:REVIEW: PageMaps by Becky Fleck

I don't always use sketches when scrapbooking, but sometimes they can be just the boost of inspiration needed when in a rut or simply to help a busy scrapper who's short on time.

When it comes to sketches, Becky Fleck has been a long-time favorite. I was lucky enough to have one of my layouts featured in her PageMaps newsletter last June and have featured several more of my layouts created from her sketches on this blog in the past.

So, I have to say that I was pretty excited when I found out that she was coming out with a book - Scrapbook Page Maps: Sketches For Creative Layouts.

The book is divided into four chapters:

1 - Using Sketches & Making Them Your Own
2 - The Versatility of Sketches
3 - One Sketch, Three Ways
4 - From Simple to Savvy

In this book there are 60 sketches featured in 5 common scrapbook layout sizes:

8 1/2 x 11 vertical
8 1/2 x 11 horizontal
8 1/2 x 11 double
12 x 12
12 x 12 double

Every sketch has at least 2-3 very unique examples - with totals up to a whopping 144 inspiring layouts in a wide variety of sizes and styles!

The book includes many layouts by Becky herself, but also features the talented work of 14 other contributors as well: Marla Kress, Mindy Bush, Tiffany Tillman, Judi Vanvalkinburgh, Denine Zielinski, Shawna Martinez, Amy Goldstein, Dawn Inskip, Kim Kesti, Patti Milazzo, Becky Heisler, Sheredian Vickers, Vicki Harvey, and Connie Petertonjes.

You can tell that Becky really does admire her designers. Each layout is accompanied by a commentary from her about how it is unique and highlights any special elements or techniques that deserve a little more attention.

There are also a few other fun little features in this book. Eye spy's call attention to creative little details on layout that really help it to stand out in the crowd. Tips come from the artists to help you create more successful layouts. Give it a try's are step-by-step instructions of how to achieve some of the techniques featured in the book. There are over four dozen of these three features throughout the book.

Last, but certainly not least, the book comes with a deck of sketch cards! The laminated cards featuring each of the sketches in the book are ready to be popped out and put into the box (also included and super easy to assemble). The sketch box is PERFECT for taking to crops or anytime you need a little on-the-go inspiration!!

MY RATING:
5 STARS!!

YOUR RATING:
??? I am always curious and open to hearing the opinions of others. If you own or have read this book, please feel free to share your opinion of it in the comments below.

WANT TO READ MORE OR PURCHASE?
Visit the Scrapbook Page Maps: Sketches For Creative Layouts page at Amazon.com. You can also read more of my reviews for other recommendations.

Upcoming Review:
Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking 2 by Jessica Sprague

April Card a Day Challenge at WeScrap

Ally & Lucy are conduting a 'Card a Day' Challenge over at WeScrap for the month of April.

Ally asked if I would create a sample for her beautiful sketch to post today and here's what I came up with:

Products used: ALL American Crafts...

A Layout: fall beauty

Thought I'd share a layout here today. I created this layout not too long ago based off of a Becky Fleck PageMap...LOVE her sketches!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper, Cardstock Letters: Basic Grey
Rub ons: Making Memories
Ink: Colorbox
Circle Punches: Marvy
Font: Unnamed Melody

Journaling:
I wanted to make sure that I got some good pictures of Kaitlin before the fall foliage completely disappeared this fall and we cut it quite close. This tree at the College still had some brilliant red leaves and we were lucky we got our shoot in because within days, they were gone.

Kaitlin was so cute on this day. I basically just told her to pose near the rock and she did all the rest herself. She kept saying “Why don’t we try this?” and she’d let me shoot away……. It’s certainly a rare occurrence for her to be this cooperative and it was a very fun shoot! Thanks, Sweetie!

Comments & Techniques:
This was a fun layout with the combination of colors and the layering of circles. The second word of the title is layered right over the cardstock letters.

I also just posted a challenge over at iScrap.net based on this layout this morning. Check it out...would love to see your creation in response to the challenge!! There's are some other really great games, contests and challenges going on other than mine also...a little something for everyone.

A layout: Orchard

Thought I would share a recent layout today. The design of the layout was inspired by one of Becky Fleck's PageMaps and a contest sponsored by A Peek into Yesterday.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my interpretation of the sketch:

What do you think? I have been wanting to scrap these pictures from our trip to the orchard at Garrity's Prairie Gardens last fall for quite some time now.

The sketch was perfect and really helped me put this layout together quite quickly...plus I got to play with my new circle punches - which I am LOVING, by the way!

I don't use sketches too often when scrapping, but I do love Becky's PageMaps!!

Layout Details:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper: Best Creation, Inc., Creative Imaginations, Fancy Pants
Letter Stickers: Making Memories
Chipboard Flourishes, Flowers: K&Company
Ink: Colorbox
Circle Punches: Marvy
Font: Unnamed Melody

Journaling:
It was a gorgeous day when we visited the apple orchard at Garrity’s Prairie Gardens this year. You would have never guessed that it was early October…. We were definitely experiencing a little Indian summer that day. Kaitlin had a wonderful time searching for apples and showing her daddy around the orchard since (it was the first time he had been there with us).

Comments & Techniques:
The glitter on the paper and chipboard elements as well as the band of circles add to the sense of whimsy captured in the pictures. The chipboard parentheses call attention to the small subjects in the second photo.

