I love the look of filmstrip photos.  You know, the ones you sit in the booth at the mall, make funny faces and then wait 2 minutes for? 

Creating a look similar to this has become ever so popular with scrapbookers recently as a great way to add a lot of little photos to a page.  This especially works for repetitive photos that tell a story such as the ones below of my son climbing into the pool.  I love how all the shots capture the action but to have all of these as full sized photos on a page would not leave much room for anything else.  I have lots of great close-ups of him in the pool that I want to use my focal photos but if I turn these supporting photos into a filmstrip I can still add these to the page without overwhelming it.

Creating a filmstrip is pretty easy in Photoshop.  You just need to do some math first. 

(I know that you are looking at the length of this post and thinking, easy???  Just know that I always break down everything into micro steps so nobody gets lost.  Lots of you will fly through multiple steps in a matter of seconds.)

Decide on the number of photos to be used (my case - 5)

Decide on the size of your photos (my case - 1 ½" x 1")

Decide on the width of your borders (I always use 1/8" or 0.125")

Now comes the math. :)

You need to add borders to both sides of your photo so you add ¼" (1/8 + 1/8) to the photo width (my case - 1.5 + 0.25 = 1.75 or 1 ¾").  This is final width of your filmstrip.

You now need to calculate the length of your filmstrip with borders between each photo and one at the top and bottom.  I always add one border mentally to the bottom of each photo and multiply that by the number of photos.  Then I add in one more border for the very top and you have your final measurement.  Huh?  LOL.  Look at my math and it might make more sense. [my case - take the photo height 1"+1/8"(for a bottom border ) = 1.0125 or 1 1/8"  Now multiply that by the number of photos - 1.125 x 5 = 5.625 or 5 5/8".  Add to that number one more border for the very top - 5.625 + 0.125 = 5.75 or 5 ¾".  I swear that was the hardest part!)

So now you have the dimensions of your film strip (my case - 1.75" by 5.75").

Now open a new document in PS that is this size. File > New and then type in measurements (or Ctrl+N and then type in measurements).

Now crop all your photos to size (my case - 1 ½" x 1").

Now there are two options here.  You can use your move tool (Shift+V) and click and drag each photo over to the blank filmstrip leaving 1/8" between each photo.  Totally easy but it's sometimes hard to get precise spacing.

Or your second option - I like to use guides.  They make it really easy to line everything up precisely.

To place a guide click View > New Guide and a pop up window will appear which you can type in where you want the guide to appear.  (while we are on this step make sure you have "snap" turned on - this will make your photos "snap" to your guides when you drag them onto your blank filmstrip).

So again you need to do some math to figure out where the guides are to be.  I make a guide for the left side of the photos and all the tops of the photos.  (my case - vertical guide at 0.125 and horizontal guides at 0.125, 1.25, 2.375, 3.5, 4.625, 5.75 ) When the pop up window appears just choose whether you want a vertical or horizontal line and the measurement you need it at.

The guides will appear on your blank filmstrip as blue lines.  These lines do not print - you only see them on screen.

Now if all that typing in of measurements is not for you, you can also click on the ruler and while holding the button down drag towards the blank canvas and a guide will appear.  You can just look along the ruler to see where you need to place your guide.  I usually do this but it will just depend on how your brain is wired and what method you like to follow. J Seriously, wiring up there is a bit different for everyone.  You can get either vertical or horizontal lines this way.

Once you have all your guides in place you should have something like this.

Now drag all your photos onto the blank filmstrip (use the move tool - Shift+V). Since you have "snap" on, the corner of the photo will just, well, snap in place.

You will now have this. (You should have the same finished look whether you created guides or not.)

Now flatten your image Layer > Flatten Image.  Now your white borders will appear.

You are all set to print this now (remember the blue lines do not print). 

Kind of a lot of steps but if you want to save it as a template you can skip all the set up next time.

To do this go back a few steps to before you added in your photos - the one where you have all the guides in place but it is still a blank filmstrip.  Save it there.  Name the file with the size of photos it takes.  Then next time all you will need to do is open the file, crop your photos and drag them into place.  So fast the second time around!

Now how do you print this?  In this case I could print it on a standard 4x6" photo (remember the final size of the filmstrip is 1.75"x5.75").  To do this I open up a new document in PS sized 4"x6".  You can then drag your flattened film strip onto to this blank photo.  Flatten the image and print (or if you are like me and hate to waste photo paper make another filmstrip for another page and print them together on one page.)

