Sketch-Inspired Pockets with Meg Gundlach

Hi friends! It’s Meg here to celebrate the release of From Sketch To Finish Vol. 6 and share a little about how I use sketches for my pocket pages. I’ve never really been a scraplifter that wants to exactly reproduce a page; often it’s a technique or combination of products that grabs my eye. To the great frustration of pretty much any creative course I’ve ever taken, I instead revel in using the individual pieces and making something totally different. I have always loved the abstract way that a sketch makes my thoughts start rolling and all the possibilities that they present.  

Supplies | June 2021 Kit, June Labels, Vacation Details 4 x 6 inch Journaling Tags, Navy Parker Acetate Alphabet Stickers, Good Times Paper Stack, Celebrate Summer Stamp, Weekend Stamp, Knockout Words Metal DieFrom Sketch To Finish Vol 6 – digital class with physical stamp 

When working in pocket pages, a lot of the design choices have already been made and it may seem like there is little to be gained from a sketch—not so! Rather than focusing on the overall design, I’m able to hone in on all the specific details that can be replicated to any scale or distributed around the spread. With this in mind, I opened my shiny new printout of From Sketch To Finish Vol. 6 to see what piqued my interest. I made it all the way to Page 1…and here we are. So, if you have the digital class flip open to Page 1 and see if you can spot what I was vibing. If not, come along anyway as we walk through the details of my spread.      

Right away, this sketch invited me to make a page involving a list. Lists make me think of tours, where I often like to label a variety of sites across the spread. The repeated use of hearts and ‘love’ themed stamps drew me to my anniversary trip to Paris. Because that was a weekend away, I could also pull in some of the elements from the June Kit and new Weekend Stamp. All of these thoughts jumped out by opening the cover and turning to Page 1. That’s when you know things are getting good!   

The easiest way to dive right into the sketch was through the title tag. Here I replicated the stacked words and stamped bullet points, both of which were easily scaled to pocket size. In place of a third level I pulled in the Weekend Stamp—‘together this weekend’ was the whole point of the trip! 

Within the sketch, the majority of the writing is intended to be placed in the list. I had a little more to say and the Vacation Details 4 x 6 inch Journaling Tags are a product that just keeps giving. I only had a 3 x 4 inch pocket available, but it was a simple matter to cut the tag in half. I would happily use these tags on every single page I make. 

I decided to break down the list as it was designed and instead stamp/print directly onto the individual photos. Each cluster has a different combination of stamps as suggested in the sketch. Because the ‘love’ theme worked great for the spread I was making, I followed it pretty closely but I’m already planning ways to reuse this technique mixing in a whole variety of Elle’s stamp themes.  

The final element pulled from the sketch was the combination of the Knockout Words Metal Die and the faux stitching stamp from the From Sketch To Finish Vol. 6 Stamp. A small scrap of vellum underneath separated the knocked-out heart from my busy photo and I stapled through the stitching because I simply can’t help myself. Though this piece only appears once in the sketch, I had a bigger canvas to work with so I repeated it on either side. I also used the stitched stamp similarly with the ‘hello weekend’ die cut from the June Kit to tie (stitch?!) it all together.  

Guys, I only made it to Page 1 of From Sketch To Finish Vol 6 and I am already overwhelmed with inspiration. My printout is so full of sticky notes that it looks like I’m studying for an exam! I would love to hear which sketches you have adapted to other memory keeping formats and please keep using the #ellesstudio hashtag so we can check them out!

See what creative possibilities are in store for you using our newest self-paced sketch class, From Sketch To Finish Vol. 6!