Portfolio-like page for 7.0?

Site URL: https://www.aweedmark.com/product-illustration

I'm trying to create a more dynamic portfolio on 7.0 where one can click on the thumbnail to be taken to a "detail" page that shows more photos and a project description. I see 7.1 has this functionality but is there any good way to do this in 7.0?

The only thing I've found as a "work around" is to create a "blog" for the detail pages and summarize the blog on this main page. Down side to this is I can't move projects around if I need to. I suppose I could also create individual pages in the "not linked" section but that doesn't feel ideal.

I'm open to any other suggestions.

Thanks!