Laura Vegas

I had a new layout go up for Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday. I hadn't used my Silhouette since the last time I did a project for Kerri, which was at the beginning of December. I never use my Silhouette on my CHA projects for Bella Blvd, and that has been the only other projects I've done in the last month and a half. So it was really nice to get my machine out again.

I wasn't really sure at first what I wanted to scrap. I was actually going to do a soccer layout, using some divided page protectors. I was in the middle of printing photos, and had all of my shapes picked out that I wanted to cut. And then I realized that there was no way I would be able to finish it in time, since it was going to end up being two double page spreads. So I switched gears a bit, but stuck with the idea of using some divided page protectors. And this is what I came up with.

We have all been crazy busy around here lately. But Alyssa has had an extremely busy month, with school, winter league soccer, conditioning for high school soccer, County Honor Band, District Honor Band, homework, and every day life stuff. I thought it would be fun to document one of her busy weeks, and get her schedule down in a fun way.

I decided to use one of the Design F pocket page protectors from Becky Higgins. I like that it has room for one 4×6, perfect for the title, and then lots of 2×3 spots. I started out by digging through all of Kerri's kits to see what shapes I wanted to use. I came across the inFORMS kit, which I haven't used yet, and printed out the library card on white cardstock for my title piece.

I spritzed a bit of green misting spray on the card and went about finding a title. When I came across the "2 Words. In. Sane." phrase from the Say What 3 kit, I knew it would be perfect for the title. I first cut the entire title from black cardstock, and then cut a few of the pieces from green and red ruled patterned paper from Bo Bunny.

I picked out the days of the week from the Life Additions: Weeklies #2 kit, and cut them all from black cardstock. In the back of my mind, I thought I might go and cut them from colored cardstock to layer on top. But in the end, I just stuck with the black.

I should add that I actually picked out all of the shapes that I wanted to use, and cut them all from black cardstock at once. I copied and pasted the arrows a few times, so I could print more than one. I wasn't totally sure of my plan going into this, but figured I would have a good selection to start out with and could add or subtract as I went along. I like to layer two cuts together to create a shadow effect, and find that black cardstock works great for that bottom layer.

I also picked out a few phrases that I thought I could maybe incorporate into the page, knowing what my theme was. The "green grass" from the A Beautiful World kit stood out to me, since Alyssa had a ton of soccer stuff going on that week.

For the pockets without a photo, I trimmed 2×3" pieces of patterned paper. I used a few creamish tone-on-tone patterns from Bo Bunny and also some super old white grid papers from Scenic Route. For the creamish papers, I added a block of white cardstock that I machine stitched before adhering down.

I had borrowed a few photos from Alyssa's Instagram account ("steal", "borrow". same thing, right?) that I wanted to include that summed up what her week was about. Since these were all photos taken with her iPod Touch, they weren't the best quality. Also, because I took them from Instagram, they were square photos. So I couldn't print them as 2×3" photos.

I thought I would print out a few more of the cards from the inFORMS kit. When I pulled up this Score Sheet card and went to put my photo on top, I realized I could actually layer the photo under the form, for a sort of see-thru look. I thought this one looked really cool. You could also achieve the same look by printing the form on a transparency and layering it over your photo (thanks for that idea, Kerri!).

Once I had my three photos printed out and inserted, I started putting together the cards for the days of the week. I added my day, cut from the black cardstock, to each card, and the white cardstock squares. For the white grid cards, I simply misted them with the green spray mist.

I added a few arrows (from the Say What 3 kit and the Need Directions? kit) here and there, cutting them from the same green and red patterned paper that I used on my title cut.

I printed out my journaling, which is really just a list of her schedule and activities for the week. It was fairly simple, since I could copy and paste the things that happened more than once. Like "7.5 hours of school", which I needed four of (she missed school one day to attend a 7.5 hour band rehearsal). I adhered all those tiny journaling strips to the appropiate days.

I added a little washi tape here and there, in greens, reds, and blacks.

I used this group shot from the County Honor Band concert (Honor Choir too, but she's not a part of that). It was a fantastic 2.5 hour performance that just leaves you in awe of the musical abilities of these teens. It's the best of the best from the county, and Alyssa was one of twelve band members chosen from their school to go. I printed it behind the library card, and I meant to add some letter stickers to the top saying "County Honor Band". I am just now noticing that I didn't do that. Oops.

I also added some tiny number stickers to each card for the date. I started to put the entire date for the week on the title card, but it wasn't looking right. So I put the "January 2013" on the title card, and added the number for each day to the appropiate card.

And yes, I am pretty sure that she DID find a little bit of time to relax on Sunday!

I won't lie. This page took me FOREVER. And I am pretty sure that this is the most cuts I have ever made with the Silhoutte for one single page. I am planning on something similiar for the soccer page I mentioned earlier, so hopefully I will find some time for that soon.