Laura Vegas

Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life

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Project Life 2018: Week Thirty Nine

May 1, 2019

Hey everyone! I may have mentioned on my Instagram the other day that I was making it a goal to finish up all of my 2018 Project Life album this week. Not sure that's going to happen, but I'm going to do my best. I got a little sidetracked with a few layouts. So for those that might not love seeing all of these PL weekly spreads, and love layouts – they'll be coming 😉

So here's a look at week thirty nine. I added in a 6×12 insert, which you can see on the right here. Making this a quick share, since I'm short on time – but also wanted to get this up.

I like to add the info for my weekly title cards every now and then, since I get asked about them a lot. I used the Pocket Guide No.4 kit from Paislee Press. I created each week's card in Photoshop, using the template from the kit – switching out the week number and adding the dates for each week.

Alyssa always has good Snapchat photos. I love that she sends them to me all the time. I always feel so sad when I try and screenshot them, and I somehow just close out of the app. Lol.

Love this photo of her by the Stockton Kings mural. I can always count on her for good 4×6" photos each month.

This wasn't the best quality photo once I printed it. But my theory is that I'd rather have a less stellar quality photo, than no photo at all 😉

I'm pretty sure I mentioned in a few recent PL shares, that I don't use many 4×6" journaling cards, and/or filler cards, in my album. Those valuable 4×6" pockets are usually filled with photos. And yet, I've had quite a few weeks at this point in the album where I did need a 4×6" journaling card.

Here's a look at the second half of the weekly spread, with the 6×12" insert on the left.

Awwwww. I took this photo of Addie and Lyan on my last day of doing daycare. Goodness, I miss those two. I almost didn't want to put them down for naps that day, but there was also so much going on, that I really had too. Lol. This was after naptime, when I got all crazy and let them have their snack on the floor. Mainly because I had cleaned up their booster seats to give to a friend as soon as they left. Lol.

Ummmm. Yes, that pretty filler card is actually bent in a few places in real life. I have no clue why, since it was in a storage thing meant to hold 4×6" pics. But I wanted to use it, so use it I did.

Ha. I'm sure my aunt will be thrilled when she finds out her car accident made it into my album. Just like my mom's little car accident earlier in the album. Lol.

I wish I had more photos to document Alyssa's birthday, but it's harder when you don't see them on their actual birthday. Love that her co-workers brought her donuts and champagne to celebrate her 22nd birthday at work.
Scrapbooking Travels Album: CHA 2010

April 29, 2019

Hey everyone! I have done my fair share of traveling for scrap related things. I've attended CHA, a tradeshow for the scrapbooking and crafting industry, many times over the last 9 years. I've taught at Creating Keepsakes Conventions (CKC's) and Creating Keepsakes University (CKU's) many times over the years as well. I wasn't always great about taking photos, and often "borrowed" photos I would see others share from the events, but I knew it would be fun to put together a mini album of some kind for these photos.

I started a 6×8" album for these photos years and years ago. I simply added the photos for each trip into the pocket pages, with the intention of someday adding more to the album. I finally got inspired to work on this album about two months ago, and got to work adding filler cards to the empty pockets. I quickly realized that the 6×8" size wasn't going to work how I wanted it too, so I switched everything over to a 6×12" album.

I've worked on a few of the individual trips here and there, sort of randomly. But I finally took a little time a few weeks ago, and focused on getting my first CHA trip completed.

Since I started this project using a 6×8" album, I had a few 3×8" pages that I had already created and I didn't want to leave them out. They fit the rings of my album just fine, so I decided to add them right in. This first 3×8" insert acts as a title page of sorts for my 2010 CHA trip.

Here's a look at the first spread, with the little 3×8" page on the left.

For my journaling, I turned to my blog. This won't work for every trip, since I may or may not have blogged about each trip, and if I did, I may or may not have blogged enough details. But it worked for this trip.

I had plans to add my badge somewhere on my "title page", but I realized it fit perfectly in the pocket page. I had a piece of patterned paper there originally, so it was an easy swap.

Here's a look at the second spread, with a second 3×8" page on the right, as well as a 4×12" insert page.

If memory serves me right, the first Dear Lizzy collection came out at CHA 2010. I've always been a fan of Liz's collections, so I thought it would be fun to use one of her collections to document this trip.

