SYW289 – Filling the Big Page

Podcast

Do you ever look at a layout and wonder how they fit so much on a single page? Tracey Fox is known for filling her scrapbook layouts edge to edge with multiple photos and abundant embellishments, all while keeping the story in focus.

In this episode Tracey breaks down the strategies and process she uses to create in her signature style. Her secret for managing photos and documentation is a linchpin routine you’ll want to hear! Tracey is host of #ScrappyChristmasinJuly and a Simple Scrapper Creative Team Member.

Links Mentioned

[00:00:00] Tracey Fox: No matter what size canvas you have, if you're printing the photos in a way that they all fit, you can really get one photo per group of people. Or all of those detail shots of an event all together in a way that you can just take in the whole story on one page.

[00:00:17] Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 289. In this episode, I'm chatting with Tracey Fox about the specific storytelling strategies she uses to design her scrapbook pages with abundant photos and products.

[00:00:44] Hey, Tracey, welcome back to Scrapbook Your Way.

[00:00:47] Tracey Fox: Hi, Jennifer. So excited to be here.

[00:00:49] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, me too. I am just excited to be recording our first episode of the new year to chat with you again and yeah, just dive all back into scrapbooking. For those who may not be familiar with you, can you just share a little bit about yourself?

[00:01:06] Tracey Fox: Yeah, sure. So, um, I'm Tracey Fox. I live in central Ohio. Um, I am married with a couple of cute cats, uh, lots of nieces and nephews. Uh, we do not have children, but, um, I have the best time and have for probably about 20 years now. Um, scrapbooking, documenting my stories of Uh, just fun things that we do and friends and love documenting the everyday as well as those big events.

[00:01:35] Um, I'm primarily a 12 by 12 scrapbooker. Even through all of these changes in the industry and seeing other people get excited about different sizes and things, I've kind of stayed true to the square page and love the real estate of the 12 by 12. Which I think we'll talk about a little bit when we talk about my style. Um, But yeah, just really excited to, to be here and, uh, talk about some scrapbooking.

[00:02:00] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. On that note of kind of, uh, maybe not, shying away is not the right word, but understanding your own style and your own format. Um, you had done something this year for Week in the Life, and there were these like flip up, uh, cards, and it was like, it was a two page spread for Week in the Life, if I'm remembering correctly, right?

[00:02:23] Tracey Fox: Yes. I think it might've, it ended up being three, but yeah.

[00:02:27] Jennifer Wilson: Okay. And it was just, it was so cool. And I'm like, I had done that before, but now I'm like, okay, that feels more comfortable for me. And I am all in on that type of format, that type of approach for this year's Week in the Life. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to like, to have you on is to learn more about how we can get so much on a, it is a bigger canvas, but how can we get so much onto the page so that we don't always feel like we have to do a whole project? Like a layout can be a project, but it's a much smaller confined project with boundaries.

[00:03:04] Tracey Fox: Yes.

[00:03:05] Jennifer Wilson: Finishable ultimately.

[00:03:07] Tracey Fox: Totally.

[00:03:09] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. Um, so we have some brand new icebreaker questions. I'm excited to do some, you know, small changes this year to the podcast. Um, when we have our first My Way episode, we'll have some new questions for that as well.

[00:03:25] But just to, to jump in here, Tracey, do you have a favorite recent layout or project. I'm assuming it's going to be a layout. What is that layout about? And why is it your favorite?

[00:03:35] Tracey Fox: Yes. So one of my, uh, very favorite recent layouts is one that I did. Um, I, I was really honored to be one of the last guest storytellers for the Ali Edwards Story kits, the second to last I got to do the fan kit.

[00:03:45] I am not a sports person. Um, I do get to scrapbook sports every now and then that I have nephews who play hockey. And so that's been kind of fun, but I went a different direction with the fan kit. And I told a story about, uh, going on a culinary pizza tour of Central Ohio with my, my best friends. And there was this card in the story kit that said, um, that you're a fan through thick and thin.

[00:04:18] And for me that, uh, stood for pizza crust. So, um, I, I used these pennant flags that were in the kit and also cut my photos to triangles that resembled those pennant flags, and I arranged them in a big circle on the layout like a pizza. And I used that, um, through thick and thin card to represent, um, being a fan of the thick and thin crust that we tried that day.

[00:04:42] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I love that. That is so fun. We will, um, if you're able to share a link to it, or at least just a snippet of the image, um, with us in the show notes, we'll definitely include that. Yes. Now I'm kind of hungry. I'm a fan of pizza as well. Like.

[00:05:00] Tracey Fox: Yeah. Who is isn't.

[00:05:02] Jennifer Wilson: We did a Chicago pizza tour over the summer and it was just, it was so fun. And we have this plan to go back, um, to see a play in February. And I'm like, how far is that from one of those places that we went to?

[00:05:16] Tracey Fox: Yeah. Yeah. We've already over the holidays went to one of those pizza places that we learned about on the tour. So that was very fun.

[00:05:23] Jennifer Wilson: Fun, fun. So, what is something new you're excited to maybe do, use, or try? It could be something in scrapbooking, or maybe just in your everyday life.

[00:05:34] Tracey Fox: Um, so I'll go non scrapbooking for this one. Um, my husband called himself Santa and gave us for Christmas, uh, one of those countertop pellet ice machines. Which is not anything that I ever thought I needed, like, oh, one more appliance, you know, especially a one trick pony. But, uh, we figured out where to put it on the countertop and it'll be out of the way.

[00:05:56] But, um, I'm really excited to have that good ice, right? And to have, uh, smoothies that blend beautifully because it's that kind of soft porous ice. So, I'm just, uh, really excited about that for the new year.

[00:06:09] Jennifer Wilson: It, it will change your life. I, I have had mine for a year now. I bought it on Black.

[00:06:14] Tracey Fox: Oh, good.

