What About Wednesday: Laura’s October Sketch Challenge

Aloha Sparklers!! Autumn is truly here this week. The temperature is a whole whomping 65 and cloudy. It has me craving pumpkin spice coffees, apple cider donuts and toasty warm socks. I also have been itching to starting scrapping all my fall photos. In rich tones with lots of layers.

This week I decided to take on design team member Laura’s sketch challenge. I have been using a ton of sketches this autumn. I think partly because I have been so busy with other stuff like school and housework (the typical mom stuff) that I don’t have as much time to sit and think of ways to get creative on my pages. I need that little jump start to my scrappy mojo to get going.

I love how simple this sketch is because it offers so much in terms of making it mine. I can keep it simple or go all out and make more complicated if I want it that way. I did a little of both.

I started off by using a white card stock background with a title and sub title sketched on using my silhouette sketch pens. I bought a big pack of them when I got my silhouette and never used them.. To be honest I was a little intimidated by them. They seemed so complicated, even though the truth is they are super easy to use. Replace the blade with the sketch pen, pick out a design or font to use, and hit send to silhouette (with sketch pens checked instead of the blade depth) and your silhouette does the work. It looks so cool too!!

For the background I used lots of different Autumn colors to create splatters. I watered down acrylic paint, Shimmerz Dazzlerz,  and used some Shimmerz Vibez in Four Leaf Clover green and  Razzle-dazzle Berry. I used my paint brush to let the paint drop off into droplets on the page. I wanted it to have a natural and random feel. I knew where my photo was going to go so I picked places around the center and smaller droplets near the title.

I kept my layers simple. I went with rich tones that remind me of Autumn. I put dimensional tape in between the layers to create some shadows.

I really love the way this doily gives this layout a feminine feel with all the colors. It adds a softness against the straight lines. I also tied a cute little bow with baker’s twine and hung it across the bottom of the picture.

I scattered heart felties and Autumn Joy sequins at bottom of the picture, instead of on the baker twine, like the sketch suggested. I also scattered A Day In The Woods sequins with the Autumn Joy sequins around the layout, mainly in the paint splatters. I added some new Shimelle Go Now Go transparent leave stickers throughout the splatters. I love the way it looks like leaves blowing around off my photo.

This is one of my favorite photos I have taken this Autumn season. It is nothing special, I actually snapped this early one morning while I was waiting for the puppy to finish going to the bathroom outside. She is still at that stage where she needs to be watched and make sure she doesn’t play too much. We have this old tree stump, that I stand on so my feet stay dry. The puppy loves to come join me. My comfy slippers help keep my feet warm too. This is my favorite plaid shirt too, it’s flannel and so warm. Perfect for the chilly mornings we have here in Washington. I have missed this special time of the year where sweaters are necessary and the air is crisp. The smell of dry leaves and chimney smoke in the air is so refreshing especially since I have lived in more city areas for about 6 or so years.

I added some old Pink Fresh Studio wood pieces on some feltie clouds. They are perfect for this layout. It adds a fun touch without being really heavy.

This Maggie Holmes Gather tag and chip board piece add a cute touch too. The little touch of pink matches the pink collar Kona my puppy is wearing.

I drew journaling lines at the bottom of the layout under the title. I journaled away. I really love how it looks with my own handwriting on my layouts. It has this homemade feel to it.

Here is a look at the full layout! I really love how this turned out. It was really fun using this sketch. I definitely think I am going to use this sketch again and tweak a few things to make it a little, because it is so open to do that.

I hope you check out this sketch and Laura’s challenge this month. Play along by adding your take in our Facebook Group.

Well Sparklers my time this is done. I hope you join me later this month for some more inspiration!!

Hannah