Are smaller pictures on layouts popular at the moment?

OK, I'm not trying to start a debate or insult anyone here. I am just curious more than anything else

I love looking through the galleries especially the favorite tab to just get inspiration and ideas. I've been noticing more and more 12X12 layouts with just 1 very small picture (smaller than 4x6) filled with embellies. I usually shrink my pictures down to smaller sizes whenever I do a layout with 3 or more pictures. I have a bunch of 5X7s (mainly school and sports pictures) that I had planned on scrapping as a single picture, but now those pictures look so big compared to what I see in the gallery.

Is using a single small picture the new trend?

I think Instagram has made the small picture trend explode...

but yeah- you're right, it's a big trend.

cool I had no idea about that i mean I have seen one single small photo with a ton of embellies but did not think of it as trending!!! Good question!

Yeah think this is totally trendy. I still prefer the larger photos on a single photo layout though because I like to see the details. Some of the ones with smaller photos are gorgeous though.

But I was just working on a page on Monday and I did the same thing... I had the photo printed in 5x7 (as well as the original 4x6 I had printed forever ago) and the 5x7 just looked weird. I decided to use the 4x6 instead and to me it looked better. I know this isn't what you mean by small pictures, but I just used to automatically think on a single photo page that 5x7 would be better and now my opinion has changed.

I love using tiny pics...esp multiple ones.

I think it looks good with negative space or clustering.

Sure it's a trend and some scrappers make it look so great.

But guess what? Trends come and go and we all scrap the way we like. So if you see something you like try it - trendy or not.

I honestly don't keep up with 'trends' and what's hot.

I like using a larger focal-point photo PLUS several smaller ones.
One tiny (2x3 for example) and lots of embellishments is usually NOT my favorite. I'm not a fan when I look at a layout and it's hard to tell if there IS a photo.

But, hey, everyone has their preferences. The differences in interpretation is very interesting, even if it's not *my* favorite.

I've recently done two 12x12's that have an 8x10 photo, actually hard to do. I mostly have 5x7's, IF it is just one photo. Today, I working with two photos, a 4x6 and a wallet size. For me, it's about the photo, but I do like to have room for goodies.

I've never been a trend girl. Matter of fact in my younger days, I went as far away from the trend as I could!!!

I did use all wallet size pictures on a spread I did recently, but it was an 8x8 and I would have never gotten 4 bigger ones on it!!

Trying to stay up with the trends is why I stopped scrapping a few years back.

trendy or not, I think it's a cool look

that beind said, I usually have my pics printed at 4x6 for convenience sake more than anything else, and then crop them down if the pic and the LO warrant

I love the smaller photos on pages but speaking as an older person than most on the board - you reach the point where you can't see the small photos easily. Even with glasses. The eyesight does do mean things to you.

For that reason I'm using more and more 5 x 7's - so my mother can see them and I can see them as I get older.

When I use small photos I usually have one 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 made and then use similar photos in a smaller size.

But I really do have trouble seeing the photos if they are really small. As much as I hate to say it, that happens to all of us.

For that reason I'm careful using small photos.

But have I seen some beautiful layouts made around one tiny photo and some of the examples are gorgeous!

Every time I blink I see a new technique, new trend, new gadget and it can all be somewhat overwhelming!! But this is an art form that is very personal!! So I take the stance of I will try it if I like it and pass if I don't even if that makes me a trend dud lol(:

I can understand the artistic appeal for small photos with a lot of embellishments, but I have so much I want to show on my layouts that I feel like, for me, it would be a waste of useable, storytelling space. That being said, I am trying to do something using smaller photos from the 60s and 70s for a memorial album for my father. I think it really depends on the album's purpose.

-Stephanie

I use mainly 4x6 and any size the phots are when I am working on a LO. They get smaller if I want to eliminate or cut something out of the picture.

I don't follow the trend thing either. To me, a page full of embellishments with a small photo is a way for companies to push their product. I want people to focus on the pictures and the story, not the product being used. But, to each their own.... that is why scrapbooking is so awesome... so full of diversity.

• SJB1120 Said:

the 'older' photos were smaller than the normal 4x6 of now. I too am using some for memorial albums: they are what they are. Remember "sticker sneeze" saying? I think someday some of the layouts of now (lots of flowers/tiny pic) will be called "Flower sneeze".

I think you are right Diana!

LOL that is so true! Just yesterday I was standing in HL holding something and wondering what I will think in 20 years when I look back on my pages. I am sure I will still love them but on some of them I might say 'what was I THINKING???' LOL! But I'm okay with that. When I look back at my first albums now, the ones that I really REALLY want to redo are the ones that were too plain. I'm talking 3 wallet sized school photos of my cousins stuck to a black piece of construction paper and that's it. Hehe. That's when I could tell I was really rushing through them just trying to get them onto pages. Might as well have just done a traditional album on some of those.

