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Using Sketches & The Be Happy Layout

I wanted to, as we kind of open up the segment, just remind you are two goals are for today because we're going to hit on one of these hard in the segment. So remember, we wanted to keep this project manageable, and we want to make it meaningful. So this minute segment is all about making it manageable or helping make it more manageable for you. And the way we're going to do that first is by using some scrapbooks, sketches and sketches are wonderful tool for scrap occurs because aa lot of times figuring out the design for your page is kind of a a time consuming process for a lot of people, you just might be stumbling a little bit. Not sure where to put things, especially if you're new to scrapbooking, you know, where do I put the photo? How does the title go? What about these embellishments? How should I lay those out on the page? And sketches gives you a nice starting point of how to do that. They're easy to find online, like jaco mentioned, you can get a bunch of them and the bonus m...

aterial for this class, but you can also find others online on blog's for manufacturers on pinterest, lots of places, so they're easy to find and they're always available they can be very basic or very detailed. Some sketches will just kind of show you a block for the photograph and maybe where to put your title and journaling and they're very basic and some people like that better because then they feel like they can get creative and not be limited by what the sketch is showing. Other times the sketches are pretty detailed and we'll show you even like the types of pattern paper like a straight paper goes here and a polka dot paper goes there and if you aren't feeling creative, that can be helpful too. And then the final thing about sketches is you have to remember there's no rule to using them, so if you're using a sketch and just not working with your photos and you can't figure out how to get the title to fit because it's a longer title than what they show on the sketch that's ok that's what they're there for you need you can adapt them to fit exactly what you want them to do, so don't be afraid to start off with a sketch but have it morph over time into something that looks completely different by the time you're finished and we're going to practice that technique today by using a sketch this is the sketch of the layout we're going to create or a sketch that were going to base our layout on and you can see that it's so one photo design so right away you can think, well, what else could I do with that one photo? Anybody have an idea sideways you could turn it sideways that's a great tip for sketches in general, you can always flip them a little bit to get a different look now shows like a horizontal four by six but if I didn't have a horizontal four by six but I had to smile like two vertical shots that I could crop down exactly jessica, you could crop them down and fill in that form a four by six space with the smaller photos that's a great idea there's a visual triangle on this page and this is kind of another just little design tip, but I'll share it's appealing to the viewer if they have some guide to where they want their eyes to go. We called a visual triangle, and I usually like tio put my visual triangle around my photographs. So in this example on the sketch you can see there's the embellishment up there with the star in the stark it's just generic it could be any type of embellishment then there's kind of a cluster of a tag and another little rectangle there another little circle off to the side next to the title and then the final third piece of the triangle is down underneath the photo there's another little embellishment there and we're kind of by doing that visual triangle, framing out where we want the person's idol look, focusing in on the photograph on the page, ok? And so, as we talked about there be other photo options for this don't feel limited because your photo size or orientation is not exactly the same as what's on the sketch. Remember it's just it's just a guideline. Another option would be to take out that title block that's on the page, and you could put a photograph there and then, you know, move your title to another part of the layout. So sketches there just a wonderful tool for just getting started, you know, especially if you're not feeling super creative and super confident and where to put the items on your on your layout, they can help a lot. All right, so we are going tio I've been a whole album of just sketches to where they're all four by six, and I forget who it was, but she had a whole album of her sketches. I just followed her sketches and did my whole album made the whole album was done with sketches, so it was fascinating, I got it done, and if you find a sketch that you really love, I mean, some designs just more appeal to yours, you know? Style of scrapbooking you can use that again and again because with different papers and photos and embellishments, you can completely change the look or like he said, you could shift it, you know, on an angle a little bit or if it's blocks in a grid, you could change those two circles in a grid designs there's lots of options there so you guys ready tow play with some paper again? All right? We're going tio work on a layout that is appropriate for anything happy at the title of the page is going to be happy so it could be your baby's first giggle could be a smile, something funny that happened, you know, anything like that goes for this layout for the theme of the layout anyway, and we