Frosty pages

After the first couple of frigid weeks in January, things warmed up a bit, so I thought we might have turned the corner on winter. I was wrong. It's gotten cold again, will warm up then plunge to frigid temps next week once more.

I realized that I should share the Christmas and winter pages I've made recently because once winter actually does turn the corner, I might not want to look at snow again. Even scrapbook snow.

Here's the first:

I had taken this photo on my phone last year ad decided to scrapbook the tradition at my school of wearing ugly sweaters the day before winter break. (This tradition of course makes me paranoid about wearing ANY sweater in December. My sweaters aren't ugly!) I used Merry Little Christmas by Fancy Pants Designs for the page, even though it wasn't really about Christmas. Close enough.
And a winter page:

For this layout, I used Fancy Pants Designs Timber Grove, an awesome collection that is both cool and frosty. This was an Instagram photo I printed 12x12 through Persnickety Prints. This page is similar to a wintery one I did last month, another Instagram 12x12 I scrapped directly on. They look a little alike, with similar views out the window of my house. Since the stories were different, though, I didn't worry about it too much.

Finally, here's the page that made it into the first Scrapbook Generation magazine Create:

I made this page in December when it kept snowing and snowing and snowing....kind of like last year. The title popped into my head, The Year of Endless Snow, and I sought out photos to finish my story. Amazingly, I had a ton of photos of snow last year, which makes sense, since our final snowfall was May 1. No lie.  Again, I used Fancy Pants Designs Timber Grove for this layout.

Thank you for checking out my snowy pages! Now that I've played in the snow a bit, I have to admit I'm ready for some warmth! How about you?

Scrapping older photos

I'm on a roll scrapbooking my most influential moments and using my older photos to do so. I've wanted to scrapbook my time in the Azores for a while, so I chose photos that show the house, the landscape, and the activities. I normally do just a quick color correct with PSE 10 on older photos, but in this case I didn't; it seemed to affect the color of the water and made it all less rich in tone, so instead I just used the healing tool to smooth over the imperfections. (My mom wrote on the back of  most of the photos with a Bic ballpoint, which tended to smear onto the photos. Thank goodness for the healing tool!)

I used Scrapbook Generation and Allison Davis' sketch this week to put as many Azores photos on it as I could. Here's what I did:

After I had used Fancy Pants Designs' Collecting Moments on my older photos last week, I decided to use it again; I love how the vintage colors look with my older photos.

As far as the sketch goes, I kept my layout almost identical to the sketch. The only main difference involved the size of my photos: since older photos tend not to be printed in 4x6 size, I shrunk the size of the photos along the top and right. Here's some details:

Because this is one of my 100 moments pages, I kept some of the same design and product choices--kraft background paper, a block of patterned paper and photos, running stitches going around the block--to keep the look cohesive with the other pages in the album.

I love stickers on my layouts, so to keep them down more, especially for the small ones like this, I love to stitch through them.

Thank you for looking at my page! The sketch was a terrific idea starter to jump off of and begin this photo-heavy layout. I hope you find it as inspirational as I did.

Stop by later this week; I'll be hosting a giveaway!

Adapting sketches: changing photo sizes

When I use sketches, I often look at them as general shapes. I think of photos I have that fit that shape, then I adapt to make it work.

In this case, I used this sketch by Allison Davis. The photos were horizontal, but I had three smaller square photos, so I used the sketch for this story. Here's what I did:

For the most part, aside from the photo sizes I kept the sketch the same. I sunk the photo block lower on the page. For some reason, I saw my page more as an L.

Here's the details:

I misted the background with yellow and aqua to match the colors of my page. For the products, I mostly used my August Studio Calico kit. I used my Cameo to cut the title. I generally like to cut in two colors, then layer them on top of one another.

With the Fancy Pants Chalkboard tape, I punched it like I normally do. I think it added a nice bit of depth to the color on the page. I then stitched over it for contrast.