I didn't use her first collection, but I did use one of earlier collections, Neapolitan.

As this was my first trip to CHA, I had blogged all about it, with lots of details and stories. I'm sure I missed sharing some stuff – there's a few things that I know for sure I left out. But I had a pretty good recap to work with.

Once I had all of my photos and filler cards added in, I knew what spaces I had left for journaling. I pulled parts of my journaling that I knew would pair up well with certain photos. To keep it simple, I copied and pasted my journaling into digital "cards" for whatever size pocket I was working with – 3×4", 4×6", or 4×4". I left room either at the top or bottom of the journaling cards so that I could add a little strip of patterned paper.

This was one of the other 3×8" pages that I had put together for the original 6×8" album, so I went ahead and used it as well.

Here's a look at the second spread, with the little 3×8" insert on the left. Once I had most of my journaling pockets filled in, I still had some extra journaling that I wanted to add. So I decided to add in a 4×12" page to hold that longer journaling.

On the backside of the 3×8" page, I added a 3×4" piece of patterned paper and a 3×4" journaling card.

The Neapolitan collection has this sheet filled with little polaroid type images. I trimmed a bunch of those from the sheet, and added them to a lot of my 3×4" pieces of patterned paper. I used a lot of smaller stickers from the collection's sticker book as well.

I had printed my longer journaling in two parts – one for the front of the 4×12" page and one for the back.

I added a 4×6" card from one of the patterned papers to the bottom of the 4×12" page, and added my journaling at the top.

Here's a look at the third spread, with the 4×12" page on the left.

The second part of my journaling ended up being smaller than I thought, so I trimmed it down and added some patterned papers above and below it.

I also used a ton of mini staples in this album! I love my Tiny Attacher and use it all the time to "finish" things off.

I added this fun little sticker from the sticker book along the bottom of my orange patterned paper.

I loved working with one set collection for this trip, as I really didn't have to second guess anything. Everything coordinated, and I had enough product on hand to add simple embellishments.

My style has changed a lot over the years, and I don't always use many embellishments or things like stickers. This was a great way to use up some product that I love, but just never got around to using.

Here's a look at the fourth spread, with another 4×12" pocket page insert on the right.

Random tidbit. As I was working on copying and pasting all of my journaling, I size the font to what I thought looked like a good size. And a size that allowed all of my journaling to fit nicely on the cards.

Once I printed all of it out, I realized my font seemed a little on the small side. Oops. If I had actually saved all of my working files, I would have gone back and used a larger font. But I didn't save them, and there was NO way I was going to copy and paste all of it again. Lol. Just means I need my glasses in order to read them 😉

I had several 4×4" photos, so I added in a 4×12" pocket page insert. This gave me pockets for my photos, a few filler cards, and some journaling cards.

Here's a look at the fourth spread, with the 4×12" pocket page insert on the left.

I'm pretty sure I left that space in between my paragraphs so that I could add something in the center. Since I added patterned paper strips along the top and bottom, I didn't want to make it too busy by adding anything else in the center.

Love this little 4×6" card that I put together. A 4×6" pieces of patterned paper, the backside of a UPC strip from another patterned paper along the bottom, a cut out "polaroid" print from another sheet of patterned paper, and several stickers.

And finally, here's a look at the last page from this trip, which is on the left. What you see on the right is for the next few trips, which I will be working on next.

And yes, I realized after the fact that I had used this "smile" card twice. Once as a 4×4", and here as a 3×4". I thought about changing one to something different, but I liked how they looked in both spots.

It felt so good to get this trip documented and finished up. I've already printed out all of my journaling for the 2012 trip, and have started adding in filler cards for a separate trip. I'll have to make time to work on this album again soon 🙂
Project Life 2018: Week Thirty Eight

April 23, 2019

Hey all. I'm sharing the last weekly spread in my 2018 Project Life album from my last "catch up" session today. This is week thirty eight.

I had good intentions of typing up a journaling card to go along with the screenshot photo on the right. But that photo is rather text heavy, and I realized that it had the info all there. This was a post by the professor, sharing that his book was published – a book that Alyssa had the opportunity to help do some research for while in school.