Think you will try it?  Let me know or show me what you make.  I would love to see it. :)

 

I have been trying all day to get a chance to post this.  Ahh, finally sitting down. :)

OK.  So if you have a tight budget for scrapbooking then you need to make really plain pages right?  Wrong. (you knew I was going too say that right?)

So today the topic is - Make scraps. Use scraps.

Huh?  Well, let me show you.  (you also knew I was going to say that too didn't you?)

First let me start by telling you when I first started scrapbooking I had an almost zero budget.  And when you have almost no budget for supplies are you are just starting then you have no stash to fall back on.  One time when I was in my local scrapbook store there was a staff member helping a customer and she was explaining how she saved paper.  I, of course, being a newbie and broke eavesdropped. (she didn't mind I promise)  And what I am going to show you (the cutting part) is what she was showing the other customer.  I scrapped like this for a very long time and still do on occasion when I need to stretch a piece of paper.

So lets get started.  Oh.  And let me mention that this is a really, really long post with a million images so go grab a cool drink and put your feet up.  You will thank me. ;)

OK now lets get start.  Again.

I challenged myself to make 5 single page scrapbook pages from 6 pieces of paper.  So I gathered some papers.  Here they are.

(paper info list at the end) 

I gathers the slew of photos I printed the other night - most of which have a summer theme that will mix nicely with these papers.  Five of the papers are double sided which by the way is a great way to spend your money if you are on a budget and use them wisely.  One of the papers (darker blue) I only plan to use one side since the back of it is a brown pattern that doesn't coordinate.

First step I choose the striped paper plus the photos I am going to use.

Next, I cut it into a shaped paper making sure to keep the outer scrap in one piece.  Don't know how to make your own shaped paper?  Read this.

Set aside the scrap.  See, we made out first scrap - we will be using it later.

Next decide your photo placement.  (When I scrap I always decide this first since they are the biggest item to be added to the page.  I even stick them down and then work everything else around them.)

So this is my photo placement for the page. (all measurements of photo listed at the end)

Lightly trace around the photo placement with pencil.

Now this is where things get a bit weird but this will seriously stretch your paper.  Cut out the paper inside of the lines (where the photos will cover).  Leave about 1/2" inside the lines (so you can adhere you photos after).  You can use a craft knife or do what I do - use my paper cutter. 

I line up the pencil line on the outside of my guide on the cutter (where the arrow is).  I then start and stop my blade where I need to cut.  It is kind of hard to explain but you don't slide your blade all the way from top to bottom - only drop the blade down where you need to cut.  I do this all the way around - inside the shape.  You will get something like this.

Strange looking I know.  And it is probably easier to start with a rectangle then this crazy shape.  :)  You do get really fast at it once you have done it a few time.  Basically you want to save any paper that gets hidden by the photos.  It is totally getting wasted behind there!

Now add back in your photos covering up the "holes".  I tack everything down but the choice is up to you.

The back will look like something like this.

Now there is a weak spot in this particular page - the cross section where all the photos meet.  It causes the photos to "flap" since they are not attached to anything.  To solve this I grab a small of scrap paper and reinforce it - adhere it over this cross section.

I held the page up to the light so you could see how everything overlapped.

Now I will set this page aside.

On to the next page.

I decide on this photo placement.

So I cut this.

Once you get used to cutting out the "wasted" paper behind photos your will probably only need marks like this.

You can tack the photo down now if you want.

Next page. :)

Remember that scrap from the shaped paper I set aside?  I used it on this page. 

I am going to use if for a frame on this page.  I mark my photo placement and cut out the inside.

I now have something like this. 

This is why I love double sided paper - look at all that new gorgeous color to add the scrap pile!

I adhered the frame to the page with foam squares. 

I think foam squares are a budget scrappers dream.  Actually a non-budget scrapper dream too.  They are inexpensive but they immediately add interest to everything.  In this case I used them to lift the striped paper which really adds to the framed look.  (I buy them in both the small and regular size so they go further.)

Now you are probably thinking that it will need a lot of foam squares for this look so how is this budget scrapping?  Well look at it this way - you would need to add adhesive to quite a few spots on this page anyway so for a few pennies more you can have lift and instant pop to the page.  If you weigh the cost of adhesive verses the cost of adhesive foam squares then I bet it doesn't add much too the cost.  I am not doing the math though. ;) Can you just take my word for it?

