Scrap it BIG!

Hi all, Michelle here with my monthly contribution to this fabulous blog!

Sometimes when we scrap I think we get stuck with the same familiar photo sizes like 6’’ x 4’’ and 7’’ x 5’’. They’re easy to print and they fit nicely on a page but sometimes I like to mix it up and go BIG! Have you ever printed a photo out at A4 to use on a page and let the photo do the talking? It’s an interesting exercise to let the photo dominate and that’s what I did for this post.

  
The photo is of the lovely beach and ship inn at Saltburn, as the title suggests! My mum took it and it sure does make me home sick so I wanted the photo to do the talking for me and kept the rest of the page relatively simple.

 
I printed the photo off at A4 and made sure I ticked the borderless option in my print preferences so I could get the maximum size possible. You can see how wide it is on the 12 x 12. I trimmed about 1cm from the top of the photo just to make it ‘sit’ right on the page, in effect making it a longer picture rather than wider, and also buying me space for my embellishments so they would be in a good position and not look like they were falling off the page.

 
I picked out some 12 x 12 paper in a sandy beach colour as the base of my layout (Cosmo Cricket snorkel) and then collected together some contrasting papers to pick out the blues and beiges in the photo (Basic grey and Rose Moka) I cut the various papers with my trusty Purple cows freestyle mouse cutter and a decorative blade in wavy shapes to echo the waves of the sea and a sandy beach all at the same time.

 
I decided to position the large photo with an even thin margin round the top and sides. I felt the paper framed the photo well. I layered up the ‘waves’ overlapping them as I went, and I really like that they reach the edges of the base paper and are wider than the photo as I think it creates an optical illusion and makes it look like the photo is the full 12 x 12 width.

 
In the gap remaining at the bottom I added some wide vintage lace and a strip of blue ribbon to break up the line of the last bit of blue paper and then added some extra texture with some pom pom ribbon (my latest favourite embellishment!) I left the inner edge of the lace rough too to lend to the ‘washed up on the seashore’ feel

 
Then I filled the left hand side of the gap with my title alphas (We R Memory keeper’s chipboard alphas and Rose Moka tiny alphas) I made sure the chip alphas overlapped the last bit of blue paper, again to break up the line and also made sure it overlapped the lace to pull everything together.

 
And finally I added some shells to complete the seashore theme.

I really love the look of the BIG photo on this page, to me it invokes the memories I have of Saltburn and I can almost smell the sea!

Sometimes a photo just begs to be scrapped BIG like this one of my hubby

 
The photo printed at A4 and cut out. Made with Glitz Detour papers

 And this one of a fun day out with my sister and nieces

 
The Ferris wheel almost become the background paper alongside the Glitz Maya papers and then letting the small photos tell the story. (step by step instructions for this layout are on my blog here)

So why not have a go at scrapping BIG and letting your photos do the talking! I hope you feel inspired to have a play, as ever thanks for stopping by and until the simple things project post JOYfully comes around on the 18th, Happy Crafting

Love

MJM x

Comments

[Debbie Roberts]

Fabulous layouts, definitely going to have a go at printing a large photo.

Debbie

[Carmen]

Gorgeous - so effective. When I get some printer ink I'll definitely be having a play.

[Mandy]

Wow... great impact...very inspiring!

[Kim]

I love how you have done this... I love your blog, it really is so inspiring!
Hugs
Kim
x

[Lynne V]

Great ideas, I need to try this.