I love using one of these J-Card Weekdays digital journaling cards from Cathy Zielske each week. I like these cards, because they format your text as you type and they're just so easy to use. Also, they have plenty of room for journaling. I love to pick a photo each week that I know has a bigger story to go along with this card. And often times, I can pull that story straight off my Instagram, and just copy and paste it in.

I like to add the info for my weekly title cards every now and then, since I get asked about them a lot. I used the Pocket Guide No.4 kit from Paislee Press. I created each week's card in Photoshop, using the template from the kit – switching out the week number and adding the dates for each week.

This was a pretty simple week, so not much to share, detail wise.

This means I only have 14 more weeks to finish up in my 2018 album, which is so doable. Especially since I took the time a few days ago to add in all of the filler cards for those 14 weeks. And half of my journaling cards for those weeks are already typed up and in the album. I hope to get the rest of the year finished up very soon!
Project Life 2018: Week Thirty Seven

April 22, 2019

Hey everyone! Wanted to pop in and share another week in my 2018 Project Life album with you all. Here's week thirty seven. Which happened to have extra photos that I wanted to include, so I added in a 6×12" insert page.

Here's a look at the first half of the weekly spread, with the 6×12" insert on the right.

Black and white filler cards are always a go-to choice, as they go with any photos.

I messed with this week more than I've probably ever messed with any other week. Lol. I always add my photos in first, and then work from there, and rarely move the pics around. But I kept moving things as I went with this week, trying to make it work. The struggle was real with this one.

These basketball dudes are TALL. I mean, I know my Alyssa is on the shorter side, but I have also met her two co-workers several times, and they're not that tiny. Lol.

I love the Recorded Journaling Cards from In A Creative Bubble, and had picked up the 8th set when it came out a while back. I use a ton of her 3×4" journaling cards, but it's rare that I use a 4×6" journaling card in my album. I usually fill any 4×6" pockets with photos. But on my 6×12" insert for this week, I had room for a larger journaling card, so they came in handy.

If I had known I was going to use this "play ball" filler card, I would have picked a different Pocket Maps card by Sara Gleason. Oh well. Not a huge deal to me. I almost always work two to three of the Pocket Maps cards into each weekly spread, and they're just perfect for those photos that don't have big stories. A quick sentence or two is all I need.

Here's a look at the second half of the weekly spread, with the 6×12" insert on the left.

Alyssa has so many awesome work photos. I have some ideas that I've been tossing around for taking those work photos and doing something fun with them. Once I settle on the best way to tackle the project, I'll get going on it.

I didn't have many filler cards for this spread, considering it has an insert page. A few of my cards were black and white, but I did have one yellow card. So I thought this card, while mostly black and white, would tie in with that yellow in a subtle way.

My little Easton. I miss that little dude. He just turned two years old a little over a week ago. Luckily, I have managed to see him a few times since he left (which was a few weeks before I officially closed the daycare).

Still crazy that Alyssa didn't receive her diploma until NINE months after she finished her college classes. Totally random glitch in the system was to blame.

I'll be back tomorrow to share one more weekly spread with you 🙂
Project Life 2018: Week Thirty Six

April 18, 2019

Hey all. Back to share a quick look at week thirty six in my 2018 Project Life album. Which covers the first week in September. Making so much progress in this album lately!

A rare photo with Sarah. I have to sneak them when I can. I had actually Snapchatted this photo to Alyssa, and I'm glad I was smart enough to save it. I don't think to save my photos when I Snapchat.

I work one of the Recorded Journaling Cards from In A Creative Bubble into each weekly spread. Unless it's a week that has an insert, and then I may use two cards for that week. She's got a great selection of these simple black and white cards to choose from, so I can always find one that fits my photo/story.

This filler card is a little busy for my usual taste, even though I love the design. But it matched the floral filler card that I used on the second page of the spread, so I decided to go with it.

The "This Story" digital journaling cards are also by Cathy Zielske (offered as a part of her Scrapbook Your Year class) and I love to use one per week. They're set up with four on a page, so it's really easy to knock out 4 at a time, with very little effort.

This lined journaling card is the one card that I can have fun with each week, personalizing it to fit my photo. To add a little something to the top of the card, I usually use a digital stamps, like the one here from Ali Edwards.
Project Life 2018: Week Thirty Five

April 17, 2019

Hey everyone! I'm back to share what turned out to be a very colorful weekly spread in my 2018 Project Life album. Here's week thirty five.

