Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Thanks for Sharing!

Well scrappy friends, it's been a fun ride with you this week!  Thanks for letting me share my passion about childhood/heritage scrapping with you.  I hope it's inspired you to scrap more of your own story.  I have loved looking at your pages in the flickr gallery, and have been inspired by you!  Thanks so much for sharing your pages and stories with us.  For my final post today, I thought I'd share some of your pages and how they inspired me.  I won't share all of the pages for lack of space, but believe me when I say it was hard to narrow it down--they were all fabulous pages!!  If you haven't already, take a minute to look at them all in the flickr gallery--you'll be glad you did.

From Marnie Flores:

 

I love how Marnie journaled about some reading memories and how her love of reading came about from her childhood experiences.  Her simple effective design lets her photo and journaling shine.

From Celeste Smith:

 

Celeste's page is about her memories from the library she frequented in her childhood hometown.  Since she didn't have a photo of it, she found this one and got permission to use it.  Very clever, and a lovely page to boot!

From Cheryl Overton:

 

Cheryl photographed a family heirloom and journaled about why it is so special to her.  What a fabulous idea, and a beautiful page!

From Elizabeth Dillow:

 

I love Elizabeth's simple but beautiful design, and her wonderful handwritten journaling about some memories from 1st grade.  Her girls will love reading this!

From Hannah:

 

Hannah told a wonderful story about a young summer crush on this page, and instead of including a photo of her or her crush, she used a photo of an object that reminded her of the experience.  Another fab idea!

From Jody Wenke:

 

This beautiful page includes a photo of Jody and her daughter at similar ages playing with the same tea set.  How priceless is this??

From kismet art:

 

I love how multiple photos of these adorable cousins are included on this page along with some wonderful handwritten memories of their relationship and adventures.  Love it!!

From Lain Ehmann:

 

How cool are the color combo, patterned paper, and journaling on the photo in this awesome page??

From Lisa Toronto:

I love that Lisa journaled about a detail in her photos: the sweater knitted by her grandmother that she's wearing.  I also love her simple design that allows those fun photos to shine.

From Melissa Kaiserman:

 

On this gorgeous page Melissa journaled from her own perspective.  She included her memories and impressions about each of these special relatives in her life.

From spyswife:

 

Two things I love about this pretty page:  1) She journaled just the facts.  Sometimes that's all we have, but it's still important that these things are recorded.  2) She created a digital page.  Heritage scrapbooking is a great way to delve into digital if you haven't.  That way you can create digital photobooks that other relatives can order if they'd like a copy.

I'm out of time and space here, but thanks again for a fun week and for sharing your inspiration with us.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and happy scrapping!

Photoshop Fixes for Older Photos

Congratulations to the winner of the Shutterfly Savvy class yesterday, and huge thanks to Debbie Hodge at Get It Scrapped for donating the prize!  I have made several Shutterfly albums and absolutely love them!  My favorite one was for a family reunion and each family got to order one—so simple to distribute (I didn’t have to make multiple copies), and so well-made and durable.  Everyone loved them.  I’ve also had the chance to take classes at Debbie’s site, and it is well worth the time and money.  I know you’ll enjoy it.

Anyway—back to today’s topic.  I’ve put together 2 examples to demonstrate some basic Photoshop fixes for older photos.  I work in Photoshop CS2, but these steps should be fairly similar in other versions of Photoshop, as well as in Photoshop Elements.  In the first example I’ve taken an older color photo that is faded and has sustained some scratches and spots, and the second one is an older black and white photo that is discolored and creased.  Let’s take a look at the magic of Photoshop!

 

Example 1: Original Photo

 

    

 

This is a photo I scanned of my paternal grandparents in front of their summer cabin in the 1950s.  It’s a color photo, but the color has faded over time.  And if you look carefully, you can see some small scratches and white spots where the color has come off completely. 

 

The first thing I’m going to do (after scanning at 600 dpi, renaming the file with names/ dates/places, and making a copy so I have the original unedited file if I need it) is try some auto adjustments to see where that gets me.  First I’ll do an auto levels adjustment (IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>AUTO LEVELS), and then I’ll try to bring back the original color with an auto color adjustment (IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>AUTO COLOR). 

