fototiller.com Blog

Is it too late to buy a 2008 calendar? Not when it’s as cool as this one AND 50% off.

A wall calender designed to be customized by you! Frame your pet, your kids, or loved ones in a new style for each month!

Sold out at Fred Flare but available online at Art Effect.

It’s the first snow! Hurrah!

Here’s some snowy photo fun. Clockwise from top left:

silver snowflake card (photo) holder from Wendy Addison (O, the glitter!)

DIY your photos into sparkling holiday cards the Martha way

elum spiral snowflake photo card (on sale!) from Greer Chicago

snow globe Frame from Urban Outfitters

snowflake photo stands from Beau Coup

snowflake frame ornament from Crate and Barrel

I’m back after several months off and I’m thrilled to announce the birth of our daughter, Genevieve, born on August 19th. Time flies and now it’s a beautiful fall day here in New England. The leaves are starting to look a lot like this magnet, which I love. Ingenious use of magnetic sheeting and an exacto knife to make this Leaf Skeleton magnet. Use it to hold up a photo or alone to dress up the fridge. From Esty seller Skinny la Minx.

New from Urban Outfitters – Picture Frame Wall Decals.

These pressure sensitive vinyl decals can be used on your walls or windows. They are not reusable, but you do have the ability to “reconsider” your application before they set. This set is designed to look like fancy-pants picture frames, in various sizes, ready for you to decorate your space with tons of pictures.

Make your own Wall-O-Photos with these clear, plastic, hanging sleeves from Urban Outfitters.

iClear custom – a clear polycarbonate case to protect your ipod and that you can customize with your own photo or artwork. Available soon.
Via outblush.

A couple of great photo finds from swissmiss, one of my favorite blogs. The bumbi, a toy you can personalize with a photo and a recording.

And the photo lampshades handcrafted by de marias.

SMOY now has a photo cuff design to appeal to the kids.

Fun body double magnets from Urban Outfitters.
Give all your friends an extreme body makeover with these magnets- 25 different magnetic body tiles. Put a headshot of your girlfriend, grandma or roommate up on the fridge and add a magnet, turning them into a whole other person.

Cute little woodgrain frame for your photo on this holiday card from froy & olo design.

Sugar paper has a selection of letterpressed holiday cards that will hold a 3.5 x 5 photo. Comes in boxed sets of 10 for $18.

Snow & graham make beautiful letterpressed cards. I especially love the design on their cherry blossom photocards. They also make these cardinals holiday photocards, which are quite nice. The cards come in boxed sets of six – just slip a 4×6 photo right into the die-cut curved opening.

And another lovely photo card from Elum, the spiral snowflake photo card.

I love this very Victorian letterpressed photoframe card from Elum. Holds a 4×6 photo with the greeting ‘Happy Holidays.’

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting some great holiday photo cards as well as some DIY ideas to use your photos to make your own holiday cards.

First off, some lovely letterpress photo cards from Night Owl Paper Goods. They carry two styles – the see-thru photo mailer (stick on your photo and mail in the see-thru envelope) and the photo easel card (opens up to become a little easel frame for your photo). See some of the detail in the pictures below.

And for more holiday card fun, check out all the wonderful finds over at poppytalk. They are all fabulous!

I’d seen Umbra’s floor-standing fotofalls before, however at 5 feet tall, it just seemed like it would always be in the way. The fotofalls desktop, on the other hand, looks like the perfect size.

Create a unique desktop display with this unusual photo holder. Use the 18 clips to hold photos, cards, keepsakes and artwork. It’s very easy to assemble and allows you to change the display quickly and easily for your very own personal art gallery. Size: 14″ x 17″ so it’s sized just right for a mantle, shelf, desktop or tabletop.

Love the vintage-inspired fabric on this photo clutch from urban outfitters (also comes in an iridescent mock-croc). Holds 16 4×6 photos.

It’s fun to get a little fancy for the holidays, and these picture frame napkin rings will do the trick. They make cool little placecard holders for your holiday dinners, especially if you use childhood photos of your guests. And they also would make a nice hostess gift.

Picture snow globes can be pretty cheesy, but this snow globe frame from urban outfitters is so cool (and frosty!) – plus it’s only six bucks.

Apartment therapy just posted on this very cool DIY design site. Shown here is a simple way to make a photo holder from a tealight. Check out the rest of the site, too. It’s in German, but the creative photography communicates all you need to know to make these yourself.

Cool woodgrain magnetic board to hold up your photos. The genuine magnetic memo board is veneered in real wood. Get it at 2Modern.

Martha and Kodak have teamed up and here’s their first offering: holiday photo cards. I love the faux bois design and this plaid. Haven’t had a chance to check out the rest so have fun browsing.

