4th of July and Photoshop Tutorial

I love a simple, quick layout.  I'm big on journaling, but recently I've found some freedom in NOT journaling.  Especially when I'm scrapping a yearly event like the 4th of July.  This time it was about the pictures, there really wasn't much story to tell.

I found this cute layout on a blog post at WriteClickScrapbook.com

I did a pretty literal lift of this layout.  I knew that this would work perfectly with my favorite landscape pics from our 4th of July celebration.

I have loved this flag paper for a long time, but never found the right layout for it.  The muted tones of these pictures worked perfectly for this paper.  I used a 5x7 print of my favorite shot from the day.  I used a 1/2 in strip of red and a 2 in strip of the flag paper.

I cut the letters out of white cardstock. I knew that I wanted to pop up some of them so I cut some chipboard in the same font.  I make my chipboard out of cereal boxes.  I inked the edges with red ink, and sprayed the letters with silver glimmer mist.  I LOVE how they turned out.  I actually wish I had gold glimmer mist.  I think it would have worked better on the tones of this layout, but I don't so I used what I had.  :)

On the inspiration layout there were strips of journaling.  I considered doing the same, but could not think of anything interesting to say.  So I freed myself from the guilt of always writing something.

On the left page I had a 5x7 pic and wanted to balance that on the right.  I decided that the best way was to put 4 smaller photos on a 5x7 photo mat.  Now I could print out 4 individual photos and adhere them to white paper.  OR I could make a collage in Photoshop.

While in Photoshop go to File...New...Blank File

This is the point where you can size the canvas.  Since I wanted my canvas to be the same size as my 5x7 print I made it be 5 in by 7 in.

Once you have the canvas go to File...Open...Photos.  Open all the pics you want in your collage.

I knew that to fit 4 pics on a 5x7 canvas they would need to be about 2.5x3.5 in.  So I cropped each photo to that size.

Once you have each pic resized go down to the photo bin and double click on the canvas.

Then chose your first picture and drag and drop it onto your canvas.

Then click on the move tool (+ sign with arrow) and drag the corners to make the photo fit in the space you want it in.  When you have it the size you want click the green arrow.  Don't worry, you can resize again if you need to.

Then drag and drop your next pic.  I resize on top of the first pic so that I am sure I am making each photo the same size.

Continue dragging, dropping, and resizing the pics until you fill the canvas.

I  chose to leave white lines in between each photo, but you could make the photos flush against one another.

When you have the photos placed the way you want go to the right hand side and right click on one of the layers.  Then select flatten image.

Then file save as

You can save as a PDF or, as I did, save it as JPEG.

And now you have a photo collage.  Once you have a little know-how, the possibilities are endless!

I love a simple layout!  And one that involves a collage makes it even easier!  Yay!