Laura Vegas

exactly one year ago today, alyssa graduated from the 8th grade. so it seems fitting to share this layout that i created for creating keepsakes with you today. it is featured in the may/june issue, that is out in stores right now.

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

i created this layout for an article about scrapping less-than-perfect photos. i was asked to use a blurry photo on my layout. the photos from this night came to mind right away, since i knew i had plenty of blurry shots. i don't usually keep blurry shots, but these captured a moment and i'm so glad i didn't hit the "delete" button.

like this one, with her friend idalis.

or this one, with her friend alyssa.

i decided to tie in the blurry shots, with my journaling and what i was feeling when i took these photos. how most of the photos that i took after graduation, were blurry. which sort of represented how much of a blur the school year had been. it just flew by so fast.

i remember when i was making this layout, i had just gotten a bunch of goodie boxes from some manufactures. and i was picking and choosing products, right from the boxes. those fabric american craft thicker, are one of my favorite thickers to use. love them. i extended the title onto the canvas tag, using some tiny alpha stickers. 

i half created these photo collages in photoshop. usually, i do the math and make the photos all similiar sizes, to fit the space i have. but this time, i tried something a little different. i randomly cropped and sized each photo, so that i had an interesting mix of sizes. i created two canvases in photoshop, and arranged the photos as i wanted them on the layout. just to get a feel for how they were going to look, and what spaces i would need to fill.

after i printed the photos, i did end up trimming each one and adhering them to a piece of white cardstock. then i just trimmed pattern papers to fill in the rest of the collages, and adding a few embellishments and journaling tags to some of them. i used a clear making memories clock embellishment on the first page, and a jenni bowlin chipboard clock (and some buttons) on the second page. they represent time, and how quickly it passed that year.

i think my journaling pretty much summed up that evening. for the both of us. and the crazy thing is. i thought her 8th grade year went by so fast. turns out, her freshman year went by even faster. lol!

and with that, another school year is almost over. we don't have a graduate this year. although sarah is finishing the 6th grade, and heading into junior high school. that's a milestone! tonight, another 8th grade class is graduating and moving on to high school. both my girls will be there, playing in the band for the ceremony. the 6th and 7th grade band members play for graduation. but alyssa, and a few of her freshman bandmates that went to our school last year, are coming back to help out tonight. i think it's cool that they are going back to where band all started for them, and helping out the band teacher that they all loved. and since we live right across the street from the school, i should be able to hear the band playing from here 🙂