[00:06:15] Jennifer Wilson: Friday, and I drink so much more water. As you said, like smoothies blend so much better. It's just, yeah. And part of it was because our fridge ice maker had broken and we're like, well, we're not going to get a whole new fridge just because the fridge isn't making ice anymore.

[00:06:33] But even just like the freshness of the ice, like, yeah. And I'm not even an ice chewer, but I, I just, I love having it. And I'm, yeah, you're gonna love it so much.

[00:06:42] Tracey Fox: Oh, I'm so excited to get an endorsement on it too. Cause yeah, I was already excited and now I'm even more.

[00:06:47] Jennifer Wilson: All right, so let's talk about filling up the page. As you said, you're known for having a style, but we can't even quite call it maximalist, but it has lots of photos and embellishments. Yet it all works. It doesn't look busy. Can sometimes even look quite simple. Um, what led you to creating more and more in this way?

[00:07:08] Tracey Fox: Yeah. So I, you know, it's interesting. I think there's kind of a long history of me starting out scrapbooking that way. When I started, you know, many, many years ago. As well as. kind of evolving into that style for myself over the years. Um, it's kind of always been there. Like I've, I think I started out as a frugal scrapbooker who didn't want to use too many supplies to tell all my stories.

[00:07:33] And so like, I, if I look back at some of my first scrapbooks, um, you know, back in the very early two thousands where I was scrapbooking my college years. I might have like two photos from this one thing. And then, uh, I would have like three photos from another thing and kind of just instinctively or naturally, I wouldn't make each one of those things its own page.

[00:07:54] Um, I would kind of do like two corner, two photos up in a corner and say like, here we are in the dorm. And then maybe lower down on the page at another quadrant, I would do a couple of photos of us going to a symphony concert. And I'd be like, I would call it, you know, right in my gel pen symphony concert.

[00:08:13] And so like, I was always trying to fit a lot on the page. I think part, partly out of frugality to not use up all those pages and supplies. I was also trying to fit a full year of each of my college years into one 12 by 12 album. Um, which I know sometimes people critique the 12 by 12 album as being too big, too cumbersome, and maybe on its own it is. But if you can kind of cram a lot into that real estate, then you’re not, those albums aren’t getting as out of control as quickly. Um, and so I was actually like putting three or four stories on one page and kind of like separating them by a piece of ribbon or a piece of pattern paper, like a little strip. And that’s not necessarily how I scrapbook now. But I do kind of still have that aesthetic or keep that idea of you can group things up and tell a story with a lot of photos at once on a canvas. And with that 12 by 12 space, you've got that freedom to play with big items, big titles, big embellishments. You can play with big photos and small other stuff or big other stuff and small photos. I really just think that that's a fun way for me to scrapbook. Filling up the page is my comfort zone.

[00:09:26] Um, if I have too much space left after I've put down the photos, I'm like, well, what do I do with this? And I could do something crafty with it. And so many scrapbookers do the most beautiful crafty or mixed media stuff to kind of fill the page. Or they're comfortable with like a totally, you know, lots of white space.

[00:09:44] On their page, which is also beautiful. But for me, I just kind of feel like I finished the page when I've mostly filled it kind of in an organized way with stuff. If that makes sense.

[00:09:55] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Your pages always like they just, they, um, they exude joy. I mean, it's kind of a lot to say, but I think that also just, it fits your personality, at least the way that you present yourself to the world. And there's just, yeah, there's just so much happiness when you were filling the page with not just your photos and stories, but the fun stuff that makes us scrapbookers.

[00:10:19] Tracey Fox: Oh, thank you. Yeah, I mean, I think I am a little bit of, I'm not an event scrapper by nature. So I definitely tell other stories too, and things like that, but, um, and we'll talk about kind of a process of how I kind of approach a page as well. And it's very, like, oh, this event happened, I'm going to collect all the photos from the event, and in my mind, it's going to be probably just a page. Or maybe two pages if two separate enough stories happened at that event, or something like that.

[00:10:49] Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

[00:10:51] Tracey Fox: Um, one thing I did want to, to mention is that when I think about my approach to scrapbook pages with, with all of these photos. Is that, you know, that kind of question that a lot of times we ask ourselves about whether we are a photo driven scrapbooker or a product driven scrapbooker, or maybe a story driven scrapbooker.

[00:11:12] I think for me, that process is starting even earlier. To where I'm a story driven photographer. Um, and so part of my process, even leading up to before I would even think about scrapbooking the page is that I'm taking photos when I'm experiencing things in a way where I want to make sure I've captured every angle of the experience with my camera.

[00:11:37] So it could be that I'm at some sort of gathering with friends. I want to make sure I get photos that have all the friends in them. Even if it's in different combinations of people. If we go to an event, I'm snapping a couple photos of the signage around the event that illustrates what the event is. I'm doing a few shots that are supporting detail shots. And some of that's not even with the scrapbook page in mind. It's just these are all the things that I want to capture and remember about the event. , I think I'm a little less likely to say all that stuff in words later. Not that I'm not an avid journaler. But I think the journaling is a little bit minimal and I try to tell as much of the story as I can through photos.

[00:12:15] And then I have a lot of those photos at the ready to kind of help tell the story of the, uh, event when I go to scrapbook it.

[00:12:22] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that is an excellent point. And I think there's probably a lot of us out there that are doing that to some degree, yet not even like acknowledging it and thinking about it, which would allow us to maybe do it more or do it with more intention. Um, it makes me think about how, and my husband like always complains about this, but he's one, he's like a zoom in on things.

[00:12:43] And I'm like, sweetie, please stop zooming in with your phone. Um, I can crop it later with better quality. Um, but he's more about like, let's get the person doing the thing. And I am the, like, I'm going to press the 0. 5 button to zoom out. Like, I love kind of the context photos of let's see, like, you know, for example, my daughter's, um, orchestra concert.