 

The auto adjustments did a pretty good job, but I’d like a little more saturation and contrast, so I’m going to try a free action by Pioneer Woman called Fresh and Colorful.  The cool thing about this action is that it stops midway through and allows you to make adjustments based on each individual photo before it finishes.  After you download the action (CLICK HERE for Tina's post on photography tutorials and actions), just click on the actions palette at the top of your screen, select “fresh and colorful” and click on the play button.  Make the indicated adjustments, and then hit play again to finish.  Then right click on the photo layer (not action layer) in your layers palette and select “flatten image”.  You need to do this after you run each action if the action creates a new layer.

 

 

After running the fresh and colorful action, I’d still like a bit more color so I’m going to try Pioneer Woman's free "boost" action.  After running the action, I adjust the opacity of the action layer to 40% in my layers palette.  I like what this does, so I think I’m ready to finish off this photo.

 

Now I’m going to take care of the spots and scratches by using the “healing brush” in my tool bar, which is on the left side of my screen.  The healing brush icon looks like a mini band-aid.  Click on the icon and then move your cursor over your photo.  You’re basically going to select an area near the spot or scratch that is the same color you’d like your spot/scratch to be.  You do that by clicking on that area while holding down Alt + Shift.  Then move your cursor to the spot/scratch and click again. 

 

You have now replaced the damaged pixels with the good pixels you selected.  If you’d like to use those same colored pixels to replace other damaged spots move your cursor over them and click.  If you’d like to select a different set of pixels for another spot, move your cursor to those pixels, hold down alt + shift, and start the process all over again.  You can increase or decrease the size of the area of pixels you select by clicking on the “brush” drop down menu at the top left of your screen and adjusting the “diameter” slider.  Once I cover up all the spots and scratches my photo is almost done!

 

 

The last thing I’m going to do is remove extra noise in the photo by running it through noise reduction software.   Scanned photos often appear grainy and textured, and noise reduction software can help smooth them out a lot.  Some noise reduction software can be costly, but you can download a free community edition of Noiseware HERE.  After opening Noiseware, I ran the default filter on this photo and that was plenty to smooth it out.  Other more grainy photos might need a stronger filter to get the right results.

 

 

Now I can resize or crop the photo how I’d like and get a new print made.  Here's the before and after so you can see the difference:

 

 

 

 

Example 2: Original photo

 

This is a photo of my dad at about age 22.  It was originally black and white, but has become discolored and creased over time.  Let's see what we can do with this one.

I'll start by desaturating the photo to take all the color out.  This can either be done by clicking IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>DESATURATE, or by clicking IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>HUE/SATURATION, and then moving the saturation slider all the way to the left. 

Next I'm going to use the healing brush the same way I did in the first photo to remove some of the discolored streaks and creases/imperfections.  I can also use another technique if I need a more complete cover up of something large or obvious.  I can use my marquee tool in the tool bar at the left (looks like a square with a dotted line border) to draw out a small rectagle over part of the photo that has no imperfections and is the same color I want my imperfect part to be.  I then go to EDIT>COPY, and then EDIT>PASTE.  I then click on the move tool (looks like a little arrow at the top right of the tool bar) and move the pasted portion of the photo over to cover the imperfection.  I then flatten the image as I explained above.  Now the spot/crease/whatever is covered but still looks like the original photo.

Now I'd like to add a little more contrast to the black and white.  I click on IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>LEVELS.  I start by adjusting the black-colored slider (the one all the way to the left).  I'm going to drag that to the right a bit until the black is nice and dark.  Then I'm going to drag the white-colored slider (the one all the way to the right) over to the left a bit until my whites are nice and bright, but not blown out.  Then I'll drag the mid-tone (or gray) slider in the middle a bit to the left to brighten the whole thing up slightly.  The very last thing I do is run the photo through Noiseware to reduce extra noise and smooth it out using the default settings again.

Here's a look at the before and after so you can see the difference.  Not perfect, but so much better than the original:

 

Well, I hope these tips help you out with your heritage photos.  A lot of this is trial and error, and each photo is different and will need different adjustments made.  Don't give up--keep at it, be patient, and you'll figure it out.  It's amazing what Photoshop can do once you do figure it out.

