Sketch Week, Part 1

It's Sketch Week! And this month it's more like Sketch Week the extreme version. May is one of my favorite months. One, because it's the month that two of my favorite people in the world were born in and two, because it's home to National Scrapbooking Day. I know National Scrapbooking day has passed already but I thought this month I would amp it up a little in celebration of our favorite hobby.

So what does this mean? More layouts, more giveaways, a sneak peek at our newest Sketches for Scrapbooking, (Volume 6), and even a few surprises. I don't know about you but I'm ready to get started!

This is the sketch, from Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 6 (available July 1) that I will be using as the starting point for each layout this week.


I love this sketch for many reasons. Lots of photos, ample room for journaling, and fun details with paper. Another reason is that this sketch reminds me to step out of my normal routine. Most of the time I fall into a pattern with my pages - title in the top left area, journaling in the bottom right. I love that this sketch puts the journaling right smack in the middle.

Layout #1 - "Reckless Driver"

Supply List - Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned paper: Doodlebug Designs, We R Memory Keepers, and Sassafras Lass; Punch outs: Doodlebug Designs; Brads: Doodlebug Designs; Alphabets: Prima and Doodlebug Designs.

When I look at the sketch I see the large circle on the right page as a die cut patterned paper. However, I didn't have one that went with the paper I used so instead I cut a large circle out of patterned paper and added a stitched border around it.

• Variation #1 - The stars as suggested on the sketch would have worked just fine with this page but I happened to have these cute little cars, arrows, and road signs. They are in the same suggested location as the stars on the sketch.


I added a little detail to the car punch outs by attaching brads to the center of the wheels. Adding little touches like that can help jazz up a simple embellishment.

• Variation #2 - I added a large die cut journaling piece behind the strips and then used pop dots on some of the strips. I wish I had a great reason to give you as to why I added the journaling piece but I don't. I just thought it looked cute and it came with the same set of punch outs as the cars.


On the sketch there are three strips below the journaling strips that have words on them. There are a lot of things you can do with that part of the sketch. On this layout I took the last sentence of my journaling, enlarged it, and then cut the strips a little larger than the other journaling strips. That way, since it was a sentence that pretty much summed up the theme of the layout, it stood out among the others.

Layout #2 - "Puppy Love"

Supply List - Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned paper: My Mind's Eye, October Afternood and (I can't remember who the puppy paper was from.); Stickers: Doodlebug Designs; Bone Alphabet: (Don't remember, I bought them sooooooo long ago!); Alphabet: Doodlebug Designs.

• Variation #1 - A super easy way to get multiple uses out of sketch is to flip it. For my Puppy Love layout I created a mirror image of the original sketch. Just like if you stamped the right side onto the left and the left side onto the right.

• Variation #2 - Two of my pictures that I intended to use for the 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" pictures on the sketch just couldn't be cropped down. If I would have cut them down to 4 1/2" I would have lost important parts of the picture. My simple solution was to leave the 6" height and still cut the 2 1/2" width. There is plenty of room on the layout to have the larger height without covering up too much of the design.


• Variation #3 - I still used journaling strips as suggested on the sketch but I changed the way they were arranged. On the sketch several of the strips overlap onto the photo beside them. I didn't want to do that since Drew and his puppy were taking up the whole photo and I didn't want to cover them up. So, instead I arrange the strips to form a block with even spacing on the left and right.

• Variation #4 - For something a little different and maybe not that noticeable, I extended all of the strips across the whole page. This would work great is you were using a strip of patterned paper with words across it and you didn't want to cut the words off or you had a 12" embellishment (like a chipboard border) that you didn't want to trim down.

• Variation #5 - Speaking of the strips, I used a scallop border for the bottom strip instead of the straight cut patterned paper. This is one of the easiest way to change the look of a sketch and just think of all the different borders (especially with so many cute border punches in stores right now) you could do!

• Variation #6 - Instead of stars this time I used hearts cut from patterned paper and then added some dog bone words and stickers. Just like on "Reckless Driver", I add a little finishing touch to the dog stickers, this time, by adding some Stickles on the nose.


• Variation #7 - I moved the title over to the left edge of the right page instead of having it on the right edge of the photos as suggested on the sketch (the mirror image/flipped version). The sketch gives you a lot of room for the title whether you want to use larger alphabets or have a long title. I had a fairly short title but after "testing" it out on the layout I just thought it looked better towards the center. That whole area above the photos is usable!

Part of the extreme version of Sketch Week this month will be that instead of giving away one copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking for the whole week, I'll be giving away one a day! Leave a comment to enter the giveaway and each day I'll post the winner of the day before. :)