[00:13:06] Like I'm going to do the wide pic, the wide shot of here's the whole stage. Here's, you know, you can see some of the audience. Or, um, we went to this birthday party and there was like, you know, like the big lighted sign, like something Heidi Swapp would do for her six, you know, sweet 16. And this was like the dance floor before anyone was on it.

[00:13:26] And I'm like, this is like my favorite shot because a white space of all this floor that I could then journal on or put other stuff on. Um, but yeah, I think that's one way that I definitely do that is I'm looking for the context shots. Because I know that my husband might take more of the detail shots and potentially signage and people and things like that. So, um, yeah, so interesting.

[00:13:51] Tracey Fox: To know that it's great to know that you kind of have both covered in that way. That's really cool. Because combining those is really great. When you talked about the dance floor photo, that makes me think of a layout that I've been making, kind of, I've been kind of repeating annually as my family has these regular board game parties where we all gather.

[00:14:10] And, uh, I love printing kind of doing an enlarged print of some sort of shot of the entire table of everybody playing games. And then also detail shots of people's hands, moving the, you know, game pieces on the board. Or, or a couple of people laughing while somebody reads a trivia question. And I've done layouts where, you know, with that 12 by 12 size, I can fit that whole enlarge photo. And then also do kind of like an inset thing with the detail shots. And that's, that's a fun way to get a lot on the page too.

[00:14:41] Jennifer Wilson: Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. I love taking like over the table shots for meals. Because like a most people's plates of food are not really that attractive. Um, even if you were a great chef. Um, but seeing all the dishes on the table and sometimes people's hands and their beverage choices like that, like there's a lot of context in those photos.

[00:15:01] And to me, they're more interesting than here's my plate of, you know, turkey and mashed potatoes. It's all beige.

[00:15:07] Tracey Fox: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:15:09] Jennifer Wilson: All right, so kind of just before we dive more into things that you do and how you do it. Like, let's give a little bit more to our listeners. When might someone choose this style of layout if it's not their norm? Like, let's talk about maybe some specific circumstances that they can pinpoint when it's especially useful.

[00:15:31] Tracey Fox: Yeah. So I think that this is, you know, it tends to fit my style most of the time, cause these are the types of things that I'm scrapbooking mostly. But it really works well when you have an event that has a lot of people that you want to make sure you get everyone in the photos. And you may not have that group shot, but you may have different combinations and you want to make sure that everybody there was represented. Or maybe photos of every activity that you did at something.

[00:15:55] Um, I've been doing a lot of, uh, scrapbooking lately of things like food tours. Where it's like, okay, every stop I made on this tour, I want to make sure I have one or two pictures of that. Um, I do think that some scrapbookers that might feel like a mini album to them. And that's perfectly fine. Um, I, I personally want all of my memories to stay in their themed chronological albums. And having separate projects doesn't scratch that itch for me.

[00:16:24] Um, because I, I want it all in one place. So that's, that's part of my motivation for, for putting it onto layouts. Um, but you can really spread out, no matter what size canvas you have, if you're printing the photos in a way that they all fit, you can really get one photo per group of people. Or all of those detail shots of an event all together in a way that you can sort of just take in the whole story on one page.

[00:16:49] Um, another, um, really common way that I use this is if I'm doing some sort of roundup of photos. Um, so maybe it's a roundup of my cats and cute things that they did over the course of a few months. Because on their own, those aren't standalone stories, but maybe I have 10 photos of cute things that my cats did. And I just want to put them all on one page and, and call it done.

[00:17:14] Um, I do a seasonal, roundup page now every season. And that's been a really great way for me to get pages of things that weren't necessarily elevated to being their own stand alone page. Um, so I may do specific pages for a handful of events that happened within a season that felt big enough to have their own pages.

[00:17:38] And then I'll do like, my summer page and have little photos, maybe with captions or maybe with one summary of journaling that, that sort of just captures the highlights of the season. Um, I'm not a Project Lifer, so that's been a really good solution for me to kind of capture all those little details and those supporting photos that, that might otherwise covered across a weekly or monthly spread.

[00:18:04] Jennifer Wilson: Certainly. Now it sounds like because of the way, like the way you think about scrapbooking and organize your layouts, it might be less often that you're bringing in groups of photos that span a larger period of time. Is that accurate?

[00:18:20] Tracey Fox: Less often, but I do still do that. That's a great point. So, um, it, like I do mostly, uh, layouts that kind of capture one event in time or something like that. The things that make me branch out of that style the most are fun things like challenges that come up like from the Simple Scrapper community, for instance.

[00:18:42] Um, uh, if I have a specific kit or specific product that sparks a story for me that might span more time, I'll do it that way. Um I think even For Simple Scrapper, uh, I've made a layout recently that, that reached back to some childhood photos and compared to modern photos is something that I love, which was corn dogs. Because I had these childhood photos of myself eating corn dogs at the pumpkin festival I've been going to every year of my whole life, um, and some current photos.

[00:19:13] And so I did, I did use my multi photo approach to that. I just kind of had like the long, the then and now sets of photos. And then chronologically that went in my scrapbook, now. Um, because I made the layout now and it, it, uh, refers to current stuff. So definitely doing some of that.

[00:19:31] Jennifer Wilson: I wanted to bring that up because I think that I, I do a lot of those. And I am more interested in maybe in using your style to do that than I am, say, scrapbooking a lot of photos from like, uh, let's just say I was going to do Christmas as a, as a layout. I don't do a lot of that. I don't do a lot of event scrapbooking. But I do more like I have all these photos from a thing, like maybe the cats over the years or my, you know, one selfie a year for 10 years, that type of thing.

[00:20:07] Um, I think that's how I would approach it. And there's no value judgment, no not one is better than the other, but I just wanted to like to highlight that. As there's just so many opportunities here for different types of stories that I think this lends well to.

[00:20:21] Tracey Fox: Yeah. That totally works. And then you mentioned Week in the Life earlier. I will say that for the last, I've actually never done a standalone Week in the Life project like in its own album or anything like that, or Day in the Life. Um, I've, I've always taken a 12 by 12 layout approach to those. Day in the Life is usually just a single or double page spread.

