Laura Vegas

warning to grammie again: do not look if you want this to be a total surprise. even though you did walk in my kitchen yesterday … and saw this entire thing spread all over the island. lol!

it's always amazing how long some things can take me. these next two steps took me 3 days to finish. i work on things here and there … when i get a few spare minutes … or in between working and regular life stuff. i'm home all day … but i am working. and sometimes i can get lots of little things done … and sometimes i can't. go figure.

so after i had my photos all trimmed … and my white cardstock cut to size … the next step was simply adhering the photos. i'm doing these in sets for each page. so i basically do all four sets at a time … for each 2-page spread in the album. i'll seperate and organize the pages in order later. this is one of those steps that can be done without much thought. i did these during lunchtime. i get the kids sitting down and food on their trays. and then i stand at the kitchen counter and start adhering … all the while talking to them and explaining what i'm doing. yes, they're my audience … they should be great scrappers by the time i'm done with them. lol! and honestly … they have no way to get away from me .. they're strapped in their booster seats!

these are how most of the pages are with the photos. all of the right side pages have the strip of 3 photos. but the left pages vary a little. some have another strip of 3 photos … and some have just one photo. i actually like the double 3 strip the most … i should have done that on all the pages.

and here they all are … photos adhered. i then layed them all out … sort of stacked, but using the least amount of space on the island that i could. i did this so that i could pick out my colored cardstock colors. but somehow, i never got to it. and this pile sat there for hours. and there were drinks on the counter after the girls got home from school … and sippy cups being filled right next to this. it worried me. i finally gave up … and stacked them all in one big pile to take upstairs to the studio. where it all sat … and got no attention last night. so then this morning … i brought them all BACK downstairs … and laid them all out like this again. waste of time … but yet, this is how i roll. lol! the biggest disadvantage to having my studio upstairs … but having to work downstairs all day.

but today … i finally got some more done during naptime. so here they are with all the colored cardstock strips matched up to each page. i choose to just use the solid side of some american crafts cardstock. i had bought this HUGE pack of pattern paper at the warehouse sale … and wanted to use some of it up. if i had been upstairs and surrounded by the rest of my paper collection … i probably would have choosen different colors for some of these. but these work … so it's all good. for each set of pages (4 albums = 8 pages for each set), i used half a sheet of paper. i cut the strips to 1.25 x 6 inches. then i adhered them all during lunchtime … gotta love lunchtime for doing mundane tasks such as adhering stuff!

and just a sample of how the strips look with the photos. i was actually going to emboss these with my cuttlebug … and i had the idea to use my scallop punch along the edge too. but in the end … that would have been a ton of work. so i passed on that. but there will likely be string involved … still tedious, but gotta have my string! as for my next step??? i'm not actually sure. lol! i totally wing these sort of projects … never plan them too much. i'll be looking around my stash … and finding some stuff to add. some titles or text of some sort … and probably buttons or flowers. we'll see!

and i have to show this off … because it took me FOREVER! lol! and this isn't the best photo … but it's super hard to get a shot of this because of the 3 large windows in this room (so this is at an angle). i have had this photo wall in the playroom for about 2 years i think … right above the couch. the frames started out all vertical … and lined up in 3 straight rows. then i changed them some … and mixed in horizontal pics too. the way i had them up always bothered me a little. the whole arrangement ended up too high on the wall … and just wan't balanced quite right. and i had OLD photos up here. most of them were almost a year old. i had a lot of kids that weren't here any longer. i finally got around to ordering some new pics (a few older ones stay though) … they're all 8×10's. love seeing my favorites up there! anyways .. i moved all the frames. it's a ripple effect … once you move one, the others have to be adjusted too. like a puzzle. and some of them … i moved 2 and 3 times. the entire arrangement got moved down about 6 inches … which made room for that fun vinyl wall decor from stampin up. i have had that thing for months … but i wanted the frames to be in the right spots before putting in on the wall. and it took me forever to put up with the textured walls. but i love how it turned out … makes me realize how just updating your framed photos can give the house a totally updated look! and yes … i'm totally blessed to spent my day with the cutest kids ever!!!

ok … that was a super long post. i had no intention of rambling that long. lol! and stay tuned tomorrow … it's challenge day!