Moving on...

I cut the branding strip off this paper - the pattern is on the back of this strip.  Yay!  More scraps.  I add this to my growing scrap pile. :)

Next, of course, is photo placement.

Mark and cut.

Now I have two papers left.

I plan to use the one that is on top for the main part of this page but I want to mat the photo with the back side of the butterfly paper.  I added this butterfly paper into the paper selection because I knew it would make for great, cheap embellishments for the pages.  Look for patterned papers that will lend themselves to this - for 65-80cents you can get quite a few embellishments with the right paper.

To cut the mat out of the patterned paper I move the photo around so I can maximize the amount of full butterflies that will be left over. 

I cut and I get this.

Then I decide photo placement on the remaining paper and cut.  I get this.

So now I get busy with all those little scraps and start decorating the pages.  :)

I also add into the mix these Heidi Swapp chipboard letters.  As you can see I had already used them but there were still tons to work with.  When buying letter look to buy from companies who understand you need 15 e's!  Heidi Swapp, Basic Grey & American Crafts are three of my faves because they always add in lots of vowels and understand that I only need one or two x's - max!. :)  Also when buying letters lon a budget look for small letters.  Large letters mean that they will be less individual letters per package.  Small letters make more titles. :)

So these are the final pages that I came up with. 

Addtional supplies - circle punch + pen + letters (to get the long blue strip I patched together two pieces and hid the seam under one of the circles)

Photos - 4x6, 3x5, 4x4

Addtional supplies - 3 brads + pen + letters

Photos - 2x3, 2x3, 2x3

Need to matching brads? Try this.

Additional supplies -  pen + letters + foam squares (blue strip is the cut off branding strip)

Photos - 4x6, 4x6 (made collage in photoshop and then printed)

Addtional supplies - 4 brads + pen + letters + corner rounder (or use a small paint bottle and trace)

Photos - 4x6, 4x6, 5x7

Additional supplies - pen + letters + foam squares + heart punch

Photo - 5x7

You will see for this last page I subbed in a different alpha.  The shape of the others just didn't work for the look I wanted. 

To make the silhouette flower/branches you see in the upper left corner of this page I cut them out from the scrap paper like this.

And then just flipped them.  They made the perfect embellishment that mimicked the design and I didn't have to spend time drawing them. :)

So that is it.  See, inexpensive pages yet they don't look plain and boring.  Well, I don't think they do.  If they do, don't tell me...shhh.  ;)

Pretty good for only 6 papers, some chipboard letters, foam squares and a couple brads.  Now that is working within a budget!

---

Here are the papers I used.  

American Crafts - Serviette

American Crafts - High Tea

American Crafts - Teacup

American Crafts - Deli 

K&CO - Berry Sweet  

Lil Davis - Away We Go

So today I thought we could talk about scrapbooking on a budget.  Maybe you have a limited budget.  Or you are just starting and cannot buy everything (though I know you secretly want to).  Or you just hate waste.  Anyway, whatever the reason, I have a few tips that might help you stretch your scrapbook supplies a bit (or use up some older supplies).  And that is always a good thing! So first thing.  BUY WHITE. Huh?  What I mean is when you go to buy embellishments and you see them offered in 7 different colors and you cannot buy them all - buy them in white.  Why?  Well because white can be altered to any color you want.  This doesn't apply to all embellishments but look at these. Titles are a big supply eater.  And alphas can be expensive.  Of course we all know you can alter chipboard letters but stickers can be altered too.  Plus they are usually much cheaper.  And if you buy them in white they are easy to alter! How do you alter them? Have you thought of acrylic paint?  You know that super cheap stuff you can buy at your local craft store?  Comes in a million colors and you can mix them to make a million more?  Yup, just ordinary acrylic paint will work. Want to see?  You know you do! A drop of paint on the package that my stickers came in and I am ready. Leave the stickers on the sheet to paint (you can cut them out if they are too close). Thin coats of paint work best.  You don't want to seal the letter to sheet. Depending on the color it sometimes need two thin coats to get even coverage. Once the paint is dry (it dries pretty quickly) just peal it off and use as normal.  Now some trouble shooting. Sometimes when you peel the letters you get a jagged edge where the paint has lifted along one edge.  You can either run the tip of a craft knife along the seams before you pull it up or even faster - just run your finger along any jagged edges after you peel it up.  The paint breaks off really easily and your letter will be ready to use. Now you can use your painted letters on a page just as if they were already red when you bought them.  Almost instantly you have red letters for the title you need while the other white letters remain, ready to be used on another page (as is or altered to another color). *Side note - Do you know how to make a title perfectly straight?  Line up your letters along a ruler - just adhering them lightly to the edge.  Find your placement on your page and then press the tops of the letters down.  Gently pull out the ruler and stick down the bottoms.  Presto - a perfectly staright title! So here is the finished page.   If you want a transparent color you can also use ink pads. Above shows a dye based ink.  Below shows a pigment based ink.  Don't forget that you can cut out the letters if you are worried about coloring the letters beside. Now see how it looks kinda streaky?  Easy to solve.  Just take your finger and rub.  Yup, really technical I know but it works.  See...   You can let it dry and add another coat if you want to make it darker.  I have used a heat gun to speed up the drying process before but you have to be careful - you don't want to ruin the sticker. And don't forget about about slick writers.  They come in more than black and they are great for altering the smooth surface of a sticker.

