Photostrip Tutorial...

I love using photostrips on my layouts.  As I scrap A4 sized pages, it's an easy way to include multiple photos without crowding the page.

I've recently seen various Smartphone apps that produce photostrips and there's probably websites out there to do it for you too, but I create my own using Picasa.  If you haven't used Picasa before, it's a free program to download that allows you to organise and simply edit your photos.  The feature that I most use is the 'collage' creator and that's where I make my photostrips. 

For any of the following images, click on them to see a larger version.
 

*In the Picasa ‘Library’, select the album/folder where your pictures are.  

*Click ‘Create’ tab followed by ‘Picture Collage’ option.  You may find that it automatically creates a collage using all the photos in that location.  If so, just click ‘select all’ then ‘remove’ which should clear the page and add them back onto the ‘clips’ tab.

1.Click ‘Settings’ tab:

                            
2. Select Layout: 'Picture Pile'

    
3. Choose 'Custom Aspect Ratio: 6 x 4 (portrait)'

                

               

*On the 'Clips’ Tab:

4. Select photos: Hold down the Ctrl button and click your chosen pictures.  Click the Green cross to add them to collage.  Alternatively, you can simply drag them across onto the collage page.

  

5. Click on an image to separate them and drag around the page:

6. Click on one of the pictures.  You can now drag using the hand cursor to change the size and position.  Once you get one photo to the size that you're happy with, you can then drag the next one on top of the first and alter the size until they are exactly the same, then repeat. 

  

7. Drag the photos and align them, leaving a border around and between them all:

*Now is when I decide whether to leave a white border or change it, usually to black.  I often try both to see which colour makes the photos stand out.  To change the colour of the background, click on the 'Settings' tab and then hover over the coloured square (8) next to the dropper tool.  This will bring up the range of colours that you can choose:

    
9. Click on ‘Create Collage’ button and it will save it as a finished image which can be sent to print.   

*Once the collage is finished, it is really easy to change it all into Black & White.

10. Click on the ‘Effects’ tab and choose B & W too or one of the other colour effects:

11. Send to print, if you are printing at home.

*Once printed, you’ll be able to trim to leave an equal border and make it into a 'photostrip'.


Here's the first layout that I made this month using photostrips:

I'm a big fan of stickers and when I saw the new 'Boarding Pass' range from October Afternoon, I knew that I wanted to try to create a layout mainly using the stickers rather than papers.  I teamed them with some sticker sheets by Jillibean Soup, which are fantastic value, particularly the 12x12 sheet which includes two alpha sets plus labels and various tags and shapes.

The Boarding Pass range also encouraged me to dip back into some old photos and scrap some of my travels.  This layout documents our honeymoon in Paris, seven years ago. 

My Supply List:
Paper: 
October Afternoon - Boarding Pass - Amsterdam

Sticker Sheets:
October Afternoon - Boarding Pass - 12x12 Shape Stickers
October Afternoon - Boarding Pass - Word Stickers 
October Afternoon - Boarding Pass - Label Stickers 
Jillibean Soup - Soup Labels - Journalling Sentiments
Jillibean Soup - Soup Labels - Days of the Week
Jillibean Soup - Sweet and Sour Soup - Label Stickers
Jillibean Soup - Homemade 6 Bean Soup - 12x12 Stickers

Letter Stickers:
October Afternoon - Boarding Pass - Mini Market Alpha Stickers

Die Cut Sheets:
Jillibean Soup - Homemade 6 Bean Soup - 12x12 Die Cuts

Back tomorrow with another layout using Photostrips.