How to print Instagrams to display in a photo album

I'll be debuting leather Instagram photo albums this weekend at Porter Flea AirCraft here in Nashville, and I want to share with you my guide on how to print Instagrams — everyone's favorite square format photos.

The first Instagram album that I made was an anniversary gift for my husband, who uses Instagram often while reporting for the newspaper and to capture odd things around Nashville. Once the book was finished, it was exciting to see the images printed out and so much larger than we typically see them on an iPhone screen. The book that I handbound for him worked out so well that I decided to make more. Each of my albums has leather covers and 48 pages, made of thick watercolor paper. I have since been making two sizes, each designed to hold the most common square-format photo sizes available.

My large books are 7 x 7, which holds square images as large as 6 x 6, and standard 4 x 6 photos. The smaller books are 4 x 4 and hold 2.5 x 2.5 square photos.

There are many printing options out there, so I think it will help for me to share what I've learned about Instagram printing. Some services are user-friendly and simple, while others may require you to do more of the work in exchange for saving some money on each print.

Read along for my guide to printing Instagrams.

Printstagram — Easy to use, web-based

Sizes: 4 x 4 (perfect for large album) and 2.5 x 2.5 (fits small album)

Cost: $12 for 24 large images or 48 small

PostalPix — Order prints directly from iPhone

Sizes: 5 x 5, 4 x 4, 2 x 2

Cost: 29 cents to 89 cents per print (details)

RitzPix — Many options, prompt delivery

Sizes: 6 x 6, 5 x 5, 2.5 x 2.5

Cost: 49 cents per print

Note: For 2.5 x 2.5 images, you'll need to use photo editing software to set up a 5 x 5 document with 4 photos in a grid. Once printed, you'll need to trim them.

I've found other options as well, but these seem to be the easiest to use and most affordable. Another option would be placing your square images on 4 x 6 prints and then trimming them. For more information, check out this tutorial. If you go this route, you could print one 4 x 4 or six 2 x 2 images per 4 x 6 print, but you'll need photo editing software to set up the files.

I know that my husband and I have found it extremely satisfying to finally print our photos — somewhat of a lost art, these days. And I hope my new square-format leather photo albums can be another encouragement that will save more photos from collecting digital dust.

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Fall bookbinding classes at Watkins College

I'm already a few weeks in to the Introduction to Graphic Design and Typography class that I'm teaching at Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film this fall, but there's still plenty of time to sign up for the two exciting book arts workshops that I have scheduled for next month.  

Whether you're interested in spending a day learning to bind a book with a leather cover, or a few days creating handmade photo albums, I'd love to have you join me for one (or both!) of these workshops.  The classes are open to anyone in the Nashville community.  To register just call the college's community education office at 615-277-7455 or sign up online. Check out the Watkins fall course catalog to read more about the other creative classes happening this season. 

Traditional leather bookbinding 

with a contemporary twist 

When: Saturday, October 13; 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. 

Where: Watkins College, 2298 Rosa Parks Blvd., Nashville 

Cost: $45, plus $20 materials fee

Description: Learn to bind a soft-cover leather book that can be used as a journal, a sketchbook, or a photo album. Using the Italian Longstitch style, a historical binding that dates to 14th Century Europe, each student will create a book with a leather cover that features exposed, decorative stitching on its spine and pages that lay completely flat when open. Students will use leather for the book cover and have the option to include interesting contemporary papers inside. No previous bookbinding experience is required, and all materials and tools will be provided.

Binding handmade photo albums

When: Saturday, October 27 – Saturday, November 17 (4 weeks); 

1 - 5 p.m.

Where: Watkins College, 2298 Rosa Parks Blvd., Nashville 

Cost: $125, plus $35 materials fee

Description: Learn to make several styles of handbound photo albums to preserve and proudly display your favorite photographs. These books will be more unique and meaningful than a typical store-bought album and will give you a reason to finally print those photos that have been collecting digital dust on your computer. Using archival materials, this class will cover three hardcover binding styles: the accordion, the Coptic, and the Japanese stab binding. You’ll learn the basics of bookbinding while creating beautiful, functional books. No previous bookbinding experience is required, and all materials and tools will be provided.

