Full Circle Friday

This week I pose the question “Why can’t your photo act as the background of the layout?” Our sketch this week is one photo that covers an entire 8.5x11 page. With so many companies now printing enlargements and so many personal photo printers out there it is easy to blow up that favorite photo and use it as the background of a page. This technique is not limited to 8.5x11. Try this on a 12x12, 8x8, or 6x6 layout. The trick here is not to cover up the focus of your photograph. Place the title, journaling, and accents in the photo’s white space, or in other terms, the background part of your photo.

I turned my photo black & white (well most of it anyway… more on that later) so I chose paper and embellishments that went with the mood I was going for. Journaling on your photo is easy with the American Crafts Slick Writer. That pen will write on any slick surface… plastic, glass, etc. Completely underrated embellishments, in my opinion, are the 7 Gypsies Grafter Tapes. They are just like sticker borders but made of fabric and are self adhesive. They add great texture to your pages. Instead of cutting off a piece of the grafter tape, I also rip it off to get the nice raw edge. I recommend giving the grafter tapes another look!

Supplies (mostly from my stash):
Pink Paisley patterned paper
7 Gypsies grafter tape and twill sticker
Scenic Route chipboard letters
Heidi Swapp ghost snowflakes
American Crafts Slick Writer pen
ThermOWeb Zots
Scrap paper

In case you were wondering how I got my daughter in color and the rest of the photo is in black and white, the technique is not as hard as you think. Sesil and I would be happy to show you how to accomplish that in our Get Digi class at Windy City Scrapbooking. No, I am not going to tell now… I am not going to spoil all the class surprises!