Inspiration boards make me think of short boards

which make me think of board shorts, which make me think of the beach. And down the rabbit 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.
Step 5: Insert some other photos you like and start to arrange them around each other, 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 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 in tact.
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 fool proof 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!!)