Nowadays, it’s super easy to take photos since you’re regularly carrying a camera on you, thanks to the growth of cell phone technology. But, how often do you actually scroll through your camera roll unless you’re trying to consolidate and get more space?

7-ways-to-memorialize-your-favorite-photos

Probably not that often, which is a shame. While you probably (definitely) have new selfies, pet pics, and reminder photos sitting there, you also have memories, moments, and things that should have time to shine on more than just your timeline or feed.

Pinterest ends up being a bottomless pit of inspiration and ideas, so we’ve narrowed it down to the easiest DIY photo projects and various unique photo products that might fit your fancy.

1. A Photo Book

Long gone are the annual photo albums and scrapbooks -- or are they? We’ve had tons of family members opt to make photo books on a number of sites, including:

Snapfish
Shutterfly
Chatbooks
Walmart
Google

With platforms like these, you can quickly and easily craft and edit memory books until you get them just right. They can be as long or as short as you have the photos to fill, and you get to choose how hands-on of a project it becomes. You can typically make it more of an album solely based on pictures, or you can add some personal flair as a scrapbooker would. Lots of these platforms also can allow you to make an online gallery or digital version of the book at little-to-no cost, so try that out if you aren’t sure you want a bunch of physical photo books around.

2. Turn Your Photos into Small Nicknacks around the House

Notice, we didn’t say “junk.” You could do something unique, like turn your favorite photos into playing cards or puzzles. Not only are those unique iterations of your memories, whether a family photo, a vacation memory, or just something you shot that you enjoy, but they’re more permanent than say, a sleeve of photos printed at the local pharmacy.

When you have someone over for a game night, and you’re doing a round of Texas Hold ‘Em, you took the pictures on the back of the cards. Those are your cards. Or, people say they want to do a puzzle because they’re bored with all the TV, video games, and Monopoly. You’d then have a super unique offering: a personal puzzle rather than some smattering of I-SPY collages that make putting a puzzle together unbearable.

If puzzles or cards aren’t your things, maybe some photo coasters? You can have them made for you, or you can make them yourself, should you be looking for a time filler.

3. Ever Heard of Photo Walls?

No, not like the different collages you’ve probably seen splashing across your Instagram feed. We’re talking about the company Photowall, which specializes in custom wall decor, be it a custom wallpaper, print, or poster. While they offer thousands of different images and designs, you can also make your photos and designs into custom pieces with them.

Did you ever take a gorgeous panorama of a sunset or sunrise? Maybe you got some neat nature shots on a hike or boating excursion. Perhaps you (or someone close to you) specializes in something photogenic, like dance, art, even sports. Anything you can dream of can deck your walls from top to bottom when you use something (or someone) like Photowall.

4. Or, Just Do a DIY Gallery Wall

Okay, okay, this is what you’d expect us to say. DIY gallery walls are the epitome of customization. You can mix and match photos as regularly as you want, play with different frame shapes, orientations, numbers of photos, white space…there’s a lot of room for fun and function as you get to display your favorite photographs as art and decor. These don’t have to be fancy or expensive, you don’t have to frame every single piece if you don’t want to, and you definitely don’t have to invest in really pricey frames if you do opt to frame.

Printing photos costs pocket change for standard matte prints at your local photo center and buying in bulk often saves you a pretty penny. You can even do a gallery wall featuring some handmade art if you so desire.

5. Magnets, Stickers, Envelopes

Everyone has something they stick a magnet to, right? Like a fridge, maybe a car, a filing cabinet, a whiteboard, or a magnet board… why buy dull magnets when you can make magnets out of your favorite photos? We know of several grandparents who got on this trend years ago with those magnetic photo frames, filling them pictures of their grandchildren and other mementos. The same can be said for stickers and other paper goods. One thing we’d like to see someday is customizable stamps. Forever stamps and other standard-issue prints are something of different age, and it’s time to allow for more creativity and customization in our postage.

While we’re at it, custom greeting cards are a viable option to share your fantastic photography, or maybe you could mock up some postcards? Instead of ponying up a dollar or two at a gas station or theme park, make your own. It’s more special that way.

Interested in this type of photo product? Check out Blue Bee Printing!

6. Turn Your Favorite Photo into a Different Type of Art

Have you ever heard of Instapainting? It’s pretty much exactly what it would sound like in 2020 as if you took Instagram and painting and mashed them together, but in a good way. Instapainting artists take any photo you send (no Instagram required) and turn it into a one-of-a-kind work of art. It’s portrait painting in the most modern, most affordable sense.

You can pick from a number of mediums, including oil paintings, mixed media, watercolor, charcoal, pencil or colored pencil, and digital portraiture, and your photo will be brought to life in a whole new way. Plus, unlike photos that have already been taken, you can and remove things at will. Got a lot of people in the background of your beach horizon photo? Not anymore once you get it painted.

Anything is game when you commission something from these guys. All you’ve got to do is decide on a picture, pick your medium, and your portrait painting will be shipped to you in a timely fashion, safely and securely.

7. Get “Old Fashioned” and Print Them off as Keepsakes

With all these modern ways of reworking your now primarily digital photos, the beauty of a photo print tends to get lost. It used to take a good deal of effort not only to take pictures but have them developed, printed, and then stored somewhere safe, so they were not subjected to the elements of any sort.

There’s unexplainable magic found in a photograph (which is why portable printers and polaroids are all the rage again). Have you ever been passed photos from parents or grandparents, aunts or uncles, and had them relive their history? Maybe you didn’t get to talk to them, but you saw them frozen in time on a slip of paper. Perhaps you’re learning about them years, or even decades later.

Photography is more than just social media, selfies, and aesthetics. While not to discount social media in any way, but to remind you that photography for viewers and photography for self are two different ways of expressing one’s self. Traditional photography, which perhaps has transcended into being “old fashioned” photography, is a unique form of art, though not the most modern anymore. There’s a beauty in the process, the setup, the staging, in the editing, in the printing, captioning, in the framing, positioning, in just viewing photography for what it is. The simple, yet sophisticated nature and background of a photo is something to never forget.

We’re Open to New Ideas for Things to Do with Our Favorite Photos

There are plenty of things to do with photos that haven’t made it big yet, so we’re eager to see where things go from here. Long gone are the days of screensavers and backgrounds being one of the only ways to show off your favorite photos. Now, photo sharing is as easy as ever, so it’s hard to find something truly unique to do with them. But, nowadays, what is “unique”? If you like what you like, and you have a cool idea, run with it! How do you think any of these ideas happened in the first place? Someone tried something new.

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