The Story of Go-to Sketches

This one has been a long time coming. You know how when you are super excited about something (say... a new special issue in which you got to contribute to) and you get to do tons of fun things for it (say... drawing up your own sketches, a photo shoot with friends, etc.) but for whatever reason you have to keep all of that excitement and fun stuff on the down-low for a while (say... because this is the magazine world and things happen so far in advance and where patience is the virture prized above all else) and because of that you just have to keep in inside until it feels like you're just gonna pop (similar to a post-holiday meal that I may or may not have been involved in yesterday involving fried chicken, mashed potatoes gravy, and green beans with bacon; hey... it's the South, people)? It's like that. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't just a wee bit excited about Go-to Sketches week. We finally get to share all the behind the scenes info about how our little special issue came to be. Whew.

The idea for Go-to Sketches came about from the editors just before our Editorial Board meeting last September. Each of us gals spent some quality time with some copy paper and a Sharpie and came up with lots and lots o' sketches. 11 sketches from each of us came to be the foundation of Go-to Sketches. Sweet.

And just as we were all getting excited about that, we started hearing the words "photo shoot." Huh. I don't know about you, but the types of photo shoots I am involved in typically take place in the dead of winter and involve 3 small, misbehaving children and lots of "treats" (let's call it what it really is - and that would be bribery). But this was a grown-up photo shoot. Oh, wait, nope... that gives an entirely wrong connotation, doesn't it? But this was a photo shoot without children, or Christmas trees, or bribery. Instead, it involved the knowledge that this picture would not be sent to 100 of my closest family and friends. Nope. This one would be published in a issue to appear at such small, insignificant places such as Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble. Noooooo pressure. Weirdly, it was actually fun. I tried desperately to get in touch with my inner America's Next Top Model. Sometimes she wasn't around and instead I got in touch with America's Next Top Outtake Model. Each of our chapters opens with a picture like this and a little intro from us to you. The set for the shoot was beyond brilliant. We knew it would be us, in our brightly colored shirts, set on a white background. I guess I was just picturing a white backdrop. But, oh, no, my friends. White never looked so good. Matt, our art director at Paper Crafts, is a genius. Seriously. I was blown away when I walked inside the studio and saw the set-up. A work desk set up with all my favorite paper crafting stuff... stamps, ink pads, punches, trimmers... you name it and there it was. All spray painted white. It was so awesome it gave me chills. The clean white set was meant to make the six of us really pop visually, so we all wore a different bright color. I'm in pink because that was the color I figured I could most easily find at the Gap. And I'm in a yellow necklace because that my two best friends and I deemed the winner at Charming Charlie (do y'all have one of those stores) when I wore my pink sweater to the store and we all went in search of the perfect contrasting accessory. The shoot was actually the very first time that we all met each other... we're talking like hour 2 of meeting each other in person after months of chatting it up online. The nervousness of the shoot was the perfect way to break the ice, though... it spilled over in the form of laughter. My memories of that day include the sound of us laughing together, in the most sunshine-filled room you've ever seen, and the knowledge that it was possible to actually feel the moments when friendships were being woven together. Good times, good times. So, in honor of the big release, we'll be doing something fun every day this week. Woohoo! To kick if off, I thought I'd stay true to my traditional Monday 10 Minute Scrap Pile card. This time I used one of my sketches from the book as my inspiration. This one is my most basic, most often-used sketch; I kind of think of it as my signature sketch from the book. Scrap pile scraps + sketch = super fast card.

Your materials are already narrowed down and your layout is already decided... the two biggest factors in making a project, done. Or at least it should be. If you're me, though, you might have started off with a totally different idea but then accidentally ripped the sticker that was to be the main part of the design right in half. Oops. So I kept the gray felt base and had to come up with idea #2. At least I still had the layout to go by! My baby girl card morphed into this boyish number. Loving the star punch these days. Tomorrow's agenda for Sketch Week includes over THIRY pieces of inspiration. No joke. You will not be disappointed, friends. Later!