Do you use sketches?

I will admit, it took me a long time to warm up to using sketches. I think my problem was that I like to come up with my own designs, and I almost felt like it was cheating to design something based on what someone else created. Although I still don't use them a lot, I have come to really enjoy using them because I now realize that I can still make a layout totally my own, even with a sketch. I usually find an aspect of the sketch that inspires me, and I use that as a starting point to go out on my own.

This month's sketch at AMM is by Tonya Dirk, and you can see the elements that I ran with.

I loved the verticle design on the left, but instead of using a bunch of small photos, I chose to use my journaling cards as embellishments in those spots, and I used just one photo in the spot where the title was designed to go. Instead of using three circles, I enlarged one and used it as my title block.

It's become a challenge for me to figure out how to take elements of a sketch and turn them into my own creation :-)

Btw, that photo is from last summer - I don't think Noah looks that different, but Chloe looks like such a baby to me!!

Anyway, i'm having a blast with the kit, and I knocked on another two layouts today (well, aaaaalmost two lol). At this rate, i'll have lots of blogging material (but I still don't think I can keep up with Doris).

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!