Alex here and I'm finally FINALLY (at long last) bringing you Part 2 of the sketch challenge which Heather and I did together...during October! 🙈
I know it's also December. LATE December. Soz, lovelies! I actually had finished it over a month ago, but since I did a process video (and one with soooo much more raw footage than anticipated) editing has happened sporadically between other things.
It was actually rather involved and as usual I made it far more work than it needed to be! But that's what I do. Every.Single.Time! 🤦
Heather really put me to the challenge with this sketch. Definitely not my usual sort of style, but they don't call it a challenge for nothing, right?
I have no idea how I decided to use this sketch with this photo of my adorable niece on her very first Book Week. I'm pretty sure there was a suitably convoluted train of thought with led to this decision, but overall I think it worked. 🤷
I do recommend you watch the process video (below) since I do go into that a little bit as well as walking you though how I made it.
Here are the still pics I promised you:
Title (with lots of messy threads! 😍)
"Tone on tone" embellishments and stitching detail
Fussy cut books embellished with tiny Wonder Woman stickers
Large book cut on the Silhouette
That name card that caused ever so much grief (and I still cant stick in s straight line despite multiple attempts! 🙈)
As
you might have guessed from Heather's post, we're having a bit of a
challenge here during the month of October. Heather and I have been
holding down the fort of late, so we decided to throw each other a
challenge to spice things up. Crece wanted a sketch challenge this
month anyway so #winning!
Heather and I each picked a sketch which each of us would make a project with.
The one Heather and I used this week was my pick. It's by Clique Kits
and a little different for me.
It's one I wanted
to use at some point anyway, but I thought the sketch itself really lent itself to using flair badges.
You can interpret this sketch quite literally and use circles as in the original, or replace them with any simple shape like hearts, triangles, stars etc. The main reason I opted for circles is that the round shape emphasizes the shape of flair badges and tries to keep them as a main feature. I'm not sure whether I succeeded in this respect given my style (which can only be described as "messy with a touch of psycho"! ).
If you check our Heather's interpretation, it's much more elegant. Her post is immediately before this one.
Unfortunately I don't have a process video this week, but I'll see what I can do next time when Heather and I tackle her choice of sketch.
I decided to "lightly" stencil some gold stars first before layering the circles on top. Since I decided to use punches, I was limited to the sizes I had. Throwing in two sizes of pinked circles added interest and seemed like a happy medium between circles and stars. My largest punch was smaller than the one in the sketch so while the placement is generally the same, it's not identical and there are more clusters of circles in my layout.
Next step was messy ink splatter. I started with gold and while it looks lovely on darker colours, it wasn't giving the emphasis I wanted. I added some navy after it dried and it helped a little bit.
Then I mixed some gold paints and painted some DIY star Thickers for some texture and dimension.
I matted the photo block with lots of layers, which I was pleased to see in the sketch since I'd be doing it anyway!
The small shelf above the smaller photo was great for nesting the first part of the title...except I just couldn't find the right size and colour of alphas. I'm glad I included the woodgrain among all he primary colour as a bit of a neutral (which is why I used kraft alphas here). It also is a sort of a nod to the chair slats in the bokeh part of the larger photo.
I used a punch on some square stickers and trimmed down others. Initially I thought the clear gold stickers would look better on white cardstock, but I changed my mind. Using the stickers as they are just gives a subtle detail here and there.
There was this pack of puffy hearts I rediscovered in my stash a little while ago and I made good use of them and added navy enamel dots just because I could! Overall I think I used less embellishment than I usually do, but I don't think I could have added more considering all the crazy colour and pattern going on.
As far as the flair itself went, I could have (and almost nearly DID) use a lot more, BUT I need to keep some for next week's project since it might just be Wonder Woman related again! My personal challenge was to mix together some oddball flairs which might have been the last in the pack. I think the three work quite well together on this layout despite being more than a bit random!
I journaled on the layout itself as I often do, but textured cardstock doesn't make it easy!
