CREATE With Me

If you've been visiting me for a while you know a few basic things about me:

1. I LOVE sketches and patterns on which to base my work. They leave out the hard work and let me concentrate on the "fun" part.
2. I generally work with only certain brands of paper. I have found over the years that quality matters when I'm putting things together, and certain brands also fit my style(s) more than others. So, you're likely to see things on my blog using Close To My Heart (of course), Graphic 45, Echo Park/Carta Bella, and My Mind's Eye, with the occasional rogue brand thrown in.
3. I dig a good challenge. I like to stretch myself with different challenges and see how my projects are similar and different from other people's choices.

So, when one of my favorite places decided to produce a digital scrapbook magazine (the magazine is digital, not my scrapbooking, lol), I was all in! (Yes, pictures are coming I promise - keep reading!)  I have been in love with the sketches from Scrapbook Generation for a long time. The clean lines fit my style and I find them easy to modify if I need something slightly different. For the premier issue, they wanted items for their Readers Gallery that fit 3 of their specific sketches. I submitted to each category and had the pleasure of having all 3 selected for publication! Here are my projects that were published in the January issue of CREATE magazine.

For this 2-page layout, I used mostly Bella Blvd products, along with CTMH cardstock and Epiphany Crafts shape tool and star bubble caps. I modified their sketch slightly by rotating the left page to use a landscape main photo instead of portrait.  You can find this project on page 197.

This single page layout was so much fun to create. It is the title page for a vacation album, and can I say that I just love how the focus is really on that dragon head?!  You know I don't do single pagers anymore, except first & last in an album, so I want them to be extra special and this fit the bill perfectly. Graphic 45, Bazzil CS (it seriously looks like leather guys), and title cut with my Cameo using fonts on the computer.  You can find this one on page 206 of CREATE.

This is one of my favorite manly cards I have ever made. Echo Park paper & stickers, CTMH & Bazzill CS, and Epiphany Crafts round bubble caps & setting make a masculine but not-so-serious card. Both the Mustache and speech bubble are from the Artiste Cricut cartridge. You can see this card in a spotlight on page 215 of CREATE.

I would love it if you go check out this fabulous new magazine. And, did you know that Scrapbook Generation is also a scrapbook STORE? They have a fabulous brick & mortar in Springfield, Missouri. My goal is to someday go to one of their fabulous weekend crops, but it is quite a drive from Northeastern Illinois! Luckily for all of us, they also have a newly revamped online store where they carry many of my favorite brands, as well as all of their fabulous sketchbooks in hard copy and digital format. I receive absolutely no compensation for saying that I highly recommend them!

Thank you for sharing in my excitement today! I'd love to read your comments, then be sure to go download your copy of CREATE and see all of the other designs using these same sketches, plus some great articles.