Cheat Sheet

Confession: I'm a cheater.

There! I've said it!

Well...not a "cheater" per say but a definite cheat sheet user.

I'm talking about these guys, the ones that already have all of the answers to test:

It's the secret to my success!

Well kind of...

(It more or less holds up in a cropping court of law)

You all might know by now that I love me a good sketch and I turn to my repertoire of KP Sketchbook and now Sketchpad pdfs, frequently when I make my cheat sheets.

They're my go to group because 1) they're good and 2) I paid for them. That's more or less enough said.

So let me take just a minute to explain what I do and how I do it.

I bought the Sketchpad class when Kelly released it. Opened it up, poured over the sketches and the inspiration, wiped away some droll and then walked away from it for awhile.

Later, when I was in a scrapping mood I opened it up again and went through it page by page, sketch by sketch alongside of my iPhoto, pulling pictures with the appropriate orientation (landscape vs portrait) and groupings that would work for each sketch.

I jotted a quick mini sketch of just the photo placement, wrote down the appropriate file names and determined right then and there the photo sizes. That is the biggest tip I can give you. I like scrapping with a variety of sizes, but it can be a bit difficult and often time consuming chore.

When I make my cheat sheets, I don't have to think!

It makes the scrapping and the yapping that much easier when you're not thinking so hard!

This is one of the layouts I made from my cheat sheet. They're photos of this amazing local restaurant just off of the Kamehameha Hwy on the North Shore of Oahu.

It was a tiny little hole in the wall, but aren't those the best kind of eateries?! A local guy chatted up the place while we were ordering. Heck, if it's good enough for him it's definitely good enough for me!

For this page, I just started layering patterned paper strips on top of each other on either side of the line of photos. Then I added some 3 dimensional flowers and Thickers for embellishment.

And of course I had to make a cardstock grass skirt! I couldn't not with a restaurant (and page) so aptly named.

I almost forgot!

I have to add that I made the cheat sheet weeks and weeks ago. Printed the photos and let them marinate on my desk for awhile. It was a month later when I pulled it out to actually use. By then (and still now) I can't remember a single layout from the class pdf, but I have the bones to work with and thus was/am able to put my own stamp on the sketches.

I didn't make copies of the layouts featured. I made the sketches my own.

One of these days I'll go back and look at the inspiration. It'll be interesting to see how close to the original sketch my layouts turn out.

Signing off for tonight, but I'll be back later with more completed cheat sheet layouts! If you have any questions about the process, don't hesitate to ask. Cheers!

xxbesos