Play Like You're in the Big Leagues

Hi everyone,

Today I'm back to using the Canadian Winter paper collection because it's winter time in Canada, the hockey season has started, and my grandson is so gosh darned cute!  *Big Grandma smile here.*

First game away for this 5 year old, and don't cha know you gotta dress in a suit and tie the way the NHL players do?

For this layout, I decided to use a sketch by Page Maps.  I'm going to put it in an 8-1/2"x11" album, so I thought this sketch would be perfect.

Because I didn't want Greyson's hockey bag to be covered by the embellishments, I flipped the sketch in my Publisher program, and layered my photo over top to figure out what size it needed to be printed at.

Then I decided to throw another couple of photos in.  Since I print my photos at home, this helps me to save on paper and ink, by having everything sized down to the dimensions required before printing.  (This is all still on my computer screen.)

Here you can see the photos after they came out of the printer.  I threw an extra one on to use up the bottom of the paper.  (I have a very specific layout planned for THAT one!)  LOL

Here's the base of my layout.

The base with photos.

The finished layout with embellishments from the ephemera pack.

The thing I like about sketches, is that if you're mojo is totally gone, they give you a point to start at... and then the rest starts to flow as you work.  

I hope this little tutorial might have helped a little when you're using a sketch.  You change a few things to suit the style of picture you have, and the type of embellishments you're using... the point of a sketch is to get you started!

Happy creating!

Linda

I'm a Calgary Girl

Hi everyone!

I have been very nostalgic this past week, and as I was going through some old photos from my childhood, I found one of myself shortly after I was born.  Since I was born in Calgary, I started to think about how I could use this photo with the City Lights collection.

I decided to start a mini family album about my childhood and thought my birth would be a good beginning!

This page measures 6" wide x 8" tall.  I find that making smaller pages like this are a good way to use up scraps!

This sketch from Page Maps, was the starting point that I used for my page.

I duplicated the basic shapes on Cricut Design Space, in order to know what dimensions to cut my mats at.

To add some texture and softness in the background, I cut a doily die cut in half, inked it with Antique Linen distress ink, and placed it in the diagonal top and bottom corners of the page.  The paper I used for the doily, as well as the ribbons and other embellishments, were just bits and pieces that I found in my stash that I felt went well with the City Lights paper.

The flair button worked well for the circular image that was shown on the Page Maps sketch.  All paper edges were inked with Antique Linen distress ink, except for the brick wall piece.  On that one I used Rusty Hinge distress ink.

In the photo above, underneath the ruffled ribbon, I placed a strip of paper that I cut from the packaging from City Lights, seen below.  It worked well because the images were smaller versions of the paper collection and are printed on paper that is the same quality. 

In this corner I couldn't resist using some very old pearl bling that I had in my stash.  It is very satisfying to use pieces that you have been hoarding for awhile!

I cut the word "Calgary" from one of the papers in the City Lights collection.  This is a photo of the Calgary skyline in 1957 that I found with a google search. 

I was also able to find out the weather on the day I was born, by going to Weather Underground and entering the date I was searching for.  It was sunny and 77 degrees F!  (25 degrees C for you metric people!)

Thanks for following me on this journey down memory lane!  Do check back on Friday, when Katelyn will be here to share one of her amazing projects with you!

Linda