How to print photos for a heart locket

We are often asked for tips on how to fill a heart shaped locket so we bought a beautiful locket from SILK PURSE, SOW’S EAR to show you how do it using OddPrints. Please also see How to print locket size photos for more details on ordering.

First you need to get the right measurements for your specific locket. Lay your locket down on a piece of paper to either trace around it, or to add dots at the widest five points of the heart. Due to the type of locket we have with 4 windows joined together, we opted for dots as tracing around the whole heart wasn’t possible.

Next use a ruler to draw a rectangle or square that fully contains the shape of the locket. Then measure it, width x height, in centimetres (inches are usually not suitable for locket sized photos as they’re a bit big).

Upload your chosen photo(s) to our website and enter the size of your locket into the “frame size” boxes. In this case we entered 2.2 x 2.2 and then selected centimetres from the drop down menu on the right.

If you are unsure about the exact size to order, it is advisable to order 2 or 3 different sizes — try subtracting a couple of millimetres from the measurement you took of the locket — this way you will have options when cutting. We decided to order duplicate images measuring 2cm x 2cm.

The screen shots above show the measurements added to the frame size boxes and centimetres selected in the unit dropdown box.

It is also a good idea to order more than one photo with different layouts so you can be sure you have one that will work perfectly when cut down to a heart shape. Make sure the images you upload have enough background around the subject’s face(s) so that they don’t get clipped off (i.e. not a photo with the face right to the corners).

This is an example of a photo that is unlikely to work well as the faces are too big and close to the edges. When trimming to fit the heart locket, part of the woman’s face/chin and the man’s head/ear might be lost.

The tiling option is a useful tool if you want to have multiple copies of your image at no extra cost.

A selection of small prints that we ordered for our heart locket.

We used a ruler and the locket to check the sizing of the prints.

To trim your photos, first make a heart template from a plain piece of paper. Use this template to decide which photos work best for the heart locket, and use it as a starting point for cutting the pictures into a heart.

Keep them slightly larger than needed to begin with, and gradually take off tiny slithers until each photo is a perfect fit. Make sure you use sharp scissors!

Our locket does not have a metal ‘frame’ surrounding each photo window to hold the picture in place, so instead we used craft glue to fix them to the metal. We found the 2cm x 2cm prints worked best as we needed a smaller heart to fit neatly inside the photo window. If your locket does have a frame where you tuck in the edges of the photo, you will need to allow for this when cutting.

Et voila! Our beautiful family locket filled with happy memories :)

Don’t forget to see How to print locket size photos for more details on ordering.