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

Scrapbooking - Old World Map

Old World Map
June 28, 2009

There are so many free graphics and images available online that can be used for digital scrapbooking and web design. At some point especially with digital scrapbooking you will want to make your own unique images. I use Photoshop® CS as my main graphic editing software. There are many online sites dedicated to providing free Photoshop® tutorials. There are also many forums and groups for discussing Photoshop® and getting help with the various features of the program. Even with a program as powerful as Photoshop® by itself there are various add-ons, plugins, free brushes, free actions and etc that can be used to enhance the program. You can even make your own brushes as I did for my © brush. So within the program there is still more room for personal creativity. I try to work through one or two Photoshop® tutorials each week.

Pictured is my first attempt at the Old World Map tutorial from psd tuts+. This would be a cute digital scrapbooking image that can be used as an element or background or even a frame. This tutorial uses several techniques to create a fictional old world map. It was a rather easy tutorial to follow but there were a few important details left out of a couple of the steps that would make it difficult for a beginner to complete. Once I had worked through the tutorial I decided to tweak just a little. There were several layers to creating the image which is something I really like. What is nice about layers is you can easily go back and change one element of your image if you save it as a .psd file. The image is created by adding additional layers each with a technique. For example in this tutorial the landmass was created as a layer then a background layer was added and dragged below the landmass. Each time something new was added I used a new layer. To get the final ridging effect all the layers were merged then a texture filter was used. I added a page curl using AV Bros. Page Curl Pro 2.2. This is an additional filter I purchased for Photoshop® that makes customizable bends and curls on the image. That left a transparent background so I added another layer filled with white so the image would blend properly on this blog.

I like the resulting image but have a few ideas how to make it better and that's what tutorials really are all about. I'm not really happy with how the stripes turned out so would use the gradient tool instead. I definitely would keep the compass on a separate layer, turn off that layer, merge the other layers then add the texture and turn the compass layer back on. I think the map would look a bit more authentic with perhaps a burnt or ragged edging as well. There are a few suggestions in the comment section of the tutorial so I will be playing a bit more and post what I come up with!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009