Articles : Trends we love: Sketches!
By Jamie Waters
Sketches are a great for inspiration. Not only do they help you look at that blank canvas in front of you in a different way, it diminishes the thought that you can't follow someone else's lead. Sometimes there are sketches that might inspire in certain ways, but you might not want to follow the whole design. For this article, I decided to draw up 3 sketches that could be soooo versatile and break up the Garden Girls in groups to see how different the interpretations turned out!
The sketches we will be referring to are above in the green rectangle. The first sketch is the one on the left... this group was me (Jamie), Stacey and Shannon Tidwell.
My interpretation: I stayed pretty true to the sketch, except I didn't use the 2 top blocks for photos, I made embellishment blocks instead.
Stacey's interpretation: Not only did Stacey adapt the sketch to fit an 8 1/2 x 11 page, she swapped placement of the journaling and title. Love how the photo still takes center stage and that red tape does is so cool there, separating the journaling from the photo. Her heart box and title box also swapped from above the photo to below. Awesome.
Shannon's interpretation: Here's what Shannon has to say: " Sketches are fun! But I usually don't follow them to a T. I like to take a few glances at the sketch and then scrap. I don't worry about whether I put something in a little different place. Sketches are a great jumping off point." I absolutely love how she made this a single photo layout. She enlarged her photo and so there was no need to add any additional photos. And it's a pretty great focal point photo on it's own!
The next sketch group worked on the middle sketch above in the green rectangle. They are Carrie Owens, Cindy L and Joy U.
Carrie's interpretation: Carrie turned this sketch into a 2 pager and it totally works. I love how she chose a sequence of photos that completely work along the edge of the page. The simple title and journaling work perfectly for this page. I like the bit of bling she added to highlight that cute face in just one of the photos!
Cindy's interpretation: The way Cindy broke up the first photo block with 2 photos is brilliant! I also love how she put the journaling on the side and added the patterned paper mat/blocks to the design. The butterfly is a wonderful to touch to break up the lines. Gorgeous!
Joy's interpretation: Joy stuck pretty close to the sketch and I absolutely adore it. It's such a refreshing page-- the colors and paper she chose.. they happen to match the photos well! My favorite part was that she put the title at the very tippy top of the layout. It's perfect.
The next sketch is the one on the right in the green rectangle above.. and in this group we have Rhonda, Erica and Tia.
Rhonda's interpretation: Rhonda stayed pretty true to the sketch. The photos she chose are an excellent series all lined up together. I love the flower she chose as her accent and that she put the journaling on the bottom corner- such a perfect place for it.. it really grounds the layout well. So lovely!
Erica's interpretation: Erica says that the sketch was, "enough to get you going but not so detailed that it stifled the creativity. For my take, I turned the sketch on it's side, changed it to 8.5 x 11 and substituted a journaling block for one of the photo placeholders." I love her version. THe landscape is a perfect alternative to this sketch. And she did this all in digital. Which I am sure is fun to be able to move and mix and match things when you are trying to follow a sketch. Great job!
Tia's interpretation: Tia says, "funny; i usually stick very closely to a sketch, but got going on a good groove and took a tangent!" It turned out so cool. Her photo placement and journaling are a great alternative. I really like her main focal point photo and how she used the strip from the sketch to separate it from the rest of the photos.
Notice how different all of the layouts are from the original sketch. Some stayed truer to the original than others. You can see how some people were inspired to think beyond the sketch and make it their own. Either way, sketches are a great source of inspiration. You can look at product packaging, books, CD's, movie posters, anything really-- and make it a sketch. From that, try and make a scrapbook page out of it! I am sure you will enjoy the process!
