The 3×4 photo.

You wouldn’t notice until you attempted to insert a 3×4 print that the Becky Higgins Project Life pockets are not an exact 3×4 size. They are in fact, 2.88×4″, a smidgen smaller in width. *For this tutorial 3×4 is 2.88×4

We print photos for all types of memory keepers who are using different brands of pocket pages. Each order is subjective to your end use. Kudos to the Persnickety Prints staff who work so hard to perfect every order. We face daily challenges from image shift, print alignment, image shifting, color balance to the exact millimeter cuts of Project Life pockets. This isn’t easy! When customers submit files formatted correctly (bleed, aspect ratio, and resolution) we are giddy with excitement!

We suggest laying out 2 3×4 images onto a 4×6 canvas. Why? A few reasons…

1. Cutting these at home will ensure a perfect fit!
2. 8¢ vs. 24¢. Sizing your 3×4 prints prior to ordering will save you money! (up to .16¢ each when redeeming our .15¢ 4×6 print credit deal)

Let’s get started. A version of Photoshop is needed. Download the free Adobe Elements trial and give it a try! This is a very simple process, even if you aren’t a Photoshop guru, you can do it! We’ve got a free downloadable template to make it easy!

1. Download our free 4×6 template
2. Open the .psd file in Photoshop
3. Drag or copy & paste your image onto a new layer above the mask.
4. Clip the photo layer into the mask by hovering on the line in between the 2 layers and clicking alt/option (video tutorial). Clipping is also a great way to “crop” your images. Adjust and resize the photo inside of the mask for the perfect fit.
5. Flatten all layers & “save as” making sure you change the default from .psd to .jpeg

[Flatten & Save in Jpeg format]

Go To > Layer > Flatten Layers

 That’s it! Keep in mind, once you flatten and save as a .jpeg, and close your Photoshop program; there is no going back. It’s best to save the layered (.psd) format as well as the flattened (.jpeg) if you are unsure about the final results. For the more advanced Photoshop user, this is a great time to add a quick Project Life themed brush or overlay. Check out our Photoshop Brush tutorial here.

 I always save my flattened .jpeg’s in a “ready to print” folder, easily accessible on my computer desktop. Then, I upload to my online Persnickety Prints account (aka free photo storage!) and place my 4×6 photographic print order. Choose Matte, Gloss or Metallic. It’s easy to order, and your images will be at your door in less than 3-5 days! Cut your 3×4′s to size and slip them in your page protectors!

We hope this will help you simplify your life, giving you more time to make & document your memories!

The post 3×4 Photographic Prints appeared first on Persnickety Prints.

1. Use Cell Phone pictures. 95% of my Project Life photos are from my iPhone. Having a great little camera right in my back pocket has worked wonders to capture those fleeting everyday moments.

2. Print out polaroid and 3×4 pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words. The polaroid prints are so perfect for instagram photos, there is just enough room at the bottom for a stamp, some washi, or a quick sentence or two of journaling.

3. Let your pictures tell the story. Pick out photos for the week’s spread. Use a single journaling card to tell the story of each photo. The simple pairing of a photo + a journaling card keeps everything visually pleasing and super quick to put together.

4. Use filler cards. There are so many fantastic filler cards out there (I used several from the Midnight Core Kit in this spread). They keep things very simple and add a little bit of color or design to your spread. Grab a simply designed filler card and add a sticker or stamp to make it your own.

5. Make a Kit for the Road. Are you traveling this summer? Pack up a Project Life kit to take with you. In this post, I’ve come up with a few essentials as well as a nifty way to store them all. Even if you aren’t going away this summer, pack up a kit to take to the beach one day!

6. Stick to just a few supplies. I’ve found that my Project Life spreads come together much more quickly and easily when I limit myself to just a couple of supplies. Try picking out some journaling cards, a few stamps, and a couple of embellishments and see if that works for you as well.

Thank you so much for stopping by this week. Make sure to catch me during the week on my blog or follow me on twitter, instagram, and facebook for lots more inspiration!

The post Project Life: A Minimalist Approach for Summer appeared first on Persnickety Prints.

We have a community that not only allows us to share our creativity but also provides us an opportunity to meet people all over the world and form amazing friendships. Many of us may never meet in real life, but the relationships we form are as real as any. When a member of our community is hurt, it hurts our heart because there is so little we can do to help. Today is not that day where we can do nothing to help.

The owner of Oscraps is Vicki Stegall. She is from Moore, Oklahoma where the Tornado’s hit on May 20th causing mass destruction in her town only a mile from her home. Vicki, her family and her friends were all safe. Although she had a lot of clean up, thankfully her home was spared from the destruction. Many areas of her town were completely destroyed.

