Whale, whale, whale...what do we have here?

Sorry, couldn't resist the whale pun.  I have a group of 4 photos that I've been wanting to use in a two-page layout or two coordinated one-page layouts. Because of the design on the paper I planned to use and the composition of the photos, I knew that one picture would need to be on a page by itself. I rarely do layouts for one single picture and couldn't think what to do with it until I spotted a sketch by Stuck On U Sketches that featured just one photo. I've made several previous attempts to follow layout sketches, but this is the first time the sketch is even remotely recognizable in my completed page. I turned it sideways to make it work with my photo and paper, but other than that I think I stayed fairly close to the sketch. What do you think?

Original Sketch

Rotated Sketch (as I used it)

http://stuckonusketches.blogspot.com/

I've been trying to work from sketches in order to create pages that don't look so much like all my other pages - to get me out of my comfort zone.  This sketch did that. First, there's the single photo thing, but it also used flags and banners as the major elements.  I love flags and banners on cards, but have never really used them on scrapbook layouts. I did use the three smaller banners, but didn't use the large background banner in its original form. Instead, I cut a large square about the same size as the large banner in the sketch, rounded the corners, and then stretched a whale across it (cut with my Silhouette Cameo) to pull from the subject of the photo and add a little bit of fun. I haven't done the second page yet, but the patterned cardstock used for the three banners on this layout will be the background paper of the page opposite this one, and will have similar, coordinating elements using other papers from this page.

I'm encouraged by this to keep trying layout sketches, and I plan to make the Stuck On U Sketches blog a regular stop when I go searching for ideas.