Hi, it’s Juli here with a great way to use pocket scrapbook templates to create a layout that highlights a day’s events instead of a week.

When most people think of pocket scrapbooking or Project Life, they think of documenting a week in their life over a two page spread.   We often forget that there are no real rules in scrapbooking, we can do what we want in our own books!    I love to use pocket scrapbook templates to document a day or an event where I have a lot of photos but normally fitting them all on a page would be an overwhelming task.

Today I have pictures from a photo session I did with my little sister Carrie and her finance Shannon.  I was so excited about them getting married to begin with and then my sister asked me to take some pictures and create them a Save The Date magnet.  We had a fun time taking pictures and then narrowing it down to my sister’s favorite photo to use for their announcement.  I whipped up their magnets and ordered them and then moved on to my next project.  I never actually scrapped MY favorite pics from the day.

I used Digital Scrapbook Ingredients Weekly Round Up Version 6 template set and got started planning my page. (I rotated the template so it worked better with my long photos – you can’t do that with real life plastic pocket pages!)

As you can see below, I pre-plan my page by adding a text layer to the layout before I begin.  I just type in what I think I’m going to use in each block so I don’t get overwhelmed (a map of sorts). I even place elements I think I want to use to try to see what the page will look like.

After I have my map complete I go ahead and edit my photos in Lightroom and then bring them in to Photoshop Elements 11.  I start using the template to crop my photos and put all the photos in their places.  Here is what my layout looks like once all the photos are placed (see below).

I used Save The Date bundle by Digital Scrapbook Ingredients for my papers and elements . To keep things moving quickly I only chose my papers and elements from the same kit so they are sure to coordinate.

Once I had my  kit chosen, I got to work placing elements.  A little trick one of my digital scrapbook friends taught me is to go ahead an open all the elements I think I might want to use so they are easily accessible on my screen. Then I just pull each element on to my page and put it where I want it to go. So much faster than having to keep going back and forth to the Elements folder to find what I want to work with!  I use patterned paper and solid papers to fill in the last few open spots on the page.  The only thing left to do then would be to shadow everything.

Here is my finished layout.  I love that I now I have my own layout for my album to document my sister’s engagement and our afternoon together taking photos.