Bring your creative craft projects to life with the SELPHY Photo Layout app

Craft expert and artist Emma Jewell embodies all things sparkly, not only in name but also in nature. From her Instagram feed, awash with a rainbow of colour, packed with crafting inspiration; to her monthly Craft and Cocktail Club, Emma has a passion for making things – especially if glitter is involved.

"I believe everyone has a craft, they've just got to find out what it is," says Emma, who has her own craft brand, Sassy Crafting, and became a freelance crafter five years ago.

A self-confessed lover of colour, glitter, and "putting things in rainbow order" Emma took on the challenge of showcasing how much fun can be had with the Canon SELPHY Photo Layout app. The app not only enables you to create interesting photo layouts but can also be used as a creative art and design tool, with options to add filters, text, stamps and graphics making it ideal for scrapbooking and fun personal photo projects. And, once you're happy with your creations, a Canon compact, portable printer such as the Canon SELPHY CP1300 used by Emma, now succeeded by the SELPHY CP1500, enables you to instantly print your inspirational montages.

Here, Emma shows why the free Canon SELPHY Photo Layout collage maker app and compact photo printer are the perfect creative crafting combo.

"I love scrapbooking and I love personalising clothes," says Emma, who used the SELPHY Photo Layout app to gather ideas for her craft projects. "I collected inspiration – different patterns and colours – for a pair of jeans I wanted to customise, some ideas for colourful wall art, an embroidered makeup bag with sequins, and some jewellery with 90s plastic beads and a chain.

"I gather ideas from everywhere, including Pinterest. I really wanted to do something with jeans and florals, so I was looking at daisies. I used the app to piece it together and to see what designs worked well."

The SELPHY Photo Layout app has various layout options to choose from:

Select & Print: This option creates a single image.

N-up: This option divides the paper evenly into two, four or eight photos per page.

Shuffle: This option automatically shuffles photos of different aspect ratios to create a ready-made collage of your pictures.

Combination: This option arranges photos of different sizes together (that can then be cut apart after printing).

Label: This option enables you to use your images to create square or mini labels.


Crafters also have the option to choose from an improved range of colours for text and graphics and a 'custom overcoat' function for a unique spot UV effect, which will make some areas of the image appear shinier than others, allowing for some intriguing creative possibilities.

Emma used several layouts to collate her ideas. "For some, I added text and some of the stickers," she says. "I added the flower stickers on top of the jeans just to see what they would look like. The app also gave me the option to add a dotted background on one of the sections," explains Emma. "I used three pictures and a dotted area which meant I could add notes if I wanted to."

Emma's printouts matched her trademark, vibrant style. "The colours were really bright and definitely showed all of the shades I wanted to show. I even printed out a little colour chart for one of them, and that really showed the colours true to how they were on screen," says Emma.

"I liked how quickly the SELPHY CP1300 [now succeeded by the SELPHY CP1500] printed. It's nice and speedy and a simple process to send the picture from the app straight to the printer. It was also easy to switch things in or out if something wasn't quite right or I'd changed my mind – I could just easily print off another version. I really like the 6x4 size paper because you can get a few pictures on one sheet."

The SELPHY Photo Layout app is also compatible with the SELPHY QX20 portable printer.

Emma's top tip for aspiring crafters is to use a fun theme to kickstart your project and let it evolve from there. "Gather as much inspiration as you can," she says. "Then pick one image to start with, whether that's a colour, an item you want to personalise or even just a picture of some shoes – use that as a starting point."

Emma's ideas usually begin when she's problem-solving and wants to create her own item instead of heading to the shops to buy a solution. "I carry a notebook for things that just pop into my head as I'm wandering around," she says. "I think of things that I might want to wear myself or use in my house. Instead of buying something, I think, 'How can I make that thing that I'm after?'"

Whether you're exploring your craft ideas with the portable Canon SELPHY CP1500 or SELPHY QX20, the SELPHY layout app can help express your creativity with photo collages.

For more craft inspiration, from craft butterflies to mood boards – click here.

Written by Lorna Dockerill