SKETCH TIME - PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO

Happy Tuesday!  We are another day closer to the weekend and, for me, one day closer to having a little free time to sit down and play with my scrapbook supplies.  We've got a sweet sketch posted over at PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO that will help kick-start your crafty mojo - it's nice and simple so you can interpret it any way you want - whether you take a clean and simple approach or want to use an entire paper and matching ephemera collection.

My layout is somewhere in the middle of clean and simple and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink.  I did add lots of pieces to it, but I kept them small and layered many of them so it doesn't feel quite so busy.

I love these little thought bubbles by PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO. 

When your tween is giving you a "look" that speaks volumes to you but maybe not so much to Aunt Gerta in Idaho, you can use these bubbles to translate what your child would be verbally telling you if you were actually cool enough to talk to.  LOL!  Of course, they can also be used for journaling.

To see this week's sketch and more inspiration, go check out the PLS BLOG - right now!!!  Do it!  Don't make me have to roll my eyes and start pouting...

Paper Secrets - Sketches with a Twist

One thing I love about PAPER SECRETS is that, not only does it have a sketch challenge twice a month, but each sketch challenge comes with a fun twist.  The April 1st twist was to use ribbon or trim on our layouts (and that's no joke - ha ha!).  This time, our twist was to use something wooden on our layout - perfect for me since I love and have quite a few wooden veneer shapes from Studio Calico, including these sweet bird shapes from the Paper Secrets SHOP that I added to my collection!

 

I do have a quick confession to make - this layout isn't quite finished yet.  What's missing you ask?  Well, I haven't added any journaling yet.  I know that I want journaling; I even know where I want it (right abot the owl and the ribbon) - I just don't know what I want to say yet.  No sweat, I figure it will come to me.  And when it does, I will have have a lovely layout ready to write it on!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I fussy cut and layered until I had just the look I wanted.

I painted each of my wooden veneer shapes with white acrylic paint.  My title letters were cut out from one of my papers from ECHO PARK'S SWEET GIRL COLLECTION and outlined in brown marker to add more definition.

 

That's it for me this Monday morning; however, if you are wanting an additional beginning of the week boost, head over to Paper Secrets and check out the fantastic sketch that inspired my layout!

Bringing Back the Sketch with Practical Scrappers

Happy TGIF this morning, everyone!  Over at PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS, we have decided to bring back sketches - can I get a big HOO RAH?!?!  That's right, over the next two weeks we have a fun card sketch and not one, but TWO, scrapbook page sketches for you!  My layout was creating using this wonderful SKETCH by Liz Chidester. 

My family and I had a fun photo shoot this past weekend so I had lots and lots of pictures to choose from.  My papers are from LILY BEE 's Christmas Cheer Collection (Lily Bee! - LOVE these papers and don't know how I could have missed out seeing their last few collections!)  - except for the background paper, which is a leftover piece from an older Lily Bee collection.  I chose two close-up headshots of the Bebe for this layout and decided to journal about her smiles - which aren't always so frequent these days.  Her getting-to-be-a-teeneger-OMG-crazy-hormone-surging-fueled mood swings have had us both running to our respective bedrooms and slamming the door shut a few times!  So when she is happy and cheerful - I want to scrap about it! 

I liked the very muted pale background for these close-ups of my child, but I felt they kind of made the pictures get a little lost in the midst of all the busy patterns in the papers.  To help draw the eye to the photos, I simply outline them in black marker.  Yes, it IS okay to write and draw on the front of your photos - I promise!

The banners and simple Chevron-style arrows were cut out with my Silhouette Cameo (best scrapbooking invention EVER - hands down)  I decided to play with the negative space trend a little and alternated using banner outlines in place of "complete" banners.  And to add a little dimension and continue to draw the eye to the pictures, I added my Chevron arrows in contrasting patterns on top of one of the banners, both under and on top of my pics.

My bits and pieces are just that - random things from random packaging, which were hanging out on my work table just begging to be used. The Christmas Cheer title is actually from the bottom part of my Lily Bee paper - you know, the strip you cut off and throw away. My "waste not, want not" Grandmother would be so proud of me! 

And that's it for me today.  Be sure to head over to PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS to see what other fabulous takes on the sketch our wonderful DT has come up with!