April #coasterstories with Prachi Pundeer

April #coasterstories with Prachi Pundeer

#coasterstories got off to a great start with Celebrating Spring on Instagram this month!

Here’s a wrap up of some of our favorite photos. Big thanks to everyone who joined in, including @amy_lesser, and Prachi, our resident photographer.

 

Have some spring photos of your own? Why not make a set of coasters with them? 

#coasterstories
Coaster Stories is monthly photo project for all of us to experiment in storytelling around a particular theme. Each month we announce a theme and accompanying Pinterest board on the blog and through the newsletter. May’s theme will be announced next week, so stay tuned!

Prachi Pundeer
Prachi hails from India and is an avid traveler who likes to tell her stories through photographs. When she’s not snapping her surroundings, she is an Experience Designer at Yahoo where she explores the future of communication tools. She lives in San Francisco.

#Coasterstories with Prachi Pundeer

Storytelling is something we do everyday, whether it’s posting a memorable moment to Instagram, adding our favorite pins to a Pinterest board or chatting with friends over coffee. We share our moments and stories to help us make sense of the world, and to feel a part of something bigger. These stories are the bond we build between our past and our future.

Photo Stories
With this in mind, we’re introducing Coaster Stories. A monthly photo project for all of us to experiment in storytelling around a particular theme.

Each month we’ll announce a Coaster Story theme and accompanying Pinterest board on the blog and through the newsletter. On Pinterest, we’ll have lots inspiration and photo tips to help you along the way. On Instagram, we’ll post a #coasterstories photo each week. To wrap everything up, we’ll post our favorite photos and everyone who’s participated on the blog.

For April, we’re Celebrating Spring and all the renewal it inspires. Our guest photographer this month is Prachi Pundeer. She’ll be taking over the Coastermatic Instagram feed with her weekly celebrations of spring.

Feeling inspired?
Join us with your weekly #coasterstories on Instagram and follow our Celebrating Spring board on Pinterest.

More on Prachi


Prachi hails from India and is an avid traveler who likes to tell her stories through photographs. When she’s not snapping her surroundings, she is an Experience Designer at Yahoo where she explores the future of communication tools. She lives in San Francisco.

Make a set for your sweetheart

Valentines Day is right around the corner, how awesome would it be to have a coaster set that is all about you and your boo?

Making a set for that special someone is easy! Start by having a think through all of the places, moments, and things that mean something to you both. For my guy, I picked out the photos above: Us looking out over Wellington, NZ; the fantastic view we had from a trip to Hawaii; a shot of Falling Water - the first road trip we went on; and finally our first breakfast together.

Now, with your list great moments in hand (or in your head) - Start a set on Coastermatic.com and pick out a few photos from your Instagram feed. Hit Add to cart, and boom! Now you have the best Valentines Day present ever.

Uh oh! Are you running late with your V-Day planning?
Don't worry, take a screen shot of your set before you hit Add to Cart and pop it into a card.

Need some help thinking through fun moments together?  
Here’s a list to get your brain firing:

  • Where you first met
  • An inside joke
  • Where you had your first date
  • The first time you said “I love you”
  • Your first place together 
  • That night you had way too much fun
  • A tropical destination you visited
  • A favorite dinner spot
  • Kisses
  • Flowers he got you
  • A plastic crocodile you got him

Have fun, and think: on February 14th, and every day after, you’ll both get to relive fun moments together every time you need a coaster. Share those moments with us on Instagram by tagging your pics with #coastermatic!

 

 

Making a travel set!

Since we’ve been on the topic of set themes for the last few blog posts (Throwback family coasters, Lois at the beach, Phil's coasters), I thought I’d add another one to the mix: Travel coasters.

Have you been on a trip to an exciting place recently? Went to visit friends and had a great time? Cruised around with some elephants somewhere? All of those moments can come together to make a coaster set to remember your trip by (or a great gift for someone you stayed with)

Here’s a set I made recently:


These are all photos taken the summer of 2013, when Coasterica was located in Hawaii, and Tom was still par to of the team. It was a great summer - We sat out by the pool, went to the beach, visited Waikiki, and also worked on Coastermatic through a transitional time.

Now I’ve got this set on my coffee table, and when I look at any of those coasters I get to remember what an interesting, challenging, and wonderful summer it was.

Got some travel memories you want to relive?
Did you go on a trip with someone special?
Make a set of those moments now.

#tbt Wong Family Coasters

Family Instagram Coasters

It’s Thursday, so I thought I’d share a throwback family set I made a little while ago.

Back in April, my mom and I decided it’d be a good idea to get all of the family photos scanned. My parents live in Hawaii, and the humidity can do a number on old photos. So, we packaged everything up and sent our 2000 odd family photo archive to ScanCafe.



ScanCafe scanned, cropped, and touched up all of our images, which was pretty cool. They post everything online so you can pick the images you want to keep before they put everything on DVDs and send them back. The whole process took 4 weeks or so and cost $800.

The time and cost were totally worth it - I have 3 sisters, and we’re scattered across the globe. Now that our family photos are digitized and hosted on PictureLife, where we can all see and share them whenever we want.

And, I can make coasters out of them! For this set, picked 2 paired sister photos (back when we were small and cute), 1 full family photo, as well as 1 of the 4 of us girls.

 

Got a pile of old photos hiding in a box? Get them out and make them useful :).