Hello there!  Erin here today to talk a little about Pocket Scrapping.

I have absolutely fallen in love with pocket style scrapping.  It started years ago when pocket cards first came out.  I thought they were awesome and scooped up every single card I could afford. I love the simplicity and versatility that pocket pages have to offer.  The page design is already laid out, all I have to do is plop my goodies in, play with the shadows if I want, and add my journaling.  How can that go wrong?

For some reason though, when I first started playing with pocket pages, I had this idea that in order to make a pocket page you could only use the cards and your photos.  Silly, I know, but there it is.  I tried to make pages, but I just could not make a page I liked.  This restricted idea kept me from actually making pocket pages for a long time and my cards sat in a nice little folder on my computer.

About May of last year I had one of those light bulb moments.  I was working on a page and I found a pocket card I just loved and really wanted to use with one photo that was just perfect.  Thankfully I was feeling a little rebellious that day and so I opened up that little box I had created for “pocket style” and used an entire kit to make my simple little page.

Now I know some of you are thinking – “Well, Duh!” but this was huge for me. I used papers in the extra card and photo spots, I spread my one photo across several photo masks, I added elements on top of the whole thing and even on my photo (oh my!). I was just playing and experimenting and, well, having a good time. I realized that the possibilities are only as limited as my thinking.

You seasoned pocket scrappers might be laughing at me by now, and that is OK.  But just in case there is anyone else out there who thought the way I did, I want you to encourage you to think outside your box.

Over the course of this last year I have really worked at finding ways to use the whole kit on my pocket pages.  I love the results! For one thing it frees me up to be more creative, experiment, and mix and match things which means I like my pages more. Take this one for instance:

I really loved the Beautiful Day word art and wanted to use it as my title, but it was not on any of the cards.  I made my own card instead, using the papers in the kit. Now I could have used one of the provided cards. They were perfectly gorgeous, and in the past I would have, but I LOVE the way this one turned out – focusing on the day and how we had a beautiful time despite the circumstances.

Using the whole kit on my pocket pages also allows me to stretch my stash a bit further. Here is a second page with the Life Captured May Bundle I used above

The bright fun colors were perfect for documenting this story about my daughter, and I just loved the word art that came in the bundle.  I wanted to use the Story Captured title card, but I was having a hard time making it work with my photo selections.  I decided to copy the word art on the card and paste it onto a smaller card for my title instead.  By doing that and a few other things was able to create a completely different feeling page using the same kit, and I am certain I can still use this bundle to make several more pocket pages without too much repetition.

And finally, using the whole kit allows me to stay true to my style while making simple pages in a timely manner.

I am a lover of texture and dimension.  I like for my pages to have at least one thing that just pops off the page.  One of the biggest struggles I had with pocket pages when I first started was the lack of dimension.  Everything felt so flat to me that I had a hard time being satisfied with the final product.  By using the entire kit I can add as much – or as little – texture and dimension to my pages as I want.

I realize that this one is not a traditional pocket page by design, but it still has the blocked feel that I associate with pocket pages.  I really wanted this one to have texture to it, and this template provided that.  I also added a lot more bulky elements to this layout to add further dimension.  This particular layout really blurs the lines between traditional and pocket scrapping, and I love that about it.

I want to encourage you to find ways to use the whole kit on your next pocket page (and I don’t mean all on one page by the way – though you are welcome to try – I simply mean to use the papers, elements and whatever else along with the journal cards).  Try adding an element you have never used in pocket scrapping, or experiment with new ways of using the word art or papers.  You could even craft your own cards out of the various parts of the kit.  Have some fun doing it and remember, anything is possible!