making photo collages . . .

i get asked a lot about how i make my photo collages. they're one of my favorite ways to scrap. i love the clean, linear look to them. i have a few ways of doing these. so i thought i would post about each and give some examples.

the first way is the easiest way i think. i just grab some 4x6 photos ... and trim them until they make a collage. i start slow and trim small bits of the photo ... usually in 1/4 or 1/2 inch increments. i keep trimming them one by one ... until they all fit together nicely. a ruler is my friend ... several rulers, in fact. i'm actually surprised sometimes how easy this is to do. they all just sort of fall into place and end up looking good. once i have them all trimmed to fit, i adhere the photos onto a sheet of white cardstock, usually leaving a small gap in between the photos. if i have any gaps that aren't working with the photos ... i will add some pattern paper or something in that spot. here are a few samples. all the photos on these two layouts were 4x6 to start with.

 

 

or sometimes i will resize and crop my photos, arranging them randomly on a sheet of photo paper to print. then i just trim them all into individual photos ... and arrange them into a collage myself. once again, i just adhere them to white cardstock. this is handy when i don't necessarily know what order i want my photos in or how they're going to be arranged on the layout. i just know that they will end up in a collage type look. these next 2 layouts are examples of that.

 

on "crazy", the photos were all 2x3 ... and i just adhered them together on a white piece of cardstock. you'd never know, right? looks like i printed them in one long strip.

 

"january 2009" ... all photos were printed here at home. then i trimmed them all apart and adhere them back together. still has the collage look ... just pieced together to get that look.

sometimes, i make my collages in photoshop. it's actually pretty easy. i just pull up any photos i want to use, and decide how big i want my collage. then i figure out the size to make my photos, so that they'll fit within that collage. once i have them on there ... i print the collages as one entire photo. here are a few samples.

 

"fabulous" is a 9x9 layout. and the actual photo collage is only about 4 inches by 6 inches. so this is a pretty small collage .. and yet, i don't think it looks that small on the actual layout.

 

"busy" is another 9x9 layout. the collage part of this is about 8x8 ... although there is space on the left side and the top of the collage, where i added pattern paper and embellishments. so i'm guessing the actual photos are about 6x6 in size.

 

"softball" is a 12x12 layout. the top photo collage holds 5 photos ... and is about 3 inches by 9 inches (i'm guessing, since i don't have it in front of me). then i just added the single photo on it's own on the bottom of the layout.

now, don't hold me to this being the "right" way or the "only" way ... but here are the simple steps i use for my collages.

1. open up your photo and do any cropping and editing

 

2. select >Image and then >Resize and then >Image Resize ... crop to the actual size you want you photo to be in print (2x3, 3x3, etc) and make sure you have your dpi set at 300

 

3. use the rectangular marquis tool to select the entire image

 

4. select >Edit and then >Copy

 

5. select >File and then >New ... select the canvas size for the background of the collage (i choose it by inches, set the resolution at 300 pixels/inch, and set the background as transparency, and color more as RGB 8 bit)

 

6. when the new canvas opens, select >Edit and then >Paste ... that will copy your cropped photo onto the new background

 

7. select the move tool and place the arrow on your photo ... move it to where ever you want on the background collage (you can always move any photo you add, at any point. just click on whatever layer that photo is, and hit the "move" tool)

 

8. repeat the steps of copying any newly cropped images and pasting them onto the background, using the move tool to arrange each one 

 

9. once you have all your images pasted on and arranged where you like them ... select >Layer and then >Flatten Image

 

10. now you can print. either print as is ... or copy and paste collage onto an 8.5x11 canvas to print.

 

when choosing a canvas size ... i try and just figure out how i want my collage. if i want all the pics together as one whole piece ... or if i'm just adding pics in to cut them up seperately. if i want them together ... i do a little math to figure out how big to make the collage. once you do this for a while ... it's super easy. you can always just do a 8.5x11 background and add all your photos and space them equally ... and then cut around them. or you can do a background with the exact dimensions of what you want and then add it to your photo paper to print.

 

and last but not least ... there are the collage templates. i like the ones from scrapbook etc magazine, you can find them HERE. they have tons of them that you can download ... in rectangle templates, square templates, and even card templates. there's a video that will walk you through the steps ... and tons of ideas on what you can do with them. the first few times i used these, it did take me a while to figure out. but they really are simple once you get the hang of them. here are 2 layouts i've done with them.

 

  

 

 

 

that was a ton of information ... hope some of it makes sense! and feel free to ask any questions you might have on any of this. i will do my best to answer what i can :)

Comments

[Sara Rossi]

You make it look so easy!! I'm in awe of the fact that a lot of these were originally 4x6 pics! I think I want to lift each & every LO you have on here--if I haven't already! LOL!!! You ROCK my friend!

[cathy]

oh, you rock, laura! I was just trying to remember the last time you had this info on your blog! When i tried to make my own in pse7, my images did not keep the right size when i dragged them onto the canvas. i'll try your way and hope i do it right this time. the grid helps too, when trying to make sure you have the right sizes on the canvas. (view--->grid) :)

[Suzanne]

Thanks for sharing so much information! I will have to try this soon. Loving your projects! I loved the wedding layout you designed in the current Scrapbook Trends. It was gorgeous.
Have a great week!

[lynda p]

i would have have never guessed that u did it that way. now the pedastol image of you being comp. savy is gone...lol
that is awesome.....i'm gonna try that way...

lynda in calif

[Kelly]

thank you so much for sharing!!! i was going to try digital scrapbooking...clueless.

[Sandi N.]

Laura

I never get tired of all the great tips and wonderful layout you post on your blog! You are amazing and so blessed with talent.

As always thanks for sharing! I will be sure to keep playing with my photos.

Sandi N.

[jakki]

Thanks for posting this! I'm big on a lot of pictures on my layouts and this helps.

[Karen]

What software do you use?

[Marissa]

Thanks for the time it took to post this! I will be trying this out this summer! Someone on two peas was asking how to do this, I was going to post this, but never am sure of the etiquite...is it ok to post your blog on two peas? Thanks, Laura!

[carla]

Laura,
You are so super sweet for sharing all this information in detail!! I really appreciate it and so do your readers. So nice to see so many LO's! I love the photo strip idea. That is an idea I need to use.
Its nice to have so many options to make collages. I think that beginner and intermediate scrappers don't think of using sizes other than 4x6...just changing up the size can make a huge difference.

[kandis]

I hope you know how much you ROCK girl!! Love all your pages... always!!

[sasha farina]

thanks for spelling that out for me.. Hahaha.. i never can figure out how to make one if not for you!

[Kathy]

Hi Laura, I love doing photo collages and I think you inspired me some time back. It is sometimes challenging to get the right look and you make it look easy. I will make samples of your ideas to refer back to. Thanks again for posting this. Kathy

[Susan D.]

just catching up with you...been a little MIA recently...you've been rocking those beats-umm layouts! boom, boom, pow!! i agree with sara...you do make it so easy and you are oh so liftable!! hope things are good your way!!

[Heather Crawford]

Your collage layouts are always my favorites! I just wanted to mention the collage function in Picasa too..when you want to make them super quickly and easily! I'm in awe that you can trim 4x6 photos down like that! Awesome post! The Donna Downey book "Photos First Apporach to making layouts" has tons of layout ideas using the "trim down" method of collage making..fyi..I have a really hard time doing it that way...

[Heather M.]

you totally rock! i love, love, love your work! beautiful layouts!

[Jodie]

Thank you so much for this post. You have explained it all well. I don't have photoshop yet, DH keeps promising, but I take heart that you do just crop down photos some of the time.