{Before I begin, I must give credit to my awesome logo designer SoapHOUSE Mama! Thanks so much!}
Over the past few weeks, I have mentioned the NEW Designs by Ashley Rock Sketch Book that I am in LOVE with! Well, Ashley also puts out new sketches on her blog each month. This month she tied a challenge along in with it that I couldn’t wait to join in on!
This month’s sketch left a lot of room for playing around and totally making it into something of my own.
After choosing to use the Pink Paislee Prairie Hill collection, I grabbed the Spool paper and went along one entire edge with one of my border punches. {Can’t remember the name of this one but it is produced by EK Success and I really love it because I can hide the dots under something and just have small scallops.}
For the semi-circle of the Hilltop paper, I used the lid of a CD holder and just traced around it and cut it out by hand. {Who needs a circle cutter?}
Next up, was taking my trusty Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink to ink each edge of the papers. The scrap that I cut off the punched strip was then flipped over and placed at the top of my layout and stapled down with my Tiny Attacher.
At this point the circle looked as if it was floating so I went around the outer edge with an Ultra Fine black marker. I wasn’t pleased with how that looked so I went over it with some sketchy white doodles. {You will see more pen work in a moment.}
Now it was time to work on coordinating embellishments. I grabbed the new Unity Itty Bitty Noted By stamp and inked it up with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I found one lonely #3 white shipping tag in my stash {note to self: need more, PRONTO!} to stamp it on.
I cut down the Note to Self tag, and pulled out two yellow Martha Stewart tags and a Paper Dozen label. I inked the two mini tags and label with more Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink. I also cut down the twine on the mini tags and re-knotted them.
The label by Paper Dozen needed a bit of texture so I grabbed a stamp from the CTMH Rock the Block set and inked it up with Memento Tuxedo Black to stamp on the background.
I did a little bit more work on each of the embellishments. Some Cappuccino Twine from The Twinery accented the label and tied in some buttons. Some more Chicken Wire stamping on the tiny tags and then added a Kraft Sticker {also from Paper Dozen}. I also grabbed some brads and I was ready to put this layout together.
Finally time to put things together and make it whole. I grabbed two photos from my 30th birthday party (Yes, my husband had the cupcake cake made like a tombstone and he knows payback is coming for his 40th.} and starting finding every item’s home on the layout. You can also see some of the other pen work that I did in the corners of the Kite Strings paper.
You didn’t think I would leave the corner all alone did you? I grabbed a few more buttons and twine and then the bottom section of the tag to dress up that corner. When I punched the boarder strip, I loved the ledger on the backside of the Spool paper. I decided to keep the circles and use them to connect the big circle and the corner together.
I had some of the circles leftover after putting them in the corner so I decided to put them down with the label die cut. I also grabbed some Basic Grey alphas {totally need these in the Silhouette Shop} and added my title.
The punched circles needed something so I went through with my ultra fine black marker and added a little accent to each fo them as if they were bubbles on the page.
The tiny tags got a basic when and where added to them so that I wouldn’t forget.
After creating this, it doesn’t scream “Birthday Party” to me which I totally love. I like the toned down feeling although it was a milestone birthday.
Although tomorrow if the last day to enter the sketch challenge for this month, go take a look at Ashley’s site. You will definitely want to follow and play along next month. You also might want to pick up her Sketch Designs book. I love it because it is isn’t big and bulky. Totally easy to carry with me or not take up my entire workspace at home.