Inspiration Boards Make Me Think of Short Boards…

Inspiration Boards Make Me Think of Short Boards…

September 23rd, 2009 @ 3:39 pm by Mrs. Lamb
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… which make me think of board shorts, which make me think of the beach. And down the rabbit trail… (lamb trail?) I go.

Anyboard, I pieced this bad boy together for a long time. Who knew it would be so difficult? Somehow, Snippet & Ink manages to make one every other day. She may make hers in Photoshop, but I was going non-technical and cropping my images in PowerPoint. I’ll show you a little tutorial and then the finished product!

Step 1: Open PPT. duh.
Step 2: I find it easiest to start with a blank slide, so just delete the default text boxes.
Step 3: Go to Insert>>Picture>>From File and then choose your file from the myriad of pictures you’ve inevitably downloaded during marathon searches.

Step 4: Start by inserting an “anchor” photo, one that you think is important and that you want to be the focus. Crop it and make it the size you want it to be.
Step 5: Insert some other photos you like and start to arrange them around each other, being mindful of the color interplay.

See, this one isn’t floating my boat. Even though I love the paper doily lanterns, they’re too warm for the board. I’m going for a cool and wintery, sophisticated wedding. This is more of “Home and Hearth” warm. Lovely idea, but for another board. Off you go doily lanterns!

Step 6: Arrange and rearrange. Save a copy, then save it as something else and change it all around. At some point you have to stop and be “finished”, but make sure you’re happy when you do.
Step 7: When you’re happy, click and drag your mouse around the entire block until all the photos are highlighted. Right click, Grouping>>Group.

This will keep them all together. Right click again and choose “Save as picture.” I’ve found the best luck changing the file type to a .png - it seems to upload to the web the best and keep my image intact.

Step 8: Upload the pic to your blog or whatnot.

Now here’s the hard part… remembering where you got your images from so that you can easily cite the sources. Anybody got a foolproof way of doing this? Because my list below took me 30 more minutes to recreate. Boo, lack of forward thinking while I was collecting these boogers.

Anyways. From L to R starting on the top row:
Art Deco Rhinestone Drop Earrings: Tees and More
Vintage dress display: Vintage Glam Weddings
Bridal Bouquet: Design Whimsy
Custom Feather Bridal Shoes: Emmy Custom Made Wedding Shoes
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: Liberty Film Festival
Lauran Bacall: Janez Life and Times
Wedding Dress: Pronovias 2008 Collection
Flawless Invitation: eInvite
Maui Coconut Cake: Marney Cakes (accessed through Inspired!!)

Tags: color schemes, diy, tutorial |

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33 Responses to “Inspiration Boards Make Me Think of Short Boards…”

1 2 Last

Member

tea (message) 7,263 posts, Bee Keeper

i’ve always struggled to get the right feel for a board but then i tried style me pretty’s style circle thing and they have a board builder! you can use images they have on the site to include and wouldn’t you know, i finally made a board i liked.

i’ve been using google’s notebook to help keep track of sources but they’re not open for new sign ups.

9/23/09 @ 3:45 pm (reply)

Member

PattyG (message) 95 posts, Worker bee

Wow! Great tutorial, I’ve always had a tough time with inspiration boards too!

9/23/09 @ 4:00 pm (reply)

Member

jduck84 (message) 1,529 posts, Bumble bee

I just logged into Style Me Pretty’s Style Circle last night, and they’ve added a new feature where you can upload your own images, as long as you credit the source!

http://circle.stylemepretty.com/jduck84/blog/2009/08/21/picnic-wedding/

9/23/09 @ 4:06 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Lamb (message) 970 posts, Busy bee

@jduck84: I had no idea there was another site! I’m guessing you have to be a member to use the features . . . I’ll have to play with it later tonight!

9/23/09 @ 4:19 pm (reply)

Member

ashlle (message) 140 posts, Blushing bee

I love it. Powerpoint is definitely a faster way to go than Photoshop. My new favorite program for these, though, is Google’s Picasa, using the “collage” setting. You can’t control the placement as well as you could doing it manually in Photoshop/Ppt, but it’s got a randomize option that makes the whole thing super fast! I agree with you about the sources, though…that one’s hard.

