Sketches

One of my favorite things is a good sketch to get my mind started. I love to use sketches and have created a book of sketches I've found on different web sites, blogs etc. There are many times I can just start in on a layout and the design comes naturally for me. Then there are those times where I am stumped or just can't seem to figure out a set of pictures. That is when I will turn to a sketch. The best thing about a sketch is that it is just a starting point. It is a place to jump off and start my creativity flowing. Sometimes my layout will turn out looking exactly like the sketch, sometimes you won't even know I started with the sketch in front of me.

My layout today was created with a sketch from the blog Sketches in Thyme. They are actually hosting a design team call and with my love of sketches I figured why not give it a shot? Being a Sketch Maven would be so fun for me. I have only recently found this blog so I have only used a couple of their sketches so far, but what I love is that they provide a new sketch each week and they do both one and two page layouts.  Score! As a two page junkie, I love this option!

The sketch they provided for the design team call was this:

I decided to use a picture of Chris that is one of my all time favorites. He was known for his one eyed smile and every time he heard someone say smile or saw a camera, this is what we would get. I have had this My Mind's Eye collection on hand for awhile and knew this was the perfect paper and the perfect sketch for this picture.

I switched the strip going down the side to run along the bottom of my layout. i felt that this grounded my photo a little better. I added the banners on top to bring a finished feeling to the top of the page as well since the strip was no longer there.

I wanted to show a close up so that you can see the layers and the way that some of the layers have popped off the page. I will often use several layers of glue dots to get a little lift and make the page more than one dimensional. I also used foam dots to give even more lift to the title tag.

So how many of you like to use sketches as a starting point? Do you find yourself following the sketch exactly as it is or do you tend to go crazy with it and end up with a different look?

If you get a chance, hop on over to Sketches in Thyme and check out their new layout for this week. It looks fun and I'm excited to try it out. If you would like to try out for the design team, the call is open until October 20th. Here is the link to get the information from their blog.  http://sketchesinthyme.blogspot.com/2012/09/time-for-design-team-call.html

Catch ya soon!

Lisa