Adapt a Pattern for Smaller Photos - Week #30

It's Nancy, bringing you week #30 of Layout-A-Week! I have nearly 30 years of photos from before I started scrapbooking that are in boxes, waiting for me to give them some attention. One of the challenges of using them is that they are smaller than today's standard size of 4" x 6" prints, so they don't match a lot of today's supplies for creating quick and easy pages.

Today I'm working with photos from 1994 using a page design from Cutting Pattern #3 of Jennifer Priest's Scrap Free Scrapbooking ebook. This page layout pattern is designed for two 4" x 6" photos, but like most of the patterns is easily adaptable to smaller photo sizes. Using Scrap Free Scrapbooking is one of my favorite ways to get my older photos into albums! This post contains affiliate links

The layout is designed to have the large patterned paper block on it, and then two 4" x 6" vertical photos in the bottom left corner. With the smaller photos (3.5" x 5") in place, it left loads of room vertically and horizontally to fill.

I filled this room by adding another photo - this one horizontal - in the upper right corner, and a large title block across the center. 

The large text title was cut out as text on my Cricut Explore die cutting machine. It's great being able to cut out detailed items like this, but not so fun having to adhere them. I always run them through my Xyron machine to turn them into stickers. It's a real sanity saver! 

Since these photos are so old, I don't have a lot of detailed memories to journal to go with them. Strip journaling is the perfect solution for when you only have a few details to add to a layout. 

I typed my strips up in Microsoft Word and left an extra line in the document in between the lines that I wanted to turn into strips. Then I just printed it out and trimmed it into strips on my Westcott Titanium paper trimmer. 

I used the text stickers to add a bit more journaling to the layout, while also adding some decoration as well. I wanted the photos to be the focus, and I also didn't want the layout to be too busy and compete with the already busy photographs. The stickers give a nice touch of detail and color without being overwhelming. 

I used the flower stickers to "frame" the center section of the layout. They fill white space and keep the eye from falling off the edge when reading the strip journaling and stickers. 

Go dig those boxes of old photos out of the closet! With some creative use of patterns, you could have them scrapped in no time at all. 

Supplies:

• Quick Quotes "Farmhouse" collection
• Simple Stories "I am" collection
• White cardstock
• American Typewriter font
• Cricut Explore machine & Cursive 101 font