A Small Reminder To Live

Life has been a little 'full-on' recently, so I've been taking refuge in my little craft room. Working on some pretty projects is exactly what I need to remember that there is more to life than the commute! 

Oddly, I seem to have found my way back to traditional layouts (I'm usually much more of a mini-book maker) and I'm crediting the ease of using the kits that I made for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge, along with a newly found love of using sketches.

I'll admit that I never used to understand the appeal of sketches. I found them limiting and couldn't seem to make layouts that felt my own. Now though? Oh, well, aren't they amazing?

I think that taking the time to discover the elements that make a layout feel like my own (spritzing, stamping, stitching, soft colours and linear elements) and a wee bit of what I like to think of as 'scrapbooking maturity' mean that now, when I look at a sketch, I know how to adapt it to suit my own tastes. And it's saving me so much time, because I'm not spending endless hours obsessively shuffling papers, photographs and embellishments. Hurrah!

I've based my layout on this lovely sketch that I found in the archives at Stuck?! Sketches. I 'rotated' the sketch, adapted it for 8.5 x 11.5 and shuffled a few of the elements. Simple. 

I stitched up a small banner (using my Pennant Banner Tutorial) with the stamped elements from the 'Autumnal Evening Kit' and added in some cardstock from the 'Summer In The City Kit'. The floral embellishments are extras from stash, as is the white cardstock. I've been so busy making that there are no full sheets left in either of my kits. And, it's looking like I'll need to add in some more, because there's a few more sketches that I'd like to try!