When I first started selling books, I came across dozens of old yearbooks. I remember wondering what the hell I could do with them.... So I sold them in a live sale on YouTube. After that sale, I had a friend message me telling me I was crazy for selling them and she gave me a million ideas to use them in my collages, junk journals, and ephemera making.
So, I've been a yearbook crafting junkie ever since!
Yearbook Ephemera
Ephemera - Just as they are, they make terrific ephemera. Even the ad pages in the back. I sell folio packs here that are great to use as junk journal pages (in proper orientation!). These packs come with the portraits, ads, candids, and group shots - a huge array of all the things that make yearbooks great in a range of 50+ years.
Embellishments - I embellish so many things with yearbook portraits! I cut out so many portraits that I started selling packs of just portraits that you can find here. You can message me for group/candid photo mixes, also. (Let me know if you think I should list some, I didn't know if they would be as popular as the portraits).
Some of my favorite ways to use them
Embellishing with a small yearbook portraits adds a great vintage charm to your paper crafting projects. Here are things I've embellished with (or plan to)
*Bookmarks
*Journal tags/cards
*Pockets/tucks
*Clusters (See my article about that here)
*Charms (backed on a chipboard or other thick material)
*Altered Playing Cards
*Anything that you think needs a little something extra can usually use a yearbook portrait
The thing I love about them is that they come in all different sizes. I have some that are small - only about 1" sq and I have others that are probably closer to 4" which gives a good array of images to use in any paper crafting project you may have.
Other Fun Tips
It is also a lot of fun colorizing images with Sharpie markers. Just color in whatever you want in the picture and it gives it a cool effect of black & white plus a few pops of color.
I used Sharpie on this altered Playing card I made. This handsome fellow is all ready to graduate high school in his cap and gown so I added a nice blue shade over his clothing to give him that POP of color. Its just one easy, simple way to turn an image into something so much more.
Yearbook portraits on ATCs is a wonderful way to help spark that creativity if you are in a slump. That was where I was when I made this small series of cards.
Another card from that series is this lovely lady here that I blended with a magazine image, painty paper bit, and a quote. If you are interested in altering some playing cards, I have kits already put together with cards and tons of things to use on them. The kit is nice because everything is the proper size to fit the cards so there is no guesswork involved. It also works well to get you out of that slump because there is no searching through your stash needed. Its all right there! You can build with what you have in front of you!
What fun projects have you used yearbook photos for? Feel free to share them and I'll add them to this blog!
~M