Click the image above to view the full Watkins course catalog as a pdf.

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Handcrafted photography meets handbound books

This summer I was treated to a truly special photo shoot with Mary Clark of psalm27creative behind the lens. When Mary Clark and I first met, we were both newcomers to Nashville working on building our  own creative businesses.  She is a photographer with a passion for creating handcrafted keepsakes for displaying photos, which of course resonates with my own personal mission as an artist. 

I was so excited when we decided to collaborate and share our creative talents. After seeing Mary Clark's portfolio of images that she's taken of other creative businesses, I asked her if she would take some photographs of me and my books that I could use to promote linenlaid&felt.  In exchange, I create a one-of-a-kind handbound psalm27creative photo album for Mary Clark to display her work.  (Click here to see a sneak peek of the logo that Mary Clark stitched onto the cover of her book to personalize the cover!)

On the day of the photo shoot, we got started early to take advantage of the beautiful morning light and to attempt to stay cool on a day when the temperature surpassed 100 degrees in Nashville.  We began with some pictures of me and my handcrafted books in Shelby Park in East Nashville.  Then we headed to the pedestrian bridge to take some photos with a more urban feel, featuring the Nashville skyline in the background.

After our outdoor photos, we retreated to my studio to beat the heat and to capture the location where  my creativity flourishes.  She photographed all of the little details in my studio: rolls of decorative paper, my inspirational tack boards, spools of colorful waxed linen thread, and my collection of bookbinding tools. She also documented the process of me creating a custom wedding guest book, binding each set of pages one by one.  

You may have seen some of these new photos starting to appear on my facebook page, in my online shop, and in the new About page on Etsy.  To see even more, be sure to visit the psalm27creative blog at the links below:

View photos from the first part of the linenlaid&felt photo shoot here.

View photos from the linenlaid&felt studio here.

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Sharing bookbinding photos on Instagram

For the past few months, I've been using Instagram to capture sneak peeks into my studio, custom handmade books, sites around Nashville and beyond, and a few pictures of my bullmastiff and her infamous tongue.  I've included a few of my favorite photos in this post, as well as a slideshow where you can see some of my most recent pictures.

I've also been using Instagram to connect with other bookbinders and artists, and searching for inspiring photos by using some book-related tags: #bookarts #bookbinding #bookbinder #handmadebook.  

Here are a few bookbinders and paper artists I follow on Instagram that are worth checking out:

boundbyhand, press_and_bind, jazziees, leilalk, hss_pdx, jackelina00, aduhlene.  Oh, and be sure to check out this Instagram photo of a handbound book filled with Instagram photos.

If you're on Instagram too, please feel free to follow me.  My username is linenlaidfelt.  And please comment on this post to let me know what your usernames are, or if you have any suggestions for any artists, bookbinders, Etsy sellers, or other creative folks I should be following. 

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A photo book for a world-traveling photojournalist

When a book leaves my studio and is shipped to its new owner, I like to think that the book's journey has only just begun.  The pages are folded, the covers are glued and pressed, and the binding is stitched neatly into place, but the book is not yet complete.  Most of the books I make are meant to be filled.  Perhaps with congratulatory notes from wedding guests, or records of a baby's first steps and words, or photos of travels far and wide.  Once a book is filled, it takes on new meaning and importance, and it is transformed into something even more special than when it left my studio.

I wish I could check in with all of my handbound books months or even years later to see how they've come to life in their new homes, but I don't always get the chance to see my books when they've been put to use.  On the occasions that I do, however, it's always thrilling to me. 

This particular book was commissioned by Lianne Milton, a San Francisco-based photojournalist, to hold a special collection of her photographs. She requested a simple design for the book.  The pages were made from thick, textured watercolor paper.  For the covers, I made my own bookcloth using a soft grey linen fabric.  And I bound the book with the Coptic binding using navy waxed linen thread.

