School Scrappin'

Sometimes it can be hard to scrap pictures from school.  If you're lucky enough to have a school that even sends home an occasional picture, it is generally just one.  I personally don't generally do single photos or single page layouts, but sometimes school things have to be an exception for me.  Since those go in the kids' personal scrapbook, they cause me less trouble than in the family albums.

Anyway, The Boy has been receiving speech therapy since he was 2 years old, and this April he was finally able to "graduate" out of services (he is 6).  The SLP at school is so sweet, she sent home a graduation photo and a diploma, so of course they are headed for his scrapbook.  It can be hard to include large items like a letter-size diploma on a traditional scrapbook layout, so I have a little tip.  I love to use sketches for my layouts, so for this one I opted to flip through a sketch book, looking for a specific type of pattern.  I looked for one with a single vertical photo on one page, and a grouping of photos close to a combined size of 8.5 x 11.

I recently ordered volume 7 of Sketches for Scrapbooking from Scrapbook Generation Publishing, and that's where I found the perfect sketch!   Here's my layout:

Obviously, I can't share the actual sketch here, but I do have a couple more tips about this.  First, the sketch called for a die-cut paper, so I just cut my own using Make The Cut software.  Also, the sketch showed a line of trees on the right page as embellishments.  I changed them to "award" rosettes and added ribbon tails to the largest one.  All of the rosettes are also cut from Make The Cut, using SVGs from the Accordion Fold Rosettes set from Lettering Delights.  Finally, all of my main pieces are sponged on the edges using coordinating stamping ink for added dimension - it just makes everything feel more "finished".

If you like the style of this sketch, you can visit Sketch Support, where Allison (one of the SG designers) offers free sketches weekly for double-page, single-page, or cards, plus bonus sketches.  Be sure to let her know that I sent you!  You can also buy any of 7 volumes of sketches for scrapbooking, plus 2 volumes of sketches for cardmaking.

Sorry, all of my pattern papers are from my stash (discontinued).  The title was cut using my Cricut and Plantin Schoolbook, welded on the Gypsy.