Focus On Multi Photo Layouts - Part 3: Photo Clusters

Welcome to part three of our focus on Multi Photo layouts. This time we are looking at the photo cluster, I guess you would say it was the middle ground in Multi Photo Layouts, not clear and reginmented like the grid system but not extreme hack your photos and layer them within an inch of their life style like a full on collage!

Again the beauty of this, like any other multi photo layout, is the ability to tell more of a story than in a single photo layout. Photo cluster layouts can work with any number of photos from 3 upwards. All of the examples below use 3 or 4 photos but I vividly remember a layout Debbie has using lots of photos in a cluster - hopefully I will get her to post it.

The key to successfully clustering photos is to think about the relationship between the images both in terms of the subject and the physical characteristics of the image. Then play about with your composition - STEP AWAY FROM THE ADHESIVE! It is much better to take your time and try out different arrangements until your are happy with your cluster.

Ususally you will want your main photo to be most prominant - you can achieve this in several ways:

• Place it on the top layer so it is not obscured at all by any other photo
• If matting your photos mat the main photo in a different way \ colour (see the Blue Twits layout above where the photo of Izzy is mounted on the pale blue coloured cardstock where all the others have a white border)
• Draw attention to part of the main photo with a frame or embellishment (see below in the "Daffo Deels" layout where I added a chipboard frame to highlight part of the picture.)
• Size matters - you can make one of your photos stand out by making it larger than the others in the group. (see Daffo Deels and 1st Hair Cut)
  

In the two layouts below; 1st Hair Cut and Fibbonacci Sequins, I wanted to use 3 photos but felt that the cluster became to angular for the feel I wanted. To break up the straight lines and corners I made one of the photos in each layout a circular one. This softened the edges and served as a great way to draw the eye to a details. Because I only had two pictures from the first hair cut I used a second copy of one of them and punched the circle with her face in and added the bling circle to it to make an accent.

It's Sale Time!

Be sure to come over and check out our ATDML sale! We have discounts of 15 - 20% off most regular stock in store plus additional items added to the clearance section with up to 75% off. It's a great time to come and get yourself a little stash fix for less than it would usually cost you!

Also we have revamped the Deal of the Day section. items posted there will now only be staying for a 24 hour period so be sure to check back often or you may just miss a BARGAIN!

Reminder: May Ribbon Challenge

Don't forget as you are crafting this Bank Holiday Weekend that we have our ribbon challenge running for the month of May, still a couple of days to create a little something and share with us for a chance to win a £25.00 ATDML Store voucher.

The original blog post about the challenge, with all the details on how to enter is here.

We look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Photo opportunity in London this half term

Happy end of the term for those of your linked in some way to the Education system!
Most of us scrapbooking parents will be trying to think of what to do with the children in the coming week that is inexpensive, fun and of course photographable (is that even a word?!) Even if you are not a parent but fancy a day out in the city there is a fantastic free event currently occuring called Elephant Parade. Elephant Parade is a conservation campaign that shines a multi-coloured spotlight on the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant. The event sees over 250 brightly painted life-size elephants located over central London this summer.


There is a website, with a downloadable map telling you where these beautiful works of art are located, many of which are close to the city's picturesque parks.

Last weekend Debbie and I spent the day in London with our children. We found over 30 elephants in Green & Hyde park, enjoyed a picnic in the sunshine and of course captured a photo or two.



So far I have taken over 200 photographs of the 145 I have found (so many more to find though!) It is so much fun and, dare I say it, a perfect excuse to scrap a multi-photo layout using the tips we have been sharing these past few days on the blog. I have only created one page so far of my elephant photographs, but I used the grid method to do so.


Also I found purchased this fab chipboard keychain coaster elephant book by Maya Road from the shop, have painted them white and each of my children is going to decorate one which I will include in a mini-book or layout of their elephant parade adventures!

Running from May to July 2010, Elephant Parade is London’s biggest outdoor art event on record - go check it out!

It's All About The Patchwork!