Thank you for looking at my page! Please visit the other people who used the sketch and see their variations this week.

Making a one-page layout from a two-page sketch

The other day I shared some projects I made with my first ever original sketch. Today's project is also from a sketch, this time by one of the masters of sketching, Allison Davis! You can find the sketch that inspired me here.

Here's what I made:

The banners made me think of baseball, so I pulled some photos I had of a rained out game we attended this year, our first sort-of rain-out. The original sketch was for a two-page layout. I didn't have enough photos or photos of the right orientation for two pages, so I adjusted it to two. To do so, I trimmed the 4x6 photos a bit and trimmed the 2.5x2.5 square photos so they would stack vertically.

And then the details:

  

I used Studio Calico's September kit for this page. The bright colors contrast nicely with the rainy day photos. Stars and circles also remind me of baseball, so the embellishments were a good match.

  

Thank you for checking out the page I made from the sketch! I hope you can see how versatile the sketch can be, even if you don't have the exact sized photos as the sketch.

Sketch Support August

It's time for another sketch from Allison Davis and Scrapbook Generation! The sketch for August is up at Allison Davis' blog. You can find it here.

Here's what I did:

I kept to one-page, but I added two photos. The general orientation worked still, but I divided the main photo spot to take two photos, and I added one photo to the photo grouping to the lower right. For some reason I wanted the main color throughout to be orange--probably because of the blue in the photos--and the striped paper I used had some greenish-aqua, so I made that an accent color.

And the details:

The title I kept pretty similar to the original sketch, but I added an embellishment cluster next to it.

One photo I adhered with dimensional stickers--I like to lift at least one item in a cluster to add more interest to the page. I also added another embellishment cluster to the right to complete the visual triangle.

The journaling I kept in strips and inked with grey. It took me a while to figure out how to make it fit in the space I had!

Thank you for checking out my page! I hope it gives you some ideas to adapt the sketch for your own.

Welcome back Sketch Support!

I am honored to share another page designed with Alison Davis' Sketch Support! Being on the Sketch Support team for two years was a terrific experience, and I was so thrilled to play around with the sketches again. (Note: this is less formal, and less centralized. When Alison posts sketches, you can click here to see some of what I did with them. I'll let you know more about other sketch artists you can stalk!)

This sketch was a two-page sketch; you can find it here.

Here's what I did. I used my June Studio Calico kit for this page to document this busy rainy day:

I didn't have enough photos for two pages, so I took what was on the left (the photo block) and the right (the title/journalingblock) and pushed them together, leaving out everything in between.

Here's some details:

 

I love the strip of accents the sketch shows on the left. I don't normally organize embellishments that way, so I'm excited to get this idea by using the sketch. I also loved the stitch lines, so I added some around the photos and on the left and right.

  

To balance the strip of accents on the left, I added some on the right too in the title block.

Thanks for checking out my page! Hopefully, I've given you ideas on how to adapt a sketch to your needs.

When short on embellishments...

Stitch. 'Nuff said.

I discovered this when I was running short of my January Studio Calico kit. I like to get a certain number of pages out of each kit, and I'd used a lot of the embellishments, so what was I to do?

I pulled out my punches and stitched.

Here's my page (click on the image to see it larger):

I used a sketch from a Scrapbook Generations Book, One Page Sketches Volume 2. I don't know why it is, but one page sketches paralyze me more than multiple photos. I guess because there are a limited number of ways of putting together a multiple photo page, but an infinite way of putting together a one photo page. The sketch book was a blessing.

The sketch had butterflies, which didn't work for this subject, so I used circles. I had no embellishments left, so I stitched around each circle.

NOTE: to do so, I punched a slightly larger circle, traced around the circle on the page, and punched holes and stitched,

Here's the details:

 

I like the end result.