When the book left my studio, the pages were blank and I was curious to see how they would be filled.  Lianne was kind enough to photograph her book for me once she had added photos to the pages, and I'm excited to share her images of the book here.  

I highly recommend that you take some time to look through Lianne's online portfolio of her photographs.  She is a world-traveling photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and many other publications.  Her work mainly focuses on the effects of politics on people and their environments, and she travels around the globe to capture her stunning images. She also photographs a limited number of weddings each year, in a similar documentary style to her editorial work.  You can view her wedding portfolio here.  

The craftsmanship of the blank book is very important to me and I enjoy the detailed process of creating a handbound book completely from scratch.  But a book like this clearly takes on more meaning once it has completed its journey.

Photos courtesy of Lianne Milton.  

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Vacation photo on display

The newest addition to our new apartment in Nashville is this tropical flower canvas print.  I was contacted by the folks at Easy Canvas Prints, a photos to canvas company, who asked me to review their product in exchange for a canvas print of my own.

I chose a photograph I took at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden on a recent trip to Hilo, Hawaii for my best friend's wedding.  The botanical garden was truly a wonderland, filled with waterfalls, ocean views, an orchid garden, tropical birds, and so many varieties of plants that I'd never seen before.  I was snapping photos non-stop during my visit (you can see some of my other botanical photos in my flickr photostream) and I was looking for a way to display some of my favorites once returning from our trip.  This canvas print was just what I needed.  

Ordering a canvas from EasyCanvasPrints.com really is, as the name suggests, easy.  The website is simple to use, and it guides you through the step-by-step process of designing your own canvas.  And this handy guide shows all of the options and pricing so you can pick out exactly what you want.  

You can choose any sized canvas (mine is 8" x 10"), and you can either upload your own photograph like I did or you can choose an image from their gallery.  You also have the choice of upgrading to a thicker canvas or opting for photo retouching.  For the edges of the canvas, you can have your image wrap onto the edges or you can select a solid color for the border. 

I opted for a bright orange border for the edges of my canvas.  My print is displayed against lime green walls in my apartment, and I wanted it to tie into colors of the room but still pop against the wall color.  I debated the borders of my canvas for a while before placing my order.  I really like the look of the canvases where the images continues onto the edges, and I think I would probably choose that option next time, but for this particular print the bright orange border worked out best.

The option of wrapping the image around to the edges of the canvas would be best for a picture with a background that's not crucial to the composition.  If you choose this option, the photo will appear slightly larger on the front surface of the canvas so there's enough leftover to wrap.  I didn't think the composition of the tropical flower photo was quite as strong once the whole image wasn't visible on the main surface of the canvas.  The orange border worked out better in my case because I could better control the composition of my print, while adding an extra pop of color.

I do wish there was a better way to select the color for the edges though. It would be a nice touch if the website allowed the option to sample a color directly from your photograph, like you can with the eyedropper tool in Photoshop, rather than choosing a color and hoping it matches.

My husband and I have a fairly extensive art collection (including artwork made by friends, family, and ourselves, as well as original work by professional artists, and a collection of vintage photographs), and we're pretty particular about what we put on our walls.  If we don't love it, there's just not space for it.  That said, we were happy to include this canvas print into our home decor.

And another perk of this canvas is how easy it is to hang on the wall. One nail will do the trick.  My husband and I have lived in four apartments since college, and we've hung our artwork on the walls of each one.  This is by far one of the easiest pieces to hang.

Overall, the vibrant colors and high-quality printing makes it evident that this is a high quality product.  I love having a reminder of our trip to Hawaii on display for me to see each day.  The look of our particular print is contemporary and casual, which is exactly what we wanted for our vacation photo.  But I think these prints could be a great choice for displaying wedding photos too, especially a larger canvas print placed in an elegant frame.  If only I'd known about these two years ago!

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Made with love for my dad

Today is my dad's birthday, so it seems like as good a time as any to share some more details about the photo album that I gave him for Christmas.  

