Laura Vegas

i just wanted to say "thanks" for everyone's comments on my last post. it's nice to know that i'm not the only one that occasionally just has to shut down, and ignore the world for a few days. well, not really the world. just the things that i didn't want to think or worry about anymore 😉

as seen in the Scrapbooking Holiday's and Celebrations Special Issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

when i was asked to create a summer birthday layout, i was all over it. my birthday is in june, sarah's is in june, joe's is in july, and alyssa's is in september (which is still summer around here). and the majority of my family and joe's family all have summer birthday's as well. most of our parties end up being pool parties. so i dug around and found a birthday/party that i hadn't scrapped yet.  

what i came up with was sarah's 8th birthday. i knew i wanted a lot of photos on my layout. i always end up with tons of photos, and i do my best to get at least one photo of each guest. i don't think everyone ended up on this layout, but all of her closest friends did. i always try and include a few photos of the birthday girl opening gifts, and at least one photo with the cake. i printed 9 of my photos at 3×4's, and 3 of them at 3×3's.

for my title, i used a favorite mix of alphas. chipboard alphas, which in this case, i used bella blvd. and my favorite alpha stickers by doodlebug.

i'm not even going to admit how long i spend arranging these three stickers. i tried so many different configurations, as if it was a major life decision. lol!

i choose pattern papers from the beach babe collection from fancy pants for my layout. the colors worked perfectly with all the girl's swimsuits. and i thought the fishies were so cute, because we have always said that sarah is truely a fish in disquise. that girl can swim the entire day, and never get tired. i thought the little "bikini brigade" border strip was really fun too.

i printed my journaling on the backside of one of the pattern papers, that had a distressed solid yellow on it. it was easier then trying to find yellow cardstock that matched perfectly.

to add a little "birthday" feel to the "summer" feel of the papers, i added some fun birthday stickers from making memories and carolee's creations.

now that i finished sharing a summer layout, i really need to get on the christmas wagon here. lol! my pre-lit tree only has about half the lights working. and we don't have the patience once again to try and figure it out. so i'm stringing a few strands of lights on it, to fill in the gaps. which reminds me why i have a pre-lit tree to begin with. because i detest stringing lights 😉 i need to get one more strand, and then maybe i can decorate it. it's been set up for 5 full days, and still doesn't have ornaments on it. hopefully, i can work that in this weekend. in between 3 soccer games, and a christmas parade.