Two Page Sketch

I don't know about you, but I am a sketch collector. I love to cut sketches out of magazines and print them off the internet. I tend to save them up and pull them out when I'm in a creative rut. They help to get me moving and creating fast!

This month when I was working on my design team projects, I sketched out this two-page layout. I tend to sketch most of my layouts first so that I can get an idea of what it will look like... and so that I can make sure to fit everything in! This time I wanted to create a layout that didn't have any cropping and used standard sized photos. This one uses three 4x6 and one 5x7. Some of my favorite sketches are the ones made for regular 4x6 prints. It's a lot easier to see if your pics will work with the sketch if you don't have to figure out how to crop them down! ;-)


And here is the layout. The red patterned paper is a 12x12 sheet that is torn off on one side. I love the birdie tape that spans both pages. I couldn't get the liner to peel off, but some regular adhesive worked just find to hold it on!


I made layered, flower accents using my Colluzzle and leftover scraps of paper. Some of the layers were actually from the paper that was behind the dimensional Anna Griffin stickers.


Enjoy the sketch... I hope you add it to your collection!

erin

More Fun with Letters!

The wooden letters we used from Kaiser are very versatile. Sometimes it's hard to look at an unfinished product and imagine what you can do with it. So, here's a few examples for you:

1. Ink them.
2. Ink them then paint over them. You can get a cool woodgrain effect.
   
3. Use alcohol ink. Instead of using the blending tool I just dropped ink straight from the bottle.
4. Emboss them.
5. Paint them -- here I used gold paint.
6. Spray them with Glimmer Mist. I used four coats on this letter.

Other ideas? How about covering them with paper, glitter or flocking? Stamp them. Wrap them in ribbon. Really, anything you can do with chipboard you can do with these.

Distressed Letters

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.Wooden letters in this month's kit! How cool! To match the layout I planned to use them on, they needed to have all the charm of an old barn. So the acrylic paints came out of the cabinet and I dry brushed some red paint onto the letters, being careful not to cover the wood completely. Once dried, I found it was not quite the right shade of red, and the original wood peaking from underneath the paint just looked too - new. Easy fix. I brushed on some Brown Antiquing Gel (from Delta Ceramcoat) and let it sit for a minute, then wiped it off with a paper towel. I got the "Instant Aged Antiqued Look" the bottle promised!

Show off your Photography in an 8x8 Album

Most scrapbookers are avid photographers and lots of our photos have nothing to do with a special event. There are countless pictures of flowers and birds and trees, etc in all of our photo collections. I, too, love to photograph nature, so the Anna Griffin Sierra line was a perfect choice for this 8x8 album. But I wanted to highlight my photography more than Anna Griffin, so I printed an 8x8 photo for my cover and use the Zutter clear acrylic covers to protect it and to house my title. On the back side of the cover photo I used another 8x8 photo graph as my "inside cover" for my "forward" of the book - the typed journaling of the story behind the photo album.

The inside pages of my book are a variety of photos displayed on 8x8 cut sheets of the Anna Griffin Sierra printed cardstock. You can click on my blog to the right to see the contents, the use of journaling cards and embellishments to compliment the photos. I even made an accordian mini book within the album.

The back cover is just as beautiful as the front - a beautiful sunset over Smith Island Creek - all covered by Zutter Acrylic (you can buy everything I used in this album at Scrapbooks Plus)

Glitter and flocking

I have to admit I love to use glitter and now after seeing Sharon's LO from last month I am hooked on flocking! The only thing I can't stand? When the glitter/flocking gets all over everything it's not supposed to on the page! It drives me crazy. So I have a quick (and easy) tip on how to keep the glitter/flock in place- it's hairspray. I do have to admit I didn't come up with the idea- I learned it in a class that I took about a year ago and I have used it ever since! The hairspray isn't acid/ligin free you will only want to use it on items that don't come in direct contact with your pictures.


