Hello fellow sketch lovers!
Korin (sweetnsassystamps), Holly (Toy), and I are so thrilled to have the opportunity to share our love of sketches with you here on Splitcoast each week. We cannot thank Roxie (Rox71) enough for all of the hard work she put into making this challenge such a success. She did an amazing job as a one-woman show hosting the challenge for over six years! Even with three of us working as the new sketch challenge team, we know we will never fill her shoes....but we promise to always try as hard as we can!
We took over hosting the sketch challenge in January, and decided to give it a couple of months to see how the current set-up worked with the the new team. Because we rotate our hosting duties every three weeks, we needed some time to settle into a sketchy routine (hahaha!!). Now that we've had that chance, we'd like to share a few housekeeping things with everyone.
First, you'll notice some changes to the master thread in the coming days. We'll be streamlining it a bit, to make information easier to find for both newcomers to the sketch challenge as well as seasoned sketch veterans. Here is a list of some of the things you'll see:
- The Word and PDF files that are currently combined in the thread with links to each challenge will be moved to their own thread.
- The blank templates for creating these files will move to a new thread, along with the other files.
- We will combine the "What is the sketch challenge" with the master thread containing links (we promise - no info is disappearing, just being condensed!).
We also wanted to address a few other things:
Those Word and PDF files that Roxie so wonderfully updated.....
We will no longer be utilizing those, and encourage you to take a look at the
Sketch Gallery where you will find all of the sketches in one place. We are aware that some of you like those files to keep a handy printable reference for sketches. These files take time to create, and we would like to focus our time on creating the sketches, making inspiring samples and making the challenge the best it can be each week, so we will no longer be creating these additional files. If you are tech-savvy and would be able to update them at least twice a month here (in both Word and PDF format, as they are now) feel free to send me a pm and we can chat more about it. Splitcoast is built on volunteers coming together to make an awesome community and we'd welcome the chance for one of our fabulous sketch-loving friends to help out with these files!
Sketch measurements.....
Each week, we share two versions of a sketch (one in color, the other in black and white). We wholeheartedly believe in this statement made by Andrea, founder of the sketch challenge:
"You take the sketch I provided and use any stamp set, any accessory, and any kind of paper to make a card. So all of the cards have the same basic layout, but they all look very different." In that spirit, we encourage you to use the sketches we share as a jumping off point. We cannot promise we will be able to provide you with measurements each week - it's up to each of our talented sketch artists if they'd like to provide bonus information in addition to the sketch. The sketches should print out of the gallery at full size, so that may help you if you want to get close to our proportions. Keep in mind, you are welcome to flip the sketch, change panel sizes, shapes, card size and borders as you wish. Most importantly, have fun with it. There's no wrong answer to a Splitcoast challenge.
Guest sample makers....
From time to time, we'll be choosing random players of the sketch challenge to be guest sample makers for an upcoming sketch. We'll be choosing random players from the sketch galleries and sending pm's to the members selected. We're still working out how many sample makers we'll have each week - the numbers will probably vary (and some weeks there may be none). We thought this would be a fun way to spread the sketch love around a bit
!
We welcome any comments or suggestions you have, and look forward to seeing your awesome sketch challenge entries in the gallery each week!
A Note From the Sketch Challenge Hostesses