Don't hesitate to ask questions in the comments section, and I'll be sure and respond as soon as I can.  Thanks for tuning in today.  Come back tomorrow and I'll highlight some of your fabulous childhood and heritage pages from the flickr gallery.  Happy scrapping!

and the giveaway goes to...

Congratulations goes to KristiGilbert who said

I think I find technique classes most useful, but I also love a class that inspires me to be more creative on my own.

Thank you to Debbie Hodge and Get It Scrapped! for their generosity in sponsoring our giveaway this week! KristiGilbert, we are so excited that you get to take a class from Pattie and know that you are going to love her and your class. And, of course, you are going to also love the new Shutterfly books you will make. Oh such fun! Please email your contact information to us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com by Saturday to claim your prize! Thank you!

For those of you who were not selected, sad for you! Ha ha. Teasing. You can try again next week, or of course, hop on over to Get It Scrapped! and sign up for Pattie''s class.

give.away.day. featuring GET IT SCRAPPED!

Today is Thursday and I know you are excited for

but I might be just as excited because we have something very special, not to mention incredibly helpful, to give to you today. But before I tell you what it is, let me introduce our giveaway sponsor,

The Get It Scrapped! website, begun in April 2008, shares its name with the book Get It Scrapped! written by site owner Debbie Hodge. The goal of both is to help scrapbookers, journalers, photographers, and all manner of diarists get their stories onto the page efficiently and well.

At Get It Scrapped!, over a dozen experienced teachers offer online classes covering scrapbook page design and technique, photo editing, art journaling, digital techniques, stamping, photography, and more. Classes concentrate on teaching skills rather than specific projects.

The two things central to every class at Get It Scrapped! are: 1) extensive written and illustrated lessons suitable for printing and future reference; and 2) active participation by teachers in the private class forums. Many classes are supplemented with video and live chats.

Even self-paced classes at Get It Scrapped! have a strong support component. As you will see if you are the lucky number in today's giveaway.

Today, you can leave a comment for a chance to be selected for a pass to the newest self-paced class on the Get It Scrapped! roster: Shutterfly Savvy 

with Pattie Knox. This class includes 6 detailed lessons, 4 digital page kits from the designers at DesignerDigitals, 16 page templates by teacher Pattie Knox, extensive forum support, and one 8”x8” Shutterfly photo book with a photo hard cover (not soft, not padded) to be ordered by 12/15/09.

Would you like to make photo books that are laid out to suit your photos? Would you like to use backgrounds, frames, and other charming details that are tailored to your album subject? Shutterfly Savvy, takes you step-by-step through the process for installing the necessary software, using digital templates to arrange your photos on the page in ways standard photobook formats don't allow, adding digital papers and embellishments of your choice, and getting all of this uploaded and laid out at the popular photobook service Shutterfly. Create your photo book once, and order as many copies as you like for friends and family.

Our Write. Click. Scrapbook. team loves to use minialbums as an effective way to not only preserve memories, but also burn through a stack of photos. And with Pattie's guidance to learn the in's and out's of Shutterfly, you will soon have a very effective tool in your box of tricks for making cool and delightful minialbums. (And the best part of Shutterfly albums? the "how many" button. With just the click of a button, you can print one for you, another for your mom, and a third for your mother-in-law. With the click of just one button. One little button. For familial and marital bliss. Try it. You'll see!)

If you would like to take this class you may sign up here. Or you may leave a comment telling us what kind of class you find most helpful (such as technique, tool, design, product...) and we will select one of you to get it for free! Comments will close at 8:00 pm PST and the lucky number will be drawn at random thereafter.

Don't forget it is the responsibility of the person behind the number to contact us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com by midnight Saturday to claim their gift!

Scrapping Your Heritage

Hey there!  Aly here again.  Happy hump day!  I hope you’re having a great week and that you’ve had a moment to check out my challenge: take one step closer to scrapping your childhood this week.  I know you’ll be glad you did!  Be sure to share your childhood pages with us in the Flickr gallery (see link at top of page).

