Laura Vegas

sorry i went and disappeared on you for a few days. being sick is no fun at all. it knocked me out for two days, but i'm feeling so much better and trying to catch up. i even did a little scrapbooking!

i had a layout scheduled on the bella blvd blog today. wednesday's are free-for-all days for our designers, where they can make any themed layout they want, using any collection they want. i love that even though it's the middle of december, i could create a fun, summertime layout.

this photo of the girls is a long time favorite of mine. it's from 8 years ago, and i took it at my parents house. when the girls were little, joe and my brother (and even my mom and dad) would toss them super high in the air, while in the pool. it was a favorite activity, and i have SOOOOO many photos of them doing this. but THIS photo? well, this photo was the best one that i ever got. it makes me smile and giggle just looking at the expressions on the girls faces. and how hilarious is sarah, all sideways, with her pigtail braids flying about? love it!

my parents have had this photo hanging on their fridge for probably about 8 years. and every time i'm over there, i comment on how i need to dig out my negative and have it reprinted. but i never do it. a few weeks ago, they were on vacation, and we were over visiting with jenny, their dog. and i was standing their looking at the photo, and then i just took it right off the fridge. took it home with me, scanned it into my computer, cleaned it up, and had it printed as an 8×12 enlargement. easy peasy.

by the time i added it to my layout, it sort of looks like an 8×10. there was quite a bit of empty space on the bottom of the photo, so i just shorted it to make room for more pattern paper and color. because there was empty space on this photo, i was also able to add my title directly to the photo, using some alpha stickers.

i dug through different bella collections, to find papers that matched well together. sure, using a collection is easy, since it all coordinates together. but i have fun pulling from all different collections, and i love the challenge of finding pieces that go together. i started by looking for pinks and aqua's, to go with the girls swimsuits. i added in the yellow, mainly because i wanted to use the yellow scalloped border sticker.

i went looking for a ribbon to add next to the photo, and came across this colorful one from american crafts. it had my pink, aqua, and yellow in it. and then i just added some extra embellishments in browns and green, to match the other colors in the ribbon. these fun chipboard buttons are from some older bella blvd collections. i threaded a few of the buttons with some jute string, and added some silver mini brads to the centers of a few as well.

i also came across this chipboard piece, that say "this is sooo awesome!", and i just knew that i HAD to use it. how perfectly does it go, placed above sarah? because i'm pretty sure that is exactly what was going through her little 4 yr old head when i snapped this photo 😉

i thought it would be funny to add this little disclaimer to the layout. i'm almost positive that the original photo had my brother in it as well. he's directly to the left of joe, when looking at the photo. but the photo on my parents fridge was an 8×10, which came from a 4×6, and then i enlarged to an 8×12. so maybe he got cut out, unintentionally. but one could think, just looking at the photo, that joe in fact threw BOTH the girls up, for this shot. not to say that he couldn't have tossed them both, because i'm sure he could have. but there was another set of hands involved. the girls saw this layout yesterday, and said i "dissed him". lol!

and for the record, this past summer, the girls tried to get joe and my brother to toss them up like this in the pool. for old times sake. let's just say, their feet didn't even get out of the water 😉