Laura Vegas

i wanted to share a layout of mine from the february issue of creating keepsakes. this was part of the "new scrap beginnings" article, which was all about some fun ways to boost your creativity.

 
as seen in the February 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

these gorgeous photos were taken by the amazingly talented megan cristello, a photographer friend from florida. this is her beautiful oldest daughter, raygan. some of you might remember some other layouts i have created, using megan's photos of all four of her kids. i've done them all for fun, and then sent them to her to keep. sometimes, just having a fresh face on your scraptable, is just the creative boost you need. well, i have had layouts published with megan's three youngest kids. the two little ones have been on a few published layouts, one of which even landed on the cover of creating keepsakes once. but raygan hadn't made it yet. and being the mom of girls, i know that it's easy to be a little jealous and unsure of yourself sometimes. so when i got this assignment, i asked megan to send me some photos of raygan, so that i could give her her moment in the magazine. i still remember how excited and grateful raygan was, when i showed her a peek at my finished layout. i was secretly more nervous to get her approval, than the magazine. lol!

back to the layout. my assignment was to set a timer for 50 minutes. this is a great challenge, for those of us that spend way too much time picking out products or making decisions on our layouts. i was also asked to stop every 10 minutes, and if i was stuck on something, make a quick decision and move on. i was asked to take some photos of my process along the way. since they didn't end up getting used for the magazine, i figured i would share them here. give you a little insight into how my mind works 😉

 

i had so many great photos to choose from, and honestly, i wanted to use them all. i started my two page layout, with seven 4×6 photos. i laid four vertical photos going across the upper part of the pages, and then three horizontal photos going up and down the second page. i had picked out that strip of pattern paper, that had all the colors from raygan's outfit. lots of earth tones. browns, yellows, greens, oranges, and turquoise.

 

i was digging around for some embellishments. something to really get the layout going. i've mentioned that i always start my layouts with white cardstock (which does get changed out to colors, or covered up sometimes). then it's photos and pattern paper. but then i usually look for something cool, to really give the layout it's direction. this time, it was this chipboard filmstrip, from an older "mix it up" CK kit of the month. i love how it tied into the vintage camera that raygan had in her photos. and it ended up fitting perfectly, under three of the 4×6 photos. which is why i ended up taking one photo off the layout.

 

once i knew i was using the filmstrip, i moved my polka dot pattern paper strip above the vertical photos, instead of below them. i found a coordinating orange pattern paper to go below the filmstrip. a woodgrain pattern paper to go along the photos on the second page. and a fun text pattern paper to go along the side of the first page. i had picked out some puffy letter stickers for my title. i knew i wanted to find some turquoise ribbon or trim to add to my layout. oddly enough, i didn't have much ribbon in that color. and i have a LOT of ribbon.

 

then i remembered this bloomer trim by webster's pages. this is one of those products that i sort of consider "too special to use". which is crazy, i know. i've gotten a lot better about that nowdays, and i don't hold on to much anymore. so glad i finally pulled this out to use, because it was perfect. and it added a ton of extra weight to that side of the layout. without this bulkier trim, the page was feeling a little flat.

 

for the filmstrip, i was thinking i would back each rectangle with some colored cardstock. i cut a few pieces, and tried it out. but it wasn't quite working for me. and i also had no clue what else i would put in each spot.

 

so i took the colored cardstock out, and adhered the filmstrip directly to the white cardstock background. and then i dug through my paper flowers and found flowers in all the same colors that were in the pattern papers and photos. once i had those picked out, i found some old metal flowers and a few fun buttons. i simply glue dotted them all down. nothing complicated.

 

and here's the final layout. the first page.

 

and the second page. all in all, a very simple layout. totally do-able in 50 minutes. believe me, this really did only take me that long. except maybe the journaling. that always ends up taking me longer. lol!

 

 

i seriously love this filmstrip. and filled up with flowers and buttons, it's even more cool. it would also be cool to put photos inside. which is probably the most logical choice for it.

 

and the journaling, written from her mother's point of view. i received this layout back last week, and it's on it's way to megan and raygan. i hope they love it 🙂