Sketches

NSD 2010 2pm Hour: Sketches For Cards

Let’s talk sketches some more…but a different kind of sketches.

Remember that Michaels run I mentioned earlier that I made this week? Well along with the items I mentioned earlier (and a huge chunk of the K & Company Handmade collection including the chipboard alphabet & Garnish paper pad) I bought the latest idea book from Paper Crafts magazine. It’s called Go To Sketches. And I’ve been poring over it ever since!

I can’t put this thing down! I love to make cards but I’ve always felt totally useless at it from the perspective of knowing how to use the space on the card and lay it out. This sketch book provides a whole ton of frameworks that I can use to follow as recipes while choosing my own ingredients of elements and supplies to use. I can’t wait to sit down and scrap some cards with it!

If you’d like to see what “real” scrappers are doing with the card sketches, Paper Crafts has been running challenges with the book and having people post their cards on Flickr: Challenge 1 and Challenge 2. Challenge 2 runs until May 3rd, and there are prizes!

Babies (and kids) are a great reason to make cards, so this hour’s prize is a set of stamps from Unity Stamp Company:

That’s the Sketchy Little Boy set. The stamps are cling foam mounted red rubber. They work with an acrylic block.

How to Enter:

All you have to do to be one of the lucky winners is leave a comment on this entry before Midnight U.S. eastern time on Sunday night, May 2nd Monday night May 3rd (deadline extended for this drawing only due to Feedburner mailing issue) telling us if you’ve ever tried using sketches to make cards. Make sure you include your email address in the line reserved for it on the comment form (for your own protection, don’t put it in the text of the comment, where it will be visible to the public – just in the line labeled “email” in the form where only Scrapbook Update staff can see it). We will need it to notify you if you are a winner. Winners will be drawn by random drawing from all eligible entries. One entry per person.
(Note: If you are reading this post via an RSS subscription, click here and it will take you to the giveaway on the Scrapbook Update website where you can fill out the comment form at the bottom of the article to enter.)

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Becky Higgins Leaves Creating Keepsakes

Creating Keepsakes Contributing Editor Becky Higgins announced today via her blog that she has departed the company.

Higgins had been with Creating Keepsakes since almost the very beginning of the magazine in 1996. Her work has appeared in every single issue since the fourth one the magazine published. The “Becky’s Sketch” column is easily the longest running and most popular celebrity feature in CK’s pages. Higgins, along with Ali Edwards, increasingly became the face of the magazine in recent years to many readers as founder Lisa Bearnson’s involvement with it decreased.

Becky's Sketch, Creating Keepsakes October 2009

Just as significant as her magazine work are the books that Higgins has written under the Creating Keepsakes imprint. She’s authored or co-authored a total of nine books for the company, many of which were bestsellers in the industry:

In addition to her writing, Becky Higgins has long been one of Creating Keepsakes’ most popular instructors for its CKU and CKC events. She’s also traveled overseas to teach at special events.

Creating Keepsakes Editor-In-Chief Jennafer Martin shared with Scrapbook Update the company’s feelings about having to move forward without their long-standing star, and invited all Higgins’ fans to join them in thanking her for the inspiration she has provided:

Becky Higgins has been a strong creative force for Creating Keepsakes for 12 of our 13 years, and we’re incredibly thankful for the countless pages, sketches, fonts and more that she’s contributed over the years that have helped make Creating Keepsakes so inspiring for readers. While we’re sad to see her depart from the magazine as an employee, we wish her the best and look forward to working with her in the future as a contributor. The CK team will be hosting a farewell tribute on our blog at www.creatingkeepsakesblog.com Thursday the 17th, and we invite you to join us in letting Becky know how much her designs have inspired us and how much we wish her well.

Higgins’ signature round handwriting (available for free download as a font on her website) and her page sketches have defined what scrapbooking should be for a whole segment of scrapbookers for virtually the entire existence of the modern scrapbook industry. So the big question on everyone’s minds is whether she will continue in the industry in another capacity. Without providing any specific plans for future business projects, Higgins did promise in her announcement that she is not quitting scrapbooking and that she will continue blogging.

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