Upon hearing of the destruction, the Oscraps designers came together and decided the best way they could help out was to do what Designers do best…CREATE!!!  So create they have…along with some fellow designers from the community, they have created an amazing MEGA Community Collaboration. None of the proceeds for this kit will be going to Vicki or her family, but to the community through the disaster relief efforts of the Red Cross. We have created a kit that offers hope, peace and togetherness, which is so often found after a community is broken. Everyone pulls together and helps each other out, despite what they are also going through.

May we present to you: an Oscraps & Friends Collaboration ~ AFTER THE STORM

Contributors: Alegna Designs, Allison Pennington, Amy Martin, Amy Wolff, Anna Aspnes, Ashalee Wall, Boutique Cute Doll, Charlize Creations, Crafty Button Designs, Danielle Young, Dido Designs, Dumpty Designs, Edelina Martin, Emily Merritt, Forever Joy, Heather T, Hondachicc, Jen Maddocks, Jenn Labre, Joanne Brisebois, Jodie McNalley, Jopke Designs, Laitha Designs, Laurie Ann, Lydia Designs, MaryPop, Maya de Groot, Merkeley Designs, Mommyish, Our Misadventures, Pink Reptile Designs, Sabrina’s Creations, Sabrina Dupree, Seatrout Scraps, Studio Tangie, Sue Cummings, TaylorMade Designs, The Hidden Heart, Three Paper Peonies, Timounette Designs, Tracy Martin, Val C Designs & Valorie Wibbens

**All proceeds from the sales of this kit will be given to the Red Cross Disaster Relief**

The Donation for this kit is your choice.

$15 $25 $50

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I love documenting life through photos. Photos tell a story.
I’ve scrapbooked since I could glue, posed all of the neighborhood children for photoshoots when I was 10, and in the fifth grade, I took it upon myself to take photos, scrapbook and sell them as “yearbooks”.
Fast forward to 2013.

• My kids don’t know what film is.
• I don’t own a point and shoot.
• My mobile phone plays music, records HD video, locates my favorite restaurants and shoots panoramic full resolution photos! It blows my mind. There really is an app for everything! In fact, I’m writing this post in the car, on my phone, inside of the WordPress app.

You’re thinking, cool, “what does this have to do with me“?
Everything.
If you’re taking photos and like to remind the kids that yes, they did go to Disneyland once, listen up!
Mobile isn’t going anywhere. If you haven’t climbed on board, it’s time. Learn. Educate. Free yourself:) With mobile technology, we can do almost anything “on the go”. Is this a good thing? It can be!

Let me introduce you to a dear friend, Shelley Smith.  Shelley is a great storyteller who had nothing and created everything, on her own. Her DIY blog, House of Smiths, is one of the most popular DIY blogs on the web today. Shelley is just as funny in person as she writes. I can hear her voice when I read her stories, and giggle out loud.

Last week, Shelley drove over an hour to visit us at Persnickety Prints and to pick up photos she had ordered of her recent vacation to Mexico (snapped entirely with her iPhone).  Upon picking them up, we realized that one of the apps she had used to create a 4×4 collage did not export at the recommended printable resolution. Her 4×4 prints were a bit pixelated and did not showcase the vibrant colors of the Caribbean! (every photo editing app exports at different resolutions.)

What did we do?
Shelley pulled out her mobile phone to access the original photos. In less than 15 minutes she recreated new collages in Picframe, and added text using the app, Phonto.

Not only did the 4×4′s print perfectly, but we were able to print 12×12′s too! The colors were vibrant and sharp, and exactly how she wanted to remember Mexico.

Shelley sent me these photos of her finished pages tucked away in her album. Mexico is documented, thanks to her phone!

Helpful tips from the House of Smiths:

• How to use Picframe
• InstaLife Album
• Insta Wall Display

• 10 Tips to better mobile photos
• Ordering Persnickety Prints photos directly from your phone
• Want to take better mobile photos? Check out my upcoming online class here.

The post Create a 12×12 collage on your phone appeared first on Persnickety Prints.

I take a lot of pictures. I think most memory-keepers do. We snap hundreds, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of photos every year. While some pictures are definitely better than others, there are a couple pictures that will always stand out from the rest.

Today I’m telling you to document those photos. Don’t be afraid to scrap the great ones. The absolute worst thing that happens is you hate the way it comes out and you try again a second time, practice makes perfect anyway.

This is one of my all-time favorite photos. I love aerial views. My favorite vacation photos are always the ones from the tallest building, or overlooking the city from a beautiful vantage point.

I love this picture. It was taken at the top of the Sears tower overlooking the Chicago River. The cars and boats look so little. It was an amazing experience to be able to capture all of that at the same time.

