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 4×6 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 4×6 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 2×3 … 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 9×9 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 9×9 layout. the collage part of this is about 8×8 … 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 6×6 in size.
"softball" is a 12×12 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.
Laura Vegas 
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