In the photo above I simply took a piece of scrap chipboard that I had and die cut out a scroll. I then covered it with Black Soot Distress Ink by Tim Holtz (I used this ink simply because it is slow drying and I was using Beetle Black flocking by Doodlebug) and sprinkled a generous amount of the flocking over the chipboard before the ink dried. After a few minutes of drying time for the ink I picked up the chipboard by the edges and tapped off the excess (do this gently so you don't know off all the flock!) and transfered the chipboard piece-now covered in flocking- to a scrap piece of paper and sprayed with the hairspray. Now you will want to hold the hairspray about 8 inches away- you don't want to glob a bunch (of hairspray) in one spot- and gently coat the piece. I usually do 2-3 coats (with drying time in between- about 1 min) and check for hold by tapping the piece on the paper to see if any falls off. Once I am happy with the hold I'm finished and my piece is ready for my LO.

Another Simple 2-Pager

Just like Sharon, I also like the KISS principle for two-page layouts. I'll often keep all the pictures the same size and the same direction (landscape or portrait). This month's layout is no exception. I used five photos, all 4x6 lined up in a row. I used the textured brown Worldwin paper to mat my photo block. The muted colors in the background papers help the photos stand out (and really, the Anna Griffin paper was just too lovely to cut!).

As for the design, I used Photoshop Elements to help me determine my photo placement. It's easy to create a blank page that's 12x24 and drag your photos around until you're happy. After I was happy with the design I was able to print out the pictures in two groups - already lined up.

You'll notice that I ordered the pictures to help lead the eye through the layout. When you look at something your eye tends to look right to left, and there are things you can do with your layouts to encourage this. In my layout I have lots of horizontal lines that help me do this. For example, the title at the bottom of the first photo grabs your attention as a starting point. And, the wall in the first picture acts like an arrow that leads you to the next photo, as does the walkway in the 2nd photo and the brick wall in the 3rd. Lastly, the brown matting around my photo block creates two strong horizontal lines as well.

Simple Two-page Layouts

So many of you comment to me "How do you come up with a two-page layout design?" Well for classes it's a little more involved, but for my own books - like the spread here - I follow the KISS principle. "Keep It Simple, Sister"

If you have kids, you have a multitude of photos of the same event and, if you're like me, have trouble choosing which ones to use (because you want to use them all!). In this layout, I selected five photos of my boys playing in the marsh. In order to "Keep It Simple", I employ the following never-fail design principles:

Technique #1. Enlarge one photo in your layout and make it the focal point. Here I made the photo on the far right 6x8. The rest are 3 1/2 x 5.

Technique #2. Use your other photos as supporting photos to draw the eye effortlessly across your layout. Your eye naturally reads from left to right, so your two page layout should take advantage of that. Here I placed the focal photo on the right page and allowed the supporting photos to bring my eye there. I kept the supporting photos in the same relative size. The sizes can vary slightly if you want (keeps things from getting too boring), but something needs to bring them together - color (making the supporting photos all black and white and the focal one color), size, common patterned paper mats, position on the layout- something to harmonize them.

Technique #3. Anchor your focal photo. I typically use an embellishment, title, journaling box, circle of brads or something to anchor the focal photo. It isn't always the far right corner, but it is a lot!

Technique #4. Sex it up! Simple doesn't mean it can't be sexy. Use hand cut pieces from patterned paper, brads, punched embellishments (here I punched dragon flies and inked them), torn layered mats (I have been known to tear and layer the background paper even if it was the same paper!). On this layout, I used long single torn mats and embellished them with the wooden brads with hand cut leaves as "petals". You can also use scraps as an offset mat (as I did with the green paper behind the focal photo on the right). Add photo corners - you can make them yourself easily - cut the length twice the width , e. g. 2" x 1", and fold in the center on a 90 degree angle to make perfect photo corners every time! But remember to keep the design in balance. Too much of anything can throw the design off and make your page look cluttered. Again, keep it simple...

Keep it simple by using these 4 easy techniques and you'll have beautiful two-page layouts every time!