are going to start with this high up paper we're going to use the b side of it, which is this just diagonal black stripe okay? And what I'm going to do first is to trim off this branding strip again and be sure to say that because you might want to use that on our next page. Actually, while I have my paper term around, maybe we'll just cut all the paper right front and then we'll get to put it together I decided for my photograph here I'm using a black and white a photo of my four kids together um and this is kind of a funny story because it's one of my favorite photos of all four of them, when will was a baby, I was trying to force a lay them all down in a row, and I wanted to take a picture and, of course, three older three, we're not really cooperating too well, go figure and so will his line there. They're all around him, and they're giving me just like the sour face, you know, sourpuss faces until suddenly will to really loudly, really long, and the three of them just started cracking up and that's exactly when I snapped the picture, and it just remains one of my favorite ones. I mean, some of them are a little blurred, like my daughter's little blurred in the picture, but I just thought it was so funny, and I'll always remember that moment, they just got a kick out of that, so scrapbook, those funny stories as well as the big moment, I'm just going, tio matt, this photograph on a little bit of white card stock and I'm this is a case where I'm just kind of eyeballing it. It was just gonna help it stand out a little bit on the yellow paper that we're gonna put it against. So I'm gonna actually do like, a double man and you know, I don't matt every photo of mine, I actually probably leave them on mad at most of the time, but because this was black and white and it was going to go against the yellow paper, I just felt like it needed a little bit of separation help it stand out a little bit, so it's really kind of a personal preference. Some people matt, every photo, or they have their photos printed with a white border already around them. So it's really kind of what you like best. All right, so then I'm going to take the yellow grid paper that we've used before and the other layout, you should have a pretty big piece of it left over, and I'm going to cut a five by seven photo mat. You can go ahead and it here, your photo to the yellow background if you want. You know what? Actually, I put adhesive on mine, but I think I'm going to use some piece of foam instead so you can use that he's a foam on photographs to it doesn't just have to be small embellishments, and this is especially nice if you want to slide something underneath, a photo can give it a little bit of dimension and then give yourself some room underneath. Okay, I'm gonna set that aside because I'm not going to use this I'm not going to tear it down to my page just yet, there's some other things we need to do to the background first, so go ahead and take your background paper and we want to find this washi tape the role of washing tape you might have to open yours up and fieldstone in washington is great for scrap of me scrapbooking because it's a little bit forgiving in terms of attacking us or stickiness, you can lay it down on paper, and if you're careful, you can usually pull it back up, and it comes with so much extra on the role that they last for a long, long time. We should just say that you're using a set that came from calico. This was all part of the studio calico k way, thank you for being a sponsor from finding us with these kids today, okay? So member on the sketch, there were some strips of it looked like pattern paper, something we're going to use the washing tape in place of the pattern paper and we're just going to kind of make our own little background so I'm going to do is just and again, this is kind of different for me because I usually don't like to eyeball things, but I'm just going to kind of stretch it across and place it down sort of down the center of my page some of them will overlap a little bit and you want to go about not halfway down your page maybe a little bit more than halfway down and this is such a like nice pattern of washington that almost looks like pattern paper when you stacking on top of each other like this great one nice eyes once you put it into into stripes it actually looks like a random pattern it's really cool I just think it's taking what's not to love kind of therapeutic okay so how's everyone's washy coming I love that christine has been very precise she's cutting hers before you know controversial thing are you like a washing terror and I don't know thank you cut lettuce or do you tear it oh I'm a terror when it comes to you yeah here it also ok for those of you who are finished with putting down the washing tape what I'm going to show you is sometimes you can use reuse the things that are used primarily as functional items in the kit like this tag was used to wrap the fabric around we're just going to completely unwrap it and now we can use the tag on our pages and embellishment to it has the manufacturers branding stamp on the bottom but if we just flip it over it's ready to go as a great tag thank you best challenges I've ever done is use your packaging, you know, then you really have to think outside the box felt right, right? Ok, so the next step is going to involve some stamping and we're going to use this envelope remember this envelope that came in the kit and I said at the time it would be a great place to add some extra photographs because it's a four by six envelopes you could slide extra photos in there we're going to