Sketch Anatomy
by Liz Qualman 

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” Just as an architect or author makes plans before building or writing, it's important to have some idea how you want to arrange your photos and journaling prior to starting to work on your scrapbook page. Before I learned how quick and easy it was to design on the computer, I used pencil and paper to sketch my layouts, working with a compass, ruler, and lots of erasers. My final sketches looked more like modernistic paintings than a clean blueprint from which to create a wonderful scrapbook layout. One day while surfing the Internet, I happened to see a digital sketch of a layout I admired. The clear, simple lines of the template made it easy to envision the final creation for the type of pages I wanted to make.

As an educator for ten years and a pro at creating graphic organizers to help my students, I immediately made a connection with the digital sketches I saw on the Internet. I opened my Microsoft Word program and began to experiment with the drawing tool functions to create decorative designs. After arranging shapes, sizes, and inserting a few clipart images, I achieved a remarkably clean and simple template to use as the basis for my scrapbook layouts. I was pleased with how easy it was to make my designs, knowing I had the ability to add, delete, copy, or move any image desired with the click of my mouse. No more rulers, compasses, or eraser marks!

The layouts featured here show how easily you can transform a computerized sketch into a stunning layout.

Note: Microsoft Word drawing tools are found under View on the menu bar. Select View, then Toolbars, then Drawing.

1. Open a new document in Microsoft Word. Click on AutoShapes, then Basic Shapes, then the Rounded Rectangle shape. Position the cursor over the shape, then click and drag to the size desired. Draw another rectangle shape vertically over the first one and then draw a third rectangle horizontally across the bottom as shown in Fig. 1. By clicking on the shapes, it's easy to adjust the size, color, and fill effects. You can also determine how the shapes overlap.
   
   
2. To create the photo area, position another Rounded Rectangle, referring to Fig. 2 for placement. Select the horizontal rectangle, then Draw, then Order, then Bring to Front to hide the bottom portion of the photo area as shown. A clipart scallop border was inserted across the bottom of the horizontal rectangle. If clipart is not available, select the Oval shape and size to a circle. Drag the circle and place along the bottom of the horizontal rectangle, then select Edit, then Copy, then Paste to duplicate the same size circle. Continue in this manner until the border extends across the entire length as shown. Select the horizontal rectangle, then Draw, then Order, then Bring to Front to hide the top half of the circle border.
   
   
3. To complete the template, select WordArt (the large slanted “A” on the Draw Toolbar). Select a font style, create a title and journaling, then click and drag into position as shown in Fig. 3. Insert additional clipart as desired. Clipart images can be rotated or flipped to change the direction or movement of the image.

1. Cut one 8-1⁄2" square and one 4-1⁄4" x 6-1⁄8" rectangle from Black cardstock, one 8" square from Rain patterned paper, one 2-1⁄2" x 7-1⁄2" rectangle from Celery patterned paper, and one 4-1⁄2" x 6" rectangle from Mia patterned paper. Center and adhere the Rain square onto the Black cardstock square. Round the corners on the Mia rectangle. Follow the sketch layout (Fig. 1) to position and adhere the Mia and Celery rectangles in place.
2. Round the corners on the photo and Black cardstock rectangle. Center and adhere the photo onto the Black rectangle, then adhere in place, referring to Fig. 2.
3. Print journaling onto White cardstock and cut a 1-3⁄4" x 7-3⁄4" rectangle around the words. Print out or cut the scalloped border from Black cardstock. Slip the long, straight edge under the journaled rectangle and adhere in place, referring to Fig. 2 for placement.
4. Apply the rub-on, stitching, three-dimensional butterflies, flowers, title, and remaining embellishments,
   referring to Fig. 3.