Friday, March 22, 2013

Sketch Week, Day 3

Day three is here! If you haven't had a chance yet be sure to visit the Scrapbook Generation online store to grab the free sketch for March. It the same sketch that I've been using as a starting point for my layouts this week.

Scrapbook Generation's Free March Sketch
* you can download by clicking here
"One of a Kind Jackson"


Supplies - Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned paper: Echo Park; Alphabets: Echo Park (one), October Afternoon (of a kind), and American Crafts (jackson); Star punch: EK Success; Brads: Doodlebug and unknown; Ink: Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink; Embroidery floss: DMC
The biggest change on this layout was with the design/papers.

Variation #1 - I am in love with the look of banner/notched/(insert whatever you call them) strips. In love. You can take a plain strip and with just a simple snip you get a whole different look.

I followed the sketch as far as the width of the strips, the 4", but I cut an inch off the length to accommodate the notched ends. Another idea would have been to the leave the top edge of the strips straight and just cutting the bottom end.

Variation #2 - I wanted to add in some more colors and patterns so I add a few smaller strips in different sizes. They are kind of filling in for the striped strips on the sketch. One reason I like to use a stripe on my layouts is that stripes are great for tying all the colors on the layout together.
Variation #3 - I used a 6 x 4" photo in place of the two 3 x 3" photos on the left page. There is only a 1" difference so I didn't have to make any major adjustments for the photo to fit. Using a larger photo in place of a few smaller ones is always a great way to adjust a sketch to fit what you want to use. Most of the time it only requires a few small adjustments. In my case, I just moved the top photo up a little so that the two photos together had pretty much the same spacing from the bottom of the bottom photo to the bottom of the layout and from the top of the top photo to the top of the layout. (Hopefully I didn't confuse you with that one!)

Variation #4 - I didn't add the banner across the page. Part of this had to do with the larger photo I mentioned in variation #3. There just wasn't a lot of room left for the banner. If I would have had a picture that had some open, empty space at the top I could have gotten away with still using the banner and overlapping it onto the picture. Since Jackson's head is all the way to the top of the photo I couldn't do that without covering him up. I wasn't too worried about it though since the background banner strips added so much more interest to the layout. 
Variation #5 - I used a larger title than the sketch suggests. This is one of those areas that I don't worry about following the sketch exactly. A title is always an easy way to add a unique look to each layout and very rarely does the title I want to use or make fit the actual title on the sketch. 


Variation #5 - I used much smaller embellishments than suggested on the sketch. Again, this is an area that I usually don't follow often. I use the sketch in areas of title and embellishment as more of a suggestion of where those elements should go, not exactly what they should look like. 


I used small stars accented with brads for my embellishments. The title was long and had so many colors and textures that I didn't feel like I needed a large embellishment. I thought simple was the way to go.

Check this out!

On Sketch Week, Day 1 there was a comment linking to a wonderful (and very clever) use of the sketch this week that I really wanted you all to see. 

Ruth at scrapmachine.com tried out a little experiment and used the sketch from this week for her Project Life layout. And I don't mean like a normal 12 x 24" layout. She used the sketch and made it all fit into the divided Project Life page protectors. You can check it by clicking here and reading about where she got the idea and how her experiment went. 
It think it might be kind of fun to start sharing some of the layouts you all do based one the Sketch Week sketches. If you create a layout based on the sketch from that week leave a link in the comments and then on Monday I'll post all the links so everyone can go check them out. 

27 comments:

Kelly said...

love the mixed fonts in the title!

dawn said...

WOW, really love what you did on this sketch. Those strips make me happy too, Allison. It's cool how one little snip on them makes it look different. LOVE THIS!!

How cute to see Jackson again, he is one of a kind!!

Thanks for sharing the link for the PL idea since I'm a huge PL girl.
That would be so awesome if you could share the links on Monday's. Love to see what others do.

Have a great weekend and thanks for this fun week of sketches!

Julie in Sweden said...

Another great LO. Love the strips - amazing what a difference it makes to the look.

Jackson is so cute.......Drew too. I really enjoy seeing them in your work.

Jennifer said...

Love this variation! So inspired by this sketch!!!

smcl said...

Really like to see how you are able to change the sketch! Like Ruth's pl adaptation as well, very cool!

Melissa Bell said...

Allison-
Every single time I see one of your scrapbook pages I so want to scrap even though I haven't since the last Sketch Support Blog Hop. You inspire me so much. Love that sketch week is back. I hope that means you are doing a little better.
Any way to get an autographed photo from one of my scrapbooking idols. :)
You rock it!

-Melissa Bell

Rodriguez Family said...

What a great idea - seeing others layouts - and a great layout by you!

Miss Misi said...

Adorable!

Cathy A. said...

Love the stitching on Jackson's name. Great layout.

Ann McKuin said...

I've already downloaded this sketch (and a few others!) to use at a crop Sat! Love the way yours turned out - as always!

LouAnn said...

I love the way you changed up the background with the notched strips. What a great idea. Also, the stitching on his name. So clever.

Chanel's Owner aka Michelle said...

Love how you look at a sketch and can just give it a twist to something new! Thanks for the inspiration.

Jayne said...

Very Cute layout :)

Anonymous said...

Love the way this layout turnout. I like the use of banner stripes. Thanks for another great sketch.

Jen D.

TinaGAle said...

Super cute! Hunting photos now to see what I can come up with.

janet said...

Another great layout-so loving the stitching on Jackson's name...so cute! And it really makes it pop off the page. Another HOME RUN Allison and thanks for another great Sketch Week. Can't get enough of it! A bug thanks!

allimci said...

Loving the 3rd LO of the week. Allisons are really creative people...myself included!

M Salazar said...

I love the banner look too! Can't wait to switch it up with the notched look like you used in this layout. Love the variation!

Kim M said...

Love that title, especially the stitching on the alpha, sooo creative!

Nancy M in NJ said...

pretty cool layout, and the PL idea also!

tape said...

Love the banner strips! Have a great weekend.

Julie B said...

Love, love, love! Thanks for sharing!

Deb said...

Fabulous ideas - thanks!

Penny G said...

Love this take, too! Thanks for all the ideas - can't wait to play with this sketch! ~ pennyscraps

TinaGAle said...

Love this sketch! I know I'll be using it again. Here's my take on it
http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com/2013/03/im-still-fervently-working-on-finishing.html

Unknown said...

Wow! I LOVE this layout! The strips are perfect! Very cute little guy!

wteagon said...

I love the hand stitching over the letters!! Looks great!