I didn't get as much time as I wanted to start my new albums yesterday but I did get the covers started.  I did take pictures in hopes that it might help someone who has never tackled one of these type of fun albums.

Remember, these are the albums I am working with.

So I decided to start in on Harper's album - the flower.  I picked my paper and then got started. 

The first thing to do is to open the binding a bit so you can slip some pages off to decorate.  Just carefully pull to open. (If you don't want to do this you can just decorate around the binding.)

They opened easy enough so I slipped off the cover and got ready to cover it in paper.  There are two ways to cover the chipboard.

First way - just adhere down the cover to the paper.  Do not cut it out first.

You then use your fingertip craft knife and "draw" around the edges and get a perfect cut.  This is what I would normally do since I love this little knife so much but I left my knife in my boxes for the GASC and they are somewhere between Chantilly, VA and Grand Rapids, MI right now, lol.  I was trying to be efficent and make sure I wasn't bringing so many supplies back and forth!  ugg!

No big deal though 'cause there are more than one way to do things!

So I traced out the design onto the back of my paper including the markings for the binding holes.

I then cut out the design making sure to cut just inside the lines.  (When you trace something it gets a little bigger so you want to cut it a little smaller than the lines so that it fits.)  I don't worry about perfection - you will see why later.

Now the holes for the binding are square and I do not have a tiny square punch to fit.  Of course I could have run out and tried to find such a punch but instead I work with what I have on hand.

I used a small circular punch and punched along all the marked squares.  I will later make these into squares but for right now they offer the perfect starting spot.

Now it is time to adhere the paper.  I always get asked what type of adhesive I use for this...

Yup.  The humble glue stick.  The adhesive we start with and quickly leave behind as we get more "experience".  Well, it is time to revisit this great adhesive.

There are two reasons I love it for covering chipboard surfaces.  One - it is cheap & holds well - got to love that!.  Two - really important -I can get really good edge to edge coverage. This is what I really love about it.  I can just rub away not worrying about using too much cause it is expensive and I can get every little bit of the surface covered in adhesive.  With mini albums that are to be handled without protective covers it is important to make sure all the edges are secure so they don't start to lift and eventually tear. 

I always apply it directly to the chipboard cause it is stiff & sturdy and I don't have to worry about accidently bending or tearing my paper.  (have fun!!  LOL)

So slap that paper down and rub with your fingers (or a brayer if you have one - I don't) to make sure the paper gets adhered everywhere.  Now you may find this has happened...

Remember how I said don't worry about being super precise when cutting?  Well, unless you spend forever  cutting (and who wants to do that????  LOL) you will get some "wobbles".  It's ok.  This is why sand paper was invented! (and ink too)  It is the miracle tool for hiding wobbles!

You can use a regular piece of sand paper, a sanding block (found at the hardware store), a nail file (check out the dollar store) or if you really want luxury (at a decent price, lol) go for the Basic Grey Precision file set.  Love, love, love this tool.  BUT of course my set is in the same box as my Finger Tip Craft knife (see above!) so of course a new plan was needed.  If I had my file set I would use it to get in an around all the edges of the shape as well as all the little binding holes (this is what makes this tool so great - you can get into small, tight places). 

You want to sand the edges to remove any paper that overhangs as well as tidy up any uneven "wobbles".

