DIY Smartphone Box Projector
I’ve always wanted to hang photos of our family up in the order of a family tree. I saw it in a magazine once and fell in love with the idea. Last week, I painted our upstairs hallway in a grayish-green and bought a darker shade of green to paint a tree on the wall. As I began to get ready to paint and had a pencil in my hand to sketch the tree I remembered something very very important — my artistic abilities are that of a one-year-old. Maybe a newborn. Definitely not someone capable of painting a tree worthy of showing off photos of the family for all to see as soon as they walk into our home. My next step was to figure out how to get the photo of what I wanted to do onto the wall — without the use of a projector. I thought back to high school (which meant I almost had a migraine because that was a really loooong time ago). I then rigged my own projector out of a shoe box, magnifying glass and my iPhone. (Seriously, what did we do before smart phones? I can’t even remember the last time I had to research something that took longer than 35 seconds.)
Here are the steps for creating your own projector at home:
1. Gather supplies: shoe box with cover, magnifying glass, pencil, box cutter, tape and smart phone.
2. Trace the magnifying glass shape on one end of the box and cut out with a box cutter.
3. Secure magnifying glass to box with tape if needed.
4. Place phone inside box and turn toward the magnifying glass.
5. Turn off all lights and get the room as dark as possible so you can see the image projecting on the wall.
6. Draw away!
P.S. This also works if you have an image on translucent or white paper. You can just make a hole at the other end of the box and secure a flashlight through the hole. This way would work better if you can’t make the room extremely dark.
About Allison Diedreck
Allison is a stay-at-home Mom to Caleb and Claire. With both kids now mobile and needing attention for what feels like 25 hours a day, she has her hands full, but loves (almost) every minute of it. Allison went to school for English and Journalism and has worked at numerous newspapers, including The Stranger, The Seattle Times, Robinson Newspaper Group and Messenger Post Newspapers. She also did a four-year stint with Paychex, Inc. before deciding to become a stay-at-home Mom in October 2009. She has discovered the joys of 1-2-3 discipline and early bedtimes. Besides reading and writing, Allison loves to travel and cook. She is constantly listening to music and typically has a cup of coffee in hand. Originally from, well, many places, Allison dreams of living at a beach with the jet-ski as her mode of transportation.