Laura Vegas

the creating keepsakes september 2011 issue, has an article called "scrapbooking 100 photos in an evening", written by deena wuest. i remember when they asked us for some brainstorming ideas, on taking on the idea of scrapping 100 photos in one evening. is it do-able? i didn't even have to think about it. YES, it's totally do-able! so when i was asked to contribute to the article, i already had a plan of what i wanted to do, design wise. 

 
as seen in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

now, what would the theme of my pages be? i wanted to do some sort of "year in review" type album. but not the normal month-by-month set-up. i thought it would be fun, to break down the year, into themes. 10 photos on a layout (2 page spread). 10 layouts total. that equals 100 photos. easy.  

my first theme was "favorite school moments". instead of doing individual layouts, for different types of school moments (band, projects, friends, graduation), why not combine some of your favorite moments onto one layout? it's a great way to sum up the entire school year, and touch on all the highlights of the year.

 

my design plan, was to choose 10 photos for each spread. one of those photos would be my focal photo. a favorite photo from the bunch, or one that was special for a particular reason. for my "favorite school moments" layout, i choose this photo of alyssa, from her 8th grade graduation. it was a very big night for her, and a very proud moment for us, as her parents. along with the one larger photo, i would include my journaling, a title block, and the rest of the page would be made up of patterned paper.

 

my plan for the other 9 photos, was to create a digital template in photoshop, and print them all as one 12×12 collage. i went with a simple grid, 3 across and 3 up and down, for my first template.

 

and then i used that template to create the second  page of my spread. i pulled up all 9 of my photos, and dropped them into the collage, cropping each photo to fit the space. once i was done, i uploaded my finished collage to costco, and had it printed as a 12×12 photo. that's all this page is. 9 photos, just like that!

 

i used my silhouette to cut out my title. i LOVE the "moments" title piece, and how it has the thin outlined piece that goes on top of the regular title piece. since my themes, for the 10 layouts, all revolve around moments, i could easily cut "moments" over and over. it's not like using letter stickers, where eventually, you're going to run out of letters. and if you're planning ahead, you could even cut out "moments" ten times at once, to save some time. i also cut out "school" with my silhouette, and added the "2010 favorite" with tiny alpha stickers.

 

i knew i would need a lot of room for my journaling, since i was summing up the entire school year's highlights. once i knew how much space i had for my journaling, i made a text box in my word processing program, and typed up my journaling to fit the space. i printed it out onto some white graph patterned paper, and added it to the page.

 
as seen in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i also created a summer themed layout. "favorite family fun moments". a little inside secret, is that my title was originally "summer moments". i think someone else had a title similar to that, so i was asked to change it. that's how "family fun moments" came to be. 

 

for this layout, i choose a favorite photo of alyssa and sarah, in the swimming pool. this was at my brother's house, at a family get-together. i went with fun, bright colors for my papers. this time, i printed my photo as a 5×7, and went with a horizontal photo. just like on the first layout, i decided where i wanted my photo and my journaling, and then built the title piece and patterned papers to fill up the page.

 

i created a second photo collage in photoshop, for this layout. i still went with a grid design, but i varied the sizes of the photos, to add some interest.

 

and here's how my other 9 photos for the layout looked in the collage. printed as a single 12×12 photo, which completes the second page of the spread.

 

keeping the design simple, and minimizing the thought that goes into being original on every page, i cut my title once again with my silhouette. i originally had "summer" cut with the silhouette, but when i changed it to "family fun", i choose to just use some letter stickers.

 

i did add a very simple embellishment to this layout. i used a template to create a whimsical sun, from my coordinating pattern papers. and i added three pre-threaded buttons to the center.

 

journaling printed on yellow pattern paper. we didn't do a whole lot during the summer of 2010. so i choose to journal about some of the girls favorite things to do during the summer, which goes along with the photos i choose.

some of the other ideas i had for this type of themed "year in review", were favorite sports moments, favorite work moments, favorite birthday moments, favorite holiday moments, and favorite everyday moments. i actually had my list of 10 themes, that would make up 100 photos, and now i can't remember what else was on my list.

and for your scrapping convenience, the two digital templates that i created are available on the creating keepsakes website, for you to download. you can find them HERE. how easy would that be, to take these 2 templates, and print up 10 collages. with 9 photos on each, you'd have 90 photos printed in a matter of minutes. half the work would be done 🙂

a few of my fellow CK dream teamers have shared their takes on this article in the past few days. visit nichol harper's blog to see her mini album sized "year in review album". i love the 8×8 size that she choose to use. and visit piradee talvanna's blog to see her super fun CHA photos, that she scrapped using divided page protectors. you might even see me on a few of her photos 😉