My Mind's Eye Blog

Anatomy of a Double Page Layout-Finding Inspiration in a Single Page Sketch

Hello everyone! This is Shelly back with another behind the scenes look at the makings of a double page layout. Last month, I took on the challenge of turning a single page sketch into a double page. After seeing the fabulous May Sketch Challenge from our very own Ronda, I thought I would do it again! Maybe I could inspire some of my fellow Doublers to take on this month’s sketch challenge.


When I see a page or a sketch that inspires me, I grab my notebook to get my own ideas down. The second I saw Ronda’s sketch, I could see two immediate possibilities. I could “stretch the sketch” or “blow up the sketch.” Next step, I search my pictures to see what grabs my attention as the perfect topic for the inspiration piece. I decided a spring summary with lots of pictures was calling my name and would be a perfect fit for the second sketch.

What was so nice about this sketch is that you really could just grab several pictures in various sizes to easily make a collage. After selecting the pictures I wanted to highlight, I picked my focus picture of my daughter riding her bike as the 6x4, picked three other main pictures to be 4x3, and the rest were sized at 3x2. This was easy editing for me. No real thought, because I knew I would just fan them out around the main picture. I almost always have a few extra pictures that I print, but never make the cut onto the final page. Sometimes, they just don’t tell enough of the story or one of the other pictures tells the same story.

With my pictures in front of me, I lay them out using my sketch as a guide. That is when I pull out my pretty papers and select a few that are calling to me for the page. Since it was a spring page, it was only natural to gravitate to some of the vibrate colors from the Collectable Collection.

After pushing the pictures around and playing with pretty papers, this is how it all ended up…

Supplies:Collectable–Memorable: ‘Journey’ Journal paper, ‘Note’ Record paper. ‘Perfect’ Flawless paper, Decorative Stickers, Enamel Dots; Collectable-Notable:‘Love This’ Adore paper; Collectable-Unforgettable:‘Today’ Remember paper; Collectable-Remarkable: ‘Smile’ Grin paper; Decorative Tape Sets;Indie Chic: Twine;Misc: Popdots, Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, Silhouette, Sewing Machine

As you can see I kept with the same design, a large focal picture with several smaller rectangles bursting around it. I chose to make those rectangles more pictures, but larger. I like to have my pictures big enough to see what is going on in them. Although it would be fun to use those index prints that you can get with your picture order with this sketch too!

Initially for the background, I had the plan to divide it up into quadrants which was inspired by the stitching in Ronda’s sketch. After looking at it, I thought it would be fun to do a sun burst radiating from the focal picture. I really love this effect! I followed my same process that I did in my very first installment of Anatomy of a Double Page Layout, but this time I went with random widths for each of the rays.

I was also inspired by Ronda’s small strip of decorative tape across her focal picture. I decided to run with that idea, and added a few strips here and there embellished by a few enamel dots. With so much happening on this page already, a colorful burst background with lots of pictures, I chose to go with a tone on tone look. I do tend to do this a lot. It is a fun way to add embellishment to a page without overpowering the entire look of the page.

I moved the title to the side of the page instead of under the focal picture. There was lots of room over there, and I felt that it added some much needed weight. This is where I added a little extra color. I went back and forth about it, but I just love this green polka dot from the Remarkable ‘Smile’ Grin paper that I threw caution to the wind and added a pop of spring green to the page.

Although I love how Ronda had journaling circling her page, I chose to just do a simple strip along the left side of the page. I like to keep my season summary pages short and sweet with just a few simple blurbs of what is going on in the pictures.

So there you have it. Another single page turned into a double page layout. I hope I have inspired some of my fellow Double Lovers to join in on our May Sketch Challenge this month. I can’t wait to see what you all create. Thank you for stopping by today!

Anatomy of a Double Page Layout-Finding Inspiration in a Single Page Sketch

Hello everyone! This is Shelly back with another behind the scenes look at the makings of a double page layout. This go around, I took on the challenge of turning a single page sketch into a double page. Earlier this month, the MME Team was invited to play along with Becky Fleck’s Page Maps Team. The sketch I was challenged to use was a single page 12x12.


This is what I originally came up with…



Now, I am a fan of any and all sketches. They are just so versatile and easy to make them your own. Even when I am looking at a single page sketch, I always see a few variations of making it into a double page layout. You can “stretch a sketch”, “mirror a sketch”, or even just make the single sketch one side of your double layout. The first time I saw this sketch, I immediately thought to “blow up” the sketch. I wanted to use the same arrangement for the pictures, but just make everything bigger to fill both sides of my page. To do this all I had to do was enlarge the size of the pictures.



This was my take on Becky Fleck’s Page Map to make it into a double page. I did add one additional square photo into the mix. Once I chose the pictures for this page, I had one extra picture that I wanted to include. No problem, I just added it!