Alex here and I do apologise for my belated post, but I do bring you a video as promised.
I'm not sure whether it's worth the wait, but you can be the judge of that. Would you believe me that I had actually finished the filming and the layout a couple of weeks ago? I think we're all getting the hang of having a semi-permanent recording set-up, but we're always making improvements along the way.
This layout brings together all-the-things! What do I
mean by that? Sorta kinda killing two (or in this case more)
proverbial birds with one stone!
Firstly, I used supplies from my "Counterfeit Kit" to make this layout. You can read more about those on my blog. The process video for today's layout is below. You can can either watch now or after reading the post!
The next thing I manged to incorporate into the layout was the use of a sketch. September's Product Focus in the Rediscover Your Stash group is sketches, so I tried to include them when possible.
The sketch came from Shimelle's free 4x6 Photo Love class from Two Peas days. I stumbled across the sketch on Pinterest and upon recognizing it as one of the lessons, I had a look on her blog and there it was! Shimelle didn't post the sketch, but she shared photos of the two layouts she made and posted them on them on her blog. Here is Shimelle's blog post and it contains a video of this lesson.
The reason I chose this sketch is somewhat lengthy and I do go into more details on my video and my version of this blog post, but in a nutshell I thought it suited my photos except it didn't and I had to make some changes and actually ended up following the sketch more closely than I planned! 🤷
My original choice of photos didn't work out either. Butterflies were Plan B (more about in the video)!, but it ended up for the best, because who makes butterfly flair better than EWF? I was spoiled for choice and I don't even have all of them! 😮
I tell you, sitting down to a layout frequently takes you down a rabbit hole and it tells you what it needs.
So...back to the important bit. Hands up if you have plenty of "vintage" stash that you can't part with.
Yeah I thought so. I have a lot. Today I'm reporting that I successfully got them (OK OK THREE of them) on a layout after languishing in my stash for...I don't know...maybe 6-8 years? I have maybe 4 different packets of these rosettes. I know I manged to use up almost a full pack some years ago, so it IS possible. 🤔
Regardless of WHAT type of item it is that you're hoarding, the important reason is to ask yourself WHY. This will be different for everybody and may include a combination of factors.
Is it the fact that you paid money for it and don't want to feel like you're throwing money away if you get rid if it? You don't have to throw them out. Ask around at local schools, preschools, childcare and community centres...and hospitals too. They often have arts and crafts type programs and are grateful for the donations. You can feel good knowing your stuff will be enjoyed by sick kids.
Not you? Still clutching your preciousssssesss? 🤣 (Don't worry, clearly I am too!) hoarding it for a sentimental reason? Are you waiting for the PERFECT project. Larger, pre-made embellishments tend to be expensive so I can understand that.
If that's you, then I encourage you to read this article by Shimelle on what COULD happen to "special" supplies if you hold onto them too long. Gives you something to think about for sure.
What if you WANT to use them...TRY to use them, but they just look wrong every time.
That's me, BTW. 🙋🙋🙋 (Actually they're all me, but mostly the last one.)
The first tip aI have t getting something to work is to go back to the same collection. Collections are designed to go together, They're made so you really just need to add photos, a pen and glue. I usually mix my collections so this is a step back and chance to refocus for me.
Chances are, if they're older supplies, you likely don't have much (if anything) left from the original collection. So go back to manufacturer if they are still in business. The rosettes I had were all brands under the American Crafts umbrella (I have two packs by American Crafts, one by Pebbles and one I can't remember now). Usually the colours have a certain familiarity about them.
You can also try and pull in motifs similar to those in the original collection, paying close attention to the colours.
For my part, in this particular case, I often felt they were too big...as are many supplies I LIKE, but just struggle to use (often due to size). In this particular instance, spreading them over a two-page layout seemed like a logical way to start. It was going to still take a bit of work since the photos took up a fair bit of space. What I DID like about using these rosettes is that they make a perfect nest for a flair badge! 🙌
They're so old the foam pads on the back just fell off! 🤣
Many are topped with a button and the button is almost always without thread. 😱 Naked buttons make me twitchy!
