When Shar (another designer here at Scrapstorian and my sista) and I traveled to Scotland to walk the Great Glen Way in 2013 we were so amazed at all the history! Being from a pretty young country like Canada makes visiting such long standing countries like Scotland so exciting.

Everywhere we looked there was a church, a graveyard or a stone fence built 100s of years ago. We would stroll through graveyards reading the headstones in search of one that might have our family name (Strachan) and to read the dates on each. We couldn’t believe how old some of them were. We would try and image what their lives must have like back when they walked the Loch Ness just as we were walking its banks today!

To document one of our ventures into this very old and most beautiful graveyard, full of beautiful red and pink roses everywhere, I used the December 1-2015 sketch challenge from Stuck?! Sketches.

Here is a peek at the sketch:

This is one of these times where I used the sketch absolutely literally as it was sketched out. Sketches are generally meant as inspiration for a layout not a prescription for a layout, an idea to spark your own creativity, a guidebook and not a rule book. Well this Stuck?! Sketches sketch worked so well for my pictures and memory that I used it exactly as Laura Whitaker laid it out!  Exactly!

Here is my layout:

A big part of my memory from this graveyard is centred on the roses around the gravestones. They were so beautiful and in full blown when we there. So while I have somewhat fallen out of love with blossoms on layouts, flowers were too much of my memory of this day to not give them a good ole’ comeback.

I pulled out my stash and found these great paper blossoms from Recollections line at Michael’s Craft Store, cut some leaves out of the scraps from the pattern paper already on my layout, added some Versa Magic, Dew Drop Multi-surface Chalk Ink (gingerbread) to the edges of the leaves and a touch on the blossoms, and then did some messy outline lines with a Sharpie marker on the leaves. Dropped those on top of some piled up dark brown string from my stash, and added a dollop of Bo Bunny Double Dot Pearlescents (Chocolate) to the centre of each flower. Voila, a blossom!

Pop over to Stuck?! Sketches for even more sketch inspiration from their talented Design Team!

Brande

Supplies that played along in the creation of this layout: Prima marketing Engraver Collection (Black Leaf); Heidi Swapp Vintage Chic Collection (Textbook Pattern Paper); Bazzill Cardstock (Avalanche); Bazzill Cardstock (Kraft); Pink Paislee Hope Chest Collection (Records Pattern Paper); Recollections Floral Embellishments; Ranger Ink Enamel Accents (White, and Black); Versa Magic, Dew Drop Multi-surface Chalk Ink (Gingerbread); Accent Scrapbooking, Set of 10 English Words (Love); Bo Bunny Double Dot Pearlescents (Chocolate); Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue; and string from my scrap stash