Sunday Sketch | Natalie

This week, our layout sketch is an 8.5x11 layout with a centered design with lots of room for journaling. Our card sketch features a circle design element and scattered embellishments and our Project Life sketch uses a horizontal photo and banner caption. Creative Team member, Natalie Elphinstone, is joining us this week & sharing her take on all three of our sketches! Be sure to follow Natalie here at SC to see more of her work and keep up with her.

First, let's look at this week's sketches - our 8.5x11 sketch comes from Becky Novacek's Gentle layout:

Our card sketch comes from Cristina Kowalkczyk's Boo card:

And our Project Life sketch comes from Suzy Plantamura's Week 44 spread:

And here's how Natalie took on ALL THREE sketches!

I'm a fairly literal interpreter of sketches, and I tend to follow the design pretty much exactly as it's drawn. I love the clean lines and central placement of the layout sketch and wanted to keep that the focus in my layout. But I still like to change around a few of the details, just so I can make it my own. I shuffled the placement of the photo and text block so the photo was at the bottom, and then instead of filling in the middle space with journaling I filled it with patterned papers instead. I took direction from the colours in the photos to choose which papers to use, and ended up with this mix of brown, green and beige from the Main Kit. Ultimately I really am a journalist at heart as well so I still included the block of text, I just hid it behind my photos instead!

Supplies: The Underground Main Kit (papers), Notting Hill Add On (papers, stickers, badge), Grid Paper, The Underground Printable by In a Creative Bubble

I love that this card sketch allows room for so much interpretation. You really could make this fit any theme and any style you wanted... which is exactly what I did! I fell in love with the stamp set from Piccadilly and wanted to make that the real focus of this card. I stamped it repeatedly on white cardstock and embossed it. That allowed me the chance to colour in the flowers, and I had so much fun painting them with my Colour Theory Inks. I added Wink of Stella over the top for a hint of sparkle too!

Supplies: Solar White Cardstock, Gray Cardstock, Notting Hill Add On (stamp), Piccadilly Add On (sticker), The Underground Main Kit (paper), Zing Embossing Powder White Opaque, Color Theory Inks, Wink of Stella Glitter Brush Marker Clear

The Project Life Sketch gave me direction for how to design my title card for this simple Handbook spread. I started with one of the 6x4" cards from The Underground PL Kit which read 'Harvest' - clearly not what I was going for with this photo! But that was easily fixed by covering it up with a punched circle and the stamp. On the other hand, the washi tape from the Chelsea Add On really was perfect in both its theme and colour, so it became the anchoring point for my title. The brads and puffy diamonds was just the right amount of texture I was after to finish this off.

Supplies: The Underground PL Kit (card, stamp, alpha stickers, puffy stickers), Chelsea Add On (brads, washi tape), The Underground Main Kit (paper)

Now it's your turn! Make a project using one of this week's sketches as a starting point, then share it in theStudio Calico gallery. Use the hashtag #SCsketch to make it easier for other members to find! Leave us a link to your project by November 3rd in the comments here to be entered to win a $5 GC to the Studio Calico Shop. This week's sketch winner will be announced in the November 7th Layout of the Week post.