While my photos may not have had a TON of super bright colors or anything, the filler cards that I picked were quite colorful. I always pull my colors from my photos, and most weeks, the photos all just seem to magically work together – giving me a few colors to focus on. This was the week that we put our house on the market, so when I was looking for a yellow filler card and saw this "today is the day" card, I knew I had to use it.

I should be honest here. I actually took the photo above, of the for sale sign in the yard, on the day that we finished moving all of the boxes out of the house. I kept the whole "selling our house, moving, closing the daycare, looking for a new job" thing on the down low until we were actually out of the house. So I guess that was one reason I never thought to take a photo before that day. I was keeping it all hush-hush, as far as sharing on social media and all.

I love when random photos show up in my inbox of Joe officiating. I should probably make an effort (especially now that I'm not glued to the house doing daycare) to go out to a game here or there and take a few photos myself. But when we do get photos, they're good photos, as they come from sports photographers. Mine wouldn't be that great. Lol.

I'm so glad that Sarah took a few pictures of Lyan the day that she took him outside to help with the yard work that was happening before we had the open house. I mentioned the other day that I don't have many good green filler cards. I lucked out with the one above, as it coordinated with the photos.

I honestly haven't added any embellishments to this album since way back on a few of my January spreads. But I needed something in that little "label" part of the filler card, so to keep it simple, I added a few enamel dots.

I also don't have many purple filler cards. In fact, this was my last one I believe. It might be odd to put a "this will be the best year ever" in a weekly spread from the end of August, but with the Stockton Kings season gearing up to start, it felt like a good fit.
Project Life 2018: Week Thirty Four

April 16, 2019

Hey again! I'm sharing a quick look at week thirty four in my 2018 Project Life album today.

Two Sarah related photos in one week? Wow, that was like a small miracle or something. Lol.

Not sure the "brick" filler card really ties in with anything, but I liked it and it coordinated. That's all that matters sometimes, right?

It's a known fact that I will screenshot any photos that the girls sent me on Snapchat. I never know if I'll need them, after all 😉

One color that I'm seriously lacking in, in my filler card stash, is green. I have about 8 green filler cards. That's it. And they're not even good shades of green. At least, not the shades that go with my photos. The one above was one of the only good green cards. And now it's been used. So sad. Lol.

I hope you'll stop back by tomorrow, as I'll be sharing the first part of a 6×12" themed album project (didn't quite get this ready, so it will be up on Friday). And I'll have a few more PL spreads later in the week.
Project Life 2018: Week Thirty Three

April 15, 2019

Hey there and happy Monday. I'm back to share week thirty three in my 2018 Project Life album. This week had some extra photos that I didn't want to leave out, so it includes a 6×12" insert.

Here's a look at the first half of the spread, with the 6×12" insert on the right.

I'm still using filler cards that I printed using the Project Life app. I love how it's simplified the process, and I've been able to make it work using only the cards that I've had printed and on hand.

That photo of the TV above wasn't meant to ever be used for anything. I had just snapped a photo to send to Alyssa, to let her know that Bachelor in Paradise that evening should have been called "The Colton and Tia Show" (for those of you that watch and know what that means). Lol. But I had room for the photo, so in it went.

Gosh, I miss those crazy kiddos doing crazy things! I'm sure I rolled my eyes when listened to them scooting their chairs out, and when I turned around and found them all climbing up into their seats – but I know I had a good laugh about it at the same time. They're so stinking cute.

We don't get together with Joe's family all that often, so I don't have many photos of everyone. So glad someone snapped a few photos of us when we had a little BBQ together last summer. We're missing a few people in the photo, one of which was Alyssa (she couldn't make it), but still a good photo.

Ha. You can totally see my reflection in the photo above, on the red filler card. I'm sure my reflection shows more than I realized in these photos, but I honestly don't spend too much time taking photos of my PL spreads. So I don't really worry about it much.

I didn't have another 4×6" photo for this bottom pocket, so I simply adhered two 3×4's to a piece of 4×6" cardstock before slipping it into the pocket.

Here's a look at the second half of the spread, with the 6×12" insert on the left.

