Sketch Challenge #1

Welcome to our Sketch Challenge.  

This is Amy from Amy's Digi Scraps and welcome to the first of our Sketch Challenges!

On the 20th of each month, I will post a sketch for you to enjoy!  Then, I will post a card variation and Debbie will post a layout page variation.  Please visit the Sketch Challenge link for more information about our monthly Sketch Challenges.

For this month, and the start of our Sketch Challenges, I made a very simple sketch, primarily for a card, but can easily be adapted for a layout as well.  Intended to allow you a base to jump from, this sketch includes mostly blocking areas that you can change to be wording or images or embellishments.

Card Sample by Amy:

My son just turned 17 and I needed a card to celebrate him.  He is a musician and has his own local band, so naturally anything music related would work.  Hannah Montana happens to be one of my favorite cartridges, and it is versatile enough to use for masculine cards and layouts.

For the electric guitar, I cut it in black and blue and sprayed two layers of Goosebumps to give it a glossy, textured look.  Then I layered the image and use a black fine tip pen and a silver metallic pen to add highlights and dimensions.

I cut "Rock" for the Hannah Montana cartridge, but I used the Old English font from Blackletter to make the "on" and welded a small flourish with my Gypsy onto the "n" so that it would match.  I used my silver metallic pen to highlight the letters.

I have two different thicknesses of pop adhesives.  I used the thicker one for the guitar element and the thinner for the words.

Inking with Close To My Heart ink pads was added around the card edges and the paper layer, which was distressed slightly with my scissors first.  (Silly me, I adhered the card form to the layers upside down and had to cut it apart and redo the card form - so check your orientation before adhering!)  Perhaps I should have used a slightly darker ink for the layer so that it would have popped a bit more?

Layout Sample by Debbie:

 Hi everyone, this is Debbie of Debs Eclectic Thoughts Blog.  I love to take sketches and make layouts with them.  For Amy's sketch, I made it into a one page 12X12 layout.  (sorry the picture is a little off, I was having trouble photographing it at night and keeping the shadows off of it.)

To start the sketch process, I used a white cardtock base then added the bright orange cardstock to the center.  For the title/journaling spot on the sketch I used Birthday Bash Cartridge to cut out the Birthday Wishes title and Lacey Labels cartridge to cut the title background shape. Next I followed the sketch design and added some of the yellow polka dot patterned paper to the bottom to create that bottom block but instead of laying it over the center square as in the sketch, I layered it slightly under the center square instead and used it to anchor my embellishments for the page of various patterned papers cut into ribbbons and some buttons with twine. A couple of stickers completed the bottom portion.   After looking at the layout, I felt like I wanted to add a little bit of balance to create a stronger visual triangle between the title and lower embellishments so I added a grouping of patterened paper strips and a large button with twine on the upper right of the page.   The great thing about sketches is that they are a jumping off point for your design and you are free to change it up to make it your own design.  Isn't that cool about sketches ?

We would love to see what you can do with this Sketch.  Please create a card or layout and upload the image to this post in the InLinkz!  Remember that you must use your Cricut in creating your project for the Sketch Challenge.