[00:20:43] But I've really made those projects work for me with a multi photo style. By maybe boiling down an entire week to, um, I don't know, like, I'll limit myself on how many photos count for the day. Um, maybe I will set up a vertical column on the 12 by 12 page and I'll have like seven of those columns across the page and then the eighth one is for journaling.

[00:21:08] Um, you know, across a double page layout for instance. And then I'll like kind of do a grid that I may arrange on an app and pre print all together. Um, that has, you know, maybe the, the 12 photos per day that I've chosen. So I know that sounds like a lot of photos, like that's either like 36 or 48 photos on a page. But the way that it's like a formula for me. And it's, you can just kind of glance over this page and see this, like wealth of things that happened during the week, along with, you know, some minimal embellishment around it. Maybe a big title and some journaling. And that really makes me excited.

[00:21:49] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, it's, it's like, it's so impactful. And I think, you know, grids are definitely a strategy that you're, leaning to often to add a cohesiveness to the page and to just kind of to keep it organized. Um, are there any other tips you have to make a grid focus layout interesting, but not confusing?

[00:22:10] Because it can become, you know, we can, uh, get kind of crazy here real quick. With 36 photos, you know?

[00:22:18] Tracey Fox: Exactly. And honestly, like, I think, you know, don't overthink it with a grid. It doesn't matter how many photos you have, because scrapbooking gives us the gift of like embellishments, letter stickers, anything that can fit into one of those grid spots if you don't have enough photos.

[00:22:33] So don't just choose a grid layout if you have a number of photos that isn't exactly the right number for a grid. And in fact, that's better. So like, let's say you wanted to do a three by three grid of photos on your page, but you only had seven photos instead of nine. Perfect. Lay those out, have a couple of big spaces, and maybe your journal goes into one. Maybe a cute embellishment that you have that connects to the page is another one. And then that actually adds that visual interest that breaks the page up in a way that its not monotonous, but it's also not crowded. Um, you, you've given yourself a little space to have a little bit of differentiation. Um, you, you know, there's, there's that classic tip of trying to give all of your grid elements even margins.

[00:23:21] Um, that's definitely one that, that can make sure that, that the page feels cohesive. Um, sometimes I play with everything being the same size, and that's a great way to just quickly get it done. Other times you've got your mix of maybe portrait and landscape photos. Maybe you have focal point photos that you'd rather be a little bigger and those supporting photos be a little bit smaller.

[00:23:46] So you can make a little bit of a looser grid where everything has those equal margins, but the grid just kind of, you know, comes together in more of a amorphous kind of shape. I make on overlapping as well. Like every, every layout that I'm putting a lot of photos down, I kind of have the fun of choosing, do I make this a grid with even spacing among these photos?

[00:24:08] Do I butt the photos up all together so that they're all one cluster that I'm going to set down on the page? Or are there areas of white space in these photos and maybe the elements that I'm bringing in are maybe I'm feeling kind of like a collage feeling today and like, do I overlap the photos? Um, sometimes the story helps spark whether I do that or not. Um, if a, if a group of photos represents kind of like a jumble of things to me, or, you know, I'm trying to show that we had a chaotic week where my best friend visited and here are all the shots of the things that we did throughout the week. I might sort of overlap all those photos. And in a way that the main parts of those photos still show. Um, but I've squeezed a ton of photos on that page and it kind of communicates the vibe. I feel like that week had.

[00:24:58] Jennifer Wilson: You know, I did that just recently. And I feel like, and I said this, um, inside of the community, it was for a challenge that we did. I think it was for Stash Bash. And I feel like it was my first time literally cropping a photo. Like I had all these, I think they were 3x4 or 2x3s, but I wanted to fit them into a particular rectangle.

[00:25:18] So they would have to either be cut down or, and, and, or overlapped. And I love the impact and I want to do that more. And I don't know why I'd, I'd never done that before. I think part of it is having started in digital. So I've always had, you know, the perspective of precision of print the exact size you need. But there's, I don't know, there's such a creative impact in, in doing that as well.

[00:25:42] Tracey Fox: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think that's kind of how I approach products too. So, you know, over the years, so many products have become more pocket page oriented, or maybe they've gotten scaled down to where they're like traveler's notebook size. And still working on that large canvas. One of the ways I make those smaller and different sizes work for me is by layering up and collaging those elements. You know, you can only use so many 4x6 journaling cards or 4x6 designed cards in their entirety on a 12x12 layout. But you can layer up, you can cut out titles from them. So, I really like the freedom of being able to overlap and tuck things when I'm making a, a big page.

[00:26:22] Jennifer Wilson: Now I know you also use repetition a lot to to bring that cohesiveness throughout the page and also maybe use up a lot of like a specific type of product. Can you talk more about how you do that?

[00:26:34] Tracey Fox: Yeah. I think, uh, repetition's one of my favorite design elements. Um, I really like how, uh, you, you know, I get, I get that comment that, that my page is still like, don't look cluttered or they look cohesive even though there's so much on the page. Part of that is by being, um, kind of judicious with the, the embellishments that I'm using, I guess.

[00:26:55] So, um, if you use a bunch of like items and you use them in certain ways, they kind of read as a singular item. Um, you know, maybe rather than putting hearts and stars and flowers on a page. I'm gonna stick to stars for this one, you know. Um, and I may spread those throughout the page. In fact, one of my tips for, for keeping this cohesive is to be minimal with the embellishments that you're putting outside the photos and to go ahead and layer up embellishments on top of the photos.

[00:27:27] They're already busy. Um, and when you've got areas of white space in a photo, that's a great spot for a little word strip or a star sticker or something like that. But when you are trying to fill the page in the areas that aren't full of photos. Um, I find it really fun to use repetition of like maybe half a package of, uh, rainbow stickers or something. And put them all together instead of spread out and they kind of read as one.

