Favorite photos

*Quick note: hurry over to Sketch Support today for a chance to win some BG Wander. It's so cold right now, I sort of want to Wander myself...

Last year when I was doing LOAD*, I read a post by Stacy Julian suggesting we spend about 15 minutes picking out our favorite photos of the year. In LOAD, I also downloaded a wonderful template for 9 photos from Barb Wong. I made this page, one of my favorites from 2010:


This year I decided to do the same project, using the same template with the same kit company, Studio Calico. Here's what I did:





Some minor changes in the design: fewer flowers, some stitching, and photo labels along the side instead of next to the photos. The background paper is the same color as the photo mat, so I misted the background paper with yellow and orange.

I loved making this page. I was in a wee bit of a design funk, and this shook me out of it.

*LOAD stands for Layout a day, a challenge Lain Ehmann does. I've done it a few times and had a blast every time. I can't do it this year, as February looks pretty busy. But if you are thinking of it, I recommend it.

Making templates

I am not a digi gal. True, I own various free kits, background papers, brushes, and so on, but I rarely use them. I took May Flaum's hybrid scrapping class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, which got me using my digi supplies more than I had, but I love moving pieces of paper around too much to go fully to the Dark Side. So I'm Anakin Skywalker in Episode 2 when it comes to digital scrapbooking, not Anakin at the end of Episode 3.

The most common way I use my computer to scrapbook has been to create digital templates for my photos. I learned how to do this comfortably from a Cathy Zielske tutorial she did on Ali Edwards' site (Cathy's got a lot of great digi/hybrid tutorials: explore them here). If you want to figure out how to create templates, watch the video and download her step-by-step guide.

I have a spot on my computer where I save digital products. I have them organized according to product type: kits, frames, journaling spots, brushes, and templates. When I create a template, I save it in the Template file by titling it something helpful. Here's some of my go-to templates:

• 4x6 wallets (a 4x6 document with two 2.5x3.5 wallets on it)
• 4x6 3-inch photos (a 4x6 document with two 3 inch square photos)
• 4x6 2-inch photos (a 4x6 document with six 2-inch photos)
  
• a 5x7 document with two 3.5 photos

I like 4x6 inch templates for obvious reasons: I can print them cheaply with my next photo order. If I make a photo collage that I want to print as is, then I usually make it an 8x10 document. I like printing my photos through scrapbookpictures.com, but if I'm impatient, I want regular-sized photos that I can print at Target quickly too.

After I load the photos into my template, I save the new file with a new name, then I "un-do" the photos I put in so I can reuse the template. Once you learn how, it's easy-peasy, and that makes it even easier to fit a lot of photos on one or two pages.