Sunday Sketch Challenge

Happy Sunday! Michelle here with you today to share this week's sketch challenge! Just to recap, each Sunday Citrus Twist hosts a scrappy sketch challenge designed to give you a jumpstart on a new layout. You can create with any products you have and if you choose to, you can upload your layout to the CTK Gallery to earn a chance to win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK Store! Sounds pretty fun to me!

Here is today's sketch:

This particular sketch was right up my alley! It calls for lots of layers and little bit of stitching--both of which are two of my favorite techniques. Here is what I did using the July "Mermaid" Add On Kit:

Creating with sketches should always be a "comfortable" experience. What I mean by this, is that you have to remember that a sketch is just that-a sketch. A sketch is a basic blueprint, something that sends you off in a general direction. A sketch is flexible and you can make that sketch work for you. For a long time, I felt compelled to follow a sketch 100% and sometimes this worked, but other times I would struggle with making my products/photos/ideas fit the sketch when I should have been making the sketch fit me.

Take for example today's sketch, even though I loved every bit of it I struggled a bit with the large patterned paper that fits the length of the page. Since I was working with the July Add On Kit, I had to take into consideration the patterned paper that was available. This particular kit comes with a 12x6 piece of specialtypaper (which is beautiful!) and a stack of 6x6 papers. I started out by cutting that larger piece of paper down and layering into under the other patterned papers, but I did not like how it made my color scheme more orange. I wanted a mostly pink and yellow color scheme and I was only okay with using a minimal amount of orange. My solution--forget the long strip of paper on the side and use the smaller patterned paper.

By treating a sketch as a flexible set of guidelines you can keep your creative time stress free and fun!

Remember, if you want to play along with this week's sketch challenge and be eligible to win a prize, create a layout based off of today's sketch and upload it to the CTK Gallery with today's date (7/16) in the title. Good luck!

Michelle