Beautifullyesotericlife: Fifty Two Pages | Feb 10 - Feb 16 + 3 Easy ways to add the date!

It's Monday...which means it's time for #fiftytwopages!

It's a project on being intentional. It's a project on making memories and keeping them alive.

It's your memories in Fifty Two Pages.

If you are new, click here for full details! :)

By far the number one question I get asked is, "How do you add the date to your collage?"

There are many ways. But I'll highlight three :)

And they can all be done on your phone, with two (free!) apps:

------->Pic Stitch - Big Blue Clip, LLC

-------> Typic – Fonts and Filters for Instagram

Date Option # 1 // over your photos:

create your collage in Pic Stitch
save collage to you camera roll
open collage in Typic
scroll to the right to the font page, select your font and type your date. You are able to use your finger to move the font to the best place on your collage.
scroll to the next page to adjust the color and opacity of your text
scroll to the last page and save your collage to your camera roll

My opinion: This option is the simplest, but you risk losing parts of your images by covering them with text. It can take the focus away from your pictures.

Date Option # 2 // around your photos:

create your collage in Pic Stitch
save collage to you camera roll
open collage in Typic
scroll to the right to the font page, select your font and type your date.
scroll to the next page and you will see "frame" options. Select the white dot. This will add a border around your photos.
now you can use your finger to move your date anywhere on the white border. You may need to go back to the previous font page and decrease the size of your font to make it fit in the border.
scroll to the next page to adjust the color and opacity of your text
scroll to the last page and save your collage to your camera roll

My opinion: This option is what I use. I love that it doesn't take away from the pictures. The downside is that you are very limited on what fonts will fit in the border. I like to use one the same font every week, so this doesn't bother me, but if you like to change things up this option may not be for you :)

Date Option # 3 // inside your photos:

create your collage in Pic Stitch
leave one of your photo slots empty...this will be where your date will go, so be intentional
save collage to you camera roll
open collage in Typic
scroll to the right to the font page, select your font and type your date
use your finger to move the date over the empty white box. You may need to format your text to fit accordingly. In the example below, I had to use the "return" button to put my dates on different lines when typing it or else it would not have fit in the box.
scroll to the next page to adjust the color and opacity of your text
scroll to the last page and save your collage to your camera roll

My opinion: This option is the trickiest. There can be a lot of trial and error to get it exactly how you want it. It also takes away an extra slot for a photo. But if you have the patience and eye for it, this option allows you to keep both the date and the pictures as the focus. You also can format the font in many different ways so if you like to switch things up each week, this may be the option for you!

A couple things to think about:

Remember that the ultimate goal of creating these collages is so that at the end of the year you will have 52 pages to print in a book. So, think about that when you are creating your collages. As much as I appreciate the advertisement, do you really want #fiftytwopages written on every single page of your book? ;) Also, in 5 years, would you rather look back at your book and see "Week 7" or "February 10 - February 16". No right/wrong answer, just something to think about :)
On the same hand, think about paying that .99 to take off any advertisements that some free apps may stamp on your collages...I promise it's worth it! (...or if you really don't have the .99, the 2 apps that I recommend do not stamp your photos and are free!)
Always, always, always save your collages to your camera roll before posting them to Instagram. I'd hate for you to get to the end of the year and not have the full resolution files to use for your book. Posting them straight to IG from your apps may not save a copy of the full file, so just make sure to do it yourself.

If you have any questions, just comment below and I'd love to answer them! :)

And lastly, here's my #fiftytwopages collage for the week!