words + photos : thursday

You've got some photos + you've got some words. Now what?

Here's 10 ideas for keeping the focus on the words + photos in your projects:

1. Create most of your design on the computer (can also be called hybrid-scrapbooking: a mixture of traditional steps and digital/computer steps). Here's an example of a layout where the content was created in Photoshop, printed at home on photo paper & adhered to a piece of patterned paper. A patterned strip stitched between the words + the photos "grounds" the content.

This same foundation could easily be created without a computer as well: crop photos, adhere in a square on a piece of white cardstock, handwrite journaling below and then adhere the piece onto patterned paper. (For a tutorial on creating a gathering of photos in Photoshop go here - scroll down a bit within the newsletter to locate to how-to.)

[ from Life Artist ]

2. Get the look of an over-sized printer with a regular one when you have a lot of words. Create journaling on the computer (in Word or whatever word processing program you use), set the paper size to legal under page set up, and run the cardstock through a your printer (make sure to set the print size to legal as well). Legal size is 8.5x14 so keep this in mind as you are adding your text. This layout definitely keeps the focus on the words + the photos: an older one but a classic in terms of pinpointing the heart of what we do.

[ from BHG, Scrapbooks Etc, June 2004 ]

3. Use a computer tablet to add handwritten words onto your layout or right onto your photos. I use this one for design work, but depending on what you want to do with the tablet this one would totally work as well (I prefer the larger work space on the first one). Usually I will write my words in Adobe Illustrator but Photoshop works just fine too. Words like you see below can be added right onto my photos or as a title for my journaling.

4. Add type directly to your photos (either in Photoshop or with letter stickers/stamps). Photoshop includes a Type tool that allows you to add words onto your photo before printing them. The sample below is a spread from a minibook where each photo included the words "today you" and then tells a piece of the story. I really liked the combination of computer and handwritten text.

[ from Creating Keepsakes Studio A June 2006 ]

5. Print journaling on a transparency to layer on top of more than one patterned paper (or on top of a photo). I also like the look of the photo frame on the right (layer a bunch of photos that touch the edge of the cardstock and place your journaling on top in the center to create the look of a photo frame).

[ from Creating Keepsakes 2006 ]

6. Make a photobook. There are quite a few options out there for photobooks. I have been working with Shutterfly, through CK Media, and have had a great experience with them. They have a vision and a philosophy and understand the heart of telling our stories. You can order photobooks, like this one I designed, that are a "built" scrapbook where all you have to do is add your photos and text. Or you can go simpler with something like iPhotos "book" feature.

[ 8x8 Shutterfly Celebrate Everyday Life Photobook ]

7. Get your handwriting mixed in with those photos. One of my favorite ways to include handwritten journaling is to frame my grouping of photos (+ other elements). In the case of the layout below I drew a single-lined box with a ruler and used that as a guide for adding my handwriting.

[ from Life Artist ]

8. Let the photos take over, literally. Cover background cardstock with photos and add word stickers to tell the story. Contrast a large photo with smaller photos for added interest. Most of the word stickers below are Wordfetti from Making Memories (you can find some of those here, here, and here). You could also use a white pen to add hand-written journaling directly to the photo.

[ from Creating Keepsakes Studio A May 2006 ]

9. Grab bits of this and that for journaling blocks. Leftover paper works great for this as well of a plethora of products available on the market these days. They are perfect for quickly jotting down those words and pairing them with photos. There are lots of Etsy shops right now that sell little journaling cards (or you can always just make your own). Here's a couple shops to check out: Elle's Studio, Living Room Floor, Shim & Sons, and every jot and title. The only downside...sometimes I find not enough of the story gets told when I use these small pieces. They often make it to easy to quit when you just get going into the story - maybe when the real story is coming out. Be choosy. I am trying to use them now when I really don't have much to say (which requires a bit more thinking through during my process time).

10. Words + photos. Just keep repeating that to yourself. What is the story I want to tell and how can I simply focus on that? So much of this is just saying no to the excesses that have the potential to get in the way. Tell your story.

[ from A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking ]

[ The full words + photos series can be found here: monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday. ]