Sketch Day with Laura Wonsik

Welcome to the February edition of Sketch Day here on the Elle’s Studio blog! Today we have design team member Laura Wonsik sharing a beautiful layout created from a sketch inspired by Heather Leopard’s I Love You More Than layout from our January reveal, and she’s sharing how she tackles a sketch to create something original.
 

 
Hello! I am so excited to be here talking about using sketches to scrapbook. Sketches can be used however you want—you can interpret them loosely or exactly. Here is my advice when you approach scrapbooking with a sketch.
 

 
There are three main elements in any scrapbook layout: journaling, photos and embellishments. When you look at a sketch, you might find yourself assuming that certain parts of the sketch are “supposed” to represent one of those three things. For example, when I looked at this sketch I thought of the gray square as representing the photo, the stars and hearts representing embellishments and the circle lines representing journaling. For the most part, that’s what I ended up doing. But, I considered all sorts of other options before landing on my final page design.
 

 
Supplies | February 2018 Kit, Shapes and Dots Puffy Stickers, Gray Puffy Alphabet Stickers, All the Details Stamp, Family Fun 12″ x 12″ Paper Collection
 
I looked at each piece of the sketch and thought about how it could be each of the three elements of the page. The stars and hearts could be represented by star photos, star or heart-shaped journaling tags or embellishments like puffy stickers, which is what I ended up using. The gray square could be a block of journaling, a photo or a pretty piece of patterned paper. The other thing I considered was rotating the entire page a variety of different ways. The more you think outside of the box, the more versatile sketches can be.
 

 
I started with the circle element. I looked around my room for anything circular to trace and found this old die cut. I curved “remember this” from the All the Details Stamp to fit around the circle and repeated it.
 

 
Then, I placed the stars and hearts I wanted to use from the Shapes and Dots Puffy Stickers around to get a sense of where they could work. Here’s a trick: use the plastic that the stickers come on to move the element around without sticking it down.
 

 
Then, I loosely interpreted the other pieces as indicating groupings of embellishments. I added two patterns from the Family Fun 12″ x 12″ Paper Collection under my photo and topped it with a couple of die cuts from the February Kit to place my journaling and the date.
 

 
I decided to let the title, created with the Gray Puffy Alphabet Stickers, follow the curve of the circle. I added texture by stitching around the circle a few times with white thread. The layout background felt too empty so I added a few circles, punched from the circle paper in the Family Fun 12″ x 12″ Paper Collection and stamped with “this smile” from the All the Details Stamp, leading in a visual path from the bottom left to the upper right.
 
Thanks so much for checking this out and I hope you feel ready to tackle this sketch yourself! Happy crafting!
 

 
Are you inspired by this sketch? We’d love to see what YOU create! Share your project on Instagram using the hashtag #EllesStudio! You could win a gift certificate to the shop and be featured here on our blog, just for sharing!