Lovin' Those Baby Faces...

Today’s Tutorial is one I have wanted to get to for awhile now – but life has kept me busy. I am sure you all can relate. I recently did a photo shoot of my friend’s newborn and I can’t believe how many face shots were part of the package – that little guy had so many expressions I was amazed at the differences – so I created this layout –

Now I am going to tell you all how to do it – very easily and simply. This makes a great gift for friends or even grandparents and parents of newborns!

 

Step 1:

Open a new document sized 8” wide by 10” tall. Pull blue guides from your rulers at ½ inch from the edge on the right and left sides and 1 inch from the top and bottom edges.

Step 2:

Select six “face” Photos and convert them to black and white using your favorite conversion methods. Select your first photo and then select your cropping tool, choosing a width of 2 inches and height of 2 inches and 300 pixels per inch. Complete the cropping for all of your photos and move them over to your layout document.

 

Step 3:

So now you have six new layers on your document and if you are not perfect (and nobody is perfect) they are not evenly spaced – Make sure your Move Tool is selected and then while holding your CTRL key down, select your top row of photo layers from your layers palette. Now select the Align Top Edges and Distribute Right Edges and Distribute Horizontal Centers. While still selected, move your three photos with the top edges in line with the 1” guide and centered between the two side guides.

Step 4:

Repeat Step 2 except this time select your bottom row of photos and select Align Bottom Edges and distribute Horizontal Centers.  Hopefully I haven’t lost you yet – Select the two right photos and hit Align Right Edges  Then select the left two photos and hit Align Left Edges. Select the two center photos and select Align Horizontal Centers. Then Select all layers and move them to center between the right and left guides.

 

Step 5:

Select all your photo layers and right click on the layer and select – Merge Layers.

Select your background layer and choose Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color and then using the color picker choose the color you want your background to be – I chose white to keep it simple. You could also fill the background with your favorite scrapbooking paper.

 

Step 6

Select your photos layer and right click to set blending options – For this layout I chose Inner Shadow – right click on the Inner Shadow box which – instead of 120 degrees, type in 60 degrees. Next in Blending Options Select Bevel and Emboss – right click on B&E and then choose Outer Bevel Style, Chisel Hard Technique, 990% depth, Direction Up, 2 px size, 1 px soften. This makes the photos look as if they are framed below the fill layer – like photo matting.

Step 7

Add your title and enjoy!

 

 

Comments

[Hannah]

What a great layout!! This would look fantastic framed and on the wall ... wonderful gift idea! Great shots, by the way. He's a cute little guy.

[Hummie]

How did I miss this post? What a great post! I'm glad for the carnival so I could find this. Great inspiration. Did you see my baby layouts I made recently?