 

Part of scrapping about you is scrapping where you come from, or your heritage.  After I got a box of childhood photos from my mom, a box of older heritage photos came along and I have really enjoyed digging into these.  Since I try to keep up with current photos and occasionally do a childhood page for me, I only do a heritage page every few months.  But that’s okay.  The point is they’re getting done, right?

 

Here are a few ideas for heritage pages that I’ve come up with over the years:

 

1. Find out as much info as you can about the photo.  I called up my mom and asked her some questions about this photo.  Then I just journaled whatever she could remember.  It was so fun to listen to her reminisce!   Contact a relative and ask them about a heritage photo.

 

2. Make up some interview questions for a relative.  For this layout I asked my mom some questions about their courtship, engagement, and wedding.  I included the responses in the journaling boxes around the photo taken just before they got married.  Consider making up some questions to ask a relative.

 

3. Include multiple photos of the same relative on the same page (if you have them).  I wanted to have a few photos of my mom at different ages on this page.  I journaled about the approximate dates, places, and names that she remembered.  Try grouping multiple heritage photos together on one page.

 

4. Scrap “Then and Now” photos.  I love this photo of my parents just 2 days after they got married.  I paired it with a photo of my parents celebrating 30 years together.  Consider scrapping a photo of a relative as a young child with a current photo of them. 

 

5. Journal about heritage photos from your perspective.  While it’s important to get your relatives’ takes on these older photos, consider journaling about the photo from your perspective as well.  On this page I journaled about the who/what/when/where of the photo, but also included my thoughts about what this stage in life may have been like for my parents.  Be sure and journal from your own perspective on some of your heritage pages.
 

 

6. If nothing else is possible, just include the facts.  These last pages only include the facts (names, approx. dates, places) I was able to gather about these photos since my parents were either too young to remember, or they weren’t there.  If you can't get much info about a photo, don't worry.  Just scrap what you can--that's better than not scrapping it, right?

 

 

 

Hopefully these tips have inspired you to give heritage pages a go.  It can seem overwhelming to get started, but just like scrapping your childhood, no one else will do it for you.  If you just get started, you'll be so glad you did!  That's all I have for today.  Come back tomorrow for give-away day--you won't want to miss it!!  Happy scrapping!

Scrapping Your Story: Part 2

Hello fellow scrappers, Aly Dosdall here again with some more tips on scrapping your childhood photos.  Yesterday a few of our awesome readers asked a very good question.  In fact, the answer to that question is exactly what I was planning on posting about today, so I’ll go ahead and do that.

 

The question is: Do you scan in your older photos and print a copy of them, or do you use the original photo?

 

The answer is:  I never use an original if I’m working with a photo that I do not have a digital copy of.  That includes heritage, childhood, and pre-digital photos that I took.  I always make sure I have a digital copy of every photo I ever scrap.  That way if I ever need another copy, I can easily make one.  Plus, if it’s an older photo that’s damaged, faded, or discolored, I can fix it up in Photoshop if I have a digital version of it. 

 

Let me share with you a few tips I have learned as I have scrapped some older photos:

 

1. Always scan in your original photo.  I usually scan in my older photos at 600 dpi so that I have more pixels to work with.  That makes the file size pretty large, but I always end up cropping them anyway.  The image quality is much better that way.
2. Use names, dates, and events when renaming your scanned photo.  For example, if I just scanned in a photo of me on my 8th birthday, I might rename the file “me_8th birthday_1982”.  That way when you go to scrap it, you won’t look at the photo and wonder when/what/whom it’s about.
3. Look before you crop.  On several of my childhood photos that I scanned I started to crop close in to get a better focus on the subjects.  Then I noticed little details of my childhood home and possessions.  I felt like they were too precious to crop, so instead of focusing on “well-composed” photos I focused on pointing out fun details in my photos that may have been forgotten.  Be sure to take a good look at your photos before you crop them to see if there are any details that you would like to preserve.
4. Include any memorabilia that goes with your photos.  Be sure to scan this in as well, so you have a copy of the original.  I had my birth announcement, the label from my hospital crib, and even my hospital bracelet.  I included the scanned images of these on one of my scrapbook pages.  You can scan newspaper articles, announcements, invitations, etc. and include a printed version of these on your page.  They’ll preserve much better if printed on acid-free paper.

