Sunday Sketch with Andrea

Hello there everyone! Its Andrea here today with your Sunday Sketch! First off, lets look at our sketch:



Alright, now that you have seen the sketch, check out what I did with it to make my layout, using the super beautiful, fresh and bright January Kit, “Jameson”, from Citrus Twist:

I know what you are thinking, the sketch is for a 12x12 layout and mine is well...not 12x12! But I've said this before and I'll say it again, 12x12 sketches can be easily used to make layouts of other sizes. In this case, I have adapted the 12x12 sketch for my 8 ½ x 11 size layout. You can do the same. Just apply the components of the sketch, adjusted to fit your size preference. Sketches are here to help you and they are not set in stone. The point is to inspire you and give you a template, or a foundation if you will, to then build off of.

The size is not the only thing that is flexible with a sketch... As you can see with my layout, there are certain ideas that I stuck to very specifically and some that I chose to bend a little to my own creative will. One example of an exact adherence to the sketch is my use of three pictures – and specifically three pictures coordinated in this way with one large one on the right side and two smaller on the left and a bit lower down on my page. This is definitely an unusual combo for me – I don't normally use three pictures like this where one is much larger than the others and if I did, it wouldn't be my first inclination to line them up in this way. But this is the fun of sketches, you get out of your box and start working those creativity muscles, really stretching them out in ways you didn't even know they could go!

I really love the look of this layout because of the size and arrangement of the pics on the page. It looks really cool and I think it works perfectly for my subject matter as well which is of course, Valentines Day and my funny Valentine, my hubby Ryan! I knew I wanted to make a fun Valentines Day layout for my hubby and the three pics in the sketch along with the two titles that are called for in the sketch (at the top and bottom of the page) are what actually led me to making this layout not just about Valentines Day and our love, but how silly we are and how much I love that about us! I decided to use the beautiful exclusive blue puffy alphas from the January kit to spell out “Be Mine” at the top and I used the pretty script from Fancy Pants for the “laugh” title at the bottom. The combination of these words chose my theme for me. Without this sketch, I don't know if I would have been inspired to tell this specific story and it makes me really happy that I did because it is a special one which says a lot about who we are as a couple.

As for the “bending the rules” that I talked about before, there are a few things in the sketch that I tweeked a little. I chose to use hearts instead of stars (for Valentines Day) I chose to cluster a lot of the embellishment pieces together (along with the tag in the sketch) instead of having them spread out more. As you can see, for these embellishments, I had lots of fun with the exclusive pieces from the January kit, especially the pretty resin hearts and the fun cut apart labels and pieces from the ephemera pack. I also chose to put the second title over on the right side of the page instead of the left. I used the sketch to fit me and my style and I think it works great!

I hope that this has inspired you to use our Sunday Sketch here at Citrus Twist and to use your fantastic January kit/s to make a fun layout with the sketch that specifically fits you and your style! I can't wait to see what you all do with today's sketch! Remember to upload your take on the sketch to the gallery and you will be entered to win a $5 gift certificate to the Citrus Twist Kits store! Remember to put the date of the sketch on your title line! Please also share your creations with us on Instagram, just hashtag your pics with #ctksundaysketch and #citrustwistkits !

Xoxoxo ~ Andrea