13 Ways to Personalize your Page Kit. #4: Expansion

It's time for installment #4 of 13 Ways to Personalize your Page Kit! If you've missed our first three, you can find them here (1, 2, 3). If you're just joining us you might be wondering why 13? Down Memory Lane turns 13 this year and we're finding lots of ways to celebrate. Along with weekly and monthly deals throughout the month of January (check them out on our Facebook page!), we're releasing 13 brand new page kits and doing a blog series on 13 ways to personalize them - 1 post for each of the years we've been blessed to be a part of your memory keeping. 

We're on our 4th way to personalize and I think this way has the most options for creativity, new ideas, and a personal spin. I love it because it always feels like a fun challenge and I'm always impressed with what comes out of me when I'm done. And, as a nice bonus, it greatly expands the possibilities of memory keeping. 

Personalizing Option #4: Expansion

What is page kit expansion? It's simply taking the two page layout you get in our kits and expanding it to 3 or 4+ pages by adding your own cardstock and pattern paper. I love it because there are a million ways to revamp the same page kit depending on your needs. They also always add space for more photos - and who doesn't need that?

When I saw this new page kit, I knew it'd be perfect for expansion. There are lots of easy to match colors, the pattern paper adds lots of expansion possibilities, there are lots of elements that can be spread across more pages, and I always have way too many birthday photos than fit on two pages. Let's take a look at It's a Party in its original form: 

It's a Party in it's original form

For page kit expansion, you'll need additional cardstock and/or pattern paper of your choice. I did not use additional die cuts, but you could add die cuts or embellishments if you wanted to. The possibilities are really endless!

Items needed for expansion: page kit, adhesive, paper trimmer/scissors, additional coordinating cardstock.

 I never know exactly what I'm going to do when I start a project, so I always pull as many colors and patterns as possible and then weed through as I go.

Obviously, being in the shop, I can match the patterns and colors perfectly with this page kit, but if you don't have that option, you can choose colors that pair well with the original colors or match as closely as possible.

One of the first things I do when expanding a kit is remove any die cuts that I would consider "non-essential" from the original layout. That is, without them, the page could still stand alone. That way, I know right in the beginning what can potentially be moved to an additional page without sacrificing the rest of the layout.

I removed the flag banner, two of the swirls, and the duplicate star from the right page of the layout

Layout with "non-essential" pieces removed. I considered removing the swirls from the left side, but decided to wait and see how things progressed.

Unless inspiration strikes in a really bold way, I usually try to keep relatively close to the original design on the pages, but simply spread them out, rearrange the pieces a bit, and add some extra photo mats. It's much easier to start with the basic layout given to you and begin to shift things around. One of the hardest things for me to decide is where I want to add my 'extra' pages. Do I want to add them to the end of the layout or do I want to add them to the middle and let the original pages kind of bookend the additions?

I decided to add a middle page for a couple of reasons. When expanding a kit, I like to make sure that there are certain elements that carry over to each page to make it look coherent. It may be a color scheme, certain die cuts, or even photo mat placement. In this case, the original layout had some easy choices and I decided to make the striped pattern paper and orange cardstock strip the main connection between each page. Since it was easy to place these on the far ends of the layout, I decided I could use this as a major focal point on the middle page if I put it in the center. It would tie the pages together, but set it distinctly apart. 

I wanted it to have purpose, so I placed 3 additional multi-colored photo mats underneath. By making the photos and the patterned strip the major players on this page, I only needed a little more to make it come together.

Additional "middle" page of the layout.

You'll notice on the left side of the original layout above that it's actually pretty crowded. I decided a great way to ease that and finish off this middle page was to pull the title from the left side and place it at the top in the middle. It doesn't take away from the photos or pattern paper, but makes this whole page come together. I also knew that I wanted each page to have swirls and stars on them to bring a little more continuity, so I placed a few around the title.

With the new added page pretty set, it was time to play with the original pages! My main focus was to add photo mats and rearrange the die cuts to accent these. Here's what I ended up with:

The right side, after removing the title, really opened up for me. I love the stack of patterned paper presents and didn't want to pull focus away from that, so I used mostly solid colored cardstock, but snuck in one patterned photo mat at the top. I placed it as far away from the other patterned pieces as possible so it wouldn't clash or feel too busy. I also decided that this page could use a bit of whimsy, so I angled the stack of photo mats so it wasn't all perfectly aligned. 

Completed right hand page with added photo mats

Added photo mats

You might wonder where the blue strip on the top left photo mat came from. This was a crazy idea I decided to just go for. To get the whimsically stacked photo mats to fit nicely, I trimmed them a quarter inch on each side and those strips were the leftover pieces from the photo mats! Instead of tossing them in the garbage, I decided to use them to give a little extra color and fun to my photo mats. I loved it on this page so much that I carried them over onto every page.

One woman's trash...a treasure!

No scrap left behind!

 With the addition of the patterned photo mat and the scrap strips, I decided to take a quick second look at the middle page to see if I could squeeze those in. I ended up adding a patterned photo mat and some strips between the mats and I just LOVE how this middle page shaped up!!

Photo mat swap and strip addition

SO CUTE!

Now, you'd think with all of that on the first and middle pages, what's left for the final page? SO MUCH GOODNESS! The flag banner was still up for grabs so I swung that across the top and used the rest of the space for a few more photo mats. Of course, I worked in the patterned paper in a slightly different way and the scrap strip. 

Completed right side page

Instead of adding a full mat of patterned paper, I decided to layer this with cardstock to just give a nod to the previous pages, but make this a stand out feature on its own.

Our final scrap piece

I love these pages on their own, but put them together? Check out this fantastic layout!

All in all, I think it turned out pretty amazing! I liked the original layout, but I adore this expanded one! It's so simple, but so lovely - and holds so many more photos! When all was said and done, these were the pieces I added in addition to what was provided in the kit. It amounted to slightly more than two 12 x 12 pieces of paper. For this jam-packed layout, that's pretty fantastic! 

As I said, kit expansion is one of my favorite things to do for so many reasons. It's a fun challenge, it makes the page kit unique to me, and it allows me to get a lot more bang for my buck! And when you end up with extra pages this cute, what would hold you back? I'd love to know what you would do to change up this layout and make it your own. Let us know in the comments! And stay tuned for more kits and more ways to personalize them.