And this is how it all ended up…

Supplies:Collectable-Notable: 'Love This' title,'Memo'Document patterned paper;Collectable-Memorable:'Note'Details patterned paper;'Journey'Journal paper;Collectable-Unforgettable: ‘Story’ Tale Paper, ‘You Are’ Pleasant Paper, ‘You Are’ Charm Paper, ‘Today’ Remember Paper;Misc: American Crafts Thickers, Silhouette, Prima Chalk Ink, Date Stamp, EK Success circle punch, Stampin’ Up ticket corner punch, pop dots

I was still able to keep the integrity of the original sketch, but still make it my own as a double page. I still did the three main blocks of pattern paper with a corresponding embellishment cluster to substitute for the smaller squares that are paired with each of the pattern squares.

I initially had only the diecuts/journal card on each of the squares. I wanted a little something more to add a little more visual interest. I had just shuffled through my papers, and the hexagon pattern from Unforgettable ‘You Are’ Charm paper was still fresh in my head.

For a split second, I considered cutting those tiny little hexies out. Then reality hit me, yeah right! So, I grabbed my circle punch and began to punch away. I got lots of different patterns with just one piece of paper. Perfect AND easy.

For the journaling, I kept it simple and easy too. I used one of my journaling cards that I had precut from all of those lovely journal card papers. If you haven’t cut up a sheet (or four) of those yet, just go ahead and do it! I keep them all stacked up nice and neat right next to me. Easy to grab when I am in the middle of a page. 

So here ends another post of double inspiration. Hopefully the next time you see a single sketch, you might be inspired to make it your own double page layout. Thanks for stopping by!

Anatomy of a Double Page Layout- March

Supplies: Boy Crazy:Geared Up patterned paper,Stitched patterned paper,Plaid patterned paper,Ready Set Go patterned paper,6x6 pad,chipboard,enamel dots;My Girl:decorative tape;Winter Wonderland:twine;Misc: Silhouette,circle punches,snowflake punches

Hello everyone! This is Shelly back with another behind the scenes look at the makings of a double page layout. This past January, I brought you the first installment of this series. Thank you so much for all the sweet comments, and I am so happy to see that I am NOT the only one creating double page layouts. Go doublers!

Now, I also read some of you have multiple kids and take too many pictures to fit on a single page. I am right there with you! My favorite thing to do to get lots of those pictures onto a layout is to do a Season Summary page for both of my kids.

Yep, I have an album for my daughter and album for my son. I am sure there are some of you who just keep one family album, and some are like me (I hope) who scrapbook for each of your children. Right? It can be challenging to keep up with multiple albums, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. 

Summarizing an entire season onto one layout can knock out three months of memories all at once. Kind of nice! I just make sure I plan and order my pictures for those pages at the same time. The pictures that I use are almost identical, with a couple varied to focus on the individual child.

This past December, I shared a winter layout for my daughter.

Today I am going to share with you my son’s winter layout from the same year. When I started planning for my daughter’s page, I also planned for my son’s knocking out two birds with one stone.

Once I organize which pictures I am going to use, I start with a sketch. If I don’t sketch them out, I will completely forget what I was planning on doing with them when I find the time to scrap them. Sketches are key for me.

As you can see, I have my daughter’s page right there with my son’s page. I had a couple of extra pictures for my daughter and different “kid specific” pictures that were not of the same orientation, so I didn’t use the same sketch. I did use the same 2x3 size for the majority of the pictures and then had the larger sizes for the “kid specific” pictures. Doing blocks of 2x3 or 3x4 pictures for these summary pages can really streamline my process.

On those special days where I have time to scrapbook, I pull out my pictures and match them up with their sketch.

I always start off with a white base to push my pictures around on to get the layout just the way I want it before I add color and embellishments to the equation. I did have two different 4x6 pictures printed for this page. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to go with as the main picture; the sledding picture or my son looking through the window.

After putting my pictures on paper, I saw that I was able to add them both by trimming down the sledding picture.

Next step is journaling and color! Once I type up all that I want to say for a layout, I know where I can fit it in around my pictures or if I have to switch up where my pictures go. This time, it was easy. I already had journaling from my daughter’s page and it also worked perfectly for my son’s.

I printed it off on a tag which fit nicely next to the focal picture. Then, I get to add my color with pretty papers.

I deviated from my sketch a bit by dividing the left 4x12-inch strip on my page. It just felt like there was too much space above the journaling tag, so I simply trimmed the Plaid Paper and flipped it over to see the yellow circles.  Then I sized each piece to match with the adjacent papers.

The final step is to embellish and title the page. I knew I wanted a big ol’ title on the top of the page over the Ready Set Go Paper, and those fun circle chipboard pieces from the Boy Crazy line were calling to me with a mix of snowflakes.