use it sort of is a place to add journaling so you could always a journal on a four by six cards or just turned down a piece of paper and slide it inside and this is a great way and this this page doesn't really need it because it's not like a deep personal pages just a funny story but if you have pages like that where you don't feel comfortable having your journaling out for the world to see, you can always slip it into one of these envelopes and it's a little bit more private you know it's in there your family will know it's in there but it's not really out there for everybody to see okay, so we want to stamp the title of our page, which is be happy and that's in the stamps were going to use the stamps with some black ink, so you know black, incompatible and the stamp has actually three pieces to it, which is fun. There's to be happy, part there's an arrow and then there's the siri's of one through five numbers with circle so that's really nice whenever you open up a brand new package of these clear stamps. There's a little tip I wanted to give you. And first we're gonna put the stamp onto the acrylic block. So if you've never used clear stamps before, the great thing about them is they're clear. So you can see through to where your stamp and you can get your positioning just right on that's really nice for people who are perfectionists. And I want to know the rubber stamps for kind of hard because you would just kind of you know, this looks good. Stamp it down. The clear stance are great for that reason. So you want to add it to your acrylic block, which could be there on your table, and it just clings on to him. And if you ever find that your stamps after using them again and again from the oils of your hand and things will start to lose their stickiness. If you just wash them with some dish soap and just watch the back of him and let him dry, it will regain the stickiness again, which is nice. But when you have a brand new stamp like this what I like to do first is you almost have to kind of like season the stamp a little bit to get a nice crisp image and I like to just use an eraser from a pencil and I just like a race over the stand before I can't get up and I was kind of look silly but I just race over and for some reason this really helps season it or make it stand better for the first time you only have to do this the first time that every time you use it I don't know if it rough it up for what it does but okay then you're just gonna think up the stamp some people like to hold the acrylic lock with a stamp and put think on this by other people like teo you know dab it in the bank up to you and then I'm going to do kind of a test image just to make shirts working right my looks pretty good and then this is going to get stamps just on the top flap about on blow again because it's clear you can see right or you're putting up there's my title okay I'm gonna fix my twine here it's not in a way and then you can hear this down on your layout and again you could go back and add journaling when a car slide it inside and it's gonna go kind of on the right hand side about there. Once you have that on blow down, then you can take your photo and put that on and that's going to sort of just go the bottom centre of the page. Actually, I should I should remember to tell you to just put it, he said. Maybe on the sides of this, I put it on all mine, but I'm we're going to slide a tag behind there, so leave some of it free of it, he says. You can apply the tag underneath we had a question coming to cole, you're on this saying, just talking, how does budget affect your decisions if I'm on a scrapbooking budget, which which isom should I prioritize first let's say you, you know you don't have access to all of this wonderful materials. How would you prioritize? Well, probably first are some of the tools, like a good paper, you know, paper tremors, you khun trim down your pattern papers, adhesive, maybe some journaling pen so you can write the stories down and then I would recommend just, you know, looking for the colors that really appealed to you most in terms of papers and embellishments if you buy too many themed items. That seems to be it can eat up your budget really quickly. And you might only do one page with them. But look for papers and embellishment that are more generic and justin colors that you use normally. You know that appeal to you. Great. And the food? We are still working the sketches here in this particular segment. So when you sketch, do you always create a digital schedule? Do you work things out in pencil? I usually do it in pencil. Yeah, right hand. Yes, I like to write things out and draw them on hand. In that way, I can kind of narrow in. Okay, this is where the photos going to go, where the title is going to go to. Definitely. I'm more of a hands on. Okay, so we have our envelope with the title than the photo on the mat. They were going to take this great tag and just slip this underneath. And actually, if you want, tio, you can take a little strip of this, um, your sucker fabric and use it to tie off your tag. I'm gonna do that just to add a little bit of texture there. This fire is getting a lot of value for your budget in terms of scrapbooking, you know, these kits are wonderful because there's a lot of stuff in here and when we were going to make for different layouts with just what's in the kits and you'll see at the end you're still going to have a pile of supplies left over so you really can get a lot out of these kits. Okay, call everything you put to us at home. Do you build them into an album? Every time we had a question