[00:27:56] Um, that's an interior design tip too, right? Like if you have a well curated collection of something, you shouldn't spread it all over your house. You should kind of like curate it into a single display. Because it has more impact on its own like together like that than it would as disparate items.

[00:28:12] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, I did that this year. I found all of our like we for a while we had a lot of snowman stuff for Christmas and so this year I put all of the snowman stuff in the bathroom, even including like a throw pillow. I just kind of stuffed it in the corner on the, on the counter because I wanted all the snowman stuff together rather than just being all around.

[00:28:32] And I thought it like it had a much better impact. Same with like gnome stuff. I did the entryway as like, here are all like the holiday gnome things. Um, so yeah, that's a, that's a great technique.

[00:28:42] Tracey Fox: Yeah, some other tips I have for adding cohesive to a page is kind of being aware of your font and style choices. So like, um, I use a lot of products with words. I get really excited about products with words, but you know, sometimes you've got multiple different script fonts and things like that. Um, so I do try to, to limit those.

[00:29:03] And if I'm going to use a bunch of script stuff, I'll try to make sure it's all within the same manufacturer and that the, the fonts don't compete with each other. Um, I am big on visual triangles. I don't know that I achieve them in every page because not every, you don't, you don't always need to follow that rule.

[00:29:20] But if I'm laying out, um, a bunch of photos, I do look at maybe the, the darkness and lightness of those photos. I think about the weight in those images. So if something feels really like dark and anchored, I'm probably going to either put that on the bottom to, to keep the weight on the bottom of the page, or I'm going to

[00:29:39] spread that weight around so that it, it feels balanced. Um, same with color. If I have, you know, a bright orange sweatshirt in a photo and I'm the, that's the only pop of orange on the page. Maybe I'll bring in something orange to, to try to like, just make the, make the page feel pleasing to the eye and spread that color around.

[00:30:01] If your eye is going straight to something on the photo, on the page that is not actually what the message of the page is, um, that's a really great strategy for making sure that your eye kind of bounces around the page instead.

[00:30:13] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, yeah. Like are there other ways that you're making sure the message doesn't get lost? Like how do you create, you know, contrast or, or visual points of interest, um, when the page can sometimes be so full? And sometimes it's like, it's, It's the impact of that fullness that does it. And other times, like I think you're, you try to have something that maybe is more impactful.

[00:30:38] Tracey Fox: Yeah, I love this question. I do think that like a couple of things that I'm drawn to on, um, or maybe something that, that I tend to do a lot is a big focal point title. Um, sometimes the words of the title, even if it's just something really literal, um, it's really fun for me to kind of, if I have small photos, to put the, make the title big so that it really stands out.

[00:31:01] Um, A focal point photo is another really great way to do this. Let's say there's, there's really just one photo of, you know, like me and my husband at Disney World or something, that is the main photo of the day that I'm scrapbooking. And then all the other photos are supporting and they go around it. So like thinking about where my eye is drawn when I look at the, at the page and being intentional about that.

[00:31:27] Sometimes certain embellishments or sentiments are like that too. Um, there's this question so interesting to me too, because I try to think as well about who I'm creating for. And in my case, um, I don't, I'm creating just for me. Like I don't have any idea about what's going to happen to these albums after, after I'm gone one day, I'm not creating a legacy with them or anything.

[00:31:49] It's more about my enjoyment of my memories. So, really the only person I need to worry about getting the message is myself as the reader of the page. But there's something fun too about being in a scrapbooking community of creators where like we all kind of know this scrapbooking language. And so I also I think it's fun that like sometimes when you look at a scrapbook page there are things that scrapbookers are able to like quote unquote read quicker than maybe the

[00:32:18] average viewer. Like, it's like a text that we're better, like, I don't know, there's been a learning curve to this, and our styles have evolved over the years. And there's just like a, I don't know, I don't know if you have anyone in your life who would look at your scrapbook pages, and like, they don't read them as quickly as somebody who's a scrapbooker. I know my mom will look at a scrapbook page that might be titled Hollywood Studios in large font, and she'll look at, she'll look at those pictures, and she'll say, where was this?

[00:32:47] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:32:48] Tracey Fox: I'm just like, mom, if you're, you're really reading this text, you can tell all that, but like, not everybody approaches it that way. And I think that's fine. Um, but I also think that, like. Who does this need to be legible for? And, and how could I make it legible for that person? And in my case, it's all just play and for me. If that makes sense.

[00:33:12] Jennifer Wilson: It, it does. And I have, I have two kind of unrelated follow up questions slash points. One I think is related to, you know, we'll, we'll do something like title work where we'll, we'll comment on another scrapbooker's page like, oh my god, great title work. Because whether it's, you know, based on size or using different typefaces or, you know, the, the structure of it, whereas somebody who is a non scrapbooker would be like, why didn't you just like make it all one type so that I could read it? Or, you know, like it's it's definitely, you're, you're right on there that we do, we can process what a page looks like a lot easier than a non scrapbooker.

[00:33:49] Tracey Fox: Yeah, it's, it's part of the creativity. And I think a lot, you know, so many arts are like that, right? Like at face value, you can see that I've documented this. You know, day at a craft fair. But, um, if you, if you're really trying to interpret the text on an, on another level, um, you can see that like, oh, that, that embellishment I used was tongue in cheek or, or something.

[00:34:12] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. And then I guess, so the other thing was you mentioned, you know, you are scrapbooking for yourself and I do not want to undermine that at all. I'm curious though, do you consider your husband, um, an audience of your work, you know, at some point in the future to help remember things?

[00:34:31] Tracey Fox: Yeah, I mean, he's an audience now. Um, all of them are on social media and stuff as well, too. And we have files of, of all of them. So, like, honestly, whatever anyone wants to do with it someday, and if anything, I worry more about, you know, passing on the burden of all this paper. You know, like, just like many other scrapbookers, I know there may come a point where I'll consolidate and keep the digital. Or, um, you know, we'll work together to figure out like the, the group of stories that, that stay physical and get passed to somebody if they even want them. You know what I mean?

