Okay, I have had some serious stuck issues lately – starting pages, only to put them aside half finished, staring at paper and pictures for way too long and giving up, organizing and re-organizing my scrapbook room instead of scrapping. We have all had these days and even weeks. Well, time to get unstuck!

Not to be too cliché but I popper over to Stuck? Sketches and, well, I am officially unstuck!

Their May 1st Reveal Blog Post and Sketch is the one that caught my eye right away. Not surprising it’s a Laura Whitaker sketch – check out her complete blog at Scrappin Around the Clock – Laura’s sketches and my scrapbooking style are peas in a pod these days.

Here is an image of the sketch challenge:

Now here is my take on the sketch:

This old photo needed some texture and layers to bring out the masculine look and feel. So I focused on adding texture to the background page using Americana Wood Filler and Tim Holtz Collection Stampers Anonymous Layering Stencil Dot Fade. I then sprayed it with various “man” colours from my mists collection: My Tattered Angels Plain Jane Simply Sheer Matte Mist (Pure Steel and Rich Brown). Once that dried, I distressed the edges of the background, tore it a bit in random places and then chalked the edges with Tsukineko Versa Magic Multi Surface Chalk Ink (Jumbo Java). Sadly, I do not know what paper I used for the actual background, sorry.

Next came the layering behind the photo. Similar to how the sketch had multiple pattern suggestions beyond the photo, I went for the same idea but with texture again. I have some thin wood veneer, bingo cards from a Simple Stories set of the past, some tickets tucked in some hanging around and clog punches, all over the wood filler base.

While the journaling in the sketch was indicated on the top left, I went for just below the photo and instead titled up top. There is also a tucked piece of kraft paper with a tag on it – this is where my fiancé actually writes his memories about his ‘growing up photos’ and we tuck them behind so they remain private. A well worth it compromise to get his hand writing into our scrapbooks!

Finally I finished off with adding some staples at random, some mini screw brads all around, some metal cogs and of course some string, for those masculine touches.

Voila! Unstuck!

Thanks Stuck?Sketches.