Recently, I had the opportunity to try out CollageMo from Lamplighter Games. CollageMo is an iOS app for your iPad or iPhone that allows you to turn your photos into gorgeous wall collages. As an advanced amateur photographer, I have thousands of photos to choose from, and I couldn’t wait to get started and see what I could create.
You can use pictures from anywhere. CollageMo is able to import pictures from the photos stored on your iPhone or iPad, as well as Facebook and Instagram. CollageMo also plans to add support to get photos from your computer. For me, the photos I wanted to use were located on SmugMug. I downloaded the photos I wanted to use from SmugMug to my computer, and then I used another app called PhotoSync to move the photos to my iPad.
Choosing which pictures you want to include is the only hard part of this whole process. I spent at least three hours deciding on a theme and picking out my best photos in that area. I decided to go with flowers, butterflies, insects, and owls… all outside stuff. Most of my best photography is of nature.
Before you start building your collage, of course, you’ll need to decide what wall in your house will showcase your beautiful creation. I chose the wall above the love seat where my guy and I sit all the time. The available space is approximately 5 ft.wide and 3 ft. tall, so I wanted the collage to be centered in that area. I decided to use a template with nine pictures that is 3 ft. wide and 1.5 ft. tall. The app shows you how the collage looks centered over a brown couch, and that is helpful, but I would still recommend that you use a tape measure to make sure the collage dimensions are going to fit well in the space of your choice. You don’t want to end up with something too small or too big.
The CollageMo app is easy to use. You get to pick anything from a single shot to large, elegant templates. You can drag the pictures around within a given template, crop images as necessary, and even change the template to see how your images look in several layouts. You can even create a magic collage by pointing CollageMo to a group of pictures and allowing it to fill in the template for you.
I recommend that you pick a template that you think you want to use and start adding photos to fill it out. You’ve got to start someplace, right?!? Sometimes the photo you want to use doesn’t fit well in the available square or rectangle, so you may have to move things around and play with the layout a bit. Sometimes the photos don’t work together as a group as well as you’d hoped. I went back several times to look for additional photos to try. I guarantee, though, that you’ll get excited as you see your beautiful pictures come to life in your collage.
When you’re happy with your collage, go ahead and place your order. You’ll get an order summary email indicating when your collage should arrive. Mine came quickly in less than 2 weeks.
When your collage arrives, check to make sure there’s no damage. The HD Metal Panels are just gorgeous! Wow! And the way they are mounted on a foam background for shipping and hanging prevents corner damage during shipment. I was so pleased that everything arrived intact. Besides the panels themselves, you’ll receive an instruction sheet, a bag of aluminum pins, some foam spacer squares, and a paper hanging template.
Take your time to familiarize yourself with all of the instructions. The paper instructions will direct you to a video and additional pictures and instructions online. After spending about 10 minutes reviewing the materials and the write-up, my guy and I were ready to do the install. It took us about an hour total, so make sure to give yourself enough time for the install when there won’t be a lot of distractions.
We started by centering the paper template on the wall with some painter’s tape. You’ll need a good tape measure too.
As directed, we pushed the aluminum pins into the template. You only push them in far enough to score the wall in this step. Remove the pins and paper and then insert the pins completely.
Now you are ready to remove part of the foam backing off the photo panels. The idea is to leave the hanging square(s) on the panel, but to remove the outer edges. The foam is perforated, so once you start it, it comes apart pretty easily. We were extremely careful not to allow our fingers to touch the images.
The instructions state that you should put foam spacers on the backs of the smaller squares. This will keep the images straight on the wall.
In no time at all, we were ready to stand back and enjoy our new collage!
The hanging system truly is easy enough that anyone should be able to get the collage mounted on their wall correctly. You even get that professional looking shadow around the images.
It is important to note that this collage is flexible. You can always add more pictures to the collage or swap out pictures to give your collage a new look.
I’m so pleased with my new collage that I’m already looking at building another large collage for the wall over my bed!
The CollageMo single panels start at $15.99, with collages starting at $63.99. The HD Metal panels really are impressive, and I am convinced that even the larger collages are worth the money.
GeekMom received this item for review purposes.
