The Best of Times | Lisa-Jane Johnson | Large Photo

Hello lovelies!  It’s Lisa-Jane from Pretty My Page here with you on the blog today to share my layout with a LARGE photo.  I really like using large photos on layouts because it cuts down the decision making process somewhat - there are only so many places you can put a large photo!  However, as I tend to get my photos printed in batches at a standard size, I don't get many larger than 6x4.  The only ones I tend to have other than school photos, are the ones you get as souvenirs when you go somewhere like a theme park or on certain holiday events etc.  I knew we had some large photos from our Mexico holiday where we swam with dolphins and I thought they'd be perfect for this challenge.  

Sorry, what's that?  You can't see any dolphins in this picture?  No, neither can I.  I couldn't find my precious pictures anywhere so I've added that job to my "To Do" list as I definitely want to scrap them.  But I did come across this photo of my dear Dad and my late-almost-step-mum and I thought it would be a great chance to scrap about a very relevant event.  It is my favourite photo of the two of them on a cruise somewhere at some point (I can't recall the details) and it is also one of my Dad's favourite photos of the two of them.  I happened to have it in my possession when she died very suddenly just before my Dad's birthday so I decided to get a large canvas done of it for his lounge. 

When I went to collect it, I realised that actually they did these canvasses much larger than I had estimated and it was so big that it wouldn't fit in my big car!  I tore back the paper a little bit to check the quality of the print and there she was, a life sized image of my dead almost-step-mum, peering back at me through the brown paper!  It was incredible spooky!  There was no way that this huge portrait was going to be suitable for your standard 3 bedroom home, especially when she hadn't even been buried and the shock and confusion of her untimely demise was till incredibly raw.  Not appropriate at all.  A few months later I reordered a more appropriately sized version which has pride of place in my Dad's home but it still makes me smile every time I see it when I think of the shock I got that day.

I haven't done the journalling on the layout yet but I wanted the design to reflect the picture rather than the story that I was telling about it.  I wasn't on the cruise so that part of the story isn't relevant to me but I wanted to use more grown up products to suit the style of the photo and felt that this Basic Grey Tea Garden fitted the bill quite well.  I fussy cut some of the flowers from the flip side of the pink spotty paper and I used off cuts and yellow enamel dots from my shop to add a pop of colour and bring out the yellow in the flowers on the photo.

I even managed to gut the title from the back of one of the other papers and it fitted perfectly because they really did have a lovely time together and I had wanted to reflect that in the canvas for his present.  

Have you got any oversized souvenir pictures or a favourite print that needs some special treatment?  We'd love to see!  As always, please don't forget to use the hashtag #UKScrapaddicts when sharing your work on Instagram and don't forget to show us on the Facebook page too.  

Now, go forth and make pretty pages!

xx