December Daily : Day Five
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Today's December Daily focuses on some shots I took around the house. The foundation for the page is a baseball card page protector that I cut to size to fit in my album.
A couple people mentioned in the comments yesterday that they were happy to see that I was not strictly adhering to content that happened on that particular day (re: seeing Santa in November and including it yesterday). My goal with this project is to capture and document the season. The photos I am using for today's entry were taken on Thursday...it all goes together just fine and in the end will be a look at the entire season of celebration.
One of the requests I often receive is asking for directions on how to put together a gathering of photos in Photoshop. This gathering can be printed out and used all together on a project or printed out & cut up before adhering (saving paper by printing them all on one sheet).
1. Open a new canvas/document in Photoshop. I usually do 8x10 inches at 300 dpi.
2. Open your first photo. Resize + crop each photo. For me (in Photoshop CS3) this entails going to Image/Image Size where I change the resolution to 300 dpi and, for these pockets, I set the height to 3.5 inches. Setting the height first allows me to get the most content from my original image rather than cropping first. From there I use the crop tool to select an area of the photo that is 2.5 inches wide (use the rulers as a guide) and then move it around on the photo (in this case to the left or to the right) to select the area I want to feature and hit enter to crop.
3. Move the photo to a new canvas (300 dpi, 8x10 inches) that can accommodate all six photos (or more). I simply drag and drop the photo onto the new canvas using the move tool.
4. Repeat #2 and #3 for the other photos you want to include.
5. Print.
I cropped my photos using my Fiskars trimmer and adhered them back to back so I ended up with three glued back to back to slip into the pockets (see completed image below).
[ See & Stamp Jumbo Uppercase Alphabet Stamps
(large alphabet stamps), Hero Arts Basic Uppercase (small alphabet stamps), Fontwerks Dotted Arrow Stamp, Art Warehouse Dear Santa patterned paper ]
Here's the before photo:
[ Baseball card page protector cut to size - look for these at a local office supply store; Every Jot + Title Red Circle Numbers ]
Celebrate the season.Read more about the concept of a December Daily Album and links to all related posts here. See many more examples from participants in the Flickr December Daily Group.
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30 comments
The album looks great. I am loving your photo overlays from Digital Designers. What a great addition to my pictures.
Sandi
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Thanks so much for the photoshop refresher!
Your decorations are beautiful!!!
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We too have a basket of Christams books that came out on Dec 1st. I agree...it is such fun to pull out books we haven't loved in a year! :) I recognize the edges of some of yours but wanted to share two favorites that Simon would likely love...Moosletoe by Margie Palatini and Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner. Both are great festive finds...I have tons more favorites if you want but these seem to be my boys (8 & 3) this year! Enjoy!
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I truly do live for your blog posts. =) Your work/talent/words are just so amazing Ali. You inspire in millions of ways. To see you do this daily, is just so fun. Love what you have done so far. Truly can't wait to see more.
I want to say that I truly thank you for always providing links to the items that you use for your projects. I try to mark them all done but I don't always remember. If ever you do a blog post and run out of something to say, can you please list your all time fav products? =)
Thanks Ali and Happy Holidays.
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So creative!
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I'm glad you didn't just "stick" to what is happening on a day-to-day basis for this album. I also included the story of getting our tree which happened the weekend before Thanksgiving, which others might consider "cheating". :-) I was thinking... how can I make this album without documenting how we got our 1st live Christmas tree?! Thanks Ali, as always you are amazing! Can't wait for tomorrow's post... take care!
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Gorgeous!
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Ali,
We had the flu since the day after Thanksgivng (keeping up on blogs during breaks and laying in bed during my flu)
should I do each day on that? There is a different tale on each ( I did keep notes.) I thought maybe doing it on who was down at the given day and what Christmas special was going on that night.)
I appreciate your take on that. We are still down today, but hope tomorrow will finally be tree day.
Thanks for the creativity again.
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Being flexible is important. Today there are a TON of things I would like to document: my daughter's birthday, making gingerbread houses with her friends, and putting up the tree later this evening. Since I did not attach my numbers ahead of time I think I will just add an extra couple of pages for Dec 6.
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fabulous! thank you for the lesson! i am so inept at photoshop, it is so frustrating...appreciate the tips!
the album is coming along wonderfully!
thank you!
chelle
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That's beautiful! I love how your mind works, Ali. I loved the flourish in the Dear Santa paper, so I made that sheet extra tall. I never thought to flip it around and use it like you did. Beautiful!
Your pictures look lovely too.
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Very creative, Ali. I love it! Would you mind telling me where you got your Christmasy door mat, please?
Thank you!
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Your basket of books reminded me of a tradition we do that you might like. You are always sharing great ideas with your readers. I wrap 24 of our holiday books up in tissue paper with a version of The Night Before Christmas that my mother read to me in special paper for the 24. Each night my girls take turns unwrapping one book for the bedtime story. It's an easy advent calendar and the surprise is fun. We have more holiday books than 24 so each year it's a bit different which ones I wrap.
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very cool!
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Lovin the arrow stamp and the design of the page and leaving the fourth pocket "empty."
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I have PSE 6 and for me to do a gathering like this (using full sized images instead of cropping down to what I want, or if I have already cropped and edited...) there is an option for printing multiple photos on the drop down bar (where you choose 'print.' All of the images that have been placed in the editor are then loaded and you can choose what size by doing a photo package (on the right side of the screen.) There may be more to it, but this is how I do it :)
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Everything you make looks so sweet and stylish!!!
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SOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE !!!!!
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looks gorgeous :D
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Oh Ali! I am truly enjoying documenting my december. I'll be sure to upload them to the flickr gallery. Thank you so much for the inspiration! Love how your journal is turning out! Gorgeous photos too!
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