Sketch Based Projects

I worked on a series of items based on Allison Davis' sketches. If you want a source of inspiration to help you get started on a project, check out her site here. There are single page, double page layouts, card and add-on item sketches plus plenty of examples from her design team members to really get the creativity flowing. Here are my final products:

Layout

Mini-album

Card

 Add-on Sketch:

Add-on cupcake sketch

The first sketch I used was a little cupcake that you can make into an embellishment. The most common usage I saw was to put it on a birthday layout.

I was having frozen yogurt and the store had these cardboard dividers that you place in the cup so you can have two separate flavor combinations that won't mix together. When I saw the dividers, I immediately thought of making a cupcake mini-album. The dividers also had ads on them, so I took a few to use as my pages.

Frozen yogurt dividers

I covered the dividers with patterned papers. For the cupcake wrappers, I crimped the paper first to get the same texture a real wrapper. I then punched out different sized circles and layered them on top for the cake part. I also popped some of the circles with foam adhesive for some dimension. I added some liquid pearls for the icing and a pom pom for the cherry. 

Crimping paper

Cupcake mini-album cover

There were several pages inside with photos from Isaiah's 4th birthday party, but I'll just show you my favorite page. This has Kevin replicating Isaiah's smile. 

Sample page of the album

Card Sketch:

Card sketch

The second sketch I used was this card sketch. The most common usage was to make candles for a birthday card. I saw the shapes as people of various heights. So Kevin and I took a whole series of photos standing at various heights to replicate the design. It was really difficult to take clear photos using the multi-shot self timer mode while moving around. I cut a bunch of the photos out and lined them up on the card. I thought this would be a good card to showcase your kids or your large family. 

                                   

                               Some of our silly photos

We love you this much card

Here is a close up view:

Single Page Layout:

Last but not least, I made a single paged layout with this sketch. Previously in January, I  used this sketch when I was the guest designer and made a layout that followed closely to the sketch. I basically just did a mirror image of the sketch. You can see the full post here.  

Former layout of Nijo Castle

Single Page Sketch

I didn't want to copy myself or make a similar layout so I tried to look at the sketch from another perspective. I rotated it 90 degrees and interpreted the stripes as piano keys. I took a series of photos of Isaiah trying out the instruments at church. Of course, he liked the drums the best.  

New single page layout

I made the keys from white and black cardstock, rounded the corners and popped up the black keys. Here are some close ups:

You are a (ringo) star layout

                              

Take care,

A Proposal via a Mini-album

    Most people think I'm the scrappy one in my family. Actually, I think I just make things the most often, so I get associated with scrapbooking and little creative projects. I remember growing up, my Dad would say, "You're creative, you do this." At work, the same thing would happen and I'd be the one designated to make a gift. I didn't really mind since I did it for the recipient and it is not a bad reputation to have. But there are others out there who are also very scrappy but you wouldn't think of them as such, like Kevin making that Valentine's card or my bro-in-law proposing with a mini-album before I even knew what a mini-album was.

A Very Disney Day:
     Here the layout of this story:

A Royal Engagement Layout

   Vic, Jacob, Kevin and I went to Disneyland together under the pretense of Kevin's birthday. It started as a typical day at Disneyland, doing silly touristy things.

Riding the tram into Disneyland

Pretending to be Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse

A Very Memorable Night:

The day ended with dessert at The Blue Bayou restaurant which can be seen from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. 

Blue Bayou Restaurant

Over the creme brulee, Jacob pulls out a photo album from his backpack that he had been carrying around all day. He gives it to Vic saying he didn't want her to feel bad that Kevin received presents and she didn't. Meanwhile Kevin is filming this and I'm taking a bunch of photos in this dark setting. 

Vic receiving the album

She is perusing the album which has photos of them and hand written journaling. Impressive right? Towards the end of the thick chipboard album, he glued some of the pages together, then cut out squares from the middle of the pages. This made a  recessed alcove with two doors that opened and can house something inside. 

Vic opening the doors with a surprise inside

This is my favorite photo of Vic, because it shows her reaction at the moment of realization. Isn't it priceless?

Vic's initial reaction

Vic's secondary reaction

There was a diamond ring inside. Isn't that a great proposal via a scrappy mini album? I think it one that scrappers can truly appreciate. Thanks Jacob for letting us be a part of this special memory and this is a belated welcome to the family. I hope I got all the details correct, it has been a few years. Now who is the crafty one in the family? 