Adapting sketches

I love the sketches at Sketch Support. They are such a great jumping off point. Sometimes I don't have the right sized photos, though. Take for example, the sketch this week for a two page layout. Here's my page (click the images to see them larger):

I used Studio Calico's March kit for this page. I don't usually use dark blue, but I loved it on this page.

 

  

I had all 4x6 photos, mostly vertical, since you need vertical to fit Derick and anyone else in the photo (he's tall). I trimmed the vertical photos on the right a bit, trimmed a couple a lot into small squares, and then used the one on the left as an accent photo, in place of the two horizontal photos.

Here's some details:

 

The original sketch had a hand stitched circle on the bottom border. Instead, I stitched a star around one I'd punched. To create the star, I used a ruler to draw lines around the star, then punched holes every 1/4 inch.

  

I machine stitched over the star border like the sketch said.  I used colored thread, which I never used to do (it was just white, brown, black, and red for me), but I like the fun of colored thread.

 

Guess who the most photogenic member of our family is?

Winners!

Thank you so much for the nice comments! I loved reading about everything that makes you all happy.

Using random.org, here's the winner of the one page sketch book:

sillypea said...

Spring makes me happy - love to see things come alive! And LOVE the Sketch Support Sketches and the beautiful things you create from them!

April 14, 2012 8:35 AM

And the winner of the travel sketch book:

~Denise said...

Love the map on your layout!

April 14, 2012 7:42 PM

Sillypea and ~Denise, please email me at jennyrahnlarson at yahoo dot com to give me your address so I can mail you the books! Happy scrapping, everyone!

Sketch Support blog hop

Welcome! If you just started the blog hop here, go back and start and Sketch Support, leaving comments along the way to stay in the running for the grand prize!

I love using the sketches to get me started on scrapping. Two recent books, Travel Sketches and One-Page Sketches Volume Two have been particularly inspiring.

I used the sketch from the one-page book:

to make this layout:

 

Yes, it's a two-pager. I love that about the Sketch Support sketches: they are inspirational enough to give me ideas but flexible enough to allow for easy changes. Here's what each page looks like:

  

  

I chose a big, dramatic print for the left side and added a few pictures to the left like I did on the right to bookend the spread.

 

That's me with my bunny ears and on the beach. Many, many years ago.

 

I mainly used October Afternoon's Boarding Pass collection. The grey stripe is from Dear Lizzy Neapolitan. I also used a grey ink pad, Jenni Bowlin Weather Vane, to ink the edges of most of the papers, since the papers were of a similar hue and I wanted those papers to stand out when they were layered. I also added some stitching around the main photo. I couldn't get the corners straight, darn it, but that's not a mistake, that's just whimsy.

So here's a little about me:

• How long have you been scrapbooking? I have been scrapping for 10 years, since I was pregnant with my first son.
• Why did you start scrapbooking? Archiver's had just opened in my town, and I took a scrapbooking class to do something with the photos from my first 4 years of marriage. After I finished with them, I was hooked.
• What is your favorite time of day to scrapbook? After my boys go to bed.
• How often do you scrapbook? A little bit every day!
• Where do you scrapbook/what does your space look like? I scrap in an easy chair in my living room on a lap desk. I like it. I can be near the family when I create.
• When I'm not scrapbooking you can find me...in a high school teaching English, in my garden, jogging, or reading a book.
• What is your favorite thing about using sketches? When I don't have to stress about design, I am free to play around with other creative elements like paint, mist, stitching, and so on. love that.
• What is your favorite sketch from Sketch Support? This two page sketch from June last year was awesome. I found it easy to adjust for the photo sizes and numbers that I needed.

Now for the giveaway!

If you want a chance to win a copy of One-page Sketches volume two and Travel Sketches, leave a comment telling me something that makes you happy, just because it's always good to think about that! I will leave comments open until 8 P.M. CST Monday, April 16, then I will select winners!

After commenting here, visit Allison's blog to round out the blog hop--you're almost there!

Thank you for visiting my blog--I hope you make this a regular stop!