Laura Vegas

I managed to create 4 new layouts (1 of them a double page spread) in the last two days. Not bad, considering I only HAD to make one of them. It's always nice to create just for fun, with no "rules" or guidelines. 

I've had these two photos of Sarah printed out and waiting to be scrapped for almost two months. I've paired them up with quite a few patterned papers and die cut pieces. And then I would steal pieces for another project, and have to find new products to add in. The one piece that stayed with these photos the entire time was the yellow heart patterned paper (from a Dear Lizzy collection).

I finally decided to work on the layout yesterday, and started out with a white cardstock background. I figured I would mat my photos on the yellow heart patterned paper and arrange it in the center of the page. I was actually looking for a paper for another layout when I came across a super old kit of die cut 12×12 papers.

Way back in the day, Creating Keepsakes magazine put out these KOTM (kit of the month) for a while. I pretty much bought every one they came out with. One of them was a ton of 12×12 die cut background papers. This had to be back in 2007 or 2008, which was way before we had our Silhouette machines that could essentially do the same thing. But I've still kept them all these years, and pulled out the white heart background to add to this layout.  

Pulling out that old kit reminded me of another KOTM that I've held onto. It was a kit full of shapes, titles, and phrases, which came in chipboard, plastic, and white foam. I pulled it out to see what I could find to add to this page. I thought the "love, love, love, love" raw chipboard border would tie in nicely.

I added a strip of black text patterned paper along the top and bottom of the page, and to add bits of color, I added in some torn pieces of washi tape. The pink, yellow, and grey tapes are from Pebbles, and the green tape is from Bella Blvd.

I stuck with the yellow heart patterned paper, and then added in an older pink flower patterned paper from American Crafts. I machine stitched around each paper and distressed the edges before layering them all together and adding my photos.

And the reason that I actually added in the pink patterned paper is because I came across this pink chipboard flower from that same KOTM kit, and I really wanted to use it. No real reason. I just did.

I painted the chipboard "love" border piece with green acrylic paint. After it dried, I took a lighter green paint and swiped it along the edges, using my finger. I can't remember the last time that I used paint. I still use lots of chipboard alphas, but haven't used too many other chipboard pieces for a while now.

I had fun pulling out older products for this layout. I've been scrapping for over 19 years, and I'm the first to admit I have held onto some old, old products. There's just some that I can't seem to let go. It felt good to rediscover some of those products that I loved enough to keep around all of these years.