Stretch a Sketch

How to turn single layouts into spreads

Sketches are one of the best ways to get a jump-start on a scrapbook page. Whether you’re scribbling your own sketches or drawing inspiration from someone else’s, start by examining the photos you’ve chosen for your layout. If you have five photos to include on your page, find or draw a five-photo sketch that suits the photos’ orientations. If you have ten photos—and you don’t want to miniaturize them to fit in a 12 x 12 space—take that five-photo sketch and turn it into a spread!

There are lots of different ways to “spread out” a design. Some approaches involve doubling (or nearly doubling) the number of photos, while others might require enlarging the photos’ sizes—but the most important thing to remember is to let your images be your guide. In other words, rather than forcing your pictures to fit a sketch, force the design to fit your pictures.

The following four designers did just that. With two single-page sketches to start with, these scrapbookers flipped, rotated, mirrored, enlarged, and stretched their way to two-page success—without pulling a single muscle along the way!

Five-Photo Sketch

Flip

Valerie copied the sketch exactly on the left-hand page of this scrapbook spread, with one exception: she replaced one photo with a 3 x 3 square of patterned paper. This brilliant move broke up a row of very uniform photos (all in the same muted hues), which draws more attention to them. For the facing page, Valerie simply flipped the design horizontally, so it’s a mirror image of the first page. The result: automatic symmetry! Valerie’s addition of a little “we love NJ” arrangement in the lower right corner balances the title on the opposite page.

Supplies:

cardstock (Bazzill) • patterned paper, journal spots (Anna Griffin) • letter stickers, rub ons (American Crafts) • starfish (EK Success) • glitter (Stickles) • hemp (Close To My Heart) • green paint (Junkitz) • machine sewing • Century Gothic font • 12 x 12 spread by Valerie Mangan

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Tip: A sketch can guide the placement of the core elements of your page, but don’t let it limit your creativity when it comes to accents. Valerie added starfish accents, plus one vibrant shell cut from patterned paper, in purposeful places on her page.

Twist and flip

Because Wendy’s main focal-point image is vertical instead of horizontal, Wendy rotated the sketch one-quarter turn counter-clockwise for the first page. Then she mirrored that design for the facing page, making a few other alterations along the way: she shrunk the overall page size to 8½ x 11 instead of 12 x 12 (eliminating some of the white space from the original), she changed the square photos on the original to horizontal, and she combined two of those horizontal images into one vertical shot.

Supplies:

letter stickers (American Crafts, Heidi Swapp) • glitter, glitter brads (Doodlebug Designs) • chipboard circle accent (Scenic Route) • Advent Pro font • 8½ x 11 page by Wendy Smedley

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Tip: When you have lots of different photos, featuring lots of different color palettes, opt primarily for neutrals as you assemble your supplies. Then choose single accent color (like the pink Wendy chose) to add punch to your page.

Four-Photo Sketch

Enlarge

I only had four photos to include on my page, just like the original sketch. But these were busy photos, with all the colorful graffiti in the background, so I enlarged my photos so they’d have greater visual impact. Because the 6 x 8 focal-point shot plus three 3 x 4 images would no longer fit on a single 12 x 12 background, I decided to expand the design to an 8½ x 11 spread. I moved the title from its original spot above the photo strip so it ran vertically next to my largest photo, giving the overall page better balance.

Supplies:

patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket) • letter stickers (American Crafts, My Little Shoebox) • Univers font • 8½ x 11 spread by Angie Lucas

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Tip: Make the most of whatever supplies you have on hand. I loved the orange corduroy letters from American Crafts, but I didn’t have an “R” in that font, so I patched together a “B” and a piece of a "Z.” I was also missing a “t” in the yellow chipboard letters, so I cut down a lowercase “f” instead.

Stretch

To show her daughter’s growth from 2002 to 2009, Cathy wanted a linear design featuring photos that were all the same size, progressing toward a larger current photo. This is a great way to depict a linear progression of growth or change. So she took the original sketch and flipped it horizontally so the largest picture was on the right, then she stretched that column of smaller photos across the second page, including six snapshots instead of just three.

Supplies:

patterned paper (My Minds Eye) • chipboard (letter, Zsiage; bracket, Basic Grey; swirl, Inque Boutique) • butterfly chipboard & sticker (Creative Imaginations) • word sticker, metal 'cherish' (Making Memories) • fabric label (Joann’s) • flowers (Prima) • border punch (EK Success) • embroidery thread, date stamp • 12 x 12 spread by Cathy Spatz

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Tip: There are many ways to help establish a photo as your focal-point image, and Cathy used four of them. Cathy’s “hero” photo is larger than the others, it’s the only color shot, it’s matted on a darker shade of paper, and there’s a directional device (a chipboard swirl) that also draws the eye.

A View of Cathy's hidden journaling:

Coming Soon!

Later this month, look for our latest eBook, Stretch Your Sketches, to get an engineer’s take on sketches and their variations. This ground-breaking book, authored by a top-secret Ella reader who was discovered via Ella’s submissions process, will have you looking at sketches in a fresh and exciting way. Enjoy 39 completely unique sketches and 21 layouts that illustrate simple, logical ways to alter and adapt them. Join us on The Daily Trumpet blog in the next couple of weeks as we reveal clue after clue about our mystery author!