No special tecnique involved - just sand the edges!  You will get a white edge as the printed part is sanded off.  You can leave this as is or if you want to disquise your "wobbles" even more you can ink or paint the edges.  This will hid everything!

But I don't have my BG tool and I am feeling a bit lazy so I grab this...

Yup - found this in my hubby's tools.  Attached the sanding bit and went to town (have used it for this before so I knew it works).  Talk about getting the job done quickly!  Just a tip - use the LO setting so you have better control.  The downside?  You can't get into tight places like the "V" of the flower petals or the small binding holes.  So in about 2 minutes I had all the major areas sanded and then I had to stop scrapping as life needed me :).  So today I need to figure out how I am going to sand the small holes and then get to decorating the cover.

Have a great day everyone. :)

 

Ok so here goes. 

Prepare yourself for lots of rambles and extra info that you may not need.  I find that some people learn really quickly and others need more detail.  So skim if you are a quick learner or take your time and hang off my every word if you need to. J  I don't mind.

Rounding corners in Photoshop is pretty easy.  You just need to know which tools to use.  If you use some other program, well, scram...

OK just kidding.  You can probably transfer the ideas over to whatever program you use.

 

So to start I will assume you want to round the corners of a photo so you can print it off with this nifty little look.

Oh yes, Magnus is participating in this tutorial.  This is what he thinks of people who don't scrapbook. ;)

So open your photo in PS.  Make any and all edits you want to make to your photo first.

Just image I am going to print this photo as a standard 4"x6".  (Really this photo of Magnus deserves an enlargement cause it so funny but we'll imagine it as a 4x6.)

So crop the image to 4"x6".

Then you need to add a new layer on top of your photo.  Two ways to do this - click Layer (at the top of your screen) > New> Layer  (or to save time press Shift+Ctrl+N)

This will create a new layer on top of your photo.  Think of it as a clear transparent layer that sits on top of your photo.

So now you need to choose the tool that will give you the rounded corners - called the Rounded Rectangle tool.  Imagine that!  It can sometimes hide behind one of the other tools so click the little arrow in the bottom corner of that tool and it will pop up.

The first thing you need to do is set the radius for your curves.  I like mine at 45px but you can mess around and find out what you like.

Next you need to draw your rectangle.  Just move your cursor over your photo and you will see a little + show up.  To draw you need to just click and drag.  I like to start at the top left and work over to the bottom right but again, your choice! 

Now, since I am not so much about precision with these types of things I don't measure things.  I just line up my little + sign in the top corner matching up the ends of it with the edges of the photo.  I cannot capture this in a screen shot so imagine my drawing is the way it will look. J

Then click and drag your shape out.  You should get something like this.

Then you need to go over to your layers box and click on the paths box.

At the bottom of that box is the "Load path as a Selection" button (they couldn't come up with a snappier name??)  Click it.  The solid line that you drew will turn into a dotted line.

 

Now you need to invert your selection ‘cause right now you have the inside selected.  And we want the outside selected so we can fill it with white.  To do this you click on Select >Inverse (or Shft+Ctrl+I).  This will give you two dotted lines now (your rounded rectangle and the outside perimeter of the photo).

Now all we need to do is paint the area white.  Make sure the foreground color is set to white.  Then choose the paint bucket option (if you can't see the paint bucket remember that it is hiding - just click the little arrow in the bottom corner of the button and it will pop up.)  (You cannot see my dotted lines in this screen shot cause they disappear in the capturing of it.)

Now take your little paint bucket and click anywhere in the area between the two dotted lines.  You will get this.

Now deselect your dotted lines.  Choose Select > Deselect  (or Ctrl D)

Now all that is left is to flatten your image so you can print (or save).  Either choose Layer > Flatten Image or I like to use Shft+Ctrl+E  (merge visible).

Done!  I know I broke it down into micro steps but if you are not a whiz at PS then I know it gets overwhelming.  And I am not by any means saying I am a whiz at PS - I know how to do a few things but there is still lots (and I do mean lots) that I need to learn.

Have fun and remember to share if you use this.

***

(Oh, just wanted to add that for myself I set up a file so I could just drag this template onto my photos.  The only difference is you start with a new, transparent file (not a photo) but you create it using all the same steps.  You must do a "Merge Visible" at the end so that the middle part stays "clear" so you can drag it over your photo.  If you do this then you only need to do it once and you can use it over and over again.)