Chris Daughtry at the Sioux Empire Fair, My Becky Fleck Page Maps Debute and a Kaitlin Witticism

I actually have quite a lot to cover tonight, so here it goes:

#1 - I love my sister. Yes, I do! My sister Lynnie, with all of her awesome workplace connections, emailed me today that she got FREE TICKETS for us to Chris Daughtry's concert at the Sioux Empire Fair in Sioux Falls, SD on August 9th. I am so pumped!! I haven't been to a concert since I was in college (we won't discuss how long ago that was) and now I'm going to TWO of them (post about the other one) in August!! For your listening pleasure, click play to hear Daughtry's "Home."

Chris_Daughtry - H...

#2 - The June edition of Becky Fleck's PageMaps came out today. Why is this a big deal (to me anyway), you might ask? Well, because I have a layout featured in it and Becky Fleck is my FAVORITE scrapbook layout sketch artist...LOVE this woman's work. Here was the sketch assignment I received in late April:

And this is the layout I created which was inspired by it:

It was so much fun and I am so honored to have been asked by her to contribute!! I hope that the invitation will not be the last. You definitely need to head on over to PageMaps and check out Becky's extensive archive of GREAT sketches and also see some of the other talented artists included in the June addition.

#3 - Kaitlin surely is a source of fun and laughter in our household. In fact, I don't think I know anyone that can amuse me like she can.

Last night, we were watching TV and a commercial for Pantene Pro-V came on with these model with long, luxurious, shiny hair. Kaitlin said, "Mommy, you should get that shampoo. It would make your hair prettier." (Like, obviously all it takes is the right shampoo to have hair like the models on TV...right?)

"Don't you like my hair?" I asked.

"No, not really..."

I furrowed my brow, stuck out my bottom lip a bit and feigned hurt feelings. Kaitlin's eyes got big...she realized her blunder and immediately went into damage control mode.

"Oh, I like the yellow parts, Mommy," she said and I begin to smile. "But not really the brown parts," she continued. Uh oh...we're backtracking here - down went my brows.

"But I have brown parts, too, Mom, and I don't like my brown parts either. I just like my yellow parts like I like your yellow parts, Mom..."

I was still frowning.

Kaitlin sighed and said, "I love you, Mommy," with the sweetest little smile.

I couldn't help but laugh at her. Now, if only my hubby could learn how to dig himself out his holes that well!!

Sunday Spur for Scrapbookers Meme #7 - Using Sketches for Scrapbooking

I have never been a huge sketch user. When I was primarily a 2-page layout scrapper, I was a big fan of Becky Higgins, but since switching to primarily one-page layout, my sketch usage has wained a bit. HOWEVER, sketches are a hugely useful tool to scrappers and sometimes when I'm just 'stuck', they can really help me get going again.

Right now, Becky Fleck is one of my favorite 'sketch artists' and lucky for you and me, she has a website featuring her sketches with updates every month called PageMaps.

Your challenge this week, is to visit the PageMaps link above, choose one of the new March PageMaps and use it to create a new layout...maybe one that you've been struggling with or putting off because you weren't quite sure how to go about it. Please leave a comment here linking to the post in your online journal showing your sketch choice and created layout.

MY CHOSEN FEBRUARY SKETCH:

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE LAYOUT:

You'll notice that I flipped the sketch. Otherwise, Kaitlin would have been facing 'off the page' in the main photo. That's the great thing about sketches...nothing is set in stone. They can be flipped, rotated...whatever.

Supplies:
Cardstock - DCWV
Patterned Paper - KI Memories
Letter
Stickers - Doodlebug
Snowflakes - Heidi Swapp
Brads - Making
Memories
Ink - VersaColor

remember to sing

OK...this is my last post for the day...I promise. Here's layout #2 - "remember to sing" I did this one based on a sketch by Becky Fleck for a challenge on Pub Calls Blog, so will be submitting that tomorrow...we'll see if I win anything. Here's what the sketch looks like:I had to flip the sketch or Kaitlin would have been looking off the page in the main photos and that's just not good design. I made some other minor adjustments/changes, but followed the sketch pretty closely. What do you think? Did I do a good job?

Supplies:
Cardstock - Bazzill
Patterned paper - Melissa Frances
Ribbon - Offray
Epoxy letter stickers - unknown (got them at WalMart)
Metal word - Making Memories
Rub on - Basic Grey
Font - Garamond

Journaling:
Kaitlin’s first Christmas Program…what an event!
It was postponed from the 20th of December to the 21st due to bad weather. The 21st wasn’t much better…it was bitter cold.
It was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. and we were just down the street from Yankton High School (the program was being held in their theatre) at shortly after 7:00 p.m. when we got a call from my parents.
“It’s filling up fast. Do you want us to save you some seats?”
When we arrived it was bustling…a little overwhelming for me.
We got Kaitlin settled in the room with her teacher and headed to our seats.
We ended up on the left towards the back and we would soon find out this wouldn’t be optimal for viewing pleasure…it was a little hard to see our little Sacred Heart preschooler with the way they arranged them on the stage.
Regardless, watching her ‘perform’ was still amazing! She did a wonderful job singing the songs.
There were times when she was just tapping away her little feet to the music, which mad e her too-big tights all the more evident.
Nonetheless, it was adorable and I am certainly looking forward to many Christmas Programs to come. Sing your heart out, honey!