How to Make a Simple Picture Mosaic for Scrapbooking

Mosaics and collages are two popular techniques for both paper and digital scrapbooking. I used Photoshop to create this simple picture mosaic. It could be used in digital form as is or could be added as a page element or it could be printed and trimmed to use as an element as desired. I think it would also be a lovely front for a homemade greeting card. Here are the steps I used to create the mosaic.

1. Open desired number of images to a maximum of 9 for this layout. I chose to use 7.
2. Create a new image 640 px x 480 px.
3. For each image, duplicate the layer then make any colour adjustments on the duplicated layer.
4. Add a stroke in colour of your choice. I used a 100 px stroke in black.
5. Go to the new image and duplicate the layer. Fill the duplicate with the same colour as your stroke colour. Click on the eye so the filled layer does not show. This is easier for the next steps.
6. Go to each individual image then Layer/Flatten Image.
7. Resize each image as desired. In this case I wanted a 3 x 3 mosaic layout so divided one of my new dimensions by three to get the value. This worked out to a width of 213 px. For each image go to Image/Image Size. Be sure Constrain Proportions is turned on then change the width to desired size. In this case it was 213 px which automatically changed the height to 160 px.
8. Using the move tool click on the resized image and drag it over to the new image. This will create a new layer. Position as desired. I started at the top right hand corner for the position of the first image added to the new image.
   
9. Repeat step 8 until all images have been added. Note that each image added creates a new layer. In total there were 9 layers for the image I created before moving on - 2 background layers, 7 flower layers.
10. If you are adding text, click on the text tool then on the image where you want the text. Write the desired text in desired font and size. Use move tool to position text if necessary. Here I used 2 image spaces left blank for text. Text is Brush Stroke std with Yellow Glass style applied.
11. Turn on the black filled layer and the transparent layer.
12. Go to Layer/Flatten Image. This will flatten the image to one locked layer.
13. Duplicate the layer. Working on the duplicate layer go to Edit/Stroke and add a stroke in the same colour as the previous background and strokes in the desired size. I used 15 px in black.
14. If desired for web use, add a new layer and your copyright notice.
15. Go to Layer/Flatten Image to flatten all layers.
16. Go to File/Save As for scrapbooking purposes or File/Save For Web for web use.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010