Thursday 11 June 2009

Layout 39 (Little Shop of Sketches)


I still have layouts 37 & 38 to post to my blog, but, in keeping with my scrapbooking policy of keeping current, here is layout 39! I will show you layout 37 & 38 sometime soon I promise, although of course you can find them here already! Why not drop in at Little Shop of Sketches anyway, take a peek at all the layouts... the new ones should be up & you can view the 5 other designers' layouts too, aswell as our Guest Designer of the Month over there aswell. Why not leave a comment & give Tanya Leigh some encouragement? She is a very talented sketch designer after all . Let her know if her site inspires you & if you download the sketches & use them as your launching pad at home. It's always good to get some feedback.

I print my photos out as soon as I can after uploading to my pc & editing. I do this because I want to be able to see, in real-life, visually, exactly how many photos I have to scrapbook, and I like to be able to enjoy them as soon as possible & look through them, handle them & have a choice as to what I am going to scrap, depending on the type of layout I feel like creating. People often ask me how I can print out my photos before I know what my layout is going to look like. I don't believe in making photographs "fit" a layout. It needs to work the other way around. A layout must "fit" the photographs & can often be adapted to do so (if you are using a kit, attending a class or following a sketch). My interpretation of the sketch is a perfect example. Here I rotated the sketch to suit the enlarged photo I had already printed.

I only had 2 other small photos of the same shoot so used these in place of the 5 little ones on the sketch. Instead of the 4 side strips, I only used 2, but I fancied them up a little. One I tore. This technique will never go out of fashion. It always works with distressed-type layouts & is forever suitable on masculine ones. Tear towards you so that the white core shows & keep your fingers close to the tear in order to tear in one continuous strip. This avoids peaks, which look more like the rough sea than a natural tear! The next strip I cut from the diamond paper & followed the shape of the paper, around the diagonal lines & dots that intersected them. When buying patterned paper always look for ones where you can cut around the elements. It makes for added interest as well as cheap embellishing! Both papers are from the December 2008 CDkit.

I used dark brown Bazzill as my backing paper (I think it's called Java...) & printed my photos with a white border, then cut it down to very narrow. Now that white is such a fashionable scrapbooking colour it makes sense to print your photos with a white border & save on matting costs! I used some black & white Basic Grey rub-ons for a change (having just sorted out my rub-on case & realised just how much was in there,lol!), some old Making Memories wide ribbon trim, aswell as some MM crochet braid - I cut off the edges & inked & frayed it to make it look tatty! - a Heidi Swapp clock (slightly raised with pop dots) & Journalling spot (cut in half & bumped up with foamcore), plus an Around the Block arrow brad (look closely at the clock & you will see it on top) & 2 Making Memories word brads (under the title & on the bottom left of the layout) from last year's lines. I also used a 7 Gypsies tag (torn into 3 pieces) for under the title, under the clock on the bottom left & on the bottom right. (When you buy embellishments you don't have to use them all in one piece!)

I crumpled the tag (tightly in my fist) then flattened it out & distress inked it with dark brown, chestnut roan & olive green (my 3 current favourite cats eye inks). I also used a mini-calendar monthly sheet torn from a freebie calendar I was given by "Expensive That" at Christmas, and tore a narrow strip of the top of some Jenni Bowlin stickers (from the packaging area not the actual sticker area) & used that at the bottom of the tag (under the title) to draw attention to it. Often scrapbooking packaging is as nice as the product itself so save it & see how you can utilise it on your layouts! I combined black & brown stickers for my title & the number "13" (Jack's age at the time) - Black are Making Memories glitter alphas & brown are Carolee's Creations tiny ledger alphas.

I entitled my layout "A penny for your thoughts" as I caught Jack in one of his pensive moods. I used dandylion flower rub-ons (2 black at the top & 2 white at the bottom) as these symbolize dreams/wishes. I love my boy. He is growing up so handsome!


7 comments:

topkatnz said...

Very nice work Helen. I love the brown/blue colour combo.

Penny said...

He sure is!! Love this layout

Lynette Jacobs said...

I love your take on the sketch and the embellies are just perfect for this layout.

Shayne said...

Ha - the box is playing along!

Lovely LO - yu're so good with writing down how you put it together - you're obviously a v patient person.

Like the way you rotated the sketch. it works well!

Michelle Ramsay said...

Stunning layout

Ella Swan said...

Thanks everyone, glad you also like it ;-D Shayne I'm not sure why you are still having problems if you are not using Explorer as I thought that problem was sorted out now. Let me know if it continues ;-D

Desire Fourie said...

Gorgeous layout Helen. Love your style. Hugs from Desire