Multi-Photo Layouts

Supplies: Celebrate, a TDD member exclusive kit

I am usually a one-photo-a-page type of scrapper. So, when Steph asked if I’d do a post about multi-photo pages, I was nervous! Sure, I can do a multi-photo page when I have a template, but could I do one on my own?

I’m not one to back down from a challenge, so I gave it a try and am pretty pleased with the result!

Supplies: Bloom Where You Are Planted by Traci Reed and Meghan Mullins

I kept the design simple (blocked style) and let the photos be the stars of the page – all six of them!

Here’s what I did, step-by-step:

STEP 1 – ADD PHOTOS TO BLANK CANVAS

I organize my photos in Adobe Lightroom, so my first step is to select the photos I want to scrap in Lightroom and then use the “Open in Photoshop” option on each photo. (Note: I’ve already applied my favourite presets to each photo at this point so they are ready to scrap.) Then I drag each photo onto my blank 12×12 canvas and shrink them to fit on the page. At this stage, I’m not worried about composition and the page looks like a mess:

STEP 2 – ADD CLIPPING MASKS

Next, on new layers, I use the shape tool to draw rectangles over each photo’s main area. Then I move the shape layer below the photo layer and clip the photo to the shape to non-destructively “crop” it. I “link” the photos to their respective cropping shape layers so that I can drag the cropped photos around the page.

That sounds more complicated than it is. Here’s a look at my layers palette at this point so you can see what I mean:

Now the page has a bit of breathing room:

STEP 3 – START PLAYING WITH COMPOSITION

I don’t know where this page is going to end up, but I start to group photos based on size and colour, adjusting as needed.

STEP 4 – ADD INITIAL PAPERS AND ELEMENTS

Next, I add in my first set of papers and one element that I really liked in the kit (a butterfly). The page is coming together in a blocked design:

It’s hard to see on this screen capture, but I shadow as I scrap to help me visualize the finalize result.

STEP 5 – ADD TITLE AND JOURNALING

Next, I add in the title and journaling. At this point, everything “important” is on the page (except the date). It’s still looking a bit plain though:

STEP 6 – ADD FINISHING TOUCHES

This is the fun part! I add in more papers and elements until I’m happy with the final product:

Here are some of the finishing touches I added:

• The date was added in to the main journaling block.
• Created little flags using the shape tool to add notes to a few photos.
• Added in flowers and leaves for dimension.
• Lightened a few of the photos by duplicating the photo layer and setting the layer mode to “screen”.
• Added an inner stroke to the photos to make them stand out.
• Swapped some of the paper I had added in an earlier step and added another photo mat to make the bottom row of photos stand out.

To make the photos and mats fit, I also adjusted their sizes as needed.

If you’re like me and you find multi-photo pages intimidating, try a linear, blocked design. It helped me to focus my page on the photos and made fitting all six pictures on the page easy.

So, will I keep doing multi-photo pages in the future? I think so! Single-photo pages will still be my main scrapbooking style, but it was surprisingly fun to scrap an event with many photos.