Laura Vegas

I made a layout the other day. Not for an assignment, not for design team work. A layout, just for fun. And it took me FOREVER! I have become very assignment driven over the years, and I go into most of my projects with a specific theme, specific manufacturer, specific technique, etc that I'm supposed to focus on. So some of the choices have been made for me, and I go from there.

Without that direction, it's really up to me to decide what photos to scrap about, what product to scrap with, and what to do with the products that I pick out. It can be very overwhelming, and I tend to do a lot more sitting and staring at everything in my scraproom, then actual scrapping. I find this so strange, and I feel like such a wingnut as I sit there and say "I forgot how to scrap". But that's how it feels sometimes.

This layout did not come together easily. And it's nothing like I intended it to be. I actually started with some brand new papers, stickers, and washi tape from KI Memories (so glad that they're back with new stuff!). In the end, I used 2 of the tapes, 1 sticker, and one small strip of the patterned paper. In the process, I pulled out a lot of older product. Not what my plan was. Just how it happened.

I also started with these photos of Sarah that I borrowed off her iPod Touch. She had the photos individually, but she had also created this collage of four photos for Instagram. I decided to just use that, since the work was done for me. I printed it out as a 5"x5" photo.  

I've really been into using grid patterns or ruled line patterns for my background paper on a lot of layouts. It's just a really neutral piece to built the page on, but not as plain as a solid piece of cardstock. I dug out this grid paper (it already had "October" printed in the upper left corner) from a My Mind's Eye Halloween collection. That's also where I found the black and white star patterned paper.

I started the page by adhereing the days of the week glitter border sticker (from KI Memories) along the top of the page, and a few strips of patterned paper along the bottom of the page. Then I picked out some yellow and red patterned papers, to go along with the black and white star paper, and added in a text paper as well. I choose my colors to go with Sarah's pajama pants in the photos. They are Mickey Mouse, so lots of red, with some black, white, and yellow.

I cut my patterned papers into strips of varying widths, and cut a little notch at the bottom of each piece to resemble banner pieces. I layered them all side by side, in the middle of the page, and towards the right side of the page. I was originally going to adhere my photos right on top of those papers. But I changed my mind at the last minute, and moved the photos to the left side of the page.

I knew I wanted some large red letters for my title. Since the days of the week sticker was glittery, I decided to use these super old red glittered chipboard letters from Making Memories. I added in some fun little tabs from Ormolu, and the red washi tape is from KI Memories. I'm in love with that tape!

What's that camera? A rub-on? I can't even remember the last time I have used a rub-on. Lol. The little camera badge fit perfectly in the center! And check it out. I even wrote out my journaling by hand. I'm not a fan of it, even though I know it's important to get our handwriting onto some of our layouts for future generations. I won't lie. The main reason I wrote it by hand is that I was in a rush. I actually started taking pictures of this layout, when I realized that I hadn't journaled on it. I grabbed a pen and scribbled something out, without even moving from where I was taking pictures. 

While this layout didn't exactly come easily, I think it's kind of a fun one. I pulled out some more product, and printed more photos, so I'm hoping to work on some more layouts. Just for fun. I've been missing doing that, and really want to make an effort to do more of it.