March Challenge - 'Cutest lil dude' by Sarah Rosse

Hi there, Sarah here with you this morning to show you my take on the March sketch challenge. Here's a little reminder of the sketch...

I had such fun making this layout and I find when following along with a sketch, it usually comes together quite quickly for me. I had one little problem....for those of you with toddlers, you may understand....I had just left my desk for a minute to start preparing dinner, after getting about half way through my layout design, when I noticed Mr 3 in my craft room......I ran to check out what he was doing and he had scribbled on the bottom left hand corner of my layout! So, I had two options....start all over again or re-design the layout to make it work and cover up the boo boos! So as you can see, the layout isnt exactly the same as the sketch. That's the great thing about a sketch....you can use it as a base to get the creative juices and ideas flowing and then make it your own.

To create the coloured background layer, I used distress inks (available in store here) using the packaging technique - I rubbed some ink onto a piece of plastic packaging, added a spary of water, turned it over and 'smooshed' it on to the page. I chose colours that matched with the patterned paper used on top of the layout, carefully drying between each colour to avoid them mixing into a muddy colour. Here's a pic of those beautiful ink colours...

I added some stamping with black ink to the background using 'Mixed Media 2' Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz stamps. The wide range of mixed media stamps from the online store can be seen here. The papers used on this layout are from the Crate Paper Cool Kid collection. I LOVE this collection and have used it over and over again! Note to self: must stock up on some more at the online store here. The cut strips are from leftovers from previous projects using the Cool Kid paper range - I never through out a scrap from a collection I love!

I chose to use the Cool Kid vellum as the photo mat base so you could still see come of that lovely ink colour underneath. The Cool Kid adhesive chipboard frame was positioned under the photo, with a tag cut from patterned paper to represent the sketch outline. The Cool Kid adhesive chipboard is the ideal embellishment - the little truck and car and the 'dude' sticker in the title was all from this one sheet, with many more stickers to use on future projects. The stickers on the bottom left of the layout are also from the Cool Kid collection. Lets take a closer look at this layout...

Now on to the second project for this post.....

For this card I took the March challenge sketch and carried this out on a smaller scale - on a card rather than a layout. Again I used the Crate Paper Cool Kid collection with distress inks to create the coloured background, with some stamps from my stash. So much fun!! The digital stamp on this card is a free printable from the internet - simply printed and coloured with Touch Five markers and Stampin Up Blendabilities. I used a Wink of Stella pen to give some sparkle to his cape. The stickers "You'll move mountains" are from the Cool Kid sticker sheet. Here is a close up of the stamped image layered on multi coloured cotton to create some texture on the card.

I hope you enjoyed these projects using the March challenge sketch - I look forward to seeing what you create this month and dont forget to check out the blog for all of the Design Team's amazing projects and inspiration!