paper: Scrapbooking with 4x6 photos | pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Maybe I’m a little old fashioned, but I still prefer 4×6 prints. I love printed photos and really don’t think you can have too many! I love this size for scrapbooking and it appears on my pages more than any other size – so much so that I have a twelve step programme for scrapbooking with 4×6 pictures – or a free class, if you prefer. But it does have twelve lessons, really.

I order photos every two to four weeks by uploading everything to Photobox and ordering it all in 4×6 prints. They work out an excellent price in bulk and they are printed ‘properly’ as in with photo paper and development, not just a fancier version of a home photo printer. I prefer the gloss finish for the colour clarity, but they certainly offer matt finish as well and they do plenty of sizes. I order most of my square photos printed as 4×6 images too – I just check the ‘shrink to fit’ box so they come as a 4×4 image on a 4×6 photo card, and I crop the excess. (Photobox does square prints at 5×5, but I prefer the smaller and even-numbered 4×4 size. Welcome to my world.) Then I store all my 4×6 prints in the drawers of a dresser divided by index cards so I have all my scrappable events ready and waiting for inspiration to strike. It’s a key part of my process because going to the computer at any point in making a layout spells disaster for me. It spells ‘you should be doing something other than crafting’ and my email and other to-do list items suddenly fill my head. Going straight to the prints rather than the printer helps me get things done.

I had to choose just one video from the 4×6 Photo Love series and it’s the eight-photo project that won out. I love page-and-a-half designs and I need to remember to make them more often. They are far more fun to me than standard two page layouts and yet still have plenty of room for more photos. (See this page for further details and a printable PDF for this edition of 4×6 Photo Love, or the entire series is always available by scrolling to the bottom of this screen.)

And now for our guest artist, Diana Besemer, who has much in common with me for all things 4×6.

For me, this size is the easiest to work with because two pictures are in the correct proportion of 1/3 of the whole layout. And with only one picture there is enough space to get some extra use of your favourite paper, an extra long title or journaling. Every two months I‘’ll order all my new pictures in this same size so I’‘ll always have a stack of pictures ready to scrap. My new favourite paper and embelisshment is also right next to me. I‘’ll like to use them right away, because I love how they look on my layouts more then how they look in my closet.

About the Artist
Diana, who is married and a mother of two children, lives in a small village in The Netherlands.
For the last ten years scrapbooking has a big part of her life. Occasionally she loves to make cards with the scraps laying around on her desk. She designs for Card and Scrap, and has a blog where she posts on a regularly basis.

Your second challenge is to use 4×6 photos! Entries close at the end of next Sunday, the 12th of May. Please check back on the 14th of May to see if you have won a prize.

Read more about: inspiration-party

03 May 2013

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