So I don't worry about the trends now, I'm sure no matter what I will have some pages that I look at and think about redoing, and others that I look at and LOVE. But I probably will like them all as long as I did at least a little something on them.

I think the layouts with the tiny pics and lots of white space tend to come from designers or those on design teams or published in magazines.
It is a very nice, artsy look....

However, for me, I'm telling our family stories (mainly with photos and journalling) not making something to hang on a wall....so those types of layouts don't work for me.
I do sometimes use lots of smaller pics in grid form or photobooth style but that is usually in order to fit more pics on the page!
I don't do layouts with lots of white space although, I do think they can look nice.

Alison

I love using sketches, and I've noticed that many of them are focussing on small photos now, with lots of "white space", not necessarily embellishment space. White space is a recent trend, definitely.

There's a sketch blog which has been running weekly sketch challenges for 5 years and it's closing, and it's selling books of all the sketches. The older ones are mainly for 6x4 photos, and the latest ones favour smaller ones.

Well, obviously I'm out of this particular loop.

Examples please.

I want to see!

Who's got some to share?

Have a look at the Creative Scrappers blog.

Is this what you mean? Or are these photos too big?
Last Supper By RedSquirrel

Believe in miracles By RedSquirrel

Most of the ones I think about with the tiny pictures have one small pictures and loads of flowers and embellies. I would call them very shabby chic or some of them vintage or heritage. They often have a lot of lace and beautiful things - bird cages and birds, maybe butterflies.

Gorgeous but just wouldn't work for my travel layouts. Plus I just personally prefer a larger photo but years ago in my "before glasses" days, I would have probably made some with the small photos.

i like using different sized photos on pages for me it givesthe eye something to look at

For me, one itty bitty picture and a ton of embellies totally takes away from the photo.

I love the really artsy ones but there was one I looked at 2 or 3 times - and not quickly - before I noticed the tiny photo in the middle of all the flowers and lace. I didn't think it had a photo in it!

There are some real artists here and they really do gorgeous work but I have to go back to why I scrape and its to share my stories and travel. It's memories of things my husband and I have done together and places we have visited together.

But scrapbooking is something differnet to each of us and for some, they do it for the artistic and creative outlet and I totally get that. Their stuff belongs on the walls in gold frames - they are gorgeous. But it isn't me.

I wnat hte pictures to be bigger than life and jump out. They are my focal point and I don't want to have to put on my glasses to see them.

• Henri Jean Said:

Yes, what Henri Jean said. So I guess based on responses it's safe to say smaller pictures are currently trendy. I love using embellies and lots of pps but also want to keep the focus on the pictures themselves. I want it all ... it's actually a constant struggle for me. I often think how do I use all of the pictures AND embellies/pps I like without making the layout "overcrowded".

I'm working on a 2-page layout of my granddaughter and using one 5 x 7 on each page. I'm ready to start gluing but I'm wondering if I should have stopped 4 or 5 flowers ago...

I haven't done it yet but I have so many little 2x2 photo booth size photos that won't enlarge well. I inherited them from my grandmother (1940's) and would love to showcase them on a page. I've seen some really beautiful ones with just one or two on a page. Wish I was better with florals.

I don't do trends.I like what I like so trends
don't matter to me.I like what I like trendy or not.I do like the 4x4 size occasionally,much like the olds pics.

The small photos are a trendy look, that will always be around from this point forward, but what you like in you scrapbooking is the only trend you show adapt. I will often try a new look, but I always go back to what I like looking at the most, which is usually 4x6 or 5x7 pictures. I do the occasional large single photo and the collage of lots of small photos, but predominately, it is just the standard print photos.

I think it's popular, but I do what ever is going to serve best for the layout...

I agree that the popularity of Instagram probably has a lot to do with the trend you are seeing!

Also, I think multi-pics pages are making a comeback and those are usually smaller photos.

I am not a trend follower. I do use smaller pictures, but only because I can put more pictures on one page! If I would put one or two small pictures on each page, my albums would explode. But sometimes I do have the problem I would like to add something (title, ribbon) and the pictures have taken up all the space!

It's a big trend and mainly because of instagram I do like the smaller pictures but not all the time. The majority of my layouts are not instagram layouts they are regular 4x6 prints. Sometimes the prints get cropped or sometimes I print the photo smaller but I generally scrap regular sized photos. All school portrait photos will be scrapped regularly as well I will not be shrinking those photos! Just scrap whatever makes you happy

If a new trend means I get to try something new then I'm all for it!