Sketches

I recently became obsessed with sketches.  I always need a little kick in the ass when it comes to starting a page and they are such a huge help.  I started a board on Pinterest and use it all the time.  I am a very literal translator of sketches.  I love that they give you a layout but you can choose what to fill it in with. They always help give me that jump start I need when I've been staring at a pile of photos and some papers for half an hour trying to figure out what to do.
Some of my go-to sources for sketches are:
-The Page Maps books, you can find them on Amazon
-The Page Maps archive, TONS of sketches
-Got Sketch by Valerie Salmon
-Miracles Momma Designs by Heather Landry
-My Little Sketch Blook by Liz Qualman
-52 Sketches in 52 Weeks-nothing new this year but a good archive
-Sketch Savvy by Susan Stringfellow
-The Basic Grey Blog

Here are a couple of my recent uses of sketches.

From the Basic Grey blog:

Nothing But Trouble-Crate Paper Toybox

Page Maps:

All Bundled Up-Little Yellow Bicycle Winter Twig

Page Maps:

Gingerbread House-Crate Paper Peppermint

Crate Paper-Season

I am on a buying kick right now.  But let's be honest, when am I not on a buying kick?  However my buying recently has been based on discovering older lines I like that may not be available in my favorite stores anymore so I've been finding what I want on Ebay.  Most recently I got my hands on the Crate Paper Season line.  It's cute but not too cutesy, I like the fun and funk to it. It was perfect for this layout, my niece and nephew with their new little sister at home.

An attempt at Sketching

I was reading Kelly Goree's blog post on scrapbook.com yesterday outlining the main things she uses for inspiration. She is hands down my favorite scrapper so I took in every little detail.  Last night when I got home from work I decided to try sketching.  I have never approached scrapbooking that way.  I'm the kind of person who picks a photo or two for a layout and I will sit, sometimes for way too long, shuffling photos and paper around trying to make it all come together.  I even have a big "inspiration book" of layouts I admire from many other artists that I refer to often for help.  But sketching worked out for me pretty well.  I was able to get my idea down and execute it pretty quickly.  I definitely changed a couple little things and added elements as I went but the sketching really helped the main layout idea.  Here's my end piece, one of my favorites yet.

The photo of my husband and I kissing on our wedding day is one of my favorites.  My best friend said it "makes her heart happy."

Using Crate Paper's Random collection definitely helped.  I love contrast but often find that my layouts are a little too "matchy matchy."  I tend to stick to collections and have a hard time mixing things up.  But this collection mixed it up for me. Some of the details:

Pearls and Ruffles seem so wedding like.  The ruffled ribbon reminds me of my dress.

Heart/Flourish die cut made using the amazing Silhouette SD machine.

I had these brads forever and never can find the right layout to use them, here it is!

Good old American Crafts Thickers always add awesomeness to a layout

Kelly's post also gave 2 sites with ready made sketches. Page Maps seems particularly helpful as it shows a sketch and an end layout.  I'm loving this sketching thing more and more because even if you use a page map made by another artist your layout will reflect your personal taste and your tweaks on their idea. More to come with sketching.