Sidenote to the Proposal:

     Remember how I said the restaurant can be seen from the Pirates ride? During this dessert, I heard a voice call out from the darkness, "Hi Michelle!" I couldn't see anyone floating by, but I did recognize the voice from a coworker. When I saw her at work, I told her she interrupted at the exact moment of the proposal over the creme brulee, but I was just kidding. Later, when her boyfriend took her to a restaurant and ordered creme brulee, she said she had a feeling he would be proposing because of the creme brulee in this proposal. And he did. 

More about the Layout:

     Here are some close up photos of the layout. I placed the main 4 x 6 photo overlapping both pages so it did get cut, but the two parts of it could stand alone. One side had the statues and the other side had the people. The bottom smaller photos show the progression of the event.

I really like the ribbon banners I put on the turrets that looked like they were blowing in the breeze. I cut up a skewer from my kitchen for the poles.

I wanted to highlight the time and place, so I printed it and placed it in the O of the title with a popped up crown.

Here are the journaling strips documenting the event.

The patterned papers had cute little animals, so I fussy cut them out and placed them throughout the  layout. There were some trees from the paper that I liked, but they were only about 1 inch high so I paper pieced some larger ones and hand stitched around the edge.

I made this for an Imaginisce color challenge, which was to use yellow, pink and blue, as inspired by this photo. The colors made me think of Sleeping Beauty Castle, which made me remember this event that I had never scrapped. The papers are from Imaginisce's Enchanted collection. There was a castle on the paper, but it was too small and the turrets were green. I enlarged it on my printer and lightened the color, and it became my background die cut piece. 

I based the layout design from an Allison Davis sketch from sketchsupport.com

Thanks for making it to the end of this long post. This one is dedicated to you Jacob.

Sketch Support Card Challenge

A Note to my Readers:
  
     Thanks for hopping by and checking out my blog and for signing up to be a follower. When I started it was just my hubby, brother-in -law and his realtor, three non-scrapping guys. I thought I'd have to change the direction of my blog to suit their interests. Although... I do have a post in mind for my non-scrappy male readers, so stay tuned. I wanted to say thank you to my friends, family and fellow scrappers for supporting this endeavor, which is really out of my comfort zone to share so much. Anyways, I hope you are here of your own accord and weren't coerced by my family. Haha. Glad you found your way here.

Sketch Support Card Challenge

     Sketch Support will be hosting weekly challenges so check out Allison Davis' site  if you are interested. This week's challenge was to create a card using her card sketch along with Jillibean Soup papers. If you missed this week's challenge, next week's challenge is to create a layout using her double page layout sketch plus Jillibean Soup products.

sample of Jillibean Soup products

Allison Davis' card sketch

My take on the card sketch

close up of the hand rolled roses

     I don't make cards that much, so it was kind of fun to challenge myself. Here is my thought process in regards to creating this card: When I think of Jillibean Soup products, I think of kraft cardstock and twine, don't know if they would be happy with that association, but that was my foundation. I matched that with some of their Pasta Fagioli papers and ribbon, because that is all I had without having to go out and buy more stuff. I also wanted some added dimension to my card so I decided to include some 3-D flowers. After viewing over 20 tutorials, I picked these hand rolled roses which seemed relatively easy to make but are also very cute. If you are interested, you can watch a video tutorial by Brittny LeJeune from her blog here.  It is very easy so don't be intimidated if you want to try one, just be careful with the hot glue gun. I did burn my finger a bit. But no pain no gain right? I popped up some leaves and hot glued the roses on a pocket with a pull out tag. I then stitched around the pocket on three sides to secure it, but also to repeat the color of the tag and add another design element to the card. I never would have stitched on any project before, but Allison Davis encouraged us to try it in her My Creative Classroom class and I have to agree it does add a special touch to all projects. 

inside of card

I will be sending this out to one of my followers next week. Who could it be?

Sketch Advocacy 

     I am a big advocate of sketches, especially if you feel stuck and have trouble starting a page. You can download some sketches from Sketch Support or you can purchase Allison's books from her family's scrapbooking store, Scrapbook Generations here. 

Allison's sketchbook

It is kind of like if you don't know what to cook for dinner, you look in a cook book for a recipe. Think of sketches as a recipe for your layout. It isn't really copying someone because you choose the colors, papers, embellishments and interpretation of the sketch. Here are some cards from Sketch Support's design team who also used the same sketch and same materials as mentioned above, but we all made very different cards. 

Christina Hoffman's version

Katrina Hunt's card

Allison Davis turned it into a layout

If you have some old photos lying around that you've been meaning to scrap, just grab some papers and a sketch and give it a go. It is how I start the majority of my pages. TTFN!