Instagram Magnet Tutorial

 

I put together these bad boys today, and I seriously could not wait to show them off!! I followed the tutorial on THIS beautiful blog  (so check it out and read through her tips and tricks, they helped me a lot!)
This is NOT my original idea, I've looked up similiar tutorials via Pinterest, the blog I saw, and several other links. I am just sharing what worked best for me.

This was seriously one of the easiest projects I've done in a while, and I could not be happier with how it turned out.
Here we go:

Supplies: Printed Instagram pictures (8x10 with 20 pictures printed at Costco for $1.49)
2x2 Tiles (Home Depot for $2.57 for a sheet of 36)
Modge Podge + Sponge Brush (Hopefully on hand?! I mixed equal parts of glue/water to make my own Modge Podge because I couldn't find any)
Hot Glue
Magnets (I had these on hand, but Walmart sells them for CHEAP!)
  Step 1. Printing Instagram pictures -Visit Instaport.com and back up all of your Instagram photos to your computer! Such an easy and quick way to put all your Instagram pictures on your harddrive. The tricky part is picking which ones you are going to use!
(Because who doesn't LOVE instagram? I had to go through like 600 pictures!) -After you pick your pictures (20 at a time), upload them to the "Collage setting" on either Ribbet.com or Picmonkey.com . There is a premade layout that is 5x5 on Picmonkey, I used that one, and just deleted the last row so that they were 4x5. -Insert all pictures. Change the spacing so that there isn't any white spacing between the pictures. SAVE
-Upload the saved picture to Picmonkey again as a single picture, and not the Collage setting and change the SIZING to 1657x2000 (make sure to uncheck 'save proportions') RESAVE. This will be the file that you use.
-Upload picture to your Costco account. If you don't have one, Walmart, Target, Walgreens etc will work fine. Costco prints an 8x10 for $1.49. When checking out with Costco make sure to UNCHECK COLOR CORRECT (you want all your pretty Instagram filters to show up right?!)   Step 2. Trimming the Pictures -Cut the pictures to size. I had to trim all of my pictures down to size, cutting a little bit off the sides.....I cut them all into squares and then layed them on the tile to trim them down to perfect size. I wanted a little bit of the white around the edges (this also makes it easier to get the picture flat and even) so I trimmed them down more than normal.

    Step 3: Adhere pictures to tile -Once the pictures are trimmed to size, apply a thin layer of ModgePodge to the tile and then put on the pictures (one at a time). LET DRY completely!
-If you choose, apply a thin layer of Modge Podge on top of the picture. Hubs and I agreed that our pictures were attached just fine, and that we didn't need to put the Modge Podge top layer on.
(I know that they say Modge Podge dries "clear" but there IS a clear film and brush strokes that remain - so I skipped this step and my pictures are attached just fine!)

    Step 4: Attach magnets to tiles -The tiles need to be seperated. They are attached with this tacky glue, that I had to cut off the edges (with scissors) to make sure they were all clean edges. -Once all the edges are clean, power up the HotGlue gun and attach your magnets AS FLAT AS POSSIBLE to the backside of the tiles. I'd apply a layer of HotGlue and then firmly press down the magnet - if the magnet was uneven the tile would just slide off the fridge. So this is VITAL!

  Alright. DONE.
Easy peasy! Such a cheap, easy, fun, personable gift!
(I should have done these for Christmas!)

Very excited to have a Valentines Day clean, clutter free fridge!