My dad started to get interested in photography back when I was in high school taking some photography classes.  I taught him some of the basics, and he started incorporating the rule of thirds into almost all of his pictures (including lots of off-centered pictures of me at graduation).  But since then, he has become a really talented photographer with a great eye for capturing unusual sites around the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina.

Each time I would come to visit, my dad would pull out his camera and to show me his latest pictures.  I'd flip through one by one admiring his work on the tiny camera display screen and wonder why he never made prints of any of his photos.  Showing them off in this way just didn't do the pictures justice, so I decided that he needed a better way to display them.

After I gave him the book, my husband and I helped my dad pick out all of his favorite photos and we added them to the book with photo corners. He's taken some great photos like the one above where he chose to photograph the back of a statue, or some complex reflected images inspired by my photos of store window reflections.  I'm glad that he now has a proper way to display his pictures, and I'm sure he'll soon be ready for a companion album to store his newest shots. 

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Saying goodbye

At the end of the month, I'll be saying goodbye to my former portfolio website. Designed during my senior year of college, my website was filled with examples of my photography, graphic design, drawing, painting, and handmade books. I spent months tweaking and perfecting the design of the site, but once I graduated I neglected to update it with new work. And aside from the outdated portfolios, both the design and domain name prominently featured by maiden name. Now that I've been a happily married woman for a year and a half, it's high time for me to let go of kathryngarner.com.

Although my work will no longer be available on my former website, you can now view my updated portfolios right here at linenlaid&felt. You can access my graphic design and fine art portfolios in the links section of the left sidebar. My photography portfolio can be viewed on flickr.

I will continue to post photos of my new handbound books regularly on this blog, but you view some of the books I bound in Italy and during college as part of my Flashback series.  You can also view some new photo slideshows of my work by clicking on the handmade books and custom orders tabs above.

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The Borders Within

This past Sunday, the newspaper where my husband and I work published a special report called The Borders Within. For my husband Tony and our good friend Chase Purdy it was the culmination of a year's worth of reporting about the growing Hispanic population in our town.

And for me, it marked the end of an incredibly busy week spent designing the six-page section. This is undoubtedly the project I am post proud of during my two years designing for The News Virginian. I'm also quite proud of the work that Tony and Chase completed with their reporting which makes this even more meaningful to me. I don't often share my graphic design work on this blog, but I wanted to make an exception for this particular project.

Click on any of the images for a closer look at the design, or view a pdf of the full section here.

One aspect of the design that came together even better than I'd expected was the map on page two. I created a map of our small town, and used it to plot different points of significance to Waynesboro's Hispanic community, like the a church offering weekly services in Spanish and a park where many people -- including former Mexican professional league players -- play fútbol. Local and regional statistics surround the map to complete the infographic.

Everything for this section was completed by Tony, Chase, and me. Reporting, writing, photography, design -- we did it all. So we all feel a real sense of ownership about this section. The photos that Tony and Chase took turned out so well, and they drive the design for the section. I was able to use a variety of large dominant photos and truly give a face to this community that is often overlooked.

We were also all excited to see that our section had been featured on Charles Apple's The Visual Side of Journalism blog. Charles had many complimentary things to say about The Borders Within, and specifically appreciated the visual appeal of the infographics, and the design of the section overall. Reading his post truly made my day, and was ceretianly a highlight after such a hectic week (and weekend) preparing for the section's publication.

And here's a bit more about the section, in Tony's words:

At its most basic, the idea behind the reporting in this section is not new. Like many reporters, we chose to explore an unfamiliar immigrant community and one that struggles with a language barrier.

But we thought we could deliver something meaningful to readers by bringing our curiosity to Waynesboro’s Hispanic community in particular — a community nestled into a small town and one that still remembers the first who came from Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, and elsewhere. They remember because those pioneers arrived not so long ago.

Because of the short time these families have lived here, we find them on the cusp of transition. As that population meets more frequently with the broader community, those unfamiliar words and nameless faces become harder to ignore, or to refuse to understand. Their needs have grown. Their successes are mounting.

