Objective: try something new by making a simple collage of images.

My oldest son, Sayer, recently lost his first tooth. I still can't believe it by the way but then I am always shocked by how fast he's growing up. So, in an effort to capture the big moment, I brought him up to the studio this past Sunday for a little mini session. My concept was a single image on a white background that I could make into a big canvas and put in their room. I was going to put it alongside this one of Finn, which is currently a 40x40 canvas:

If you are a follower of these Monday Lessons, you might be saying..."hey! she's going into a session with her kids with defined expectations! She said not to do that last week!". I know, I'm busted. Well, so here's what happened (and it proves my point), I have this idea for a single one image thing and sure enough I am not just seeing "the one". So, I switched gears in our little session and used my new chalkboard wall. I had Sayer draw himself a little backdrop and we did a few more shots. Once I started to look at these more, I really felt like they would look best as a collage. My one shot canvas idea seemed shot. This is what I came up with:

I love making collages of images and this one is super simple to do. So, my challenge to you this week is to come up with your own 9-image collage. Here are the simple steps:

Step One: take 9 images and crop them all to 5"x5" and 300 dpi. I use photoshop. If you are using photoshop then all you have to do is grab the crop tool. Once you have that tool selected, you can set the dimensions of the crop in the tool, like this:

Step Two: Go to FILE>NEW. Make a new document that is 15 inches x15 inches by 300 dpi, RGB color, background: white.

Step Three: drag guides to create 5" squares. (Need help with dragging guides, just email me)

Step Four: Drop your 5x5 images into the grid, flatten the document and Voila!

Optional Step Five: If you like the gray border that I put around the 9-up collage above, it is also simple to do. Go to IMAGE>CANVAS SIZE. From there you can add pixels or inches (your choice) and it will increase or decrease the size of your canvas (not the overall image). If you want a color, there is a drop down menu there that allows you to choose colors.

Here is an image that shows the canvas size menu and it also shows the guides from the earlier step:

So, what do you guys think? Would a 9-up collage printed as a 40x40 canvas look good next to Finnian's big single image? Or do I need to choose one of the blackboard ones or one of the white ones? Let me know!

If you guys make one of these, I want to see it! Post a link in the comments below! I love hearing your comments, they make my day.