Something new--11x17 Pages

So, last night I tried something new when creating a page. I'm actually kind of surprised it never occured to me before, and maybe some of you will read this and think, "well duh! I do that all the time!" but I think I'm going to do this a lot.

Ok, usually, when I create a layout, I create a new page in 8 1/2 x 11. I do a background of some kind before adding any pictures. A lot of times I will save that page as "name of page"1 and then I'll make some changes, and save it again as "name of page"2. Then I open up page 1 again. So basically, I have two copies of the same page. This way, things like ribbons and paper strips will match up when I put them into one layout.

Why is it that I've been doing it this way for YEARS and it's never occured to me to combine them into one page? It's so much easier!

I created a new page in a size 11x17. (or a 12x24 if you do that size) Then I used a guide to tell me where center is. (To get a guide, go to View, Ruler. Then click on the ruler (pictured below) and drag. You will get an aqua colored line that you can place anywhere. It's just a guide--it won't be part of your page. You can use as many as you need. You can see mine in the middle of this page.)

On my 11x17, I create a FULL layout--one that would cover two pages.Then I finished the page by adding all the rest of the pictures and elements that I wanted.

 How exciting it was to place that flower right in the middle, and know that it won't get all crooked, trying to get the two pages to match up.I rarely do pages like that because they are such a pain.

Next, I saved it as a .psd file so I could go back and make changes if I wanted to. Then, I flattened the image. This means that you are "merging" all the layers into one layer. To flatten, you go to Layer>Flatten Image.

Next, I'm ready to crop. So I got my crop tool, and in the crop options bar, I typed in 8 1/2 x 11. Then I just cropped the first half of the page. I saved it as a .jpg--more specifically, I saved it as thepark1.jpg.

Then I cropped the other half and named it the park2.jpg.

Eager to see it uploaded in my Cherishbound book, I did just that:

UPDATE:

Here's what this page looks like, printed in my book. I've used this technique for over a year now and it's become the ONLY way I do it!

I'm so glad the edges line up great. I might have to go back and do the same thing to this page:

The ribbon edges don't quite match up, and it bugs me. This way, I can make SURE they match up. I remember when I made this page last year:

How I AGONIZED over trying to get that one shot that goes across the middle to line up just right. Duh. I made it so much harder for myself. Although--when you print in a bound book, you have to account for margins, so it still might not match up perfectly. But it will look a lot closer, at least.

Anyway, there's soemthing new I wanted to share with you all!