How-to: Create Photo Mosaics for Instagram

At a recent Nutmeg Collective Social Media Meet Up, a few members mentioned they’d like to make the mini mosaics that several of our members have been making for a while and sharing on Instagram, like the one above. It looks like there are a lot of steps, but I promise I’m just being uber-specific. Once you get the hang of it, making mini mosaics doesn’t take much time at all.

1. Choose four items you’d like to use.   If you don’t have specific users or items in mind, this is a trick I use so I don’t re-create the wheel: Look at etsy treasuries. Someone took time to sort through and find a theme, chose coordinating items, and all the information you’ll need is 80% right there. In the search box on the treasury page, search NUTMEGCOLLECTIVE.  Evelyn Pelati, DiGiJewels, and Designer Dwellings have current treasuries that have some Nutmeg Collective items in them that I have used. Note: They’re not ALL member items in team treasuries, so you do need to select who is a member to use this method.

2. Once you’ve picked your items, save the picture to your computer or device. Since I usually do this task while my family is relaxing at night, I mostly make these mini mosaics on my laptop, but I can do this from my phone just as quickly. Make note of the people who made the items and what they have named them, this will help when you add a caption. On my laptop, I just leave allllll the tabs open, or put their name as the file.

3. Using the design app of your choice, arrange photos in a square mosaic format. I use Pixlr. When our group was polled, others use Picstitch (for phone), fotor (for computer), Aviary, PicCollage, and PictureCollageMakerLite. What it comes down to is that there are plenty out there, you can pick the one you like the most.

4. Once you have the layout you like, save the photo mosaic. If I’ve done these steps on my computer, I now email the mosaic to myself so Iyou can access it from my phone. If you use a cloud or link your devices, move to the one where you can upload to Instagram.

5. Upload to Instagram. List the items shown with the maker’s Instagram username. If they’re not on Instagram, I use their Etsy shop or web address. Note: I started making these mosaics to share Instagram user’s items, and people are more likely to click and follow your team members on Instagram if the links work. I try not to use too many items that are for people NOT using Instagram.

6. Tag the users on the photo as well as in the description.

7. Hashtag #nutmegcollective so team leaders and your teammates can see it!

8. I also hashtag #madeinct #ctmade #connecticut and maybe one or two other relevant tags.

That’s about all there is to it! Some nights I’ll make three or four and space out posting them to prolong the fun.   Please ask if something isn’t clear here, I do love to chat!

Photos and items in this sample mosaic are by:

Treefort Naturals // tinymack //  Baby Blossom Co.  // Sprinkles Of Color

Vanessa Felie, aka "Queenvanna" juggles a husband and two blond pixies while running her burgeoning paper arts and crafts business, QueenvannaCreations. Her job and family inspire her to create crafty projects for holidays, vacations, as well as times when there's just not much going on. Perpetual calendars and other home items, scrapbooking album kits and personalized gifts of all kinds - She looks to add a little flair to everything she makes, to put some extra fun in to daily life, as well as special occassions.
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