Today I want to share a paper layout I recently finished.

Wait…paper? What?!

This is what starting project life has done to me. It’s getting me back into paper crafting. And I find that I am creating more now – both digital and traditional projects. I’m surprised on both counts. To be completely honest, I thought I’d get so wrapped up with trying to keep up with project life that I wouldn’t have time for other creative projects but I am finding the complete opposite to be true. So for those of you out there that are hesitant to start project life for those exact reasons, I’m here to tell you that your reservations are unfounded! Once you start you will probably find yourself in the same boat as me – creating more.

Ok, now back to the paper layout.

This page, like most of my pages, started with the photos. This particular event happened to be a birthday party. I took 147 photos that day but ended up only using 9.

One of the questions I get asked most often is how do you decide which photos to use?  First, start by identifying what story you want to tell. With 147 photos to go through, I had to remind myself that my goal was not to try to cover it all.  I just wanted to focus on the most memorable moments of the party – and for the girls, it was the fun they had playing the carnival game booths. Here’s my process:

In lightroom, I started by going through all the photos and starring the ones that I like.

Then I went back a second time, browsing only the starred photos, to see if I needed to add or take away from the group.  For this batch, I decided to keep all of the photos except for the portrait oriented photo.

Then I edited the photos (using photoshop actions by Totally Rad), and ended up with this 9 photo collage.

The finished layout is going into my project life album:

I used the same collage design to showcase some of my favorite photos from Maddie’s birthday party.

It’s so versatile and easy to use, and especially handy when you want to include a lot of photos yet still keep your page looking sleek and minimalist.

This photo collage template is available as a free download for a limited time.  Enjoy!