August 2006 Sketch Challenge

Each month here at Scrapjazz a new sketch is offered to provide inspiration. Some months it's a complicated sketch with lots of elements, photos and more. Sometimes it's a two-page layout to break us out of those one-pagers we all seem so fond of.

This month, it's a clean, open-space layout that leaves many possibilities for interpretation. You can follow it exactly or add some touches to it to make it yours!

Here's this month's sketch. It has a single 5" by 7" photo, a wide paper strip and a title at the bottom of the page, with plenty of clean lines and open space.

I asked Patter Cross (Patter), Deanna Luna (Mamao4), Mary Jo Rhoda (Acrobat) and Ashley Smith (AshleyS) to join me in creating a layout with this sketch. Here's a great sampling of layouts from some very talented ladies.

Patter's layout first caught my eye through the colors she chose, so beautiful with the greens, blues and pinks! Her layout maintains the photo and paper strip elements with a horizontal ribbon border. She added a beautiful title across the bottom of the page and balanced out her page with the white brackets.

Deanna made two beautiful layouts, each based off the sketch and yet so different. Her first layout, "Beyond Silly," has such great colors and a terrific picture. She set the layout on a horizontal scale and kept a similar feel to the original sketch with her title placement and paper strips. However, she added rub-ons to the left side to balance with the horizontal layout change.

Her second layout, "Non-Toxic," is too fun, featuring a great shot of her daughter who had a bit too much fun with a marker. The layout shifts the title to the right side, adds a bit more printed paper with the oh-so-so fun buttons that make for a perfect complement.

My friend Mary Jo wowed me with her bright, colorful page about her son Ethan. She used just a few simple items, including stamped phrases, stars and alphabet stickers. She changed her photo to black & white and kept her embellishments simple and clean-lined to make the perfect page.

Ashley's beautiful "Baby Whitney" page is definitely an eye grabber. The big beautiful photo and patterned papers she chose fit the sketch perfectly. She added a larger-print paper to the mix and beautiful fabric tabs for balance. The ribbon ties on the bookplate are a perfect touch and unique way to create the horizontal element.

Finally for my layout I kept to the sketch using patterned papers for the vertical element. I extended papers out to the left of the photo and added embellishments creating a title that continues to the bottom of the page.

I hope all these amazing layouts offer you inspiration to get out some fun pictures and supplies and join us in creating this month's sketch. Drop me a note and let me see what you have made!

For a fantastic and inspiring resource of sketches, check out the Scrapbook.com Scrapbooker's Guide Floorplans E-Book.