[00:35:02] So there's all that kind of stuff. And he is an audience in terms of people. interpretation. Um, my husband has an art degree and gets really excited about all the stuff that I get. I get his opinion a lot on what to do on a scrapbook page. But still at the same time, I'm the ultimate decider because he'll, he'll have, uh, thoughts on, you know, maybe you should put that title vertical. And I'm like, no, I'm definitely not going to do that. So yeah, he's, he's a part of it, but.

[00:35:32] Jennifer Wilson: That's great. So if we were to like step back and summarize your approach, uh, can you talk through how you would plan out a page? So we're recording this on January 2nd. Let's say you went to a big crazy New Year's party and you have a ton of photos. Um, how do you do, how do you work through all of this?

[00:35:54] Tracey Fox: Totally. Yeah. So I, I did not go to any crazy New Year's parties, but I'm happy to, uh.

[00:35:59] Jennifer Wilson: Did not either.

[00:36:01] Tracey Fox: I sat on my couch, um, which was always welcome after a busy holiday season, but I have been to New Year's parties. So I can absolutely, uh, put myself in this position. Um, I will say that when it comes to my process for scrapbooking, it helps me out a lot that I have no chill when it comes to photo management. I'm always doing that immediately. Because I can't wait to put together the photos. I use Instagram as a tool to keep me honest there. I really like to get my memories posted on my personal Instagram. As a way of having like a, a full chronological, usually on the date kind of diary of what I've been doing.

[00:36:41] Um, so at the event, or even right after, or even sometimes at it, I'm immediately going through all the photos I've taken at that event. Um, I. I'm on an iPhone, so I use the favorites function, and I favorite all the ones that I think are worth either editing, sharing, or scrapbooking. Um, and then, based on, like, I do that pretty quickly.

[00:37:05] If I've taken, like, three of the same shot, I'm going to quickly choose the one that I think is best. And I may or may not delete the other two, but at least I favorited the one I know I'm going to use later.

[00:37:15] Jennifer Wilson: So you're like in the car on the way home, in bed at night, like you're favoriting your photos.

[00:37:20] Tracey Fox: A hundred percent. Or if I need an introvert moment at the event or if I want to make sure I've got all the photos covered while I'm still at the event, I'll do it there. It's so quick for me, like it's not taking away from my being present or whatever. Um, it's, it's a habit I've developed. Um, I also, while I'm at the event, I'm usually the main documenter in my friend group and in my family. But I have a lot of other photobugs as well. Um, and so I'm partly doing that so that I can quickly share photos with friends and family via airdrop or other, other means while we're still at the event. And my friends really appreciate that. So they think of me as the one who's like got it covered and I'm going to give them the photos from the event again, all on phone. Um, this is also the time and the place where if somebody has taken one of the shots on their phone that I want for myself, I'm going to hound them for it and make sure I get it.

[00:38:16] Jennifer Wilson: Nice, nice.

[00:38:18] Tracey Fox: That's easy with my husband and with my best friend. Because we have shared a lot. Google Photo Albums. That anytime we take a picture that one of the other is in or a good picture at an event we're at together that we think the other might want, we are putting all of those in shared Google Albums.

[00:38:33] So then when I, when I, my first priority is not the scrapbook page, it's my Instagram post. Um, and so I will sit down and I will take those hearted photos, really curate through and make sure I've got what I want. Download any from my friends' google Photo Albums and stuff. Again, this is often in the car on the way home.

[00:38:51] I'm a passenger princess. Um, or, you know, just sitting on the couch later that night. Um, I'm a night owl, which helps. So, like, could be one in the morning. I'm probably doing this in bed on my phone. Um, I will go ahead and create the Instagram post that recaps what I just did. And that honestly, I may not scrapbook the page for months. Um, but that Instagram post is, is the, for posterity. I know what date this thing happened, I have pre selected and made a carousel post of probably what I think are the best photos.

[00:39:27] The scrapbook page may or may not end up having those exact same photos, but that's my start and I know those photos are ready to go. And then even sometimes I borrow the journaling completely. Um, I, I journal and the Instagram caption sometimes a little bit different than I would on a scrapbook page. But I borrow from that heavily. To, to either say exactly what I said in the caption because I liked it. Or, um, to, to help prompt me to remember things about it.

[00:39:55] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, I think that, uh, that's an amazing approach. I remember, oh gosh, I haven't, I haven't chatted with her in years. Uh, I think her name was Christine, List Girl. I know she lived in San Diego. And she was this, she was a very dedicated blogger. And she would take her photos, she'd process them immediately, write a blog post and then later make her scrapbook pages.

[00:40:15] But she already had that blog post ready to go. And I recall she had a style that was pretty similar to yours too.

[00:40:22] Tracey Fox: Oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah. It's if you happen to follow both my personal account and my scrapbooking account on Instagram, which you're, you're welcome to do so. But it's going to be redundant. You're going to see, you're going to see the carousel of photos. And then probably a couple of months later, you will see those exact same photos on a layout with a similar caption scrapbooked.

[00:40:42] It's like clockwork. And it's fun to do that. Um, so Instagram is, is a huge, I don't really have other storage systems for, um, you know, if I need more in depth journaling, I don't, I don't usually do that in real time. I'm probably more likely to reflect on that when I go to write to actually scrapbook the page.

[00:41:02] Um, but when I do sit down to scrapbook the page, um, I, I use that as my, my inspiration, I guess. Um, I will put the photos into probably a collage app like PicFrame or Print to Size. Um, Print to Size I really like because I can put a 12 by 12, uh, canvas as the background and I can move the photos around as I'm resizing them and putting them there to see if they'll fit on a 12 by 12 and maybe how they'll fit on a 12 by 12.

