Tuesday 3 May 2011

Layout: Basic Pleasures

Hi, hi, hi.

I love T-shirts - Gap T-shirts in particular. In fact, until I squirted Hoi Sin sauce everywhere [including down myself]while making tea tonight ... I was weraing a Gap T-shirt. A white one.

It may not surprise you to hear that as well as preparing tea ... I've also done a white load of laundry ...

Perhaps I subconsciously wore that T-shirt today as yesterday I finished this page:

At the moment I'mreally finding it useful to follow sketches ... something which the independent/control freak side of my nature never expected to enjoy! And yet, here I am, each week, skimming thorugh challenge and sketch blogs for a quick 'in' to starting a page and scrapping photos I've already printed out.

This page is based on Shimelle's 'Sketch of the Week' for 27th April and the photo is of me, on my knees ... in Gap.

Maybe James caught me in a moment of jersey worship ... maybe I was just looking for a price tag .. you'll never know:
I used a complete mish-mash of patterns on this - including a My Minds Eye 'Good Day Sunshine' design of scooters which don't even have the most tenuous link with the subject of the page.

But then again, neither would anything else I'm likely to scrap ... and I liked the colours ... so I used it anyway:


I'm not sure that, if I hadn't been trying to follow the sketch quite closely, I'd have stuck with this alignment of papers ... but I think it worked in the end ...?
Like  Isay, at the moment I'm finding following sketches a really useful way to leave my brain behind and just get on with the making. Hopefully it means that, when I'm being paid to be creative, I'm not a dusty old empty crafting husk ...

Hopefully ...

Anyway, tell me, do you use sketches or challenges to keep up your crafting momentum? If you do, and you get a moment:
  • I'd love to hear which sites you rate as inspirational;
  • Which ones you refer to?
  • Are there any new challenge blogs etc which have grabbed your attention lately?
Thanks in advance.

Julie :-)

p.s: Just in case anyone's wondering ... no, this is NOT a case of me doing some sneaky market research for a challenge blog of my own! I'd tell you up front if that were that case ... and also ... been there, done that ... :-D

7 comments:

  1. I love sketches as a springboard, but I also absolutely love the challenge of a restricted amount of stash to work with. I did layouts with both for SI, and I also miss seeing others' layouts each month... boo.

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  2. Hiii. This is the perfect time to comment, not only because I can reply to your questions, but also so that I can tell you that your blog is one of my absolute favourites. I love your style in everything you make, and enjoy reading something that shows such a great sense of humour :D

    Anyway, I too am finding Shimelle's weekly layouts, and also her 4x6 Photo Love class really inspirational right now. I'm printing the pdf files, and working through them, making me proud for getting things done. Aside from that, I also like to use sketches from Pencil Lines (www.pencillines.com), but you probably already know of that website!

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  3. We're synchronised, you and me. I went on the hunt for interesting challenge blogs just yesterday, but many of the ones I found are card related. I'm trying to 'improve my performance' in that area!

    As for sketches, I found them really hard to get used to and now I'm at the point where I'm doodling my own.

    I'll send you a couple - along with a list of those blogs I found x

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  4. Sketches - no help whatsoever as haven't scrapped in forever (and yet I still am drawn here...)

    Gap - never set foot inside? *gasp* There's a side of me that has this prejudice about it that a) it will all be out of my price range. b) I'm a big girl and they wont have big sizes. c) It's a label.

    Naughty me - maybe I should take a peep inside next time I pass one as I am a vest-aholic!

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  5. Love the mix of patterns on this layout, especially the scooters one! :-)

    I use some sketch / challenge sites when I feel the need for a little push to get started. My faves are:

    http://thepapervariety.blogspot.com/

    http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/

    http://scrapbookers-anonymous.blogspot.com/

    http://thestudiochallenges.blogspot.com/

    Only sketchy thursdays is a strictly sketches site, the others are more challenges with the occasional sketch, but I like them for inspiration! Hope you like sneaking a peep at them! x

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  6. I don't have any useful links to share but I'm thinking that maybe I need to go in search. It might help me actually complete a LO, something I don't seem to have done in ages.

    You may have been worried about using a sketch but you layout still has your own unique style. Love it.

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  7. Love that combination of papers :). I haven't used sketches in a long while but when i did, and if I wanted some inspiration I'd be off to Page Maps: http://www.pagemaps.com/pdfsketches.htm
    Have a look at their pdfs: they do them for 12x12, 8.5x11, half maps, tag maps, card maps ...

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