Getting Organized with Photo Collage Tutorial

Hello there! It’s Mendi here today with a layout sharing my love for organization using Pebbles new Happy Day collection! As I state in my journaling, I adore organizing my stash almost as much as I love being creative with it! I thought it would be fun to create a layout documenting some of my favorite ways I do this.

To give my page a splash of color and a fun element, I added a border of pennants below my mat using all the awesome tone-on-tone prints from the collection. For my title I die-cut the word “dream” using navy vinyl on my Silhouette using THIS cutting file. I love the way it looks when paired with the wood grain Thickers from the collection!

One of the questions I get asked the most is how I print multiple small photos on one 4×6 print. While I own software where I can perform this task, I was searching for a free solution for those who can’t afford this option. I was ecstatic to discover Picasa offers a free and easy download that does it beautifully (available for download HERE).

After downloading and installing Picasa on your computer, select the photos you want to use in your collage by holding down the “CTRL” key and clicking on each image. While they are still selected, go to the “Create” tab at the top and select the “Picture Collage” option in the pull down menu.

You will now arrive at this screen (I have zoomed to the top, left-hand corner to make it easier to see). This is where you are able to select the type of collage you want. I chose a simple grid option.

Next you are able to chose your spacing on a sliding scale. This can help shrink your photos if you are wanting them smaller or give a nice white border between them if you want to frame your photos.

Next you can chose your page format depending on whether you want them to fit on a 4×6, 5×7 or 8×10 print. I forgot to include an arrow, but depending on the orientation of your photos, directly below this drop down menu you can also select between the portrait or landscape option.

At this point you can move the photos around within your collage to the right by dragging and dropping them. When you are satisfied with the arrangement, click the “Create Collage” button to the left.

This will take you to a new window where you can save it to your computer. I chose my own location to make finding it easier later by clicking on the “browse” button. I wanted my image to be really good quality, but I found using the original size was way too huge, so I changed it to 3000 pixels with maximum quality. This may be a larger file that you need for a 5×7 sized portrait, but it worked for me. Your last step is to hit the “export” button. I was able to find the image in the spot where I saved it and upload it to Costco for my printing. It was super easy and I love that it was free! 🙂

Here’s a shot of what my finished 5×7 collage looked like. At this point I still wasn’t quite sure how I was going to use these little shots, but I knew if I was going to fit all these pictures on my one-page layout, they would have to be small. In the end I decided to crop them without their borders and add them to long 12-inch white cardstock strips, but I think this collage was still a really nice, quick way to achieve this.

This is a great trick for saving money on printing and fitting more on a page. I use it all the time to add two to four images to one 4×6 photo.

And a quick view again of my final layout…

I hope I’ve inspired you to give photo collages a try. There are several more cool functions you can do with the Picasa software including photo editing so make sure to check it out. 🙂