Playing Along with October Afternoon

I spent the better part of my day creating layouts for calendar pages for one of my daughters, so after I had that all wrapped up, I was more than ready to try something fun for myself.  A quick perusal of the World Wide Web took me to October Afternoon's BLOG which is full of fun challenges, including a 9 to 5 Sketch Challenge (using a sketch made by Jill Sprott).

I didn't have any pictures of my family members that I wanted to use for this challenge, and my kids flat out refused weren't available for me to take some quick photos, so I decided to create a layout about something I enjoy doing in my spare time (when I am not scrapbooking).  What is that, you ask?  I'll tell you.  It's reading on my Kindle, in my favorite comfy chair, with a hot cup of coffee by my side.  It's one of my favorite ways to relax in the evening.

I followed the sketch pretty closely, but I decided to layer my photos and random embellishments on top of the grid pattern - something that seems to be pretty popular right now.  I placed pop dots under all three of my photos and a few of my embellies to add dimension.

Journaling was kept simple.  A little handwriting that incorporated my title into what I had to say.

And that's it.  I am really liking all these "office collections" that are coming out lately.  I think for a "real challenge" I may bring a few items back from my office and try to incorporate those into my next layout!  How do you feel about these collections?  Love them, hate them, or indifferent?