Today we welcome Adel Otto as our guest blogger who designs wonderful scrapbooks with pocket pages.

I’m probably a Canadian memory keeper just like you: a dark roast coffee drinker, Netflix voyeur , a teacher, a wife, and a mother to four teenagers. My memory keeping style is “pretty storyteller”, so I like to capture adventures, transformations and celebrations in a lovely, bright and layered way. I can be found sharing on Instagram  aottocafe and at my blog “Studio Latte.”

Are you head over heels over pocket pages? Maybe you can’t believe you are finally recording your stories again because of Project Life or you love the Simple Stories Snap albums or Studio Calico Handbook. I had a mad crush on pocket pages for two years before I started adding 12×12’s back into my albums. Even though pocket page spreads provide a lot of options for memory keeping, I often just needed more “real estate” to record my photos and stories. If you are like me, you have captured numerous photos for a ” Day in Life” or other photo challenges, have many memories from a special event or an everyday adventure, or you would like a place for more journaling which may be challenging to include on a typical pocket page. Take a look at some solutions which may make your album very interactive:

1) Day in the Life Spreads

Instead of creating a photo collage insert, I placed my photos onto “flip-ups.”A flip-up is a 3 x 8 piece of cardstock folded in half and inserted into a pocket or adhered to another 3×4 card. This pocket page has 15 3×4 photos documenting one typical Saturday at my home.

This was a typical day recorded in my mini (6 x 8 )pocket pages example:

I’m not afraid to cut a pocket page apart to use as an extra photo sleeve attached with a washi tape hinge.

2) Special events such as birthdays or everyday adventures such as creek exploring need extra places for photos and words. For one such event I used an accordion piece inserted into a pocket:

Take a 6 x 12 piece of cardstock and fold at 4 inch intervals and tuck into a portrait 4×6 pocket.

 Also I have used a 4×12 cardstock piece and folded in half to be the home for special photos in a 8×10 pocket page.

3) Using mini folders just for their design or for extra journalling:

These mini folders from Authentique were so delightful so I used them up in my mini pocket pages.

And lately I’ve used a new Heidi Swapp pocket “folder” for some things I’ve noticed about my youngest son.

I hope these examples inspire you to add some interactive pieces to your pocket pages or any memory keeping project.

Adel Otto

WOW!  Thank you Adel for sharing all of your fabulous pocket page ideas!