But when it came to scrapbooking the photo. I wasn’t sure the best way to tell the story. I really wanted to emphasize the magnitude of the city, and how breath-taking it was. In the end I decided that the photo itself told enough of the story, because a picture is still worth a thousand words. 

To get this look I converted the picture to black and white; so that the grids and lines of the city-scape would stand out. I then printed an 8.5×11 photograph; trimmed it down a bit and mounted it on white cardstock. To give it a bit of a vintage look, I added a sheet of cream colored vellum to the top of the layout and then decorated it very simply with black glitter thickers and a handwritten sentiment underneath. Here’s a closeup of the title letters and the journaling.

So today I’m challenging you to go through your photos and pick out 1 great picture. Scrap that picture. Great pictures can elicit deep emotions. Use those emotions to tell the story (even if its only a few words). If its an older picture, ask yourself how does that picture make you feel now? Don’t be afraid of the great photos. They usually become the best layouts!

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you’re looking for more inspiration, please stop by my blog or follow me on twitter, instagram, and facebook for lots more inspiration!

The post Showcase a Great Photograph appeared first on Persnickety Prints.

We now have Soft & Hardcover Books Available in the shop. Both books contain a set number of 15 pages, 30 total [front and back] with the option to create your own custom cover.

This book building software is simple: import square photos directly from Instagram or quickly upload images and or graphics from your computer.

Access and use these graphics in your book! Here’s how:

Enter our Persnickety Shop Gallery. Select the previously made Fathers Day book, and click “make one like this” (you must be logged in).

The graphics will be available to use, move, resize, or remove completely. Just getting started? See how to make a book here.

I designed this book for my husbands dad. We sent a quick group text to the siblings asking for photos of “Dad”. Thanks to mobile technology, I received photos almost immediately (via text) and was able to add them to the book. *please note: mobile photos work great for small print. This is why we offer a 5×5 book. A larger book would produce pixelated and less clear photos.

Make your gift a little more personal by leaving a few pages blank for the grand kids to hand write their favorite Grandpa memories.

For smaller children; hand tracing, drawing a picture or fingerprints would be fun!

Get Started

Save $4 on each 5×5 Mini Book (soft or hard cover) | COUPON CODE: dadrocks 

coupon valid until June 10th | Fathers Day delivery deadline is June 7th

US Shipping $5 flat | International Shipping $10 flat

• Printable Fathers Day Questionnaire can be found here

The post Father’s Day Mini Book appeared first on Persnickety Prints.

I measured my spaced and decided on a 4 foot by 4 foot collage made with instagram photos. Because I went with such a large collage, I also decided that it was okay for my photos to repeat a few times to make creating the collage a lot easier.

I’m giving step-by-step instructions on how to complete the wall collage that I created. At the bottom off the post, I offer some helpful tips to help you alter the wall collage instructions to fit your own needs.

Getting Started:

1. Pick out 64 instagram/square shaped photographs. Separate those photos into 4 sets of 16 photos each. I created a new folder on my computer for each set of photos, just to keep organized while I was working on this project. Try to divide your photos evenly among the sets (don’t put all your black and white pictures in one set, or all your travel pictures in another set), the idea is to make this look as random as possible.  
2. Open Photoshop (or any drag and drop photo editing program)  and create a 12×12 canvas with a resolution of 300 DPI. [.psd template provided below]
3. Open the first set of 16 photos and arrange them in a 4×4 grid. Each photo should be 3″ by 3″. Flatten & save this file as a high resolution .jpg.
4. Repeat the previous step for sets 2, 3, and 4. When you are finished you should have 4 high resolution 12×12 .jpg files. Each of those files should be an image of 16 different photos.
5. Upload those 4 .jpg files (make sure to upload at full size) to Persnickety Prints and order 4 copies of EACH PRINT as a 12×12 photographic print (I chose glossy paper this time, but next time I would go with matte because of the bright sunlight in my bedroom). You’ll be ordering 16 prints in all. $1.99 each.
6. When you get the prints, lay them out on a flat surface in the order that you want them to appear on the wall (I used my bed). I’m including a sketch to show you the order I put my prints in on the wall. Following the sketch made this project much easier.
7. Adhere the photographic prints to the wall with heavy duty double-sided tape or poster tape. Line each of the prints up with each other, making sure the photographs all line up in a grid.
8. Stand back and admire!
9. Total project cost $31.84 plus $5 shipping.

Tips for making this project fit your space:

• Measure your space ahead of time. Make sure you know the exact dimensions of where you’ll be placing the wall collage.
• Choose matte photo paper for rooms with a lot of direct sunlight.
• To make a collage with smaller prints, print on 8×8 or 6×6 photographic paper.
• If you have tons of photos for your collage, make more sets and print less copies of each set.
• There’s no reason the collage needs to be square; try making a rectangular collage if it better fits your space.

