Laura Vegas

october guest designer for scrapmuse

October 13, 2009

i got an email a while back asking me if i wanted to be a guest designer for scrapmuse kit club. i'm always up for things like that and am always flattered to be asked. i got the october kit, which was called flight school. tons of fun stuff in it, and here is what i used it for.

there was some claudine hellmuth sticky back canvas in the kit, and i wasn't actually sure what to do with it. i had visions of painting it somehow. but i was too scared to try and figured i would mess it up. so i just tore a strip off. i like how the edges look all worn when you tear it. so i went with the look, and even crumbled up my strip of pattern paper to distress it a little. can't remember the last time i've done that sort of thing. that lined chipboard journaling block is the packaging from the sassafras lass flowers. it was too cute to throw away, so i figured i'd use it on here.

these yellow handmade flowers were so pretty, and i thought they matched this photo of sarah perfectly. i took this photo one day while she was browsing around my scrap stuff. she's just like me with crafty type stuff. takes out way more than she needs, makes a huge mess, and starts too many projects at once. the only difference is that she never picks anything up, and i clean everything up. lol! this page is fairly simple, and i like that about it. and that stitching? that's not real, just me drawing the stitches on with a pen 😉

i was digging around for photos to match the papers, and found this oldie of the girls from 3 years ago. it was the last day of school, and i took this photo at the school as they were saying goodbye to their friends. alyssa had just finished 4th grade, and sarah has finished 1st grade. i cut the "TTYL" with my making memories slice, using the just chillin card. i thought it was kind of cute, like saying "talk to you later" to all their friends, as they walked off the school grounds. although we were year-round schooling at the time. so they really only had two weeks off, before they were back at school and with their friends again. lol!

i'm sort of torn on this last layout. i'm thinking i should have added something else to the title. maybe i'll go back and do that later. lol! i know i did a layout already with one of these photos, and i think the title was "10 years old". but i wanted to use more of the pics i took, and her fingers showing her age. the tickets are from tim holtz, and there were a ton of them in the kit. those brads are from chatterbox, and they're like little wood pieces that are engraved. and those buttons are the new glitter buttons from american crafts. fun stuff.

thanks to scrapmuse for inviting me to play along this month!
wedding candle and favors

October 12, 2009

a few more wedding projects that i did for making memories earlier this year, using their wedding collection.

for this candle, i started by cutting a sheet of the slice acetate paper and wrapping it around the candle. i used a few mini glue dots to hold it all in place, along with some larger glue dots around the center since i knew i was covering it with more paper and that they wouldn't show. i cut a strip of pattern paper and wrapped that around the center of the candle. then i added some green ribbon, and tied some string around it a few times.

i choose one of the dimensional stickers, and then found the same shape on the slice basic shapes 1 design card. i then used my slice, to cut that shape out from acetate papers, metallic papers (which i embossed with my cuttlebug), and cardstock. i just varied the sizes up 1/2 inch with each paper. then i layered them all together, using a lot of pop dots. to finish it off, i added a few deco pins.

this isn't a great photo, but i thought this was really cute. it's a little favor box, made from the packaging of some making memories embellishments. i know you can download templates for pillowboxes, to make your own from cardstock. but i had this one handy, and thought it would be great to recycle it into something cute. i undid the two ends, and laid it on top of some paper to trace the shape. i cut two of those pieces out of the acetate paper. after putting a tiny glue dot in each corner, i slipped the piece into the box, and then pushed it against the inside to stick it down. did that make sense? moments like these, it would be nice to have pics of the process, wouldn't it? lol!

just like the candle, i wrapped a strip of pattern paper around the box, and added some ribbon. then i used my slice to cut a flower from another pattern paper. and then i layered that with a felt flower, and some wedding blossoms, and secured them together with a pearl brad with a little tag attached. and the best part? i filled it with mints 🙂

these were another favor idea. sorry for the bad photo. and the fact that i apparently didn't have mints at the time to fill these up with. lol! i used some embellishment jars for these. my cousin, rachael, got married this past january. and she was nice enough to share her engagement photo with me for these projects. i printed them in a size that would fit the front of the jars, cut them out, and adhered them to the jar. added a small circle of pattern paper to the lid of the jar. i added the metal ribbon slide to the lid using a large pop dot. then i threaded the ribbon through and around the jars, securing the ends on either side with pearl brads.

and one last favor idea. which gives away when i actually made these projects, since you see the christmas garland in this photo. lol! yep, made these last december. making memories used to have these cubes in two different sizes. i want to say this is about 3 inches square, although i'm not totally sure on that. i adhered pattern paper to each side of the cube, and then wrapped my favorite black and white gingham ribbon around the cube and tied it in a bow. i added a photo to one side, using large pop dots. and then i embellished the other 3 sides and the top of the cube. great way to use up all sorts of embellishments.
a wedding album