ClipLine is a cool new frame product from Sweden that allows you to hang photos on the wall and change the photos as often as you like. It consists of a wooden base in either oak or walnut that attaches to the wall and a plexiglass cover for your photos that bends enough for you to easily slip in your photographs. It’s also a great option for hanging photos when you might be worried that a traditional glass frame could get knocked down and break. Get it at scandinavian design online.

I love all the magnetic goodness produced by Seattle’s Three by Three. They have some new products out and I love, love, love these anywheres™ adhesive-backed powdercoated metal thingies. You can stick ‘em up anywhere and use the super strong magnet to attach any photo, note or artwork to your mini magnet board. They come in a range of shapes and colors – I would love to put up a bunch of the red arrows on a wall in a cool pattern so they could be artwork on their own, regardless of whether they are holding anything up. A pack of four is $7.50 and you can get them online here.

Also, love the new skinny strips™ for holding up photos, too.

Cool fotoclips.

I love these woodgrain photo magnétique frames! From the designers at Presse Citron, these magnet frames are hard to find in the US. But I think these would be a fun diy project using woodgrain contact paper and magnet sheets (inspired by the inventive projects with contact paper over at It’s Knot Wood). Pick your favorite woodgrain paper and stick on the magnet sheets, then cut out frame shapes with openings for you photos. Put ‘em on the fridge, or get a magnetic bulletin board in a fun color and hang anywhere you want (fridgedoor has a good selection of magnetic boards).

This threaded memo board from Crate and Barrel is a great way to keep a rotating bulletin board display of photos without damaging them with pushpins.

On sale at Red Envelope, I think this photo wall clock ($19) would look pretty cool with photos of numbers from old road signs.
Via the possibilities are endless (thanks Jessica!)

Grace posted on these cool takboards, perfect for holding your latest photos.

Photo shelfs from Wal-mart.

DIY plexi-glass photo display (a great idea for a kitchen backsplash, too).

I love serendipitous ipod moments…

Like just now when I discover the Japan-based site Little by Little and the shuffle spits out The Vapor’s Turning Japanese. I have never been fully convinced that my ipod does not have a mind of its own.

Anyway, found these very cool mouse trap clips. What a great idea for holding photos – imagine a whole wall with randomly placed mousetraps holding photos and artwork. Very, very cool.

Also available at KarmaKiss – cool magnetic cable photo holders. A very simple, modern way to hang your photos; use the magnets attached to the cable to hold up a photo and then hang the cable from the wall or ceiling. In addition to the original sleek style (which unfortunately is out of stock right now), there are designs that kids will love – with butterfly, heart and flower magnets.

Update – you can buy the original style now from photojojo’s store!

These animal frames available at KarmaKiss.com definitely fall in the kitschy cute category. But perfect fun party favors, especially for kids.

1. Photo frame pencil toppers (set of six for $8.99)
2. Dancing animal photo key chains ($6) – pull the string and watch them dance
3. Karma Kritter frames ($8.99)
4. Rockin’ animal photo frames ($7) – the little heads on these frames bobble back and forth

To me, paperweights have always seemed to be of questionable utility and always ended up being just another junky item cluttering up my desk. But as I’m sitting here trying to stave off the mugginess with a super-power fan blasting me, I’m guessing I could use one of them right about now. I found these kits for making paperweights from your photos and the selection of shapes and materials is the best I’ve seen anywhere (and not too pricey, either). The weights come in glass, crystal and acrylic and some of the acrylic styles can also be used to make coasters. The site also has step-by-step instructions for making the paper weights.

Cute little picture or postcard holders in rose, orange, light green, and blue. From Avec home design.

Some very cool photo mobiles from Oxo Designs. Many different styles – from the beechwood and steel tournicoti sun which holds 28 spinning pictures (above left) to the tournicoti spiral (below top left). Check out the oxo design website where you can see some of the mobiles in motion. Some styles available online from this UK shop; still looking for other places to buy these.

I love these kitsch magnet frames from umbra that Grace posted on. Perfect for holding up all those photos on the fridge.

This hanging light from ingo mauer at twentytwentyone is ridiculously expensive but the idea is an interesting one. The light comes with pre-printed and blank Japanese paper that you can customize and attach to the light. I think this could be really beautiful with abstract b&w photos printed on the paper.

Weird and wacky photo clocks. Photo clock and memo clock, which has little clips for your pictures. Available online from UK shop Fearless.

