year in review 2008 . . .

when i got the january issue of scrapbooks etc ... i came across a layout by my friend, sarah klemish (on page 38). it was in an article about gathering your favorite photos from an entire year onto a single page layout. sarah's layout was gorgeous ... she had 40 photos done up in a collage for her page. i knew right away that i had to make my own. last night was the perfect night ... since it was the end of the year!

 

this is a total scraplift ... and i'm not afraid to admit that. i love a good scraplift. when something is this good ... why mess with it. lol! loved the colors. green, red, turgouise, black, and white ... my favorites. i did switch the green and turgouise around. and i used a rubon flourish ... where she used an overlay flourish. and i didn't do any machine stitching ... but added in some penwork. but really ... it's the same design. even the font is the same. 

 

40 photos on one page ... how genious! this actually wasn't that hard. partly because i had already picked out my favorite photos from the past year while making those gift albums a few weeks ago. so i had them narrowed down pretty good. another thing that helped speed this up was the "see the sketch" tear-out sheet in the magazine (link isn't to the exact sketch, but some online sketches that are just as good). i love this ... i tear them all out and keep them all together. it highlights some of the pages in the magazine that month ... and gives you a sketch of the design, including photo sizes. so i didn't have to do any math on this ... or try and figure out how big sarah made the photos. it told me right there ... that each photo was 1 x 1.5 inches. took me all of 10 minutes to pull up 40 photos, resize them to 1 x 1.5 inches, and arrange them in a collage. then i simply printed this out on my photo printer ... and scrapped it.

 

the journaling actually took me the longest. lol! i liked how sarah just highlighted some of the big events of the year in short sentences. but then my mind went blank ... you'd think we didn't do anything all year. lol! the girls thought it was funny that i put "high school musical 3 came out" on there ... but it was a big event of the year. lol! and i give my printer some mad props for actually printing straight for once (my regular printer, not my photo printer). it always pulls the paper in crooked ... and then i have to try and cut the journaling into straight pieces. and it would have bugged me to no end if the journaling on here didn't match up to the grid pattern. lol!

so once again ... a big "thank you" to sarah for inspiring me once again with her creative genious! and for letting me "borrow" another one of her designs! i love this layout ... and i think i'm going to frame it and put it up on the wall somewhere in the house. so much cooler than tucking this away in an album somewhere.

supplies:
cardstock - bazzill (turgouise, red, white, black), american crafts (green)
pattern paper - scenic route
chipboard - basic grey
die cut label - creative cafe
rubon - basic grey
font - "old remington" by autumn leaves

Comments

[erin yamabe]

what a beautiful layout, laura. i'm with you, if it's already wonderful, why mess with it?

[michelle lanning]

I was thinking of lifting that layout too -- just need to find the time! Yours looks beautiful!

Did ya get the kit?

[Sasha]

When I saw the LO I totally was like big huge labs here I come LOLOL .. I love it .. and yah I thought about the 365 too, I should, I would love to capture pics of both hubs and I in uniform more, and out of it and also of the boys..great inspiration..everyone I know is talking about it LOL

Happy New Year
Sasha

[nette]

Hey Laura,

this looks so beautiful! Nice idea - and a awesome layout!

Best wishes!

[lutin]

Happy new year to you and all your family, wishing you the best for 2009.

[Marissa]

Cool layout! I haven't done one of these collages yet, can you believe it? First do you have to set your canvas size? What size was that? Then is it as simple as lining them up straight? Thanks for answering my millions of questions lately! When I go back to work I won't be bugging you as much!

[wendy lojik]

That is an awesome idea!

[Deneen]

Love the layout Laura and wish I had 40 good photo's from the year LOL. Maybe next year as my photo skill start to improve (wishful thinking on my part LOL). Of course I have to get my girls to cooperate LOL maybe bribery will work.

[kristan martin]

I love this! I don't get how you printed the pictures all on one. Was it a collage in Elements or what?

[Laura T.]

I love this ---- I guess if I actually opened that issue of my magazine I would see this article. I'm assuming you printed everything out as one photo?

[jaKKI]

I really love this idea!! But my hard part is deciding the pictures.

[Heather Jordan]

Looks great, as always, Laura!! Thanks for the link to Sarah. Love her layouts as much as I love yours. I've been looking at her stuff on Two Peas. You guys rock!! You've got me thinking about switching to one- page layouts. I always try to do two- pagers, but I don't always have enough photos. Now I know where to look for inspiration....Laura and Sarah!
Thanks,
Heather

[Heather M.]

Totally awesome layout, Laura! I love the big '08! And I agree, why mess with something good - I love a good scraplift too! :) All those photos look awesome!
My printer does the same thing - pulls paper through crooked - argh! Drives me crazy!
I'm glad yours printed straight for you though. It looks awesome on the grid

[Sara Rossi]

Saw this in the magazine & marked it to lift too! This came out great (including the straight journaling!)! Still working on my re-sizing-collage-making abilities in Photoshop!! I'm starting to feel hopeless! LOL!

[Alicia]

great layout, even if it is scraplifted....git r done, right! lol!

[Mary]

Laura,

This is AWESOME! and I had the same wish to lift her layout too! So very cool and good timing too. I should add this to my list of things to do :)

[Carla]

I love this so much Laura!! I would never have the patience or ability to prep all those pics. I give you kudos!!! And I LOVE the colors here. So pretty!

[Lynn G]

Love this layout! I wanted to lift her layout as well - so genius the way she put everything together but it still looks so clean and uncluttered. And I love that font too! Hope you had a great New Year's!

[Krista]

i may make this a lift of a lift :)

[judy]

i was thinking of doing this myself. now i am even more motivated - your's is awesome.

i like stopping by here and seeing what you've done. i love your style.

thanks for sharing!

[Sandi]

Laura

This is really a great layout and perfect for this time of year.

Thanks for the link to sketches. This is the way I scrap is using sketches or looking at great blogs like yours. Again, thanks for sharing all the cool stuff you do.

Sandi N.

[Katie]

and this is one of my favorite layouts that you've done!!! AWESOME!!

[Melinda]

I like this idea...I need to make a collage of my favorites from 2008. I do not think I will be as quick with the resizing and collaging as you- wow 10 minutes. Photoshop and I have a love/hate relationship most days!

[Lisa D]

40 photos? You TOTALLY rock Laura.

[Renee]

I scanned the comments to make sure you didn't answer this, but how did you make the collage?