October 12, 2009

i know this may seem like a odd transition from last week. to go from halloween to weddings does seem a bit funny. lol! but i sort of enjoyed doing the themed week last week. it made blogging a little easier, and sometimes i need that. life gets busy, so i welcome an easy approach to things from time to time. and i just happen to have quite a few wedding projects that i've never shared.

this was one of my making memories projects i created for CHA last january. i had a ton of assignments using the wedding collection. i will admit, that i'm not a huge black and white scrapper. so i was very relieved when i could toss one extra color in these projects. lol! i really like how this altered album came out. i started with the shaped noteworthy 8×8 album. i traced the album cover onto the wedding words pattern paper, cut it out, and then mod podged it onto the album. i also covered the back of the album in this same paper. i then used my finger to brush some black acrylic paint on the edges.

then i used my slice die cut machine, along with the basic shapes design card, to cut out all the flowers and also the scalloped frame. there is a wedding design card for the slice, but i didn't have it at the time i did these projects. i used a lot of papers from the wedding 6×6 paper pad (the patterns are on a smaller scale, which i like), and also some metallic paper and some glitter paper. i crumbled up the cut flowers for a fun look, and then flattened them back out some. then i started layering. there are a ton of pop dots on this, a ton. i also layered in some wedding blossoms. after layering them all together, i added some deco pins to the flowers, some pearl accents to the scalloped frame, and a dimensional sticker to finish it off.

i dug out some older making memories ribbons to tie along the left side of the album, and added a wedding metal ribbon slide along the green ribbon. i added a pop dot underneath it, to make sure it stayed where i wanted it.
halloween cards and links

October 9, 2009

next up on the halloween themed week is cards. i was going to try and make a few more today, but ended up working on some other fun things that had to be turned in today. so i only have two to share. and be warned, they're overly simple. i think i did these in the spring, so maybe i wasn't in a halloweenish enough of a mood to get too involved with the design 😉

this card is actually in the october issue of cards magazine. i think that technically, i should wait longer to show you this. but then halloween would be over and it'd be of no use to you. i'm sure they're ok with my logic. lol!

all the product on these is from the making memories spook alley collection. those glitter stickers are my favorite!

and here are some links for some great halloween projects that have caught my eye this week. if i think of some more, i'll come back and add them 🙂

a super cute halloween tree tutorial by kimber mcgray on the jillibean soup blog. HERE.

an cool card from erin clarkson. along with her list of halloween goodies that are on her wish list. anything on her wish is bound to end up on my wishlist also. HERE.

mary macaskill always has gorgeous cards. and she has had a few halloween ones up this past week. HERE and HERE. almost forgot, she has a gorgeous halloween layout HERE too.

nichol magouirk has her celebrate the seasons class for october up, with an awesome halloween 2 page layout. HERE.

jennifer johner made the cutest halloween masks. if i had an awesome backyard with gorgeous trees like that, i would make these masks just to hang out there. HERE.

jennifer mcquire made the cutest paper pumpkin. love the green ribbon on the top. HERE.

my friend carla made a really cute halloween topiary tree. she put a ton of time into this, and i think it shows. HERE.

heather ruwe has some really cute halloween ideas on her blog. some treat bags and cards. HERE.

lynn gharhary has a really cute pumpkin patch layout. since you can't have halloween without getting a pumpkin first! HERE.
a halloween mini album

October 7, 2009

this halloween mini album went up on the making memories blog the other day, and i thought i'd share it here too. and check out THIS post also. some super cute party ideas, made by another one of the designers. one more to check out is wendy sue anderson, she's got a really cute halloween banner up today on her blog.

this entire album was made using the spook alley 6×9 mini book kit. i didn't add anything else. of course, there is more than enough stuff in the kit to make an entire album. i had plenty left over. these were just the main pages that i had to turn in. i really didn't have many great halloween photos, i'm so bad about taking pics on halloween. the first person i thought of was my awesome photographer friend, megan cristello. so i asked her if i could borrow a few photos for this project. i changed them to black and white, so that they'd blend in with the products better. then i felt really bad, since the colors on her photos are always gorgeous. so i decided to make her a few layouts as a "thank you". i had shared those a while back, one is HERE and the other one ended up HERE. which was way cool. so these photos of megan's were definately a hit. anyways, back to the album. here's the inside pages.

kept it nice and simple, which is usually my plan for any mini album i do. this would be a great album to put together, so that you just had to add a photo of each child from every year. so you'd have photos of them over the years, in their costumes. or you could even do an entire album for just one halloween. either way, it's a really cute album kit.

this halloween themed week wasn't something i planned. but it's working out nicely, isn't it? i have a few cards to share tomorrow. and then i'm not sure about friday. i may have run out of things. that means i'll dig into old stuff. or time permitting, make something new! stay tuned.
another quick halloween project