As you saw in the video, I chose the colours carefully to co-ordinate with both the flair and layout itself. The Pebbles ones had white circles with tiny "happy birthday" text that I never noticed before. Since I don't celebrate them and it's irrelevant to the story anyway, I pulled them off.
This is where you can start to bring the supplies into the modern era by replacing the various layers with punched circles of papers from your layout. Suddenly they don't stick out as much!
Since I was trying to draw attention to the flair badges, I chose not to replace the circles. The white flair against the blue/aqua looked really good. Flair, rather than buttons, gave them a fresh new look and I'm really pleased how they turned out. I can't say the same for all the other parts, but overall pretty satisfied given don't two page layouts
I think what I'm going to do is place all my "too hard" supplies in one basket nearby, so I'm looking at them and through them more often and don't miss opportunities to use them. An actual "too hard" basket! 🤣🤣🤣
Oh you probably want to see the rest of the layout, right?
OK here is the title and journaling (yes I added the butterfly and black faceted gems after I stopped filming!):
And the whole spread:
The Butterfly House
BTW, here are all (or almost all) the BUTTERFLY flairs in the EWF store. I picked some from two different sets. Click on "Insects Birds and Animals" on the right hand side of the page.
I hope I've addressed most of the reasons why you might be holding on to supplies and how to get past this road block. I'll see you sooner than later to get back into the swing of my blog schedule!
Leave me a comment or email if you have any questions. I'll be happy to have a chat about it.
Alex here with the next installment of my Lost Mojo (or Finding Inspiration) series! If you missed the first four installments, you can find them here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
As we continue our journey through the last few examples of getting inspiration from other artists' work, we have just two more ways to look at. Well, there are probably a lot more than that, but we have to stop at some point, right? 😂
Today we’re looking at a SKETCH. A sketch is a (very) much simplified page design with symbols as a guide rather than a completed scrapbook layout to scraplift. Sort of like the blueprints of a house rather than photographs of a fully furnished and decorated home!
Sketches come in varying levels of detail and there is something for every crafter. You just need to figure out the level of detail you're after.
Search the same places for “scrapbook sketch” as we looked at in Part 2 of this series and see what comes up. You can be more specific by adding number of photos etc into the search bar.
Today I’m going a little bit outside of my comfort zone and using a slightly different kind of sketch (for me), but it still has places to put lots of details and layers if so desired.
With this sketch, (like any sketch) you can follow faithfully or change it around.
The sketch I’m using comes from Cocoa Vanilla Studios and it was used as a challenge for (inter)National Scrapbook Day. Since I didn’t get around to using it by the challenge deadline I’ll use it today.
Their Face Book page has an album with all the sketch entries on to and I love seeing everyone’s different takes on the sketch.
I’m not sure how it came about, but I decided I was going to do a gaming layout, and I have a seemingly bottomless pile of those photos to scrapbook! 🙈 It was simply what was talking to me at the time! 🤷
I also started looking through paper that might work with the story and ended up in my Cocoa Vanilla section. Subconscious decision being their sketch perhaps? 🤷 They do incredible boy collections and "Boys Rule" is probably my favourite very closely followed by "You Rock". I mostly used these lines along with a few bits of the "Imagine That" boy line by Echo Park, a few Bella Blvd papers with gaming motifs and a few other random bits.
What does immediately strike me with the sketch is that there isn’t a
designated spot for journaling and since this is critical for me, I
need to figure this out before getting carried away with embellishing.
At
this point you can decide how literally to take the sketch - to use
exactly as many layers as the sketch or more or less? To use the same
number of embellishments (and maybe even the exact same motifs) or more
or less? I went with my typical multiple layers, multiple embellies and
instead of girly motifs like butterflies and flowers, you can see how I
was able to make this sketch work as a very boyish layout.
I’m going to be a little predictable and keep the photo on the designated photo spot (it looks best here since he is facing a little towards the left), so I can have fun with as many little embellishment boxes as possible! You could also substitute some of the smaller squares for extra photos if you wanted to.
