Get the best of both worlds by including more photos with a large photo block on one side of your layout while still having some fun by creating a more traditional scrapbooking design on the other.
I know I've mentioned it before in a previous post, but a few years ago I was on the Simple Stories design team and created sketches that paired with their papers and Pocket Pages. The design concept was mostly built around their Pocket Pages. One side of the sketch had a more traditional scrapbook design while the second page used one of their Pocket Pages to hold photos and cards.
Creating those sketches and working with Simple Stories ended up, in some ways, changing the way I scrapbook. Now, when I have a large amount of photos that I want to use, I find that I often follow that same design concept with one side having a more traditional scrapbooking style with the other side covered in photos and cards in a large block. It's definitely become one of my favorite ways to scrapbook. You don't even need the pocket-style of pages. I just adhere my block on a piece of 12 x 12" cardstock.
On the left side of this layout I created a background grid of hearts to go with my "Happy Valentine's Day" theme.
On some of the hearts I added some stickers to help dress them up a bit.
I also used a small heart punch to add a few tiny heart photos on top of a few of the hearts.
Since those photos are so small, I used photos that are focused on small details:
• Jackson's face lighting up when he realized he got balloons from his Aunt Stacey.
• The basket of goodies the boys got at Scrapbook Generation.
• A pile of Valentines from school.
• Drew's hands writing out his Valentines to take to school.
All of these were small pieces in larger photos so they were easy to punch out into a small shape.
On the right side of the layout I used a simple combination of photos and cards: 6 x 4" and 3 x 4". Those sizes pair together so well and so easily. I would say that those two sizes and 4 x 6" and 4 x 3" are my go-to with this kind of design.
I like to have a little design fun when it comes to the large photo block side. I see each card and photo as potential for adding more goodies and embellishments.
I might add some stickers or other embellishments to an empty corner of a photo...
...or I might dress up a card with a small photo and some extra stickers...
It's like making several mini-scrapbook pages!
Supplies used - Cardstock: Bazzill and American Crafts; Patterned paper, stickers, embellishments: Simple Stories; Heart punch: Martha Stewart; Embroidery floss: DMC; Pen: Zig Memory System