October 6, 2009

in keeping with the halloween theme, i whipped this up today. i wish i had better staging for my projects, to make them look cooler. lol! i stuck this on the stool in my scraproom, propped it up with a black album that was on my desk, and stuck a loose sheet of pattern paper underneath. and the kids were running all around the room while i did this. ahhh, life.

simple, but cute i think. i have a ton of these large 8 inch chipboard letters from making memories. some of them were meant to spell the girls names for some project that i never did, and some are random letters. i stole the "H" from what would have been sarah's name to make this. lol!

i traced the "H" onto a sheet of pattern paper. this is from last years halloween collection. then i cut it out and adhered it to the "H", and then sanded down the edges. let me tell you, i detest sanding anything. the sound of it gives me the heebie jeebies, and i hate the mess it makes. but i did it, for the sake of the craft. lol! then i used these puffy alphabet stickers to spell out "halloween". have you noticed my one mistake yet?

then i just added some more embellishments from the making memories spook alley collection. some trim and a few gems, a label sticker, and a few deco pins. if you didn't notice my mistake yet, i'm going to tell you. because i have this thing for always pointing out my mistakes. no idea why, since i'm sure most would never notice it. just something i do. anyways, i forgot to turn this the right way when it came time to embellish. so the text on the paper reads upside down. not a huge deal, i know. but still, i can't believe i didn't pay attention to that. lol!
halloween coaster

October 5, 2009

made this halloween coaster today, just for fun. definately not a coaster that you would set a drink on. lol! i was actually going to make a card. but i came across these bazzill coasters that i had a ton of, from years ago, and i like the chunkiness of little projects like these. no idea what i'll do with it. maybe just set it by the front door. just something to get me playing with product again, in all honesty 🙂

the coaster is about 5 1/2 inches square, and made of thick chipboard. i covered it with my pattern paper, which is actually from last years halloween collection from making memories. i sanded down the edges, and then inked them with some black ink. i tied some trims around the bottom of the coaster. the orange ribbon is from last years collection, but the black/orange trim is from the spook alley trims & treats set (has the cutest puffy fabric ghosts!). i used my favorite black shimmer chipboard alphabets for the "boo", and adhered that center "o" with mini pop dots to raise it up a bit. added a quick journaling label and a regular office clip to the top corner. and a few super cute deco pins added a fun touch to the trims. just be careful where you put this, since those pins can prick quite easily (ask me how i know!).
a few more vintage findings projects

October 4, 2009

found a few more little projects to share. i created these two projects for a making memories advertisement, that appeared in some of the magazines.a few months ago. i used lots of products from the vintage findings collection for these.

their photos made them look so much better than my photos. lol! i can't remember what my deal was that day, but i know i had a real hard time getting decent photos of these. the colors in the ad are true to life. trust me.

this was a flat metal tin, about the size of a cd. i was using the slice fonts design card for this. this cursive font is so pretty.

this was a small mini album, that i think was from rusty pickle. it was about 4×4 in size. i was using the slice studio essentials design card for this project. i cut the tabs from pattern paper, and layered them along the inside pages. and the little flower clip was also diecut from pattern paper.

sorry so short and to the point. this weekend has been crazy, and i'm just trying to catch up still. but i'm getting back on track, so i should be a better blogger this week. promise 🙂
class pass winner

October 3, 2009

sorry for the late post. between the 2 girls, we had 3 games and spend 7 hours on the soccer field. on to the winner of the free class pass to doris sander's online class, product pizzazz 201. i did the random number generator thingie, and it spit out number #19. which means our winner is:

my favorites are buttons and alpha stickers! and thanks to you, Laura, some string now and then too!
thanks for the chance to win!

posted by: Heather Jordan | September 30, 2009 at 07:13 PM

congrats heather! i know you're going to love the class! and thanks to everyone for playing along. loved reading what everyone's favorite embellishments are!
altered wooden frame

October 2, 2009

i admit, i don't alter much. it's not something that comes naturally to me. i tend to over think it, and make it much harder than it should be. then i see others that alter stuff, and think "why can't i do stuff like that?". but i'm asked to do a lot of altered items for assignments, so i do my best when needed.

i made this for the making memories booth at CHA a few months ago, using the vintage findings collection. i started with a plain wooden frame that was about 8×8 in size, and i painted it blue. i trimmed my pattern paper to fit just slightly smaller than the frame, and also cut out a square in the middle for the cut out part of the frame. then i adhered the paper to the frame with mod podge, and also put a coat of it over the entire frame.

i slipped this photo of the girls in the back of the frame. then i just started layering little things in that bottom left corner. almost all these pieces were in the home collection large vintage findings kit. i might have added some extra ribbons from other packs. and those 3 ribbons hanging over the top edge of the frame? those were what they were going to hang up the frame with in the booth display. i just didn't get around to attaching them before i mailed it off.

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