The holiday season mail generally brings a variety of cards, notes and photographs from friends and family. While photos sometimes end up in frames or on the refrigerator, older photos can get lost or thrown away. An alternative is to create a scrapbook layout, or several layouts, to incorporate cards and photographs. These layouts can be preserved safely in your albums, and you can go back and view them again and again.
The following materials are required to create the collage layout as illustrated in the photos below:
- Two sheets of 12"x12" scrapbook paper or cardstock (a solid color is best for this project)
- Paper trimmer or 2"x2" square punch
- Alphabet embellishments for the title (stickers, rub-ons or chipboard letters work well)
- Sandpaper, emery board, or sanding block
- Adhesive - a tape runner or glue stick is best for this project
Step 1 - Create Your Squares
Pull together all of your holiday cards and photographs you received from one season. You do not need to have a certain number of each. Pull out cards that have interesting prints or colors. Use the trimmer or square punch to cut out 2" squares from the cards and photos. If some photos cannot be cut into a 2" square, cut a shape that is a multiple of 2", such as a 2"x4" rectangle, or a 4" square.
Step 2 - Sanding
Use a piece of sandpaper, an emery board, or a sanding block to gently sand the edges of each square. This will reveal the white core in the photograph or card paper, and provide a little definition between each square when it is in the grid.
Step 3 - Arrange and Adhere Your Photos
Spread the shapes out onto your paper, and mix and match the colors and prints to create a mosaic. You can use 25 2" shapes to create a grid with a 1" border all around, or you can use 16 2" shapes to create a grid with a 2" border all around. The latter is what is shown in the example below. It may be helpful to lay out a grid lightly in pencil before you start so that your collage is centered on the paper.
Once you are happy with the collage, adhere each of the photos to the paper. Continue creating pages until you have used all of your photos, or stop when you've created a 2-page layout.
Step 4 - Add the Title
When you have completed your collage, add a title in the border section of the page. You could also incorporate the title into the grid itself by reserving a 4"x4" square or other sized area. Once you are done, add these layouts to your albums and remember the holidays!
This project will allow you to recycle cards and photos that you may have thrown away in the past. Consider making this project an annual tradition, and you can return to the older pages each year to see how people have grown and changed. The example project shown in the photos below incorporated papers and stickers made by Arctic Frog.
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