To ground the chipboard circles, I layered them on top of different sized circles and then mixed in some snowflake punches. After cutting my title out of the grey cardstock, I realized that the letters got lost on such a busy piece of paper.

I tried the title in aqua, but it was still the case. I went back to the grey, and decided to stitch on each letter with different coordinating colors. Perfect, that worked for me.

To carry the circles and snowflakes over to the other side, I did the same thing in the plaid square. Since I used a red circle for layering, I decided to pull the red tag off that I had underneath the journaling tag because there was already enough happening over there with the circle embellishments. I simply added some twine to my tag, attached decorative tape down on two of the pictures, and my page was done.

So there you have it, another scary look inside my creative process of a double page layout. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for joining me today!

Just a side note for all you single page makers, you can still pull some inspiration from me today. If you look at each side of my layout individually, they can totally work for a standalone page too. Double the inspiration or should I say triple the inspiration?!?

The Anatomy of a Double Page Layout by Shelly

Happy Monday, guys! Today we are introducing a new blog series...The Anatomy of a Double Page Layout by Shelly Jaquet. We know you guys will LOVE this series. Shelly is such a talented scrapbooker and her two page layouts are always awe-inducing.

In a world dominated by one page layouts, one scrapper dares to buck the trend.

Supplies: Collectable-Notable- 'Silly' Cheery patterned paper, ''Love This' Devoted patterned paper, 'Memo' Reminder patterned paper,'Cute' Petite patterned paper, enamel dots, decorative tape;Collectable-Remarkable:decorative tape;Collectable-Memorable:decorative tape,6x6 paper pad;Collectable-Unforgettable:'Happiness' Delight patterned paper, decorative pins;The Sweetest Thing-'Sunshine' die cut title;Decorative Tape Sets- Red/Turquoise,Yellow/Grey,Pink/Orange;Misc:pop dots,zig pen,vellu,Marvy Uchida heart punches,EK Success leaf punch,Fiskars star punch, Martha Stewart tag punch

Okay. In all seriousness, I read over and over on message board and blogs that double page layouts are a challenge, but for me it just gives me the ability to really tell a story with lots of pictures.

I am here today to give you a little inside look of how I pull a doubler off.

After pulling my pictures together, I put pencil to paper and sketch out an idea of where I want my page to go. Sometimes, I might have a couple of ideas.

As you can see, I have two different ideas for this layout. Once I have my pictures back from the printer, I lay then out on two sheets of white cardstock and push my pictures around until something clicks for me.

By using the white background, I am really able to see what colors pop from my pictures giving me a great starting point for choosing paper.

I actually had these pictures of my kids’ month by month summary sitting on my desk, when the new Collectable Collection showed up on my doorstep.

Once I saw the bright rainbow of colors, I let those pretty little papers guide the way. It was only natural to go with the sunburst sketch.

I kept my white base and I was able to easily draw out my lines.

I wanted even strips for my burst. I had my protractor handy. Yes, I have plenty of rulers and my protractor right next to me at all times. It must be the engineer in me.

I had six colors I wanted to use, so at each 30degree interval, I marked it out.

Then, I took my ruler to draw out each of the bursts.

Cutting the burst is pretty easy. I started with the top. That burst was small enough to use a 6x6 sheet, so I pulled out my paper pads instead of cutting up a large sheet of 12x12.

I placed the sheet on top of the white paper and marked the edges of the burst onto the pink paper.

I aligned those pencil marks on my trimmer, and holding my paper tight, I could easily cut my triangle burst.

This will be the only burst that you will have to measure and trim exactly until you get to the bottom section.

The next two burst are just two strips of paper in which I could layer under each other to create their own triangle without having to try to line up and trim perfect triangle bursts.

I then repeated this same process with the bottom section, starting with the bottom burst this time.

Once I had my paper into place, I was then able to add to it. With the new decorative tapes sitting next to me on my desk in a rainbow of colors, I decided to use some of those pretties!

I finished the burst off with the sunshine die cut from The Sweetest Thing collection.

I wanted to bring the rainbow to the left side of the layout, so I used those open spots to embellish with patterned paper. With so many pictures keeping that side busy, I wanted to keep those spots fairly simple. I punched some shapes out of the same patterned paper for a tone on tone look using pop dots to make them stand out.

I felt they still needed a little more pow, so I pulled out my enamel dots in matching colors to place on each of the shapes.  Yep, that is just what they needed!

Since each of these pictures was taken one month at a time, I wanted to include the names of the month. I tried putting them on the picture, but that was a too busy.

I decided to print out the names of the months on strips of white cardstock and add that to the embellished spots.

So...there you have it; just one view of how my brain works when creating a double page layout. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for joining me today!

Hopefully someday, a double page layout won’t be so intimidating for you.