When you start to make cards it is easy to feel a bit overwhelmed by all the new terms and techniques you find out about. I was lucky that a lovely group of people at the MSE forum helped me out. Now I want to ‘pay on’ their kindness by writing some posts for newbies. Since I was in your shoes not so long ago these will hopefully be helpful. I also wanted to pay back some of the people who helped me so even if you’re not intereted in the guide you might want to scroll to the end where I have links for current sketch challenges.
What is a card sketch?
A card sketch may also be known as a template, pattern or layout (a term favoured by scrapbookers). They help you to design the layout of your card- where you want to put the various bits and pieces you want to stick on the front. In the same way that a plan for a house shows where everything needs to go a card sketch is a plan of where the elements go. It may be hand drawn or computer generated and is effectively giving you an idea of basic shapes and proportions to use. They help you decide where to place any design papers (sometimes referred to as DPs), images (stamps, digistamps or premade toppers), embellishments (pretty much anything else such as ribbon, string, flowers, buttons etc.) Remember they act as a guide and you can alter them if you like- how would it look if the central panel is changed from a square to a rectangle etc.
With a simple sketch and colour scheme decided (see my Guide to Choosing a Colour Scheme) you’re ready to find your elements and get crafting!
If you find a sketch you like you can actually reuse it again and again and people won’t notice! Try turning the sketch around by 90 degrees, use a different colour schemes, different images, different embellishments, different occasions. This is also a great way to try out various styles to see which appeal to you the most. It is possible to make sets of cards relatively quickly for occasions such as Christmas by doing this. These are some cards I made with this sketch
More experienced crafters can also benefit from using card sketches. For some the element of being constrained in one area of the design is a boost to their creativity and it can help to make them push the boundaries in other areas. I find using a sketch can be helpful if I’ve lost my mojo or feel like I’m stuck in a rut.
How do I use the sketch?
I have run through an example of this later in this post. Play around on the order of these stages and just go with the flow. Most people either start with the image and work down to the papers as they plan or work from the papers forward.
1. Look at the sketch and see if it states where the image should go. If not decide which shape will be your image (this will depend what you have available).
2. It may be that the sketch tells you where the sentiment should go otherwise you will need to decide whether you want a sentiment (Happy Birthday, congratulations etc) and if so if something on the sketch looks like a good place for your sentiment.
3. Decide where you will place any design papers and layers (generally larger shapes on complex sketches).
4. Are there any shapes on the sketch which indicate placement of embellishments. If not do you want to add some.
5. Get all the elements and lay them out according to the plan. Try using different orientations and tweak until you are happy.
6. Get the glue out and assemble!
How do I choose a sketch?
When you are a newbie you probably want to look out for simpler sketches. Those labelled CAS for clean and simple or KIS keep it simple are a good place to start. I used a CAS sketch to make this card recently.
Work to your supplies and your strengths. If you’re not great at cutting out and use a guillotine to cut then you’ll want to choose sketches where your papers will be squares or rectangles.
If you like a sketch you’ve used then keep a copy of it. It can be useful to take a quick photo of the sketch and the made card even if you’re not a blogger. Once you give cards away you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll forget them. If you want to make a similar card again you’ll appreciate having a copy of the sketch and the card. You might want to think about blogging them as a record.
You may be happy to make your own sketch to make a card from. You’ll want to consider using composition rules such as the rule of thirds and rule of odds. It can also be helpful to just cut some scrap paper into shapes and have a play arranging them until you come up with a design you like.
Where can I find sketches?
Using a search engine such as Google images will give plenty of results.
Sketch challenges are really useful as the Design Team will usually produce some cards based on the sketch and looking at these will help you to see how to use sketches to make a card. You can also look at the other challenge entries. To help I have complied a list of some of the sketch challenge blogs. Even if you don’t want to join in with challenges yet they are great places to look at cards to get ideas and inspiration. Don’t be afraid to start entering your cards into challenges- it is a great way to get some comments on your blog posts to build your confidence in the early days. Usually at least one person from the challenge blog design team will pop over to your blog post and leave a comment. Since most winners are picked using random number generator then you have just as much chance of winning a freebie as more experienced cardmakers (challenges often have a top three or who caught our eye as well which is where they will choose the best entries).
If you plan to sell cards make sure you check any terms of use by the card layout designer to see that it is allowed.
What does CASE a card mean?
This is when you use a card from someone as a CASE study and is another theme for some challenges and challenge blogs. Since we are talking about layouts we will look at CASEing a card in terms of layout. I am showing a card I did when I started cardmaking. This is my sketch
As I had limited supplies when I started out I bought some die cut images from Lili of the Valley to use for Christmas cards. I had chosen images that were red and green so I got some blank cards and design papers in red and green. I matted the image on red card and then used some red and green patterned paper backed on some wider pearlescent white paper to make the rectangular sections. I used a snowflake punch on the border of it and then added some gems in it- these are not on the plan and it is perfectly fine to add extra embellies to a sketch is you think it will add to it but be careful not to go overboard. The patterned paper had lots of circles on it so I decided a circular sentiment might be better than a diamond one so I used one from Lili of the Valley too. Finally I added some glitter glue and gems to the image.
Congratulations if you’re read this far. This is my first Beginner’s Guide but I have more planned. Please do leave me some feedback so I know what has helped and what hasn’t!
Here is a list of challenges which use sketches (current at the time of posting!!).
Have fun
Craftie Jellie xx
Monday challenges
Tuesday sketch challenges
Wednesday sketch challenges
Thursday sketch challenges
Friday sketch challenges
Saturday challenges
Sunday challenges
and 
and I used 
on the birds to give some contrast to her hair. The flowers are all from 
to create the sentiment flower and the sentiment is from 
and I diligently kept a list of colours I used and put it somewhere safe! (if it ever surfaces I’ll post them!!)
to make the ribbon and topped it with a 
.
and are layered onto 
which was then 
.
to top right and bottom left of the image.
.
. I painted the sky using alcohol blending solution to get a sky effect and then painted colouds using my new 
.
to build up a pattern based on circles and flowers. I then used my 
.
. I used 
(red, yellow and white to get orange) and pressed it into the mould. When it was dry I rubbed some 
over the top to bring out the details.
as my mask, stamped through it in a slightly random fashion with my 
and then used 
and heat embossed it. I deliberately left the area that was going to be covered with a layer clear). I have all the Zig art and graphic twin 
to mix and water down my watercolour pens! I use a 
to paint with.
to make a swirl pattern and then heat embossed with clear powder. I used the same pens for my watercolour wash.
on the edges. I did the same with the 
I layered them on. I used 
for my sentiment and mounted it in the same way. I used a 
with 
to add a hint of colour to the card scallop edges. I stuck it all together using foam pads (edges coloured with the metallic marker) for the image and sentiment layers to help them ‘pop’.
