Laura Vegas

sweet – a layout

February 25, 2010

i had another layout and card to share from my crate paper samples that i mentioned yesterday. once again, i simply started with about eight 3×3 squares of pattern paper. this time using the paper doll collection. i picked my favorite six of them, and here's what i did.

awwwww, miranda. such a sweetie. and one of my all around favorite, technically awesome shots of all time. and yes, i've scrapped this photo before. no reason i can't use it again. i was actually looking for another photo on my external hard drive, and came across this one. it just called out to me, to be used.

i trimmed down the papers to fit the area i was working with, and then distressed the edges of them and roughed them up. then on three of them, i found coordinating thread and tied it haphazzardly around the paper and tied a bow on the front. then i adhered the thread-wrapped papers with pop dots. i had shown this to a few friends, and one of them asked if i had bought that thread to match. nope, i didn't. i just happen to have a very large jar of random embroidery threads, in just about every color out there. so i can usually find what i need.

for the journaling, i went and searched her mom's blog. this photo was taken when she was about 8 months old (give or take a little). and now, she is almost 3 years old. i found a post sierra had written a few months back, where she talked about what miranda is into these days. so i wrote my journaling from her parents view point, and if they had any idea back then, that she would be who she is today. at some point, i'm sure this layout will end up in mom's hands 😉

and then another twist on the card i posted yesterday. this time using samples from the pink plum collection.
hey you – a layout

February 24, 2010

one of the booths that i enjoyed visiting while at CHA, was crate paper. they had some really fun new collections that i can't wait to play with. they had some little samples of papers out on rings, that we could take with us. they were 3×3 squares of the pattern papers, and i knew i had to do something with them, just for fun. this layout and card were made from the new brook collection.

they had a ton of fun embellishments, but i only had the squares of paper. but you can do a lot with 6 squares of pattern paper. lol! this photo of alyssa is about 2 years old. i randomly came across it and thought it was perfect for these papers. and the journaling? i thought it was really cute. alyssa read that last part and thought it was embarrasing. she's a teen, pretty much everything i do or say is embarrasing 😉

i distressed the edges of all the pattern papers, before adhering them to the page. it's such a simple step, just to rough them up a bit. but looks really cool on the layout. i had just recently got the dear lizzie collection, designed by elizabeth kartchner. i had it all on my desk, waiting to be used, and decided that the fun chipboard pieces worked perfectly on this. love the fence and the printed tree. so cute. and the glittered birdhouse, love anything that is already glittered for me.

the foil chipboard letters are from american crafts. i was looking for a short title, to fit in that spot. not sure how i came up with this. i say "hey" all the time, much more than i say "hi". my way of getting someone's attention or greeting them.

and i had a few squares left over, so i made this quick card too. it's 4×4 in size. i'm loving that little size lately, and love that i can get 4 cards from one sheet of 12×12 cardstock.

btw. if you're a fan of mini albums, go check out this adorable valentines mini album by my good friend erin. it's an idea that can be easily adapted to any theme. and she has extremely detailed instructions for the entire album 🙂
jillibean cards from CHA

February 23, 2010

you might have caught a glimpse of these cards in booth photos from CHA. but they went up on the jillibean soup blog today, so now i can give you a closer look. my assignments were all using the alphabet soup collection, along with some soup staples.

i'm not even sure i noticed this when i created this card. but the "text me" sentiment makes me think of typing and letters. and there are letters on the pattern paper, and on the printed twill. i want to tell you that i was cool enough to plan that, and to have thought that out. but i honestly didn't pick up on that until right now, when i was uploading this to the blog. lol! love that journaling block, which came from the top ten clear stamp set. and the new alphabet stickers in glazed green.

for this card, i punched circles from different patter papers, and arranged them like flower petals behind the large center circle. this card has a ton of pop dots and extra dimension, which is sort of hard to tell in this photo. i pop dotted that lined paper circle, then pop dotted the corrugated alphas, and the stamped banner. the banner was made using the birthday party clear stamp set. i stamped it onto white cardstock and then the lighter beige cardstock. cut out the banner in the white, and then cut just the triangles with the letters from the beige and adhered those to the white banner. added a few red gems to the ends of the banner, and red stickles on the bottoms of the triangles.

did you notice that i did a lot of distressing and inking on the edges of these papers and cards? i havn't done that in ages, and i find i'm turning to it a lot more these days. i felt like some of my layouts were lacking a certain "ummph", and roughing up the edges and inking here and there made me feel better about them. the red paper here, is cut from one of the report cards on the beef bouillon paper. added some of the new alphabet stickers to a journaling sprout, and pop dotted the entire thing to the front of the card.
you’re invited to a blog crawl

February 22, 2010

are you ready for something fun? three awesome manufacturers are teaming up for a blog crawl!

