I have some exciting news for you, girlfriend. You don’t need to live in a fancy house with white marble countertops and fresh flowers all over the place to create beautiful photos for your blog and Instagram. In fact, many of the photos you see on Instagram are just well-placed items in the right lighting. It’s actually really easy (and affordable) to create the perfect styled photos, and we’re going to show you how!

How to create high-quality backgrounds for your photos

Contact paper

You just need a piece of cardboard and some contact paper for a picture-perfect flatlay background! You can choose your contact paper based on your branding and colors - Amazon has what seems like an infinite selection of colors and patterns.

I have marble contact paper. The whole roll is less than $6!

lightbox

A lightbox is a fun way to make a statement or announcement in your post. It’s more captivating than saying it in a caption and more visually appealing than writing it on a piece of paper. It also makes a cute decoration for your home!

This Lightbox from Amazon is $16.99!

Magazines

Magazines make great props and backgrounds for Instagram photos. One of our InstaCrush Society Styled Stock Photographers, Meghan, uses magazines in lots of her photos, it adds color and detail to the photos!

Stock up on some magazines that match your brand colors!

Faux Flowers

Maybe you’re the kinda girl who has her life together and always has beautiful, fresh flowers in their house. If you are, more power to ya. But if you’re like me, who cannot keep a plant alive if my life depended on it, fake flowers are your best friend.

This 16ft string of flowers is $13.99. You can find thousands of faux flowers on Amazon!

Cute Coffee Mugs

I don’t know what it is about a pretty coffee mug that makes a photo 10x better, but it does. Find some cute mugs that go with your brand colors and use them in your photos!

If you don’t already have some cute mugs, Etsy is a great place to look. We love supporting small businesses!

Script Letter Board

We love a good letter board - ESPECIALLY when it has a pretty script font like this one from Urban Outfitters!

Graphic Cover Notebook

Similar to magazines, graphic notebooks are great props for your Instagram photos. Bonus points if it has a cute saying on the front! Whenever I get a new notebook, Ban.do is the first place I look.

Fairy Lights

Fairy lights are small and light, perfect for an Instagram prop. Most are battery-operated which makes them portable and easy to position however you’d like. Wrap it around the edges of your flatlay or throughout your photo to add a little sparkle to your pictures!

These Fairy Lights are just $7.99 and come in tons of different colors, so you can select the ones that’ll look best for your Insta-brand!

What are your favorite photo props? Let us know below!

Xx,
Katie