Kit Expansion Project!

Kit expansions have become one of my new favorite things. I love taking a two-page layout and making it 3 (or sometimes 4!) with just a little bit of cardstock and creativity. This week's kit of the week, Fall Fun 2018, lent itself perfectly to this project!

Before we look at the changes, let's take a moment to admire the cuteness of this layout in its original form! 

Original Fall Fun 2018

The leafy swirls, those little crows in their basket! So darn cute. So why would I want to change it? Well, I just can't seem to stop taking photos and I can NEVER narrow them down enough for a two page layout. So it's either leave some cute ones off, do the same layout twice, or expand the layout. Expansion is - by far - my favorite option. Here's a quick look at my finished layout and I'll break down the changes page by page. 

The full 3-page expanded Fall Fun 2018 Layout

Just LOOK how many photos are on there! Nine 4 x 6 mats and one 4 x 4 mat for a total of TEN photos! And plenty of space for cute die cuts!

Now, there are a few things I think about when I'm adding a 3rd or 4th page. First, I need to make a background choice. Sometimes, it's most obvious to just match the color of the original, which is what I eventually decided on, but with this layout, there are so many color options! I played with the idea of making the middle background a much bolder fall color, but I decided to play with color in my mats and pattern paper. 

After I decide my background color, I then take a look at what came with the kit and start playing around with where the items might go. Sometimes, I keep cuts together - like I did the the leaf/acorn sprays - and sometimes, I decide there's enough going on in a section to spread it out - which I did with the basket of leaves. You can see the changes in these two photos:

The original layout has leaves inside and outside the basket with crows. The leaf/acorn sprays are set up here, too.

On my layout, I took the leaves from outside the basket and placed them on another page. The basket itself and the contents were enough and the cuteness factor stayed high enough to move them. With the leaf sprays, I kept the same idea, but changed up the color groups to fit with my photo mats.

When I've got my die cut options, I then move on to photo mats and additional paper. I'm a big fan of putting as many photos on a page as possible. I don't want it to look crowded, but the photos are what it's all about, so I leaned into the gorgeous colors in this layout and played around with some space. I like to experiment a little bit with photo mat placement, and - as much as I like symmetry and am conscious of flow - I LOVED the look of three completely different mat layout combinations. The colors popped, and each page had it's own - yet cohesive - feel.

Let's take a look at each page, now and I'll walk you through my thought process.

I knew I wanted to keep the title on this first page. Then all the actual Fall Fun would follow! 😉 This page looked a little empty, though, so I chose to pull both flourished onto the page to anchor the top and the bottom, and to fill this page with fun and bright photo mats. The yellow and red mats were included in the kit. It's always a favorite of mine to add pattern paper, if possible. It's just an extra, fun feature to make your layout pop. I happened to have a whole sheet of a great swirly, leafy, orange paper that mimicked the leafy swirl cutouts on this layout! I couldn't avoid using it. It was calling to me. So I used some of it to make a whole 4 x 6 photo mat to round out this page! I angled the photo mats to give them impression of them blowing through the breeze and placed the title pieces to avoid covering precious photo space.

Page 1

Page 2 flowed organically for me. I'm currently in love with this photo mat placement, so I chose a few rich colors and then used the "empty space" to feature some great die cuts. Like I mentioned before, I removed the "ground leaves" from the basket of crows and used them on the third page, but I left all of the rest of this die cut as is. I just can't get over their cuteness. I then placed the leaf/acorn sprays in the other sections. Now, when I use pattern paper, I like to find a way to use it throughout the layout, if possible, so I cut thin strips - 1/2 x 4 and 1/2 x 6 - and used them to embellish the photo mats. It just helps to tie the page kits together a little more, in my opinion.

Page 2

The final page, though simple, is so beautiful. Here, I tried another photo combination and worked a 4 x 4 mat into the mix. I knew I wanted to keep the tree far to the right on this layout - the branches were cut to run off the page, so they would not work in other locations, but I wanted to highlight it more than in the original. I love the fall colors, but I'm also enamored by the strong, stretching branches of the trees when they are bare. I think they are beautiful when they're resting, so I wanted to acknowledge this tree with her own page. I gathered the leaves from the ground of the crow basket and used them here, to spread out as they would have just fallen - little jewels falling to the ground. I also carried the pattern paper over to this page by using it as the ground. It's a subtle-enough pattern to not distract the eye, but it is interesting, too. This may be the simplest page, but it's the one that invokes the most feelings in me. Sometimes simple is just where it's at.

Page 3

Now that we've taken a look at all three pages individually, let's look at the whole 3-page layout once again. You can see how each page has it's own vibe, but they all work together to create one great Fall Fun layout. The pattern paper flows through each page, and the colors are evenly spread throughout the pages. I'm beyond thrilled with how this turned out!

The full 3-page expanded Fall Fun 2018 Layout

So what do you think? Do you think you'll try it? How would you do this differently? What little tricks do you have up your sleeve to expand kits or add more photos? We'd love to hear them! Happy Fall, and, as always, Happy Crafting!

Original Fall Fun 2018