do with.
Turn them into a framed piece of wall art for your home.
Every time you look at or walk pass it, it reminds you of the great memories you’ve made with your friends and family, the interesting places you’ve travelled to or the significant milestones in your life.
And it’s also a beautiful piece of personal art that you’re happy for people to see when they visit your home. It might even spark a conversation or two!
You can do all that for under USD$40.
So let’s dive in.
The Fujifilm Instax Cameras
I have a few Fujifilm Instax cameras in my arsenal of cameras at home—the Instax Mini 11, the Li Play and the Instax Square SQ1 cameras.
So the instant film prints I’m using for this project are the Fujifilm Instax Mini films.
There are loads of other instant camera brands out there that also produce instant prints, like Polaroid and Kodak. The Fujifilm Instax series of cameras are probably the most well know in the instant camera market.
Related: Exploring Broome and travel journaling with the instax mini LiPlay
The great thing about the Instax Li Play camera is that it’s both an instant camera that prints the instax film in the moment when you capture the shot, and it also serves as an Instax Mini film printer.
You connect your phone to the Li Play camera via bluetooth to send images you want to print out to the Li Play.
That’s what I did for this project.
Instax Photo Frame Project Background and Choosing Photos
This idea came from an Aussie expat friend in Houston. A few after landing in Houston we were invited over to her apartment, that was where I saw something similar beautifully hung on her wall.
I absolutely loved the idea!
Since then, this little photo project of turning digital photos into some physical prints that can be displayed, has been sitting on the back burner.
Related: Unboxing and Review of the Fujifilm Instax LiPlay Camera
For this photo frame, I wanted to pick photos that represented our first 12 months living and travelling as expats.
At the end of our first year in Houston, I went through my 12 months worth of photos. That was easily more than 10,000+ photos between photos taken on my phone and on my Fujifilm cameras!
I had to whittle it down to 28 photos to print. This took a few rounds of curation before I finally picked the top 28 photos to print.
Where possible I chose photos with a vertical composition. Since I ended up with with one row of horizontal Instax prints I could only fit 28 prints into the photo frame.
If you only use vertical prints, you should be able to fit 30 prints in the photo frame.
It was hard to narrow down to just 1 or 2 photos that represented each trip we took, or a significant moment or experience (Like our first Christmas in Houston, or games night with expat friends).
But I got there eventually, with a bit of help from the Mister.
Materials to Create the Instax Photo Frame Art Piece
- Instax Mini printer or Instax camera.
- Fujifilm Instax Mini 28 to 30 films prints.
- IKEA LOMVIKEN 50x70cm photo frame ($27.05)
- Black matte card from Hobby Lobby ($1.99)
- Blu tack (if your Aussie) or some sort of mounting putty. I ordered a pack of Loctite Fun-Tak from Walmart ($2.33)
- Command Sawtooth picture hook from Walmart ($7.98)
All up the cost of the materials was around USD$40 (Excluding of the cost of the Fujifilm Instax Mini prints or the camera/printer).
Step-By-Step Process to Create the Instax Photo Frame
1. Remove the wooden photoframe back from the IKEA LOMVIKEN by unhooking the clips.
2. Remove the plastic protection layers from both sides of the thick plastic frame.
3. Place the black matte card in position.
The black matte card I bought was more smaller than the photo frame backing but more than covered the “window” area of the photo frame.
To keep the black card in place I simply taped the black card to the paper backing that came with the photo frame.
4. Place the frame back over the black card and start laying out the order of your Instax film.
I opted to lay out the Instax prints in chronological order of our 12 moths of living in the USA, from top to bottom. Each print represented a significant trip or time point in our 12 months as an Expat in the USA.
5. Use mounting putty to attach the Instax prints to the black card.
Once you’re happy with the positioning and sequence of images, stick down the images using the mounting putty.
I opted for mounting putty just in case I wanted to adjust, add or remove any Instax film down the track.
You can use more permanent solutions like double sided tape if you would like to.
6. Carefully place your poster of instax prints into the photo frame and re-clip the wooden board back in place.
7. Find a suitable place to hang your Instax photo frame using the Command hook.
And you’re done!
I plan to create a second Instax Photo Frame in 12 months time to capture our second year of being Expats in the USA.
Making Travel Planning Easier (Free Template in Notion)
One of our goals of moving to the US from Australia is to take the opportunity to travel and explore more of the US. That means being organised and intentional about locking in travel dates ahead of time so the trips actually happens.
There is a lot to juggling when travel planning—itinerary, accommodation, flight options, things to do, recommended food and drink places etc.
It’s just not possible to track all of that in my head!
I’m a big Notion fan and I use that to plan and track all our trips. I also use it for other things like meal planning, tracking my tasks and projects, and keeping track of my camera gear etc.
Notion is free to use, hyper customisable and saves you time by giving you the ability to templatise things you do often.
So you’re not reinventing the wheel each time you want to plan a new trip in Notion.
If you want to get started planning your travels in Notion, you can download my free Travel Hub Template System in Notion that’s been downloaded more than 824+ times below:
Final Thoughts
IKEA sells a huge number of photo frames of varying colours and sizes.
Feel free to choose the right colour and size that works for you. Just remember to measure how many prints you can realistically fit into the photo frame you buy.
For under USD$30, I thought the IKEA LOMVIKEN is a very solid photo frame. The golden coloured frame is solid metal and I think gives it a polished high end look. The back of the photo frame is a fairly heavy wood/card material that feels sturdy.
The plastic frame that goes above the Instax prints is thick and feels very protective.
This turned out to be a really fun photo project. Even the process of curating the images to print and then putting them in chronological order really brought back memories of our time away.
If you have a bunch of Instax prints that you don’t know what to do with, or want to remember your travels in the form of physical prints, highly remember trying this little project out.
Until next time, happy travelling!
Janice.
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