  

 

The photo in the above page was a polaroid.  I scanned it in at high resolution, did some enhancing and editing, and then printed a new copy.  I also left some background details uncropped (the Thanksgiving table setting) and journaled about my Mom's china, and the event this photo is from.

 

 

The photo in the above page is another one I left uncropped so I could journal about the details in the background, including my older sister's half cropped body drinking a bottle.  I also included some scanned in birth memorabilia on this page so I could pair it with this photo since it's the earliest one of me.

 

 

The photo on the above page was scanned in at high res, edited, and reprinted.  I could have cropped closer to focus on my older sister and me, but I wanted to leave in the bed we were sitting on.  My parents kept that bedspread for years--I can still remember it and I'm glad there's a photo of it somewhere.

 

I hope some of what I've share today has inspired you to get started scrapping some older photos of you.  Like I said yesterday, if we don't scrap ourselves, no one else will.  Consider it a gift from you to the people who love you the most.  Thanks for stopping in, and be sure to come back tomorrow for some tips on scrapping heritage photos.  Happy scrapping!

 

Scrapping Your Story: Part 1

Hey there scrappy friends! Aly Dosdall here, and I’m so excited (and a bit nervous) to be your hostess this week here at write.click.scrapbook. Happy Labor Day to our U.S. readers! Thanks for popping in today. When you're done be sure to relax with family and friends and take some photos, okay?

One thing related to scrapbooking that I really feel passionately about (among others) is making sure to scrap YOUR story. Many of us scrapbookers enjoy scrapping our children, grandchildren, pets, friends, etc, but have a hard time scrapping pages about ourselves. While scrapping the important people in our lives is absolutely worth our time, we need to make sure there is enough information recorded about US for our posterity and friends to enjoy as well.

A few years ago my Mom sent me several of my childhood photos.  At first when I got them I stuck them in a folder and let them sit there, feeling completely overwhelmed at the thought of scrapping them. Then one day I just decided to get started because if I didn’t, no one else would. I went through what I had and organized the photos into categories: Infant/Toddler, Elementary School, and Jr High/High School. Then I just took one photo at a time and recorded some thoughts/memories about it. I picked out a collection of papers that fit the time period (late 70’s/early 80’s), got a pack of white cardstock, and went to work. At this point I’ve finished through some of high school and it has been so fun to relive these memories for myself, and to share them with my own children.

Today I thought I would pass on a few tips about scrapping your own childhood:

1. Just get started!  Don’t worry about waiting until you gather and organize all your photos.  You may never start!  Just take what you have and make a page.  It doesn’t need to be perfectly organized and coordinated—it’s better to have something recorded than to worry about how perfect the album looks. 

 

In my album, some pages ended up having nicely coordinated designs and products, and some did not since I didn’t get ahold of some of the photos until after I had finished most of the album. Most are traditional pages, but a few are digital. Does that matter in the grand scheme of things?  Absolutely not.  What matters is the photos and memories are recorded.

 

2.   Keep the colors and designs simple.  If you have a lot of photos to get through, don’t make each page your most amazing and time consuming work of art or you’ll never get the album finished.

In my album I kept the background cardstock white, used coordinating products, and kept the designs simple so I could finish each page in 15 or 20 minutes.  That way I was able to complete three or four pages each time I sat down to work on the album. 

 

 3.  Journal what you can.  If you can’t remember the photos try asking a parent, sibling, or other family member who might remember.  If there’s no one to ask, just journal any memories or feelings that the photo evokes.  Take your time and don’t stress about it.  Try to think about what your children or grandchildren would like to read about in the future. 

 

On this page I journaled about something I love about my Mom—her love of reading and books which she passed on to us kids.

This spread features photos from 3 different events and times.  What ties them together is that they all represent a family tradition.  Rather than record details about each separate event, I journaled about some of my favorite family traditions and why they were important to me.

