Multi Photo pages

I promised that to celebrate my retirement and the fact I am a lady of leisure I would 'give back' with some classes this month.

Here is another . Yes an old class - those back up files again - but hopefully of some use to some of you.

I don't know about you but I am not very good at multi photo pages. I tend to like pages with one main photo on, but there are times when you need to include a lot of not very good photos too.

The following is a class I did years ago - 2007 to be precise - when I joined with 11 other scrappers and we formed the Design Collective. It was such a brave venture and we were proud of what we did for a whole year.

This page project, using minimal supplies, enables you to showcase one special photograph whilst giving you the space to share snippets of other pictures and a place for hidden journaling. It is also a great way to use up some of those photos that don’t stand up to such close scrutiny and benefit from radical cropping.

Supplies

I sheet of cardstock
I sheet of coordinating paper (I used the Basic Grey Periphery range)
Letter stickers, stamps, rub ons or die cuts for title (I used Basic Grey letter stickers)
Stamps, phrase stickers, rub ons or computer journaling
Journaling pens
Inks and sponges
Assorted blossoms and brads
Circle cutter, compass or different size plates
1 large photo (I used 7” x 7” as a starting point) and up to 7 photos suitable for cropping to 1 ¼” squares.

Instructions

Please note that a second example, adapting this class to a different format, is given at the end, but these main instructions refer to the 12” x 12” page shown in the main image.

How many times do you photograph an event – maybe a birthday celebration, a special day out, a family gathering - only to find you have one stunning picture and a load of photos which are cute, but would benefit from being cropped heavily or considerably reduced in size? I bet it happens as often as it does here.

This page allows you to max out on one picture, but still showcase other smaller pictures which give a more complete story. There is also a space for hidden journaling to complete the memory storage.

First select the photograph you want to showcase as the main image. I printed my picture myself, but if you want to have it printed professionally you need to have an enlargement made which will enable you to cut a 6” circle out of the picture. Don’t cut the circle yet though!

Next select up to 7 other pictures that you can either print out yourself at a dramatically reduced size (they are 1 ¼” square) or that you can crop to this size. Cut your smaller pictures to size. I find this works best with a square punch so that I know they are all identical and even. I think a selection of different sized square punches are essential scrapbook tools for all sorts of projects.

Using your cardstock, not the patterned paper, you need to cut the circle mount for the main picture. There are two ways to do this, depending on your tools and what you are most comfortable with.

If you have a compass style circle cutter or a circle cutter that makes it easy to do concentric circles, then cut the frame as a genuine frame i.e. cut a large circle and then cut the inside out of it so you are left with a hollow circular frame. Using this method it means you can ink both the inside and outside edges of the circle.

If you don’t have a fancy cutting system then the simple way is to draw a circle with a compass and cut it out or use the method I always used to use, a dining room plate! Using this method you need only cut a circle mount, not a hollow circular frame.

Whichever method you use, you need to make the cardstock circle approximately 7” in diameter.

Now is the time to cut your enlargement to fit the circle frame or mount. The size you cut will depend on how you cut the cardstock circle so read carefully BEFORE you cut. The photograph visible in my page is 6”, giving me a ½ “ rim of cardstock all around. NB If you are using the hollow frame method cut the photograph to 7” so you are able to stick the frame on top of the photograph. If you are using the solid circular mount method cut the picture to 6” diameter so you can stick it in the top of the solid circle mount.

You need to decorate your circle frame or mount before going any further. I used small leaf and word stamps on mine and also inked the edges. You could stamp words round the edge, you could doodle designs, you could run the mount through the printer, you could use an embossing plate and emboss the mount, you could add flowers or stitching, rub on lettering or designs. The possibilities are endless. You could even, of course, leave it totally plain.

The next step is to cut strips to act as tags for your pictures and title letters. You may need to play around with this a little according to how many letters in your chosen word. I think that the most you could fit would be a 7 letter word, but it would work with a 5 or 6 letter word equally as well. If you used a 6 letter word you may want to make all the letters the same and not have one letter stand out like the letter ‘I’ as this really only works with an odd number.

The strips I cut were 4 ¼” long and 1 ¾” wide. I inked the edge of each strip and also drew faux stitching along all edges as well.

Once you have cut and inked your strips, mount the pictures and then play around with the arrangement until it looks balanced on the page.

TIP – a little repositionable adhesive on the back of each strip lets you play around with them but holds them lightly in place whilst you move things around.

Once you are happy with the arrangement stick the strips down and stick the circle and large picture over the top of them to cover the joins. NB leave a portion of the circle unstuck for the journaling.

Add letter stickers, die cuts, rub ons etc for your title. I cut a small square for my central letter to give a bit of variety and mounted it on foam pads.

Cut a piece of card approximately 3 ½” x 5 ½” for the journaling. I cut a curve (using the circle I had already cut as the template) to shape the top.

Stamp, rub on or print a title for your journaling and then record whatever details you want about the pictures and the event. Slip the journaling tag under the main picture as shown.