Thanks so much for stopping by! stop by my blog during the week, or follow me on twitter, instagram, and facebook for lots more inspiration!

Download this Free 12×12 .psd template and get started!

The post DIY Instagram Wall Collage with 12×12 Photographic Prints appeared first on Persnickety Prints.

Most of my everyday photos are taken with my iPhone. The iPhone lens is now 8 megapixel, which is  stronger than my first digital point and shoot! It amazes me how far we’ve come with mobile technology! Want to improve your mobile photo skills? Join me and 31 other instructors this summer in our online Phone Photography workshop.

Photoshop brushes have become my “go to” source for Project Life/Pocket Page photos. I use them on full 12×12 layouts as well. It’s so easy to change the color and slap on a digital “stamp”. Layer them up, play with opacity, add some text and your everyday photo just turned into something that much more!

  12 FREE Summer Brushes + .png files to get you started on documenting the little things! Not sure how to use .abr brushes in Photoshop? We’ve got you covered in our step-by-step tutorial.

Enjoy!

Download

The post Free Digital Summer Stamp Set appeared first on Persnickety Prints.

I love creating travel mini-books, and I’m usually guilty of making at least 3 or 4 for every trip I take. Wanting to tell the story of one crazy day in downtown Chicago, this book was created using Persnickety Prints polaroid/cardstock prints; Project Life journaling cards from Studio Calico; and the accordion style mini-book technique found in my newest online workshop: Fold It In. To learn more about the workshop, click here or scroll to the bottom of this post for a chance to win your very own spot!

This album came together so easily. Photos, journaling cards, a sheet of patterned paper, washi tape, and pens. The Polaroid prints work perfectly with the flip-down style of this album. Aside from the perfect spot to add some washi tape, the bottom of the polaroids are a great place to add some extra journaling. This is a fantastic way to use up those extra Project Life journaling cards that you’ve been holding on to! 

This DIY mini-album technique is my absolute favorite right now. I love that I can make a full album using just supplies from my stash, and I really love that I can create the mini-album work for the specific story I’m trying to tell. Because I’m deciding the size of the album, I can make it as long or as short as I need to and fill it with as many or as few photos as I have. These books are super interactive and are always a favorite when guests come to visit.

Thanks very much for stopping by today. If you’d like to catch up with me during the week you find me at rukristin.com or on instagram, facebook, and twitter.

ENTER TO WIN A SEAT IN FOLD IT IN – a new workshop by rukristin papercrafts

The post DIY Flip Down Mini-Album & A Giveaway appeared first on Persnickety Prints.

My nephew was born September 1, 2012.

Our family was so happy to see any photos that were shared of him, and of course, any that crossed my path, I digitally scrapbooked!

By the time I was able to meet my Nephew in late September, I’d already created almost a dozen 12×12 digital pages of his cute face and brought them with me to give to my sister and her husband. I kept them in their original Persnickety Prints packaging, which we opened, and flipped through the print, admiring the cute subject. As so often happens in my family, prints were put aside, awaiting some moment when they’d be put into an album.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature tried to ensure they never would be. In October, Hurricane Sandy devastated the coast and just about flattened my sister’s little town in Union Beach, NJ. As you can see from the photo below, the water line went up to about 4′ in the house. She lived eight blocks inland. The force of the water moved furniture, brought in mud and filth, and left wreckage in its wake. Entire homes were moved off of their foundations.  My sister’s house stood, but it and almost all of the ground-floor contents were essentially ruined.

Days after the sea water subsided, they picked through what could be salvaged and came across the package of the photo pages I’d given them.  The box they came in had disintegrated into a goo of cardboard.  These pages were exposed to the sea water and were still damp, but looked none the worse for wear.  Just a quick wiping off with a cloth to remove some silt and to dry them, and they were just about as good as new.  Thanks to the water-resistant nature of these pages, my sister and her husband still had these gifts, these pages celebrating their son.

When I see them next, I’ll add more pages to their stash and make sure they get into their albums!

Thank you Leslie for sharing your story! Leslie has been a Persnickety Prints customer since 2011.

Hurricane Sandy was the deadliest and most destructive hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, as well as the second-costliest hurricane in United States history.

Persnickety Prints *photographic processing is a chemical based system using (like the old film days). No ink. Recent independent studies by Wilhelm Imaging Research show that Crystal Archive is the most fade-resistant photographic paper of all that are currently made, outlasting other major brands by almost a three-to-one margin. We cannot guarantee your prints will with stand all natural disasters, but we sure try! Memories should last a lifetime.

*photographic processing does NOT include press prints

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