4.  Sometimes you may not need to journal much.  Just try to record facts: dates (even if it’s approximate), places, names, event or occasion.  You never know how this information might come in handy for a descendant in 100 years!

In both the above and below pages I used brief list-style journaling.  I didn’t really know or remember much about each photo, but when grouped together I was able to record meaningful memories even with the brief journaling.

 

And now a challenge:  take at least ONE step toward scrapping your childhood if you haven’t.  You could gather some childhood photos, organize the photos you have, choose a few to start scrapping, or create a childhood page.   When you finish your page, post it in the flickr gallery.  I’ll be checking out the gallery, and will share your creations on Saturday. 

Well fellow scrappers, that’s all for today.  Come back tomorrow for a few more tips on scrapping your childhood.  Wednesday I’ll talk about scrapping heritage photos, Thursday is another give-away day (woo hoo!), Friday I’ll share some tips on fixing older/faded photos in photoshop, and Saturday I’ll showcase some of YOUR pages from the write.click.scrapbook. flickr gallery.  Happy scrapping!!

Littlest Bird

 

photo by Kim Morgan

With this, my week is over.

There are always exceptions to the rules. As much as I talk about having plenty of journaling and using lots of photos, there are many times when I throw all that out the window. Rules are meant to be broken! Okay, so maybe not for me as I'm a total rule stickler.

There are plenty of times I only use one picture, if one picture can tell the story I want to tell. That's all I needed for my Just Temporary layout from Tuesday. I could have found other pictures that demonstrated how Mackenzie was acting at the time, but really that one photo said it all. Plus, with so much journaling, I needed the room. I also only used one picture on Three from Wednesday. To me, that picture was so Emma that I didn't need another one. 

Every so often I don't journal. It's rare, but it happens. ;) Like this page I did about the girls wearing dresses in the summer. Yes, I could have added a few lines about how I love all the cute dresses they wear, but I think the title and pictures alone get the point across.

And I might just have a little (big) pile of layouts waiting for journaling b/c I just couldn't get down what I was trying to say. Also in said pile - layouts with just a picture and nothing else, layouts with no titles (because I hate coming up with titles more than anything.), and layouts just needing the date. Yep, just a date. Yet I can't seem to do that one simple thing. Although whenever I do get around to it, they'll go from the unfinished pile to the to-be-put-in-appropriate-album pile.

 

While I do create a lot of layouts heavy with journaling, sometimes my journaling consists of quite a bit less. It's about making that bit count though. Get as much as you can into those few sentences - feelings, facts, impressions, your voice, realness.

 

This page only has a few sentences, but I like to think I made them count. 

 

 

I found this picture of Mackenzie in a pile of pictures that need to go in albums. (Side note - last time I put pictures in an album Emma was 4 months old. She's 3 1/2 now.) I immediately focused on the stork bite above her lip. I realized I hadn't scrapbook about this tiny little birthmark and I wanted to make sure it was included in her album. Is this the most heartfelt, meaningful journaling I've ever written? Nope. But it does tell the story and that was important to me.

 
On Monday, I challenged you to take a childhood photo and create a layout where journaling about the photo is the focus of the page. I said I would be playing along this week, and I did.



When I looked at this photo, I tried to imagine what Emma might ask about it years from now, if all she saw was the picture and no story to go with it. I then tried to answer those questions in my journaling.

A few random things before I go:
     - When I print multiple photos, I do it at home using Photoshop Elements 4. I don't plan ahead. When I need pictures for a layout, I sit down and go through all my pictures, finding some that inspire me to create a layout. I choose what size to print based on how many there are and what I want to focus on. I don't sketch, I don't pre-plan. I base my layout design around the photos. I'm really a make-it-up-as-I-go-along kind of scrapper.
     - Some of my favorite products/tools right now? Ribbon. I recently got back in to ribbon. I haven't been real creative with it, every time I use it it's the same way, although I'm not sure what the exact word for it is, I guess pleating it, maybe?  Border punches. I have three and need more. Thickers. Still my favorite thing for titles. Foam squares. Most stickers are better when attached with a foam square. Circle accent stickers. These are the things I turn to over and over again when creating my pages.
     - I don't worry too much about imperfections. As much as I measure to make sure things are evenly spaced, something always looks crooked. Sometimes I have typos. Sometimes I'll move something on a page and it leaves the surface of the cardstock roughed up. I leave it. If I kept trying to fix everything, I'd never get any pages done.
     - In the last two weeks I've created eleven new pages. Waaaay more than I normally do in that time period! I think I'm going to step away from my scrapbook table this coming week. But just for a week, since I'm cropping with a friend next Saturday. Plus, I've really got to finish that December Daily album!
     - I take that back. I have to be at the table. I need to clean it. Because this is what it looks like right now. I can't scrapbook, or pack for the crop, until this all gets cleaned up and put away. I have to say I'm not looking forward to tackling this:

