Jan 26, 20233 min read

Sketch Support #28 | Learn How to Use and Adapt Scrapbook Sketches | Day 4

Once a month learn how to use scrapbook sketches and adapt them to fit different styles, photo sizes, and themes. Sketches = endless scrapbooking ideas with little effort. Sketches do all the heavy lifting allowing you to have all the fun!

Day 4 of Sketch Support is always about showing how you can adapt the sketch to work with a different size of layout.

Here is the sketch that I have used as the starting point for each layout this week:

You can download the full sketch with measurements and placements by clicking here.

You can also grab the Sketch Support #28 Bonus Sketch Examples!

This month it is a 3-page PDF of 23 different sketch options. That makes 24 sketches for this month of Sketch Support. There are options that show how to change up the papers, use more photos, use less photos, there are four two-page options, and then an 8-1/2 x 11" option. The fun part is that you could use each option as a layout on its own, but you could also mix and match different options for endless possibilities!

You can purchase the bonus sketches by clicking here.

Supplies used - Cardstock: American Crafts; Patterned paper: My Mind's Eye and Simple Stories; Cork stars: unknown; Phrase stickers: Bella Blvd.; Foam word: American Crafts; Chipboard alphabet: American Crafts; Alphabet stickers: Pretty Little Studio; Embroidery floss: DMC

Variation #1 - Using a one-page sketch to create a two-page layout.

I always say, never let the size of the sketch determine the size of your layout. There are so many ways you can adapt a sketch to fit a different size of layout. One of the greatest benefits to this is that often times you come up with design ideas that you otherwise might not have thought to do. To me, this layout is a good example of that. I don't think I ever would have thought to slant the photos AND add a bunch of slanted pieces.

For my two-page layout I decided to stretch the slanted strips design all the way across both pages and use a row of photos that kind of stands in for another slanted piece. The photos became a part of the background design. It felt like a good solution for adapting this one-page sketch into a two-page layout.

I didn't necessarily follow the exact same arrangement of strips. I focused on adding my photos first and then working the strips around that. A few changes I made to the arrangement was taking the slanted pieces all the way to the top of the layout and adding in a few smaller (arrows) strips on top.

To finish the look I added a hand-stitch border along each edge. This really helps those slanted edges stand out. It's so helpful to have that when there are so many busier papers with the same colors overlapped on top of each other!

Variation #2 - Changing the photos.

With this set of photos I had five 3 x 5" and two 4 x 6". In the beginning I thought about trimming the 4 x 6" photos down to 3 x 5", but ultimately decided that those two were my favorite photos of the bunch and I liked the idea of highlighting them by keeping the larger size.

Since I made big changes to this design to work with a two-page layout, I didn't follow the photo arrangement on the sketch. Don't be afraid to make big changes like this! Remember, the sketch is not a rule that has to be followed. It is simply a starting point for you to build on.

Variation #3 - Adjusting the title, journaling, and embellishments to fit the adapted design.

A lot of times on a two-page layout I like to balance things by putting my title and journaling in opposite ares of the layout. For this particular layout I have my title on the bottom left edge of the photos and my journaling on the top right edge. I also swapped out the journaling strips for a block.

For my embellishments I kept it somwhat simple. There's a lot of busier patterned papers on this layout and I didn't want to overwhelm it with tons of busy embellishments.