You could change the position of the boxes, mirror image the sketch, turn it upside down or change it to suit a different size page (eg 9x12 or 8.5 x 11).
The photo is this single, oddball, not-very-great-photo, but I never shy
away from using these sorts of photos if they tell a story. Using a
sketch like this one I think slightly distracts from the imperfections
of the photo, but I need to take care not to get it lost completely! I
printed the photo in both black and white and in colour. Initially I preferred the
b/w, but i definitely wanted to include red (which was in "You Rock", but
not "Boys Rule" and a darker woodgrain since his bed takes up a fair
amount of the image and it's a lovely warm brown timber sleigh bed.
"Boys Rule" had a great woodgrain paper which I used as a frame. In the end I went with the coloured version.
I constructed all the little squares and the larger photo square separately before sticking them to the page (with the exception of a few finishing touches). They're a great size for housing flair! Metal flair badges have a great boyish vibe and give me the dimension and texture I crave on a layout. More texture was added with machine stitching (yes, you can totally stitch right through the thickest chipboard frames and acetate and layers of paper...together even!). You can also staple right through wood veneer elements! 👍
I do struggle to use the various sized frames that come in embellishment packs or on their own. I was determined to use as many as I could on this layout since the sketch really lent itself to them. I pulled out frames in all kinds of finishes from acetate to chipboard to vellum. I also seem to struggle with acetate embellishments especially those photo overlays by Crate Paper from at least five years ago. I was determined to work some of those into my layers!
After trimming and adhering the white paper with the faux messy paint around the edge, I decided I wanted to add some paste through a star stencil. This necessitated masking off the woodgrain border (since the paste ended up being a bit of an afterthought). I mixed white and pearlescent embossing pastes together as the pearl ones sometimes dry kinda silvery, but oddly my "franken-paste" dried kinda yellowish! 🤷 I also went to town with ink droplets in co-coordinating colours. Most would end up covered and toned down.
I opted for embossing paste over modelling paste or texture paste since its the softest and knowing I was going to sew through it, it needed to have a bit of "give". There was also the added benefit of popping up all my elements a little off the paper. 👍
The down side is that if you're going to adhere anything to mixed media paste, you need a REALLY strong adhesive. There are a few options, but my personal favourite is Glue Dots. There are all sorts of Glue Dots for all kinds of purposes. Permanent squares or dots (in the blue dispenser) are ideal to stick the finished squares to the background and also for adding embellishments on top of them like the flair, chipboard and wood veneer stars etc
Once I had the bones of my layout figured out, I put the sketch aside since there wasn't anything else I needed from it. You may wish to do this sooner in your process if it diistracts or confuses you, or keep it in front of you right to the end. There isn't a correct approach!
Three of the badges came from the "Gamer" set and I searched high and low for "Words 4" in my stash only to discover I don't have it yet (I think it's on its' way to me as we speak!) so I used one from "I Wanna Rock" to have 2 white and 2 black.
After sticking the layered embellishment clusters and photo cluster to the background, I came in with the bulky embellishments and then smaller stickers, words stickers and finally a few enamel dots. The embellishment clusters were so much fun to put together, but they did take a little while to do.
Overall, I'd say I stuck to the sketch reasonably faithfully while still keeping the elements in my pages that make them mine. I tend to stick to sketches fairly closely when I do use them. To me it's the whole point of using them, but as I outlined above, there are plenty of other approaches. Sometimes the way my photo is composed means I mirror image the sketch or rotate it in some other direction to suit the composition better.
Here's the finished layout!
One Sided Conversation
Do let me know if you have any questions in the comments or want to talk about how you like using sketches!
Alex here and I'm finally FINALLY (at long last) bringing you Part 2 of the sketch challenge which Heather and I did together...during October! 🙈
Heather really put me to the challenge with this sketch. Definitely not my usual sort of style, but they don't call it a challenge for nothing, right?
