Scrapping small photos

One of my friends from my scrapbooking group, the Scrappin' J's, has been my son Dominic's Sunday school teacher for a few years. recently that ended, which made my son sad. I had taken a terrific photo of them together a couple years ago and decided to put it on a page.

The problem? It was an Instagram photo, so to get the best quality, I printed it small. (Note: I know I can go places online to print them higher quality, but those are cost effective only when I print larger orders, and I wasn't ready to put together a bigger order. I am doing that now, and when I get that order back in a week, I'll share with you!)

My issue with small photos: I want them to look substantial on a page. If I'm only scrapping one on a page, I need to do something to make it stand out. And though I love white space, I didn't want the small photo to look like an island in a vast ocean of white space either. Here's my solution:

I used an envelope and patterned paper to create a photo mat and anchored it to a strip of white woodgrain cardstock running vertically on plain kraft cardstock.

To add interest to the white woodgrain, I added some patterned vellum from Studio Calico's Darling Dear collection and curled the ends of the vellum (I used barbeque skewers from my kitchen, if you're curious what I rolled the vellum with). The vellum didn't stand out much, so I slip some yellow-on-yellow patterned paper underneath.

I knew I wanted a scalloped edge to the vertical paper, but I decided to make a stitched scallop edge using my Bazzill stitching template rather than punching a scalloped border.

 

As usual, I grabbed bunches of stuff from the Studio Calico kit I had out and clustered it around the photo, again to add some substance to it. I love the Freckled Fawn wood veneer speech bubbles with words in them. I've almost used them up!

The clock sticker from October Afternoon I'd planned on using on another page and never did. I de-stickered it using my embossing buddy and added it to this page using dimensional stickers.

 

Thanks for reading about my page and how I dealt with a small photo. Now how about you: what size photos do you normally scrap? Do you scrap small photos? Big ones (I love those too)? Mainly 4x6?

Storytelling and a giveaway

 Last year I took the class Twelve at Big Picture Classes. I have preferred spending money on experiences rather than Stuff these past years, so the class seemed like the right thing. One thing it did that was so amazing? I was taught to look at my life more completely, not just at the events, but also the seasons and the rituals and the things. Here's one of the things:

I will go into doggie hell for including Lola our dog in Things, but what I'm referring to is her Look--the one she gives me when I dare to stop petting her. This is something I want to remember always, so I scrapped it. Here's the details:

I used Studio Calico's February kit for this. When I make a layout, I love to layer lots of embellishments, so I did this here.

I took the photos mostly on Instagram. Such cuteness, so I paired it with some loving embellishments and papers. I also loved pairing lots of wood veneer with the photos. Thank goodness wood veneer is in this year.

Now I need to share some great news related to the class Twelve at Big Picture Classes and a giveaway!

One of my layouts that I produced in the class was selected to be published in the class companion book, Storytelling Strategies! Here it is:

The book contains the twelve prompts, layouts by Stacy Julian and people from the class, and prompts to scrap your whole life stories. Perfect for people who may struggle with scrapping sometimes, since so many sample pages out there include kids.

And here's my offer for you:

I will be giving away this ebook to one reader! Just leave a comment telling me which of the twelve prompts you scrap the most and least. (The prompts are at the top of this page.) You have until Friday, March 1 at 10 P.M. CST, and then I will draw a winner!