[00:41:34] So part of the creative process sometimes starts there. I'll also keep in mind if I have a product in mind or maybe a certain letter stamp or something that I know what size it is, I'll keep that in mind. So I know how much space to leave. Um, and, and so the level of pre planning that's happening before I print is, it varies.

[00:41:54] Um, sometimes it, sometimes I know exactly what else I'm going to put on the page. And I, size and arrange the photos accordingly. And sometimes I'm just like, well, I know I want to get 16 photos on the page, so I better make them small. And so I'll, I'll kind of just print them small and then I'll figure it out from there. It, it varies.

[00:42:13] Jennifer Wilson: When you're using Print To Size and say you're, you've like kind of designed the page on a 12 by 12 canvas, are you printing large format? Are you then resizing the canvas to say, okay, this is how many photos, now I'm going to spread them all out. And I'm printing it on eight by 10 or five by seven or four by six even.

[00:42:33] Tracey Fox: Great question. So I, um, I do have a large format printer that can accommodate up to 12 by 12 paper. But I don't have 12 by 12 photo paper. Um, so I do print mostly in what I'm, what I'm using print to size to get my photos ready and I want like really custom sizes. I will do, um, I'll change the canvas to eight and a half by 11 and then put the photos on there and print however many eight and a half by 11 pages of photos I need. And then cut them out and bring them to my paper layout.

[00:43:06] Um, I have a, I have an HP portable photo printer as well. And if I know I'm only gonna print photos in four by six, three by four, or two by three, um, then I'll use PicFrame or something to make a collage and I'll print those as four by sixes. Um, but more and more I find that using the Print To Size option is helping me really lay out those photos in more creative ways.

[00:43:34] Um, and if I'm going to make the photo square eventually, which is common for me when I do a grid or something. I can do all of that already in Print To Size. Very easily and see how they're gonna look. Um, so that, that tends to be my, my go-to lately.

[00:43:51] Jennifer Wilson: And, and for clarity here, you are doing Print To Size on your phone.

[00:43:56] Tracey Fox: Yeah, the entire process is on my phone. From taking, taking the photos, sharing, editing. Um, I, I don't have any part of my scrapbooking flow that's on a computer except for typing some journaling and like Microsoft Word and printing it on sticker paper.

[00:44:14] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, okay. Okay. So then you're also, you're sending photos, whether it's from the collage app or, um, Print To Size directly from your phone to your printers.

[00:44:23] Tracey Fox: Yes.

[00:44:25] Jennifer Wilson: I love it. I love it.

[00:44:26] Tracey Fox: Yeah.

[00:44:28] Jennifer Wilson: And where do you consider like your photo library home? Like what's the official like repository of where your photos live safely?

[00:44:37] Tracey Fox: Uh, just, well, safely, I do have Google photos and, um, my husband has a, like, external hard drive. He's backing everything up to from there. Um, but, but I'm mostly just for my workflow, um, for both Instagram posting and scrapbooking, I'm working out of my iPhone albums.

[00:44:58] Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

[00:44:58] Tracey Fox: But those backups are there if I need them.

[00:45:00] And if I ever want to reach back to an earlier photo, uh, I think our Google photo albums go back to like 2016 or something, which is helpful. But if it's before that, I got to go dig on some, some hard drives and, uh.

[00:45:14] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, Yeah.

[00:45:15] Tracey Fox: Yeah, Stuff like that. So.

[00:45:17] Jennifer Wilson: So when does supplies come into the process?

[00:45:20] Tracey Fox: Yeah, so I, I take a few different approaches depending on what sparked the need to tell the story. So, so most often I want to make sure that I'm making pages of all these like Instagrammable kind of events and stories and things that I documented for myself there. So in those cases, those things are kind of like on my list of things to scrapbook.

[00:45:41] And I'll probably start with those photos and the story, and then I'll go looking for products to go with it and just make a page. But very often too, I'm inspired by a product or, um, you know, I really only shop for products when I know that I have something that I'm going to use it for. And so I may get a spark of inspiration from a product and I'll know what I'm going to do with it.

[00:46:06] And I'll start with that and then pull the photos from there. Um, or if I get some sort of cool challenge to tell a different type of story or to, like sometimes that's the starting point. And I'll find one of these stories that is on the list of scrapbook to go with that. Um, it's really helpful and fun for me when I have some idea of the product going into the page. Because I'm able to really think about how I'm going to compose the page design wise. With all those photos and with and the elements I’m going to use. Those are the pages that come together the most quickly. But it’s also really fun to me to just kind of have my group of you know 8 to 10 or more photos. Lay them out, I kind of lay them out before any embellishments or anything onto a page. And kind of see what arrangement they might look good in or how they might tell the story. Do they need to be chronological, do they, do I just want to kind of spread them out and make them willy nilly. And then I go digging for product and sometimes it's really fun to just kind of stumble on like, oh, this kit will work with this, or I have, I have these specific products that fit the story and that can be a longer process that I just kind of find fun. Where I'm sifting through my stash and seeing what works.

[00:47:22] Jennifer Wilson: Do you ever bring any digital versions of products into Print To Size to help structure your page? So I'm thinking specifically about like, so Ali Edwards has some 12 by 12 papers that have homes for stories as the way she describes it. It might be circles or some sort of shape, um, that you would then need to customize your photo to fit in that shape. So is that something that you would do or would you like measure and then, but not bring it in?

[00:47:51] Tracey Fox: Doing that sounds like a great idea. I think I've maybe done that once or twice. Um, I, I don't have a great way of accessing digitals on my phone. Like I, since I'm not digi, I don't think I've ever worked hard to figure that out. Sometimes I'll be like a zip file or something like that.

