Sketches on Tuesday

I walked past my dining room table, with its scattered assortment of scrapbook papers and photos, a few dozen times over the weekend.  I felt the pull, but ultimately just couldn't figure out what to do.  I even have a layout laid out.  Sort of.  I have photos, uncropped, sitting in a preliminary configuration.  I think I kept passing it by because I just wasn't feeling it - the photo layout - not the desire to complete a page.

I need an idea, people.  And when I do.  I turn to sketches.  They are a great jumping-off point.

Apron Strings is graciously provided a monthly, exclusive sketch from PageMaps creator, Becky Fleck.  They are my go to when I'm looking for inspiration; for un-sticking of the creative process.  In flipping through the website, I liked this PageMaps sketch from July 2014.  

It has a good framework that can be stretched to more photos, two pages or horizontal photos by turning it 90 degrees.  Add more photos to the left and/or right of the current two shown.  Keep the base background layering and run the extra photos right off the edges.

Mirror the image to create two pages.  Make the base background layering a little larger and run photos between them, across the pages.  You could also keep the current base background the same size and, instead, shift the base backgrounds towards the center and run the photos across the pages.

If photos are horizontal, a quick tip of the sketch left or right and you're good to go.  Add more photos above and below.  Mirror the tipped sketch and lay out the photos, grid-style, over the base background.  With the tipped sketch, shift the photo block left or right (eliminating or reducing the base's border - the stripes or floral) to create a more cohesive look between two pages by removing some of the "white space."

This is just one example, created by Summer Fullerton, PageMaps designer, using the sketch.  I love that she moved the circle elements to adjust for her one-photo.

See.  Sketches provide lots of ideas and I haven't even touched my paper yet.  Now I just need to go implement one.

Go.  Create.