Scrapbook & Cards Today: Happiness Is Being With My Girls

I'm up on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog today with a brand new layout share, and I'm talking a little bit about one of my favorite ways to get a TON of photos on my pages. If you know me at all, then you know I'm talking about photo collages. I’ve been using photo collages on my layouts for over 7 years now (I went and double checked that, just to be sure). Whenever I want to use a large amount of photos on my layouts, collages are my go-to way of getting all of those photos onto the page in a clean and organized way. 

On this layout, I was able to fit 10 photos onto one page, and I still had plenty of room to “play” with my patterned papers and embellishments. My style has always been very linear, and I love how clean the photos look when they’re all together within the collage.

I recently picked up the new Plus One collection, from Amy Tangerine, and I couldn't wait to use it for this layout. I actually dug into it for a few cards as well a few weeks ago, but I can't share those for a while ;) I love the bold colors and graphic feel to the patterns. I had plans on working in a few of the 3x4 cards that are on a few of the papers, but once I settled on using a photo collage, that plan had to be changed.

Not the best shot here, but can you see the die cut circle strip mixed in between the patterned papers? That's another leftover piece from THIS layout. I make a good effort to use up leftover scraps and die cut pieces. I could have easily cut another piece of patterned paper to add in there, but two rows of the cirlces fit perfecty, so I just went with it.

I spritzed it lightly with some aqua misting spray. And then I didn't realize I had a blotch of it on the backside and moved it too quickly, which is why I ended up with a nice smear there on my background paper (and on the desk and a few other things as well).

I used a template from Kerri Bradford's Storyboard #6 kit, which was originally meant to hold 11 photos. But I did a little tweaking to the template to make it work for my 10 photos, by combining two smaller photo openings to make one larger opening. I did a video tutorial on that almost two years ago, which you can view HERE.

Another reason that collages are so nice to work with is that once you have your finished collage printed out and trimmed, you are really only working with 1 large photo (the collage itself), rather than a stack of individual photos that would have to be arranged and adhered. I won't lie. I like shortcuts like that.

I knew I wanted to use a strip of the yellow paper across the bottom of the page. It does have a "white washed" sort of look to it, but it was still just a little too "solid" yellow for my liking. I decided to run it through an embossing folder to add some texture to it. I've been using my embossing folders a ton lately (but on projects I can't share). After embossing it, I spritzed it very lightly with black misting spray.

The fun camera badge, as well as the black/white fabric brads shown above, are from Amy's Plus One collection too. I also added in some pink and aqua buttons from My Favorite Things. Love their buttons!

For my title, I chose the "happiness" cut from the Silhouette store, and cut it from black cardstock and the aqua patterned paper from the Plus One collection. I used some pink alpha stickers from Bella Blvd to complete my title.

If you haven't tried creating photo collages, you should really give it a try sometime. I mostly use pre-made templates for my collages, but I have created a few of my own here and there. We've made two of those templates available for download over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog. They're simpl designs and easy to use. Perfect if you are just wanting to try them out, as they're free! You can head over and download them, RIGHT HERE.

Comments

[Ruth G]

Such a fabulous collage and wonderful layout! I love the colors you chose and the stitching is my favorite embellishment (OK, those buttons and badges/brads are pretty awesome, too...)!
Thanks so much for all you share! This is really a sweet way to show how much enjoy being with your girls!

[Sara Rossi]

Love this! You make me want to clear off my desk and make a layout! It's been too long and I miss it.