[00:48:08] And it just feels cumbersome. So I usually just kind of wing it. Um, I'm like, Oh, well, I think, you know, this, this item, even if I have it both digitally and physical, I'm probably going to use the physical version. And I'm like, well, I think the physical version is about three inches and I can visualize how much space that's going to take. So I think I'm moving pretty quickly and not, not overthinking it too much. I want to get, I want to get off the phone and onto paper kind of as quickly as I can.

[00:48:40] Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Nice. I love that perspective. Um, as someone who's like very computer focused, like this is making me think a little differently about, about process.

[00:48:51] Tracey Fox: Yeah, I have people who are really surprised sometimes at how much I use my phone for the entire, Uh, you know, creative process until I get everything to the paper. And it's just, I don't know, I cannot bear to be on a laptop more than I already am for my job. It's just, it feels, it feels like a punishment.

[00:49:15] Jennifer Wilson: I had to get progressive though this year in order to see my phone, so that has changed things. But at least now I have those and I can see my phone again.

[00:49:23] Tracey Fox: That's helpful. Yeah, sometimes I feel like, what am I doing when I'm sitting there, you know, editing 40 photos on my phone. But I can also do it on the couch while I watch a movie. And I don't know, you can do that with a laptop too, of course, but I'm just used to my, my way.

[00:49:40] Jennifer Wilson: I get it. I get it. I mean, my phone is also always in my hand pretty much. So, um, is there anything we've missed here? Anything else that you want to share about how others can achieve your style or things that you're thinking about? Um, we've covered so much ground. I particularly want to highlight what you mentioned about being a kind of storytelling focused, photographer. I think that's something that, that everyone can take away. Um, but yeah, anything else that you want to add in?

[00:50:09] Tracey Fox: Yeah, I think, um, you know, just really find what works for you. Like I, I do love sharing about my approach and how I've made this work for me as the, the industry has kind of evolved and transitioned into having this entire plethora of sizes available for you. I just, I see everyone kind of, uh, get excited about trying to figure out what size album we'll use for this project or that project. And that, that does look fun. But I'm also just like, well, it, for me, it's just going to be 12 by 12. And it's going to fit into my album system, and that's a choice that I have eliminated for myself. And I really like that about my process. Because I know that I have plenty of other choices to do. Each page or each spread of pages can be a standalone project and it can all go in the same place. And so I just, I kind of don't have to, to worry about that other stuff. I know I'm, I'm probably like blocking off a whole area of creativity, but it's, I will never run out of things that I get excited to do on a 12 by 12 canvas. So it's, it's definitely still working for me.

[00:51:16] Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious how you might have adapted the 6 by 8 slash 7. 25 by 8, whatever it is, outside of the paid protector, those smaller sized papers onto a 12 by 12. Are you cutting them out?

[00:51:33] Tracey Fox: Yeah, I actually, I do that a lot. Um, that size, it can be a challenge if like it's a standalone design on that challenge. If it's just pattern paper, I use that like pattern paper. Um, fussy cutting the elements out and putting them on the page is great. There's also kind of a go to design I've used a few times where maybe one of those outside the page protector

[00:51:56] 6x8. Has, um, like some sort of large, you know, photo or journaling prompt or something on it. And it really fits to just slap it down in the middle of a layout and do like all your journaling and stuff on it in the middle of a 12 by 12 layout. And you can surround it with photos, um, and fill the rest of the 12 by 12.

[00:52:15] I've done that a few times, or it can kind of come like over to the side of the page and maybe you can cut off the excess and it can like come into your 12 by 12 page at an angle. And you can fill out, you know, the little journaling spaces or stick photos onto it. However that page is already prompting you to do so. And then you can still fill the rest of the page maybe with some other journaling or embellishments or a big title or something like that.

[00:52:40] Um, that's very similar to how I already used like 4x6 and 3x4 pocket cards over the years on a layout. You know, that's basically just like a big sentiment or a big prompt that's inviting you to add it to your larger canvas and layer it up with other things.

[00:52:57] Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Nice. Yeah. I think that because we have so many products that are coming to us in different sizes now, sometimes it could be a little bit of a stretch to figure out, okay, how do I then use this on a different size that I want to use it in versus in a pocket or in a smaller on a smaller canvas.

[00:53:14] Tracey Fox: Yeah, exactly.

[00:53:15] Jennifer Wilson: Tracey, this has been delightful. And now I want to go scrapbook. Which happens with so many of these episodes. Um, can you share where our listeners can find you online? Anything you have new or coming up this year? I love having you as part of our creative team and seeing how you interpret all of our different challenges.

[00:53:34] Tracey Fox: Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. So, um, I'm mostly on Instagram for scrapbooking. I'm scrappylikeafox on Instagram. Um, and since I mentioned my, my personal account as well, um, you're welcome to follow me there again. It's going to, you're just going to see the pages later. Um, it's my first name, Tracey, but with four R's and an E Y at the end, T R R R R A C E Y.

[00:53:57] Um, many, many years ago, three R's was taken when I got a Gmail address. So that's kind of the genesis of the four R's there. Um, nothing else really coming up other than I'm really excited for another year, uh, with you on the creative team at Simple Scrapper. The challenges are keeping me, um, challenged and creative in ways beyond my, my event, uh, by event approach and, uh, really bringing a lot of life to, to my albums and my memory keeping, which I, I love. So thank you so much for that.

[00:54:31] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, it's wonderful to hear. Again, Tracey, thanks for spending time with me.

[00:54:35] Tracey Fox: Thank you.

[00:54:36] Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook your way.

[00:54:40]

How to Subscribe

The best way to listen to Scrapbook Your Way is with a podcast player on your mobile device or with iTunes on your computer. You can subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or by searching for “Scrapbook Your Way” in your favorite podcast app.

Did you find this post helpful?

We believe simple is not how your page looks, but how your scrapbooking hobby works. We have a free workshop called SPARKED and it is the best way to learn more about Simple Scrapper and start creating consistently.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

READY TO SCRAPBOOK YOUR WAY?

The Simple Scrapper community will encourage and support your unique creative journey.