Sketch it in 2008!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wow! Another year has zipped right by and we're on to the next one already. Are you ready? I think I am. I'm ready to be more organzied, more daring, more energetic, and more creative!!!!

However, I'm sure that for some of you the start of a new year (or the start of anything) can be difficult to just get going. I often find that cleaning up my studio helps get me into a creative mood because I have a clean desk to work on once again. Sometimes purging some of my supplies (because we all know that we have waaaaay too much! ;)) is another great way to get that mojo back ... because we now have room for some new products to give us inspiration!

I know for me the best way to get my creative juices flowing is to sit down and make sketches in my notebook. Maybe it's because I'm such a visual kind of person. Now, I admit that I'm not the type who can just sit & make up any kind of sketch. I usually have my photos picked out and then start from there. I may end up sketching several designs before something really clicks. But when it does ... IT DOES! And then I can't wait to get started!

It has been a few weeks since I have worked on a layout because I have busy working on class projects for the month of December (which included NO layouts) so this past week I had to sit down with my sketch book. I needed to work on a layout for my LSS. We were given a kit of paper, buttons, die-cuts and a journaling topic to work with. So that was what I had to work with plus the photo that I was going to use. After a few designs this is the one that I finally went with.

And here is my layout that I created for my LSS using this sketch.

As you can see from my sketch I didn't follow it exactly. That's the beauty of a sketch. It's just that. You have complete freedom to do whatever your heart desires! Instead of having a circle with journaling behind the photo I just put the journaling on a rectangular piece of patterned paper.

I would like to encourage you to try sketching your layouts & projects - especially if you've never done it before. In fact, start tomorrow. Go out and buy yourself a little sketch book & a fun pencil (with eraser! ;)) and start drawing away! Then have fun creating your pages!

Wishing you a Blessed & Happy New Year!

~ Cari