Jillibean Soup Bean Talk: Tutorial: How to create a layout from a sketch with Corrie Jones

Sometimes the most difficult part of scrapbooking is where to start. Early on, I found myself looking at beautiful scrapbook paper and cute stickers and I could not figure out how they would work together with my photos or how to they would work together at all. I then found out about sketches and what a great starting point those were for me. The longer I have scrapbooked though, the more and more I rely on a few tried and true “sketches” that I love and work well with my design style that I go back to over and over again. Every now and then I worry that all my pages look the same because of how often I go to these basic designs, but then I realize, that’s my style and it is a-o-k.

Today, I am going to show you my favorite basic layout design and how it can be tweaked to use over and over again.

This is my favorite go-to design.

It’s simple but effective and when I am stuck it provides me with the basic design to get me started. And I use this all the time! Here are a few examples of how I have used this design in past Jillibean Soup projects.

My Biker Gang by Corrie Jones

This page kept quite true to the sketch.

Home Today by Corrie Jones

And other that adding two additional photos, this layout about my oldest being home is also very true to the sketch.

She's A Baller by Corrie Jones

With this layout, I moved the photo to the right side of the page and used triangles instead of a paper block for the background.

NYC by Corrie Jones

And with this one, I centered the photo and turned the sketch sideways.

While these layouts all look different, they are all based off my sketch. I have been doing this for so long now, that I don’t even think about it. I will start scrapbooking and it just happens. I will finish my page and think, “Yep. I did it again!”

Go back and look at my sketch again. And then here is my page I created today for you.

The Holidays Together by Corrie Jones

I changed it just a bit from the sketch. I centered the photos, paper and embellishments. I used two photos instead of one. I moved the placement of the title. And I left the journaling spot alone!

Again it looks different, but it is the same basic design. I created this scrapbook process video to show you how I walked though making this page. It only took 30 minutes to make this page, super fast! I credit that to having the basic design already laid out for me. It just takes the pressure off!

Here is the video.

I hope you enjoyed the video and how I took a basic design and turned it into its own unique page. Do not be afraid to stick to a design that you love and that is easy for you to use! The products and photos are different and will help to make each page an individual even without tweaking the actual placement of things. But once you are more and more comfortable with your design, you will easily transition to changing it up even though it started just like your other pages.

Thanks for watching and thanks for stopping by!

The Holidays Together by Corrie Jones