actually, that came in on line that they were saying eyes your way to display these beautiful pages in your home so that others could soon. So do you keep your albums out so that visitors can see them? This? Well, well, it's, how you use them? Yeah, my albums air out in my have kind of an area where I scrap booking a set of shelves. And so my albums are out there and I have them on the bottom here the shelf so the kids can pull them out when they want tio it does seem a shame a little bit. They think these beautiful things and then we stick him into a book. I have seen people who like to hang them up, maybe on a rod that they have on the wall, and then you can hang the layouts from it and maybe cycle through is you make new ones that be a great way to do display them think they also have twelve by twelve layout frames for that purpose where you could display them in your child's room maybe you know each time you make a layout about them maybe you display it for a little bit in their room so it's a good idea okay, so we have our tag here and the ribbon tied off and you do have some or a piece of this and then we're gonna put a little bit of an embellishment here on the side of the tag and it could be from this little stamp book you can use any of the ones in here really that that you like I'm going to use the one that says yea on the first page I think it goes well with the theme of my play out here and I think I'm going to use him and he's a found to just pop that up a tag and just tuck it underneath the photo mat it's kind of on an angle and you could use this tag for more journaling another option is you could switch the tag out completely and put another little photo there if you want it lots of way to tow customize it location about like the film itself I get nervous about three d things and then putting an album and having just this huge album that doesn't close like is that it's a mass we worry about are just you know, I kind of go by the thickness of these I feel like I'm ok with doing something about this thick, just that's personally, what I find if it's super super bulky, yeah, I don't like either because what can happen is when you close your album, those two kind of put pressure on each other and can work the page or dent the page next to it. But everything else is flat here, it's only, you know, behind the photo itself, and you should always store your scrapbook standing up instead of stacking them on top of each other because the weight of all that will kind of warp your page is a little bit and try to if you have the space, stand them up on a shelf or something so that they don't do that. Okay, so the final little bit of this page is going to be just some embellishing, and I decided that I wanted tio put the initial of our last name at the top of this page just to personalize it. So I'm going to use these kind of clear plastic letters. No there's numbers in here is, well, remember I said that these air probably more useful for embellishing just because they're so big it would take up a lot of room on your page if you're going to spell out a title I'm gonna find an s you could find whichever letter you want if it's just a photograph of one child, you could put their first initial first name initial and then next to that I'm going to use one of those metal rim tags right up here, and I decided to personalize that further. I'm going to put a four with the wooden veneer letter or numbers, I'm sorry you should have their, um so it says s for since it before samuels kids and this is another good embellishment to use a stapler for because it's clear, you know, I was explaining to you how I had gotten stuck in my scrapbook, right? With the, um the baby being baby, baby and doing this, I realized what it was I didn't want to do, baby, baby, this isn't baby baby, I'm liking this a lot better, it's not pink and blue, and I'm loving what you're teaching us because I'm getting inspired tio good, perfect and that's that can be, I think, hard because you just see those pink and blue baby, you know, baby theme papers, and that might be nice at first when they're wearing their little pink and blue blanket of the hospital and things like that, but if they go, you know, get older there they're not always wearing thinking on all your pages can start to look the same if that's all you're going to use in your scrapbook and I think that that was what was happening with that scrap it goes trying to start but now I'm really enthused good, good I'm glad to hear that okay, so I have asked for appear at the top and we're trying to do that visual triangle thing remember that design idea that creating a visual triangle on your page so I have the letter appear the f four have a little tag cluster right here which I could add more journaling two or some journaling too and then I need something down here so I'm going to put another of those metal rim tags and then I'm going to just write the date online you could write the child name you could write anything so this was from january of two thousand ten and the nice thing since we popped the picture up a little bit without a piece of foam you should be able to slide this underneath so it just ekes out a little bit okay, so what do you think you like that did the sketch give you an idea of where you were going with it kind of just lays it out a little bit so you have a good starting point and again there would have been wiggle room there tio make it work for your specific photos. And I love how. Jessica used the two smaller vertical photos in the place of the four by six that's. Great, fabulous! Thank you so much.