9/23/09 @ 4:23 pm (reply)

Member

proBM2008 (message) 204 posts, Helper bee

With Powerpoint, you could insert comments for the sources. This won’t show up on the actual slide unless you’re in editing mode. They look like tiny post-its.

9/23/09 @ 4:29 pm (reply)

Member

DollyLava (message) 181 posts, Blushing bee

So here is the part I don’t understand about inspiration boards. After you’ve decided you want to use that certain element on your board, how do you go back and find the site to buy it on/directions on DIY/store it came from?

Everytime I see an inspiration board posted, all of the comments are “OOhh where did (certain image on board) come from?”

It seems like the solution would be to link every picture but then it would be more than just a jpg or png file. Anyone else find a solution for this?

9/23/09 @ 4:33 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Scissors (message) 7,343 posts, Bee Keeper

Wow, I’ve only ever done mine in photoshop, but this seems like a good quick and dirty way to do it!

9/23/09 @ 4:39 pm (reply)

Guest

stee

can you keep the hyperlink with the image so the inspiration board is clickable or at least when you hover you have the source info to credit below??

9/23/09 @ 4:40 pm (reply)

10.

Bee

Miss Parfait (message) 1,755 posts, Buzzing bee

Oooh, lovely board, Miss Lamb. I really need to try out this whole inspiration-board-making thing. Thanks for the tutorial!

9/23/09 @ 4:46 pm (reply)

11.

Bee

Miss Giraffe (message) 4,216 posts, Honey bee

I mad my last board in InDesign. . . but I try to do everything in ID - we’re in love.

I have done it in photoshop though. I haven’t ever tried to do one in powerpoint. Glad you could make it work.

9/23/09 @ 4:48 pm (reply)

12.

Bee

Miss Giraffe (message) 4,216 posts, Honey bee

I made my last board in InDesign. . . but I try to do everything in ID - we’re in love.

I have done it in photoshop though. I haven’t ever tried to do one in powerpoint. Glad you could make it work.

9/23/09 @ 4:48 pm (reply)

13.

Member

kmattso2 (message) 1,046 posts, Bumble bee

I just put one of mine together the other day and searched for like an hour trying to find all the sources!! From now on I think I’ll start saving the web address as the file name so when I need it I can find it easily.

9/23/09 @ 4:50 pm (reply)

14.

Bee

Miss Poodle (message) 3,387 posts, Sugar bee

I love inspirations boards! great job Miss Lamb

9/23/09 @ 5:07 pm (reply)

15.

Member

jduck84 (message) 1,529 posts, Bumble bee

@Miss Lamb - you do have to be a member, but it’s a pretty easy process. It’s fun and addicting because SMP has so, so many gorgeous images to play with. I’m excited to try uploading my own images to work with, though. Have fun!

9/23/09 @ 5:36 pm (reply)

16.

Bee

Mrs. Mouse (message) 5,844 posts, Bee Keeper

Cool! Great tips. I usually bookmark sources as I go, and then go ahead and source everything as soon as I publish the photos. It helps if you don’t make a whole lot of inspiration boards at once.

9/23/09 @ 5:55 pm (reply)

17.

Member

Miss_Carmel (message) 316 posts, Helper bee

Yummy! I love all of the old muscials. Sinigin’ in the Rain being my personal favorite. I love that you added Fred Astaire to your inspriation board. Are you planning on a Astaire-esque first dance?? I’m trying to talk to fiance into it (problem is he can’t dance - hello dance lessons!!)

9/23/09 @ 6:30 pm (reply)

18.

Member

Charm bracelet (message) 1,935 posts, Buzzing bee

Just last month I started saving images by first typing what category it is and what website I found it it.
Ex: centerpiece with fuschia color weddingbee
This way I know who to give credit to. I know it’s a long name but it’s a clear description of the pic and it’s source.

9/23/09 @ 8:16 pm (reply)

19.

Member

fromcharleston (message) 651 posts, Busy bee

that’s a really great and easy-to-follow tutorial!!!

i have another way that might be even easier:
picasa (a free photo editing software from google) has a feature that will make different types of collages (including the mosaic style like your board) and automatically make everything fit! takes minutes!

9/23/09 @ 10:12 pm (reply)

20.