We chose to approach in Spanish whenever possible, no matter how much we’d stumble. We focused on people, not politics, and the ordinary as often as the extreme.

This project first arose in fall 2009, but it might not have started without an unsolicited call and a soft threat. The caller told us to feature Kim Romero’s struggle to bring her husband Rigo back from Mexico, where he’d become mired in immigration bureaucracy. If we wouldn’t write the story, some other reporter would, the caller said.

The Romeros’ story turned from one chapter to the next just after midnight Sept. 10, when Rigo came legally into Kim’s arms at Dulles International Airport. We were there. Rigo has since gained residency through 2020.

Their story isn’t over. Nor is our work.

Tony and Chase had already won the International Perspectives award from the Associated Press Managing Editors contest for their coverage of the Romeros earlier this year, and I think that is just the beginning for the recognition they will receive for their work. Read all of the articles in The Borders Within series here.

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Last-minute photographer

It seems fitting to share a few favorite photos on the blog today, our one-year anniversary. I enjoyed going back to look through the photos to help remember the day that Tony and I both agree was the most fun day of our lives. With friends and family spread out all over the country (and the world), it was a one-of-a-kind moment to be surrounded by all the people we love on that one special day.

And in addition to reminiscing about the wedding itself, we took some time today to talk about all of the things that have happened over the past year: the dog we adopted, the promotions we each earned at work, the new apartment we'll be moving into, and the new business we've started together, not to mention all of the little things that have made this year so happy for us.



When beginning to plan our wedding, the photography was one of the things that was most important to us. After all, once the champagne stops flowing and the music stops playing, it's the photos that you get to hold on to forever. So we immediately decided to work with an experienced wedding photographer from Chicago, who also happened to be one of Tony's close friends (and the person who taught Tony to juggle years ago).

But plans abruptly changed only days before our photographer was scheduled to make his cross-country trip to Charleston. On the Tuesday before our wedding, he was injured in a fire and was hospitalized for weeks, leaving us worried for our friend and scrambling to find a new photographer. (Ironically, on this same day about an hour later, the building attached to the Riviera Theater was badly burned by flames that threatened our venue as well.)



With the help our our wedding planners, we were able to find three local photographers available on our wedding day. As Tony and I made our 8-hour drive to Charleston after work on Tuesday night, our groomsman Chase scouted out our options online and made his recommendation. We made our decision the next morning and then met with our new photographer over coffee the following day to seal the deal.



As it turned out, working with Liz Duren was an amazing experience. She captured all of the details and intimate moments of our day, and did it all in her charmingly sassy way. I was a little concerned at first that we would be working with a stranger instead of a family friend, but Liz just had a way of making everyone around her feel comfortable.



As I was going through her website to put this blog post together, I was excited to see that she has added quite a few of our pictures to her online portfolio, and she included an e-mail Tony sent her in the "compliments" section of her site. I think that e-mail really sums up our experience with her, so I wanted to share some of it here:

Liz,

We received the DVD of wedding photos yesterday and almost immediately took them to the store to begin making simple prints for our at-home frames, to include with thank you notes to guests, and for our families.

Your photography really was wonderful, and more than that, you were a complete stranger who was suddenly there for the both of us in a time of need. I don't know exactly what we expected to find in a short-notice photographer, but it wasn't anywhere near what you offered us.

We liked your approach, your pictures, and your sass. You listened to what we liked and seemed to understand what we were all about. You seized every opportunity to photograph the zaniness of the night -- which, really, we had no idea would unfold like it did. I don't think either of us would change a thing. Your photos will always remind us of exactly that.

Did I mention how we freaked out when you posted photos online so quickly after the wedding? 100% wow. And Katie was quick to the mailbox all this week awaiting the disc.

Thank you, again, Liz, for being so great to work with, so skilled, and so cool.

Tony & Katie



To see more of Liz's work, check out her blog and her website. You can also check out more photos and a slide show from our wedding on her blog.

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