Today I am so excited for you to hear from one of my dearest friends, Celina. I met Celina way back when our husbands used to work together, before they moved off to have new adventures in new places! Celina is a wife to Josh, Mother to Elliot, and has some wonderful creative talents that she has been cultivating in recent years. Today she is sharing with us some tips about one of those creative gifts, which is photography. Celina shares that one of the simplest and most impactful ways to add art to your home, is through candid pictures of your own family. From Celina:
Since having our daughter, Elliot (almost 3), I have become a bit of an amateur photographer. Completely amateur, don’t hire me, but I’m kind of obsessed with capturing those moments that fly by too fast.
Recently, we relocated to Ohio and are in the midst of renovating our 60’s ranch home. Something I’ve always been terrible about, but am determined to do in this new place is display family photos throughout the house. Showcase my amateur work! Generally, I prefer to hang art as opposed to a JCPenny studio portrait. So here are a few things I plan to do to add those faces that make me happy while making it look like art.
The pictures that make me the happiest are those that capture sincere moments of pure joy or affection. I certainly love having pictures where everyone is smiling directly into the camera, but I also like to use candid photos of us doing everyday things or out having adventures, while incorporating color and mood from our environment. For an extra arty photograph, try to find a location that provides a unique backdrop with lots of negative space. These are the types of photos I plan to use for large scale prints.
If you, like me, can’t afford a lifestyle photographer, I’m sure there are some great pics on your phone that are waiting to be printed and framed. Especially if you are lucky enough to have the portrait feature on your smartphone camera. I want to upgrade my phone to have that feature so bad! My heart says yes, but my bank account says no.
There are some really great tools out there that I plan to use in my mission to scatter happy moments all over our house. One of them is an online framing company called Framebridge . You send your photo files to them, and they send you the print framed and ready to hang. You can even upload pictures from Instagram. They will also help you out with gallery wall arrangements with a hanging guide, which is something I could really use some help with. In the example below, they used black and white photos in their Framebridge gallery for a more neutral tone, which can be a great way to display pictures without overwhelming your walls. This is exactly how I plan to use to photos shown above.
Photo Source: Emily Henderson Design
My go-to for high-quality, cost effective prints is Mpix.com. I’ve ordered prints of all sizes and photo gifts for family and have never been disappointed. One thing I’d really like to order for myself is their thumbprint photo box. It comes with little easels that hold a 4×4 photo. These are so simple and so so easy to show off your memories in a stylish way.
I’m also thinking of jumping on the dowel hanger trend. Artifact Uprising has a beautiful product, but I found these that could certainly make a pretty interesting wall piece for less.
I stumbled upon these nifty diy projects on Pinterest. The engineer print is pretty genius, and the large photo booth idea is so fun! These can have a big impact on your room without having your wallet shake its finger at you.
Photo Source: Hello Blushing Blonde
Hopefully you’ve found some inspiration in this post that will get you taking, printing and displaying more personal photos. My goal is to be able to walk from my bedroom to the kitchen each morning and see goofy, laughing, dimpled toddler cheeks everywhere.
Believe Manifesto 
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