jillibean soup, it teaming up with a few of their friends. bella blvd and nikki sivils. and we would all like to invite you to join us for a MASSIVE blog crawl!

when: March 5th, 2010
where: start here at the jillibean soup blog and we'll post where to go next.

not only will you have a chance to win large product packs from each of the manufacturers, but many of the design team members are havin HANDMADE gift giveaways on their blogs. close to 50 members will be participating. that's a ton of giveaways!

there will be links and more links for you to check out on each of the manufacturer blogs starting on march 5th, 2010. so be sure to mark your calendars!
ten random photos

February 21, 2010

i used to do these "randomness" posts all the time. need to remember to do these more often. so here we go. a different sort of version of the randomness. 10 totally random photos from the past two months, and their stories.

alyssa and her dad bought this little dude yesterday. it's been a while since we had a hamster in the house. the girls have actually been asking for another hamster for ages now. they must have caught me on a good day, because i said "yes". they're still trying to decide on a name.

in fact, i dug out this photo of the last time we had a hamster here (sarah is holding him in the photo). august of 2007. and look at haley! she's so tiny, and only about 9 months here. so stinkin cute. just looking at this photo, i'm having an "awwwww, how did my daycare girlie grow up so fast" moment.

this photo is from the band concert back in december. but alyssa was chosen to participate in honor band this year. they had about 70 jr high students, from about 10 different schools in the city. they practiced one night a week, for a month. they had the honor band concert about 2 weeks ago, and it was incredible. seriously, they sounded so amazing. i wish i had gotten photos that night.

sarah was in the band concert in december too. you can almost tell that she's holding an instrument in this photo. lol! but she is. she's learning the flute and is sounding better each day. her BFF, tawny, is also learning the flute (along with another BFF, vanessa). and see that boy, poking his head out next to tawny? that just happens to be one of nikolas's brothers 🙂

joe's getting geared up to start umpiring again. he's had some meetings, taken and passed the super long written test, and been evaluated in action. as long as it doesn't rain this week (which it's supposed too), he starts actual games this week. i think he has 4 of them on the schedule just this week. so he'll be super busy.

alyssa scored a part in the drama production that the jr high will be performing in a few months at school. she was in it last year too, and i was so impressed with the show they put on. this year is "alice in wonderland", and she'll be playing the part of "small alice". there are 3 alice's in the play, and one of her BFF's is "big alice".

my island photo of the week. can you tell what i'm working on? sure, there's a few layouts up there. i'll share those next week. but mostly, it's tax stuff. boring, but it has to be done. i had a years worth of receipts that i was sorting and itemizing. i made my appointment with the tax people for next weekend. figured it would force me to actually get everything ready.

joe's been trying to fit in some golfing, before he gets too busy umpiring. not even sure when this photo is from. my brother just happened to send me some photos he had from one of their days out.

alyssa went zip lining back in december, with her dad and her grandpa. will have to share more pics another day. i'm scared of heights. and yet i think it would be so much fun to do this. we're going to have to make a point to go sometime. but sarah's not old enough yet, so we'll wait for her 🙂

not the greatest photo of either of us. but i'm sharing it anyways. our disclaimer? it was like 8:00am in the morning. i hadn't done my hair yet, or half my makeup. nikolas is doing his new smile, which consists of closing his eyes really tight and actually thinking he's smiling. anyways. my point to this photo, was that i've been wearing my hair straight for over a week now. first off, i'm amazed at myself for actually figuring out how to straighten it using only a round brush. second off, it's growing on me. it's a lot easier than the curls, to be honest. although i keep asking the family, "what do you REALLY think of the straight hair". lol!

and consider this a bonus, eleventh photo. just in the last few days, the almond trees in the orchards out here have blossomed. it's crazy how quickly it happens, and how quickly they'll disappear. i really want some new photos, just like the ones i got last year. hoping the weather permits and we can get out there this week. i think i'm even going to make a little blue tutu and take haley over there :)
scraproom cleaning and reorganizing

February 18, 2010

i've been doing a little reorganizing and cleaning in the scraproom these last few weeks. just a little here and there, very randomly. figured i'd share a few peeks today.

it started about 2 weeks ago, when i randomly started cleaning out my cardstock one night. i had 5 full rows of cardstock. and it was in a random order. it's almost all bazzill cardstock, but i had a lot of it seperated out by the textures and manufacturers that it was made to match. that's from years ago, when that mattered to me. and i also had a ton of all the colors, sometimes more than 10 sheets of the same shade. this is all pretty much older cardstock too. i probably don't even own all the latest and greatest shades out there. anyways. i purged it all out, and organized it by color. so all my reds are together, all my greens, etc. my giveaway stack of cardstock was 10 inches high. i'm not even lying. love that it's down to just 3 rows.