The personalight is a very cool way to display your photos. These lamps let you illuminate your photos by sliding them in between a diffusion layer (to keep out those hot spots) and a clear outerlayer. You can print out your own photos on the included transparency sheets (comes with two, but you can buy refills, 5 for $5). Or if you’re not up to printing yourself, you can send them a photo and they’ll print it for you. They also have a number of photos you can download and print, if you’re stuck for ideas. Choose from the pop lite ($50), pop mini ($30) and pop nite ($20, a cute little nightlight). Curiously, it is hard to find the link to order – you can buy them here.

Lily Latifi, a franco-iranian designer, has some really cute felt frames and photo holders that are perfect for kids. I especially like the puzzle-shaped yek-o-yek frames and the duck photo holders. Also available: yek-o-yek photo holders, pebble photo holders, photo birth cards and felt photo frames. Felt frames are 100% felt and washable in cold water.

Just saw these frame cards from rosebud design studio over at the always inspiring oh joy!. You can insert a photo into these die cut cards – way more fun than your typical plain vanilla photo cards.

The cranky wind-up toy dances like crazy while holding your photo.

The polished pewter desktop paper clip from see jane work has a heavy base to prevent tipping, so load it up with your latest photos.

Cute posy desktop photo holder from umbra.

Retromodern has these three unique tabletop photo holders:

pinch holder – photos grow on trees with this forest of clothespin photo holders.
clipp holder – simple and sleek, this one piece steel clip holds your photo firmly in place (in small, medium and large).
miamor container/photo holder – a heart shaped container to store your small desktop items and display a single photo.(note: this piece is in the process of being discontinued and limited stock remains)

I’ve got a bunch of tabletop photo holders to post on today. This little sparrow holder with bendable brass coils from anthropologie can hold three pictures.

From MoMA, the snap-it-up organizer is a simple holder for your desktop photos (and any other items you want to keep handy). Made of acrylic board with six colorful rubber bands.

Just read about UK shop plümo over at Oh Joy! They have some vintage looking card holders that would make great photo holders, especially for those sepia toned portraits of your ancestors.

Another great mom’s day gift. Flexible plastic bracelet that holds a tiny photo (3cm x 2cm) and comes in aqua, black, cactus and pink. Available from urbane.

Update: you can purchase these online for shipping in the US here for $7.50.

Lockets used to be cool. These days, it’s hard to find ones that stand out from the crowd. Here are some picks for mother’s day.

Clockwise from top left: anonymous heart and oval locket ($22), juicy couture queen of couture locket with two picture slots ($95), modern photo locket from iluren ($180).

From left to right:

orly baruch locket ($368), lois hill granulated locket ($356) and orly baruch double charm locket ($198), all at nordstrom. locket hook necklace (and 10% donation of sale to PETA, $50), silver and glass locket that holds two photos from uncommon goods ($42), catherine popesco locket from splendor boutique in chicago ($58).

The bookend picture frame from Josh Owen in baked enamel on steel is a bargain at $12 a pair. Get it at foster’s.

Glam it up! Smoy chelsea cuffs now available in glitter.

The wallter wall applications have been around for a while now, but it took me this long to figure out that the rectangular ones double as picture frames. These are a great idea for displaying photos – exchange the pictures whenever you want, they just pop right out, no glass to deal with. Got a hot date and don’t want aunt millie looking over your shoulder? Take your pictures out and you’re left with a mod wall decoration. Wallter can be painted any color and arranged in any design. Not so great for all you apartment dwellers, though, the frames stick to the wall with adhesive and may damage the surface if removed. Available at wallter and 2modern.

From the red hot shop, target’s photo cube radio. Holds four 3×3.5 pics and comes in white, orange, mint green or blue. Totally rocks. Literally.

Picture rails from gus modern. Available at 2modern and design public.

These photoclips from the MoMA store are such a cool idea! I can think of so many ways to use them: room divider, etc. Unfortunately, on back order now, but I’ll see if I can find them somewhere else.

Orange tricycles and green onesies (yay! no pink and blue)! These photo mailers are on sale now at sparkability.

Some more photo finds from up to you in Toronto (and available to be shipped worldwide). A fun little photo frame postcard made of high recycled content. This frame can be folded together as a free-standing single picture frame, free standing multiple picture frame, or as a single or double hanging picture frame.

Also, the presse-citron zig frame that unfolds to hold countless pictures or postcards, Smoy photo cuffs and a novelty stereoviewer card. (Thanks Dimitra!)

Funfurde found this wave magnetic track, a clever and efficient way to display your snapshots.

No space left on your walls for your picture frames? Let your fotos fly with these hanging frames. From left: photo mobile from exit9 , hangout mobile frame from cb2, and the photo ball, available online at quincy shop.

Photohooks for stashing your stuff. At gnr8 home.