I hope you've enjoyed this week. If you're not really in to journaling, I hope something this week has prompted you to give it a try. And if you are like me and love to journal, maybe I've given you a new way to go about it. The same goes for multi-photo pages. Maybe you'll add an extra picture or two to the next layout you create. It's been fun blogging here at WCS, reading everyone's comments and seeing all your pages in the Flickr gallery.

Have a great weekend,

One photo, two photo, three photo, four.

I really love using multiple photos on a page. Of course, this doesn't mean I always do multi-photo pages or that I think they're always necessary. It just seems to work out that most of my layouts have more than one photo. Sometimes just two - it's not like I'm always squeezing 9 pictures on an 8.5x11 page! 

One obvious way to use multiple photos is on event layouts - Christmas, Thanksgiving and birthdays. I'll share one of those in a moment. But I don't do nearly as many of those as I do personality and just everyday pages. One of my favorite things to do is to use pictures from different time periods on one layout, like this page about Mackenzie climbing everywhere. (Funny thing about this, after I'd finished it, I found another climbing layout from a few months ago. Two things to point out about this: 1. She's been climbing since birth. 2. It's just another example of my poor retention skills.)

 

I easily could have created one page each time I found her climbing on something new.  But by combining photos from a period of time, it shoes how long she's been doing this and just how often it occurs. (Again, apparently enough to warrant two different layouts.)

 

I have a few pages planned about things we've done this summer, and for all them I'll be doing this same thing - using photographs of the same activity from different days throughout the summer. The girls playing with chalk and the various things drawn; the pool; playing at all the different parks we went to this summer; riding bikes. They're all are on my to-scrap list.

 

When it comes to printing my photos for a multi-photo layout, I have a favorite format - the photo strip. Often my photos are sized 2x3/3x2 and I use both horizontal strips, like in the Cinderella Q&A and 85 Words layouts posted on Wednesday and vertical strips, as in the I Did It layout from Tuesday.

Here are two pages using my beloved photo strip, but containing different sized photos than my go-to 2x3. This layout uses the horizontal photo strip, but with narrower photos.


This one uses a smaller, vertical strip.



When I sat down to scrap last year's Halloween, I had a lot of pictures I wanted to include. I narrowed it down to seven, but that was still quite a few to fit on one page. I don't do two-page layouts very well. Or very often. I decided to do a photo collage in Photoshop Elements because I thought this would be the easiest way to make them all fit on the page in a neat and tidy way. (Not sure if you can tell, but I actually cut them apart once I'd printed them, thinking I was going to do it a different way. Then I just put them back the way they were. Should've gone with my first instinct and left them alone.)

 

Obviously, that didn't leave a lot of room for journaling. I decided to stick with just-the-basics journaling. For an event page like this, it worked. I have thought about doing another page detailing how Emma chose her costume, because it's a cute story and one that should probably be recorded. I'll just add that to my 12-page long to-scrap list.

When scrapping events, one thing I like to do is make a page giving an overview of the event and then if there's any special, funny or meaningful story that occurred, scrap that separately so I can give it all the attentions (read: journaling) it needs.

I went through my layouts and pulled out some pages with different multi-photo arrangements.

8 photos:


3 photos:


2 photos:



Today's challenge: Create a layout using multiple photos from different time periods. Please post your layouts, making note of the challenge, in the Flickr gallery. Happy Friday!