which then gave me two rows to use for some pattern paper. i keep my pattern paper in the vertical paper holders, on the shelves above the paper trays. and i like it in the vertical holders. but i did decide to put a lot of my making memories pattern papers in the trays. these are mainly just the newest collections. it's nice, because it's easy to get too and i just lay all my scraps right in there too. those used to get lost in the vertical holders.

this little nightstand is really old, and used to be white. it was in alyssa's room, and when we redid her room a while back, my mom painted it black. then it came out of her room, and just got set out in the loft upstairs. it really served no purpose, other than another spot for the girls to dump stuff. i had this thought yesterday, that it would fit in my scraproom. i have this small area in between my two ikea shelves that wasn't being used, right under a window. and it fit perfectly.

i'm sure this will change later. but for now, i set some of my larger jars of buttons, brads, and flowers on there. a few of these jars were actually on top of my ikea shelf, which wasn't the safest thing to be grabbing those all the time from up high. i also set my cuttlebug on there. it's been on the floor for months now, since i just didn't have a spot for it. in the top drawer, i put all my cuttlebug stuff. the embossing folders, extra plates, and dies. not sure what i'll put in the bottom drawer yet.

i love these storage boxes, and have a bunch of them stacked on top of one of my ikea shelves. i've finally been cleaning out some of them. i had mentioned 2 of these containers in THIS POST from a full 2 years ago. the one that held all my supplies for my "thankful" mini album, and one that held all my supplies for my "journal my christmas" album from 2007. i was still holding out hope that i would finish working on those albums, even two years after blogging about my lack of finishing them. ridiculous. last night, i pulled out all the product and worked it back into my normal stash. cardstock with the cardstock, pattern paper with the pattern paper, ribbon with the ribbon. if i want it, it's still there. but those 2 boxes? they're now empty, which makes me feel good. there were other boxes i cleaned out too. but those 2 were the ones that were a bigger deal to me. lol!

i have 3 of these magnetic boards from making memories, but one of them had been hanging there with nothing on it at all. i found these round storage containers a while back at michaels, and i got 2 in the package for less than $3 (on sale). my thinking is to put some of the miscellaneous buttons and brads i have in them. i like to know (and actually have to know for pubbing purposes) what manufacturer made what. but i still want to have them unpackaged and where i can see them. but you can see i only filled up 3 of them. that's because i'm testing them. i'm not totally convinced on the seal on these containers, and how well they'll stay closed. the lid seems to stay on pretty well, but i'm still worried that one day, the lid will come off and the buttons will be all over the place. and mixed up. lol! i know, i'm being paranoid. but it's a much better excuse, then if i told you i've just been too lazy to finish filling them up 😉 and yes, that's a copenhagen advertisement in the basket. there's a reason i have it. we'll see how long it takes me to get around to that.

and my paint shelf is making a comeback. i hadn't hung it back up, after moving my scrap stuff downstairs last september. and when i moved the nightstand in yesterday, i found the paint shelf tucked back in the corner of the room. it really does fit this little angled wall perfectly. this is right when you walk in the door to the room, and the closet is right off the side (where the stool is). although i'm not very good at hanging anything that requires anchors in the wall. so i need my mom to come and hang this properly for me (please?). and make it so that it is flush against the wall too. it's sticking out at the bottom, and it's annoying me to no end. however, this is NOT going to be paint shelf this time around. all my paints are tucked in a drawer in the closet. and they were mainly on the shelf for decorative reasons anyway. i realized the small storage jars from making memores will fit on the shelves perfectly. so i'm going to fill those up with some of my little embellishments. i used to have this huge embellishment shelf in the loft studio. so now this will be my miniature embellishment shelf in the new scraproom :)
text messaging – a layout

February 16, 2010

i've been patiently waiting to share this layout. and now is the perfect time. because as much as i love red and pink, this blog needs some color after all those valentine's projects. and this layout is full of color!

let me start with my inspiration piece. this folder that the girls and i found at target, at back to school time. a periodic text message table. on a folder (they did have this on notebooks and stuff too). how cool is that! of course, alyssa thought it was awesome and had to get it. and the entire time, i'm thinking that this would be a great thing to have to look back on, years from now. to be able to show later generations how kids these days "talk", which is through text speak. lol! so i picked one up for myself on another target run. just so happened, that i received an assignment from creating keepsakes about this same time. and one of the ideas they were looking for, was a layout about teen slang. hello? any idea how quickly i jumped on that one? lol! right away, i knew i would use this folder.

as seen in the january 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative craft groups. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

and that is how this layout came to be. i ended up going to buy another folder, because i wasn't totally sure about how i was going to cut it up. i ended up just cutting out the two main parts of the periodic table and adhering them to my cardstock background. i found a few photos of alyssa texting, and doing her thing. she got her cell phone a few months after she turned 11 years old. and she's a pro at the texting. me? not so much.

