Walking Through the Sketch Process

I love sketches, pagemaps, whatever you call them! In fact, I collect sketches all the time and there are several websites that I visit on a regular basis to find more. The best part about sketches is that they give you a jumping off point without giving you everything. So you can use the same sketch as someone else, but both layouts will probably not look the same. This month, Loretta gave us a great sketch (and check out all the different ways it turned out on the left wall of the Scrapbooks Plus crop room!).... so here is my step-by-step process from sketch to layout.

First, the sketch. It shows one large photo and three smaller photos with a large piece of patterned paper or cardstock.




So, first things first, I looked through my photos for four that went together and one that could be a focal photo. I found some pictures of my sister on a not-so-famous walk (we thought we'd take a quick walk and got turned around in the neighborhood streets around my grandmother's house and didn't make it home for 2 1/2 hours!). I had already printed one 4 x 6 and 6 supporting shots when I was trying out my new printer. The smaller shots that I was trying to print as wallets came out a little smaller than expected... 1 1/2 x 2, but fit perfectly going three across... so I picked out the best three.

The second step is usually to pick out the patterned paper... but in this case we already have that. I found some teal cardstock to use as an accent and went with a dark brown base. Once the paper is picked out, then it's just making everything fit! I turned the layout 90 degree clockwise and shifted the layout a little bit. The focal photo went on the left with the three smaller photos on the top right. The remaining lower small "photo" space became the place for the title instead.



I had seen another layout in my blog travels that reminded my of this sketch. It also had all of the photos and embellishments at the top of the layout and had a large piece of patterned paper with an angled tear at the bottom, so I went ahead and appropriated the idea for this layout. I added a box for my journaling to the lower half. I kept it the same width as my focal photo to keep the balance. The white paper ties in with the middle strip and "Walk" in the title. I had considered doing journaling strips... but thought that it would be too busy and compete with the narrow strips of cardstock running through the center of the layout, plus it would overpower my smaller supporting photos. My embellishments were simple... just a couple of staples on each side.

A note on my Thickers.... the Thickers I picked up were lovely (they are Delight fabric Thickers in leaf and have tons of letters in the package!), but just a little bit too bright olive green. I sprayed them liberally with Garden Fairy Glimmer Mist.... which IS green, but more of a minty green color. The change is subtle, but noticable in real life. In the photo, the treated Thicker is on the left and the original is on the right. It really helped the color match the tone in the William plaid paper and not stick out like a sore thumb.

thanks for stopping by!
erin