instagram photobook

I've been wanting to make a book out of my instagram photos for a long time. The captions and photos remind me of some really good memories that normally wouldn't be printed in a photo album. 

For my project I considered Blurb, Shutterfly, and Artifact Uprising. Artifact Uprising was the highest recommended in terms of image quality for at-home instagram photos, but they were also the priciest and their "instagram book" was soft cover which I didn't love. You could select hardcover and choose the smallest book, but in the end I decided against it. Artifact Uprising does have some really cool photo projects on their site, I especially think this wood calendar would be awesome to make. 

In the past I've ordered an engagement photobook from Shutterfly and I deeply regretted this decision as soon as I saw how awesome my wedding photos turned out in my Blurb book. The colors, printing, and page quality turned out ten times better on Blurb (and even better, of course, on the album my photographer gave us from the fancier printing place!) The main reason I considered Shutterfly for this book was because my iphone and blackberry photos weren't that high quality anyway, but in the end I ordered from Blurb.

I always wait until there is a sale when ordering photo books since I don't need them right away. I got this book when Blurb had it's 65% off sale in June.

To design a book from blurb you have to download software called BookSmart from their website, but it's really easy to use. 

I ordered the small square (7"x7") and with that selection you can import photos directly from Instagram or Facebook by logging in. I chose the standard paper for this little album but I've used their Proline upgrade for the wedding book and it's excellent. I would not go bigger then 7x7 for instagram photos because the image quality would get terrible if some of my phone images were blown up any larger. I had 200 pages.

With inspiration from Kim K's Selfie book, I thought it would be fun to write my own captions.

I'm very pleased with how this book turned out, in another three years I'll make a second volume!  

Currently I'm working on another Blurb album of some vacations we've taken. 

Also, Websites like TinyPrints turn instagram photos into pretty postage stamps and Social Print Studio has some really awesome stickers to make from photos too!