Down Memory Lane: Hidden Pocket Photos!

This summer, as a gift to my mother, we got extended family photos at a portrait studio. All together, there were 11 of us - quite a crew! We had an hour-long session, so you can imagine how many photos we had to choose from! Almost too many! When I saw the Kit of the Week for this week, I knew right away that it would be PERFECT for my family photos. The only problem? Not enough photo space! So what could I do? Well, I could always expand the pages, but I really wanted to keep them all together in a two-page layout. I just love the original set up. My solution? Hide some pull-out pocket photos right on the layout! I'm so thrilled with how it turned out.

Completed So Much to be Thankful For Layout with photo pocket

So Much to be Thankful For layout with pocket photos removed.
Look how many photos I fit in there!

Photo pockets are one of my favorite tricks to fit more photos and I am so excited to show you how to do it! All you need is a little extra cardstock, some glue, and a scissors, and you can expand your photo options in just a few quick steps!

I decided to use the fence to hide my pocket behind. It is pretty wide and tall enough to fit some good sized photos. If you try this with another layout, it could easily be hidden behind a photo mat or another large die cut.

The first thing I did was assemble the fence. This would tell me how wide and tall I needed my dimensions. Once this was assembled, I started measuring my cardstock. I chose to use cardstock that matched the background in order to keep the pocket as hidden as possible. We are going to use an accordion fold to make this pocket, so it is important to leave enough margin on the sides and bottom of your die cut to allow folding. The top of the cardstock should be flush with the top of the die cut or photo mat. As you can see, I left about a 1" margin along the three sides of the die cut. Once I had it set, I glued down the fence so I could use it as a guide while folding.

Once I had my fence in place and solid, I flipped the cardstock over and started by folding the bottom flap up - matching the fold with the bottom of the fence. Once it was all lined up, I creased the fold and moved on to the next step.

Creating a bottom shelf for the photos to sit while in the pocket

In order to create a space for the pocket photos to rest, we need to do a simple accordion fold to allow the pocket to pop out from the background cardstock. To do this, fold the cardstock back, as shown in the photo above. I didn't want it to stick out too far, so I aimed for a little less than 1/2" fold. Below is a scaled back photo of the accordion fold.

Back side of the bottom accordion fold

Front side of bottom accordion fold.

Once the bottom fold is complete, we need to cut the corners to allow the sides to fold easily. The previous folds created fold lines that I used as a guide to cut my corners out.

Since I wanted the pocket to end at the side of the fence, I cut started my cut along the edge. This is where my side folds would line up.

Next, I used the fold crease as a guide to finish cutting out the corner.

Repeat these steps with the corner on the other side of the fence. Your cardstock should look like this on each side of the fence once the corners are removed.

When your corners have been removed, you can repeat the accordion folds with the cardstock on each side of the fence. When you've completed both sides, it should look similar to this on the back.

Here is a quick snap from the side. These flaps will be glued down to the background cardstock to create your pocket. Gluing the flaps down always gives me a little anxiety. 😊 It's so permanent! I like to compress the folds tightly first and then line up the bottom flap first. I line the top crease of the external fold to match where I want the bottom of the pocket to land. Once that flap is in place, I glue the side flaps while they are compressed. When they decompress, they'll force the pocket to pop forward, creating a space for your photos. Once the glue is set, I trimmed the edges down to match the edges of the background.

Once your pocket is completed, you'll need to create some pull tabs. I decided to use 3.75" x 3.5" photo mats, so I cut those out of cardstock. Then, I used the sunflowers to create the pull tabs. I cut strips of cardstock about 1" x 4" and glued them to the backs of the sunflowers.

Before I glued the tabs to the cardstock, I taped the tabs in various heights and set them in the pocket to make sure I got them right. Once I was satisfied, I glued them down. You can see by this photo that the heights are staggered.

Doesn't it look great? You can barely tell there's even a pocket! Let's take a look at what happens when you pull the sunflowers.

Here's tab #1 - N with his grandparents and great grandparents:

Tab #2 N with Dad and Mom:

Tab #3 - my parents/N's grandparents:

Tab #4 - my brother and sister-in-law:

All 5 Tabs together:

I'm over the moon about how this turned out. I got 10 photos on this 2 page layout, and, honestly, it could have been more! I chose to write names on the back of the pull-out photos, but I could have put photos on the backs of those, too, and fit a total of 15! THAT is something to get excited about!

Just some very simple journaling on the backs of the pull out photos

So what do you think? It's one of my favorite tricks because it's both simple and needs such little extra to make. But I'd love to know: Is this something you might try on your own? What are your thoughts? Share with us in the comments!