Designer Challenge Monday with Sarah Hodgkinson!

Happy Monday friends!  First, all of us at SCT would love to say "thank you" for all your birthday wishes!   Your kind comments about our Spring issue were so wonderful to read while we ate way too much birthday cake...lol.  If you have not yet seen our newest issue you can download it here.

This week we have another one of our favourite designers on the blog.  We have known Sarah Hodgkinson since the beginning of the magazine and absolutely love her designs.  You are in for a treat today, so grab a coffee or tea and let's go!

"I was so excited to be asked to come up with a challenge for you all this morning. With the new spring issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today having just come out on Friday (and already dog earred at my house) I wanted to include some of Becky Fleck’s delicious new sketches into my challenge. I also wanted to introduce you to a wonderful resource that I discovered when I started to design for Core’dinations ColorCore Cardstock.  Colour Lovers is a website where you can wander around for hours searching for colour inspiration.  The endless colour combinations this website provides are a great way to put your cardstock, patterned papers and other supplies all together into one project.  So, here’s my challenge:

Step One: Pick one of the sketches below that Becky Fleck has provided in the spring 2010 issue. Be sure to print it off so you can jot notes onto the page of which products you will be using. This is a great little trick, especially if you are planning on scrapping away from your home. You can make sure that you have everything with you before you leave...and you won’t need to bring “everything but the kitchen sink” in order to get it done. Been there, done that.

 
   
For my layout I was drawn to this sketch since I knew I had three portrait photos that I was looking to scrapbook:

Step Two: Head on over to Colour Lovers and search through the colour palettes until you find one that appeals to you. If you know which pictures you will be working with (i.e., birthday party, Easter, Hallowe’en, Christmas, etc.) you can enter that occasion into the “Keyword” area of the palette search.
For example, I entered “Easter” (because it’s coming up quickly and it’s on my mind) into the “Keyword” section. Many options came up but I found this one most appealing:

Another feature of the Colour Lovers website is an area where you can create your own colour palette from a photo. You will need to become a member of their website (it's free!) in order to use this feature though. You can then load your digital image and it immediately analyses it for colours. 

Step Three:  Search through your stash and find supplies that fall into your selected colour palette. Cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon, bling, buttons, brads, rubons...you know where I am going with this!!  Cardstock is the easiest to begin with. Don’t forget, black and white aren’t truly colours and they can easily be added into the mix as well. You can also consider lighter and darker shades of colours from the combo. For my layout I wanted to work in some kraft paper (as per usual for me) and the kraft is a “colour friend” of the dark brown in the palette.

Step Four: Create! For my layout I printed off my photos following the measurements that Becky Fleck had suggested for the sketch. I edited the photos so that they were black and white. This allows me to play with the colour palette that I fell in love with at Colour Lover’s without having to worry if the girls were wearing matching clothes.

I had recently received a package of the new Core Impressions cardstock by Core’dinations from the Jenni Bowlin Studio Vintage Brights Collection. The Barn Siding Butterflies was perfect for this layout. With a firm sanding with my Making Memories sanding block I was able to reveal the pre-embossed butterflies on the cardstock. My Core’dinations’ Dust Buddy helped me to pick up all the dust and debris from my project.

Here’s what I created:

 
Supplies: Core’dinations cardstock (Jenni Bowlin Core Impressions, Vintage and Core Essentials), Jillibean Soup kraft paper, journaling sprouts, corrugated alpha and cardstock letter stickers, Sizzix dies (border strips, leaves and branch) and Big Shot, Stampin’ Up! border punch, Jenni Bowlin chipboard butterfly, Making Memories sanding block, Basic Grey Precision File Set,  ProvoCraft/Cuttlebug die (small butterfly), Queen & Company pearls, Tsukineko ink, Technique Tuesday stamp, 3L layering tape, 3M Quick Dry glue, Font: Mason, other: sewing machine and brown thread.

Have fun creating with Becky Fleck’s sketches and Colour Lovers. If you would like to share what you come up with you can link up images to this blog entry or drop by my personal blog and give me a link to check out (and there just might be a special little giveaway too!). You can find me at Only in Hollywoodstock!

I will be back on Wednesday with a project for your kitchen and some sneak peeks of the three make n' takes I will be teaching at ScrapFest in Kitchener, ON, on April 16 and 17th for Scrapbook & Cards Today!

.......................................................................

Didn't I tell you we were all in for a treat today!  Be sure to join us tomorrow for an Easter project from Aly Dosdall and then another great tutorial from Sarah on Wednesday.   Yes, it is going to be another great week on the SCT blog - I can feel it now!!!

~ Catherine

Comments

[Renee J.]

Oh, my, this is sooooo exciting. If it wasn't so late, oh early, depending on your perspective, I would scrap right now. Thanks for the inspiration. SPRING has SPRUNG!

[Sudie]

So inspiring! Thanks.

[Laura church]

Sounds like a great site. One of my favourite things about scrapping is playing with colour. Thanks for sharing. :^)

[Laurie]

Ohhh I love all the sketches.. what a great idea...
Can't wait to give this challenge a try

[Aly D]

sarah, this is a great challenge and a gorgeous page! love it. =)

[Jennifer]

Beautiful LO and great inspiration here - thank you!

[Lynn]

Great sketches & lovely LO :)

[Linda Beeson]

Oh how I love those sketches! It will be hard to pick just one so I might end up working with a few of them over time! LOVE your layout, wowie on the details, especially the Core'dinations details

[Lydia Jackson]

Great Challenge Sarah!! That color lovers is a fantastic scrapping tool!!

[Colleen S]

So cute. I love the core'dinations paper!

[Debbie Standard]

Fabulous page Sarah - you rocked the Core'dinations!

[Juliana]

This is fabulous Sarah!!!! Lovin' the Core'dinations and how you used it here!!!

[ava]

Very interesting combo. Will have to try this one out.

[Debbie C.]

Some very inspiring sketches for us to try.
Your layout turned out great.

[Donna Rawbone]

WOW! what a bundle of great ideas. I hope it is o.k. to print.
I can hardly wait to star.

[Shirley Fread]

Great selection of sketches! I find them very inspiring!

[ellen s]

gorgeous!

[alecia]

love that color palette!!

[Darla]

Great sketches. Never used sketches too much but when I have it does make life a little easier - gets the process going a little quicker. Thanks.

[Heather Robertson]

wonderful page - this is the first time I've used color palettes and it was fun

http://scrappininak.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/becky-fleck-sketch/

[libeeti]

Hi, I understand that you're Canadian, so I wish to know if this challenges are open also to international participants (Israel, in my case)?
BTW, I just LOVE your blog. Very inspiring!

[Debbie Standard]

Thanks Sarah for a fabulous challenge - your page is awesome! Here's mine - with Core'dinations of course!
http://debbiestandard.blogspot.com/2010/04/happy-easter.html

[Sarah Hodgkinson]

I hope that those of you that have created a layout will link it up on my blog so that you can be in to win a great prize.
Cheers,
Sarah
P.S. International entries are welcome!

[libeeti]

Some how, I just forgot to link my lo here... LOl
So here it is, "My treasure":
http://creationswithlove-li-bee-ti.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-treasure-lo.html

Sarah, this post was a great inspiration for me. I've learned a lot from reading it, and then making my lo according to the post. Thank you!