I will admit that at the moment I have a little obsession. Patchwork! Not real sewn patchwork, just patchwork effect. I was reading on UKS about someone looking for Cath Kidston style papers to make a room accesory and the conversation turned to a patchwork bedding set from Tesco which is in the Cath Kidston style. I bought that bedding set for Isabelles room but I bought it 3 times! once to use as a devet set and twice so I had spare material in this beautiful patchwork design to make a canvas, some bunting and some cushion covers (well ok I am going to enlist help with that as I can't actually sew!)

How does this relate to paper craft? Well the canvas will be a fabric and paper combination of course but aside from this project I am also making lots of paper patchwork items. A while back I posted this photo of the card I made for my new neice,

and last weekend was one of Izzys school friends' birthdays so I made this... another patchwork card!

What I love is that they are so simple to make (cut squares and rectangles of paper out, ink the edges, join them together with no gaps to cover the space you are filling, add faux stitching and a few embellishments - dead easy and a great way to use up scraps :)

Of course you don't have to make the patchwork just be the background, I made a brighter card using BG Lime Rickey scraps where I cut out the numeral 5 and patchworked that, then mounted that onto a dark blue background, unfortunately I gave it to the recipient without photographing but it was a completely different effect and much more gender neutral than the card above.

Next on my to do list is a patchwork layout - It is under construction and I will post it when it is done.

Mulitple Photo Layouts - Part 2

Continuing on from the blog post yesterday I find that when creating multiple photo layouts (and I do create quite a few!) I tend to follow a grid pattern. This is a neat way of sharing several photographs on the same page without getting overwhelmed with where to place everything to ensure your page looks balanced. The photographs tend to be the same size when using this method, but that doesn't need to be the case. The sketch below is based on my layout for the ATDML April gallery but as you can see from the second sketch this can be quickly altered to accomodate varied size photographs, which allow to to scrap plenty of photographs but showcase a favourite all on the same page.


When using the grid basis for your multi-photo layout, the grid does not need to take up the entire page. My layout below, Nine from '09, features multiple photographs which only occupy the top third of the page, leaving the remainder of the space free for some serious journalling, or in my case, to leave the scrummy flocked Chatterbox paper showing!!


Photo editing software is a good way of "cheating" the grid method too, especially if you are anxious that your photos/square won't quite be the same size. Picasa (available as a free download from Google) has a functionality that allows you to produce a grid collage of a selection of your photographs very, very easily. I used this in my layout below where what appears to be a 4x5 grid of photographs is actually an A4 page printed in one go having created the collage in Picasa first - instant same sized images! The layout then falls together very quickly adding a title, journalling and a few embellishments.


I'll leave you with a couple more grid-inspired layouts and we'll be back with more multi-photo inspiration soon!

Focus On Multi Photo Layouts - Part 1: Photo Collage

When we run our retreats classes that are multi photo layouts are always popular. It seems that many of us have sets of photos which we want to scrap but where either there is no single standout photo that can carry a whole layout, or there are many photos we want to include. So I thought here on the blog we would do a little series of pieces on Multi Photo Layouts. Hopefully the DT might chip in with a few of theirs and some tips as well (I just thought of that bit as I typed so I need to ask them about that!)

First up is the Photo Collage. I find this is a good way to use potentially a large number of photos where none of them is great but as a collection they capture an event of idea. It could be a holiday, a person, a feeling - it is very versatile.


This isn't a new layout but it is one I wanted to share on here. I taught this at a retreat in 2009 and I was inspired to do it when I was sorting through an old box of stuff I had saved from my teenage years.

My friends and I used to enjoy making a photo collage using pictures of each other and places we had been. A couple of months before I started making this Elizabeth, my cousin and, at the time, our lodger asked me to help her make a photo collage of her holiday the previous summer. We spread out loads of photos on the floor and played about chopping them up, cutting people out of them and creating a collage. It was about then that I remembered how much fun it was and decided to do a layout using the same technique.

The photos in my layout are a mixture of pictures of our old house and our new house and I also cut out photos of Darren and the girls (I am on there but only a tiny pic of me in front of our old front door!)

When using this technique I find that cutting out some people or images allows you to cover the straight edge joins between some of the photos giving a more fluid effect with photos linking into each other rather than having abrupt lines where they meet. For this layout I changed them all to black and white as I wanted it to be quite a cohesive background although sometimes a riot of colour is fun!