Once a month learn how to use scrapbook sketches and adapt them to fit different styles, photo sizes, and themes. Sketches = endless scrapbooking ideas with little effort. Sketches do all the heavy lifting allowing you to have all the fun!
Here is the two-page sketch I used as the starting point of each layout I'm sharing this week.
You can also grab the Sketch Support #13 Bonus Sketch Examples!
This month it is a 3-page PDF of 22 different sketch options. That makes 23 sketches for this month of Sketch Support. There are options that show how to change up the papers, use more photos, use less photos, use only 4 x 6" photos, there are three one-page options, and then an 8-1/2 x 11" option. The fun part is that you could use each option as a layout on its own, but you could also mix and match different options for endless possibilities!
Supplies used - Cardstock: Bazzill and American Crafts; Patterned paper: Simple Stories; Chipboard "love": Simple Stories; Letter stickers: Kaisercraft; Word/phrase stickers: Simple Stories; Heart cut file: Silhouette and Echo Park; Ink: Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink; Embroidery floss: DMC; Computer font: Avenir Next Condensed
Variation #1 - Using a two-page sketch to create a one-page layout.
The left page of the sketch makes for a great one-page layout just as it is. There's the fun sunburst design, a few photos, the title, and the journaling all there, ready to go as is.
The only change I made to the sketch was creating a 9 x 9" sunburst instead of the 10 x 9" sunburst on the sketch. Since it is a 12 x 12" square layout I wanted my design to be centered and square to match the square layout.
Variation #2 - Using a repeated shape in place of the sunburst pieces.
This is one of those layouts that was a big experiment. I had this image in my head and I no idea if I could make it a reality. I love layouts like this where you essentially just playing and seeing what happens.
To match the heart theme of my photos I decided to create the sunburst design out of small shapes instead of the sunburst strips. I have five different sizes of hearts in twelve different patterns. Now, I'm sure that a lot of people could have just adhered the hearts without guides and it would look effortlessly awesome. I, being the perfectionist that I am, couldn't do it. I really wanted the hearts to follow the exact design of the sunburst so I started by making guides on my paper to help me arrange the hearts.
Then I arranged my hearts inside each sunburst piece.
When I was happy with the arrangement I would erase the pencil lines of that one section and adhere my hearts.
I used ink to edge each heart. Without some sort of definition on the edges of the hearts, they all just kind of blur together.
Some of the hearts have stitching on them and some are adhered with foam adhesive to give that extra texture and dimension. Anytime I am creating a large cluster of shapes I definitely want to add in different textures and different levels of dimension to help the individual pieces stand out. As a finishing touch I added some word/phrase stickers in coordinating colors to each section.
I don't know if the end result of this layout and the hearts resemble a sunburst as much as I wanted, but it definitely ended up being a cool design that I'm happy with. I might have to play around with the concept of using shapes to create a sunburst again.
Variation #3 - Using smaller photos to better fit what you have.
I had two 3 x 3" photos for this layout and that is a really easy substitution for the two 3 x 4" photos on the sketch. There's only a 1" difference on the height so I didn't have to make any adjustments for it to work. I actually like that the photos are slightly smaller because it gives more room for the hearts to show.
That's all for Sketch Support this week. Be sure to check back on Monday to see the video version of Sketch Support.
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