DIY Picture layout organizer.

 My new way of doing pictures! :0)

I'm quite picky about my pictures that go up on the wall, but I love having photographs all over the place. I love to be surrounded by pictures of my loved ones. I can look across the room and just smile.

One wall is completely bare in my house.... see below :0) I needed something to cover it.

So... I went through my pictures and saved them to a folder on my desk top. I went through and edited them; that just the photographer in me. I little softness here... a little exposure there.. etc. etc.

I get into it probably farther than I need to. I have to draw it out on paper on how I want the photographs to look on the wall prior to ordering the pictures. I have to know what size of what picture I want. So here is how I did it this time.

 

I brought up Microsoft word and made a bunch of text boxes and brought them down to size. I knew my main focus was my 8 X 10's. I had one of each of us and one of Chris and I together.

I played with the 8 X 10 boxes and figured where I wanted them. I knew I had a large space to cover.

I added a lot of boxes to add pictures to later which can be resized. (hold CTRL C to copy, hold CTRL V to paste) 

 

 

I brought up my pictures and started filling in the boxes starting with my 8 X 10's, again those are my main focus and then started to add pictures around it.

 

I came across an issue with Jaxxon and Trenton's pictures. Jaxxon had horizontal pictures and Trenton didn't. I needed the right side to match the left. Cheyanne had one horizontal. I had to pick the best horizontal of Jaxxon and go searching for a vertical picture of him. You win some, you lose some.

I knew I wanted to put the kids 5X7 pictures by their 8X10 picture. Next to mine and Chris's  8X10's I put 5X7 of us together and then each of us with the kids.

 

The nice thing about doing it this way instead of drawing it out; moving the pictures is just a click and drag instead of throwing out the paper and starting over or erasing. :0)

 

I did have to go back and find some more pictures to fill in some spots, but that just means more pictures of my beautiful silly family up on the wall!

 

This is what I finished with and I love the result. I can't wait to see it up on my wall! I color coded it for ordering and easy viewing. Orange =8X10, Yellow = 5X7, Blue =4X6

 

I; then, pulled up my reference sheet and uploaded all my pictures to Wal-Mart. I put them side by side and just went down the list of pictures, peeking over to see what size to order! :0) 

 

 

"Save as" and you've got a template for moving pictures and organizing your pictures before you order the next time! I will be doing this with my wedding pictures very soon.

 

As soon as I got these pictures home and in the frames, I lay them out of the floor in the layout I created just to double check that I liked the way it turned out and made any switches to the pictures before putting them up on the wall. :0) That is something I have always done!

 

 

 

I ran into quite the predicament when the 5X7s and some 4X6s didn't have hangers on the back. UGH. My fault completely for not checking before purchasing them. Back to Wal-Mart I went and bought some command strips.... Amazing by the way! I will be using them for my future projects. They are easy to use and just put the picture up where you want it and press... there is no measuring, nailing, or frustration!

 

 

 

Here is the finished result, up on the wall for everyone to enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

I will be adding a couple other layouts that I have created and put up on the wall... these were drawn out, thrown away, erased, drawn out, laid out on the floor and re-arranged multiple times; before they ever made it up on my wall. Doing it this way would have saved a lot of time and paper!