but with this periodic table, i can understand what she's typing. i know a few of these of course. you all know i know "LOL". and i know "BFF", and "ROFL", "TTYL", "BTW", and some other common ones. but most of these, i would never figure out on my own. i honestly, LOVE that i scrapped this. i LOVE that this will be in a scrapbook, for the girls to look back on years and years from now. when there will be an entirely new teen slang way of talking to each other.

for the rest of the layout, i just choose some other fun embellishments that were full of color. alyssa is really big on the peace sign these days, so the chipboard "peace" sign was a natural choice. it's from an old kit of the month. the "text me" flair button, and the pattern paper is from the making memories just chillin collection. the library card and the label sticker are both from creative cafe. i just love how this turned out. and it even got the vote of approval from the girls 😉
MM blog challenge – ribbons

February 15, 2010

designer challenges are back over on the making memories blog. it's my turn this week, and it's all about ribbons. check it all out HERE. and make sure and share, it you play along with the challenge. i'd love to see 🙂
10 reasons i love you – mini album

February 12, 2010

well, my streak is over. i have officially let myself off the hook for making any more valentines projects. lol! i lost my steam. and needed a break from all that pink and red. but i did remember this mini album that i have laying around, and figured i would share it.

so, this is a mini album that i created 4 years ago. want proof? check HERE. i made this for a class, back when i was teaching at a local scrapbook store. i really loved this album when i came up with the idea. and i still love it. it's still my style and i still think it's cute. which is why i still have it laying around the house. even though i apparently did NOT love it enough, to actually put any photos or journaling inside. lol! what can i say? i'm really bad about things like that. you know, actually going back and finishing things i started 😉

this is a 6×6 mini album, an older preservation album from SEI. i always loved using these in my classes. i used kraft cardstock for all my pages, and then green and maroon cardstock blocks and strips. i loved these playing card style cards from bazzill, and used the "L" on the title page, and the numbers on all the other pages. i think i got 2 albums out of each package. which means, that to this day, i still have about 10 packages of these cards laying around. with the exception of the letter "L" and any numbers. lol!

this is pretty much what all the pages looked like. except i altered which side i had the number card and the embellishment clusters on. i also had cardstock circles and manilla tags. and all those papers, cards, and tags had their edges inked. every single one. i was really into inking everything back then. so usually the first 15 minutes of class would consist of inking edges. yes, my students loved me. or not 😉

the embellishments were simple. a variety of chipboard hearts, little vellum tags, metal hearts, metal clips, buttons, brads, and pieces of ribbon. everyone got the same mix, and could use them in whatever way they wanted. although i'm pretty sure that most of the ladies did whatever i did on mine. after all, mine was totally thought out. i would never just randomly throw stuff on my pages in any random order. lol!

there are 7 more pages like these. 10 spreads total. for 10 reasons. the idea was to put a photo on that second page. and then write one of your reasons for loving that person on those 2 white journaling strips. it's a brilliant idea. no idea why i never did this. i obviously intend to do it, since i still have the album.

and with that, my valentine's blogging week is done. lots of other things to share. but that's for next week 🙂
valentines mailbox

February 11, 2010

are your kids handing out valentines in their classrooms tomorrow? i guess since alyssa is in the 8th grade, it's really not the cool thing to do anymore. lol! so no valentines for her. i think sarah is nearing the end of the valentine era too, but she is still doing them this year. and since kids need somewhere to collect these valentines from all their classmates and friends, how about a cute mailbox project for today.

i came really close to not making this project yesterday. i thought about taking a day off from this "project a day" valentines idea. but the guilt got to me late last night (as in 11:30pm), and i didn't want to ruin my streak (all 3 days of it). so i pulled out my stuff, and created this while i sat on the couch watching one of my DVR'd shows. "being erika", which is one of my newly found and new favorite shows. i've watched about 16 episodes in the last 2 weeks 🙂

this is simply a cardboard pencil box. i bought it at michaels, for about a dollar. it's white, which gives you a nice base to build on. you could easily paint the box, if you wanted more color on there or to finish off the edges. you could decopauge the papers on, and then give it a shiny coat on top. you could do all sorts of things to spiffy this up. but me? i was sitting on the couch, and wanted it to be as simple as possible. lol! so i just measured and trimmed my little yellow bicycle pattern papers to size, and used regular adhesive to adhere them to the box.

then i picked out some making memories shimmer chipboard letters, and adhered them to the top of the box using mini pop dots. i then picked out a clear word and an embossed sticker from little yellow bicycle to add to the top. and that was it. simple and easy. i think i have sarah convinced to take this to school tomorrow. she really would have the cutest box in the class ;)

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