‘Tis the season to be…stressed?
Let’s be honest. Between shopping, decorating, wrapping, baking, and trying to remember where you hid that one gift “someplace safe,” the holidays don’t always leave a lot of room for scrapbooking. But, in today’s post I’m here to remind you sketches can be your festive superpower.
With a good design in hand, you can pre-make a whole batch of pages before the chaos even begins. Then, after all the holly jolly has faded, all you’ll need to do is add your photos, journaling, and maybe a quick title if you’re feeling fancy. It’s scrapping the smart way, with less December panic and more December cocoa.
🎶 Fa la la la Layout
Let’s start with a versatile design. I created this sketch knowing it could easily be rotated, mirrored, or even extended into a double-page spread. I also recognized the 4×6 photos could easily be traded out for 2×3’s if you feel you’ll be unable to cull all those fabulous Christmas morning memories.
🎶 Joy to the Page
One way to start prepping your seasonal pages is to adapt a sketch literally. Interpreting a sketch in this way can make crafting so much easier (and faster) because the overall design work is already done for you. You don’t need to stress about exact measurements or perfect precision. Simply follow the general placement of layers, photos, embellishments, and journaling boxes. Think of it as a Christmas paint-by-number…the shapes are there, you just get to fill them in your own way.
And that, my elfish friends, is exactly the approach I took for the sample project I’m sharing with you today.
🎶 Up on the Rooftop...Click, Click, SPIN
Blog Team Member Claire W. has also used the sketch to pre-make a layout filled with Yuletide cheer. However, she chose to rotate the design, and brilliantly turned the photo mats into tags!
Do you want in on another little secret? Claire’s layout is actually 8×8, proving once again that sketches are perfect for any-sized project. If smaller layouts don’t tickle your tinsel, her page could easily be re-created in the traditional 12×12 format.
If you’d like to explore using sketches for smaller projects further, consider checking out my blog post from last month, When Little Layouts Go Big: Resizing a Favourite Sketch.
🎶 Simply Having a Wonderful Crafting Time
I hope I’ve inspired you to grab a sketch, turn up the tunes, and get a little crafty to prep some Christmas layouts. Your future self (and your holiday sanity) will surely thank you. If you find yourself creating using the sketch from this post, we’d love to see your projects in the Circle Gallery. And, if you share on social media, be sure to tag us (@scraphappyorg on Insta).
Additionally, if you want to put this inspiration (and pre-crafting effort) to further use, you can sign up for Alice’s Scrapbook Christmas in January online ScrapHappy class! They’ll be plenty of motivating tips & tricks to get those Christmastime photos onto your pages and into your albums. Click here to sign up before December 1st and use the discount code JOLLY2025 to save $10 on your registration. Start the car!
Until next time…stay fun and fantabulous, scrappers!