Hi friends, it’s Jess here. If you know me and my work, you know that I love to play with divided page protectors! One question I often get asked is, how do you fit your photos into pre-designed areas? Today I am thrilled to show you three ways to use photos in pocket pages. 

Supplies | Ali Edwards: Week In the Life pocket pages and supplies; Elle’s Studio: various tags; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L: Tools: Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher; Font: Georgia Italic

Here is a peek at my Tuesday Week In the Life 2022 from my 6 x 8-inch album. This week-long project, which was created by Ali Edwards, encourages participants to take a variety of everyday life photos. On this particular day, I shot approximately 40 photos and scrapbooked 10 of them. Having determined to use a variety of 6 x 8-page protectors in various sizes, I incorporated three tricks to fitting my pictures into pockets within this album.

Tip 1: Enlarge your photos. 

At the beginning of each day in my album, I used a 6 x 8-page protector. Here I choose to enlarge my 3 x 4 photo to 6 x 8. This picture, which looks up at architectural details at my workplace, was visually interesting to me. Tuesday is also my first day of work for the week, so it seemed like a natural visual story to highlight. If you don’t use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, consider using an app, like Pic Stitch, Pic Tap Go, or the Project Life app to change the size of your photo. 

Tip 2: Cut your photos.

Here is a selfie that I took in my car. Don’t worry, I wasn’t driving! This picture was shot as a 4 x 6 landscape; however, I decided to cut it in half to fit into two, 3 x 4 pockets. Cutting photos is a simple way to make your photos and pockets work together. I would suggest that if you try this, be sure not to cut people’s faces! Haha! 

Tip 3: Back your photos on a piece of cardstock.

Lastly, if you have smaller photos that you are trying to fit into a big pocket, consider backing them with a piece of cardstock. Here I shot 3 x 4 photos and I wanted to incorporate them into a 3 x 8-page protector. I printed out the photo and placed it with journaling that I typed out in Photoshop Elements. Again, you don’t need to have this program to combine your photos and words. All you need is a word processor or a typewriter and some blank cardstock to back each of these pieces. 

As you can see, there are a few tricks to fitting your photos into pockets. I hope this inspires you to use a variety of nonmatching pocket pages in your albums and to get creative when combining your photos and divided page protectors. If you are looking to improve your photo-taking abilities, check out Lisa Varshine’s SCT class: Photography 101 here. Happy scrapbooking!

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