Sketches—A Great Starting Point

Holly Anderson

For those of you who are beginners and for those of you a little more seasoned in paper crafting, you probably know that good card design is fundamental to card making. So what makes a good design? Well, look forward to all kinds of answers to that in our upcoming issue: Card Design Handbook. (We’re pretty excited about this one.)

However, for today I want to focus on one way to ensure good design—starting with a sketch. I love using sketches because looking at a blank card can sometimes just feel a little overwhelming. Sketches give you a little more direction in where to take your design without taking your creativity out of the equation. I’m always surprised by how differently various designers can take the exact same sketch.

Have I convinced you yet that sketches are pretty great? Then you’ll likely want to check out Card Sketches for Paper Crafters. It has 288 pages of sketches and projects to match! So please allow me to show you one of my favorites from the issue, the sketch shown below.

Sketch on page 48 of Card Sketches for Paper Crafters

And a couple cards that match the sketch!

New Home Congrats Card by Charity Hassel

Wish Upon a Star Card by Maggie Haas

But Card Sketches for Paper Crafters isn’t the only place to find sketches. Two sketches appear in every regular issue of Paper Crafts as well! Here’s one from our July/August 2012 issue!

Sketch on page 28 of July/August 2012 issue of Paper Crafts magazine

Usually, these sketches are applied to cards, but here’s a cute little box, perfect for a small gift for a friend!

Need to Venti Box by Kim Kesti

And check out this bright and cheery card! Isn’t it pretty and clever?

Sun-sational Card by Lindsay Amrhein

You can find supplies and instructions for this card on our website or by clicking here. For an additional card matching this sketch, make sure to check out the Hey! Card by Jocelyn Olson in this blog post!

Lastly, I thought I’d try my hand at this sketch, so I grabbed some of my Pebbles supplies and went to town!

Floral Congrats Card by Holly Anderson

I hope you like it! Now . . . you know I like doing giveaways, so I’d like to give away the Pebbles Country Picnic collection that I used on my card!

That’s a lot of cute goodies! I will randomly pick one lucky winner, so comment below by Wednesday, July 25th at 5 pm MDT for your chance to win them!

Thanks for checking in!