I can always rely on Alyssa to give me a good assortment of 4×6" images. She's got so many great group photos from work events, and I love it. I got hung up a bit doing the journaling cards for this week, and ended up rearranging a few photos at one point to try and make my groupings work better. The journaling card for this photo ended up on the next page, which in the album, is directly to the right of the photo.

I could have included that journaling card below the photo, but I also had another journaling card for the photo on the bottom – and I just didn't like the look of two journaling cards right next to each other.

I have to be honest. I have a super hard time using the striped filler cards. No clue why. I have a ton of them that I've printed from the PL app, and every time I try and use one, I reject it pretty quickly. This is one of the few that seemed to work for me.

The good news is that Alyssa's car finally did pass the smog test – on the third try, and on the same day her registration was due. Whew.

I'll be sharing a few more weeks in my album this week. But I also have a totally different project that I'm hoping to share this week as well – hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday 😉
Project Life 2018: Week Thirty Two

April 12, 2019

Hey everyone! I managed to finish up seven more weeks in my 2018 Project Life album this past week! Which means I finally have some new projects to share, even if these weekly spreads do sort of look the same after a while. Lol. I left off with week thirty one a month ago, so I'm picking back up with week thirty two today.

Haha! Tell me you've done the face-swapping on Snapchat. It's so stinking funny. I didn't include the face-swapping photo that I did with little Emelyn, but I just had to include the photo that Sarah and her boyfriend sent me back after I sent them our photo.

There are so many times where I should take a photo, but I don't. And then I regret not having more photos from certain things that happen. I snapped the photo above while sitting in a sales office at a new home development that we were giving some serious thought to doing. It was just me, and I snapped this super quick when the dude walked out to copy some papers. I never shared it, or even showed it to anyone, but I'm now glad that I did take it.

One thing that I've been doing in my 2018 album is using the Pocket Maps by Sara Gleason. I almost always work three into each weekly spread, and they're just perfect for those photos that don't have big stories. A quick sentence or two is all I need.

I like to add the info for my weekly title cards every now and then, since I get asked about them a lot. I used the Pocket Guide No.4 kit from Paislee Press. I created each week's card in Photoshop, using the template from the kit – switching out the week number and adding the dates for each week.

Keeping these posts short and sweet, since there's not always a lot of new info to share. If there's anything you're ever curious about, having to do with these PL posts, feel free to comment below (I respond to them all) or email me 🙂
Kerri Bradford Studio: Happy Mail Cards

April 10, 2019

Hey everyone! I had some new cards go up at Kerri Bradford Studio the other day and am excited to share them with you all today. One of the to-do's that has been on my crafty list for a while now, has been to create more cards. Specifically, I've had this idea to dig thru my stash of older supplies, and make it a point to use up a lot of the embellishments and papers that I never seem to use – but also, can't seem to get rid of.

When I saw Kerri's new Happy Mail #1 and Happy Mail #2 stamps, I knew they would be perfect for this very project. Between the two Happy Mail sets, there are so many awesome sentiments to make a wide variety of cards for any occasion. And how can you not love the Outnumbered (Two) XL stamp set! My first thought when I saw them was that they would be perfect for making birthday cards, and that's exactly what I used them for first.

Product tidbits: Square chipboard frames from my stash (I think they're Simple Stories, but don't quote me on that). Making Memories metal flowers, which had already been painted and distressed and already had coordinating brads in the centers – and they just happen to match my frames and papers.

I started by picking out a few embellishments that I thought would work well on cards – a variety of chipboard frames in varying sizes, a few colored tags, and some metal rimmed printed tags. I then picked out a sentiment to use along with each embellishment.

Product tidbits: Small square chipboard frames (again, I think they're from Simple Stories, but again, don't quote me on that). 3D flower embellishments from American Crafts, which included the buttons.

And the last step was to pick out two patterned papers to go with each card. I limited my paper choices to my 6×6" paper pads, looking for patterns that would match/coordinate with whatever embellishments I had chosen for each card.

Product tidbits: Printed metal rimmed tags from American Crafts (I added a simple silver accent to each tag to cover the hole where you would add string). Colored tags (not sure where they're from, but they matched perfectly).

I created my card bases, using the same basic design for each, adding a little misting and a little machine stitching to each card. I added my stamped sentiments, either directly onto the card itself or onto a scrap piece of paper to add behind the chipboard frames.

Product tidbits: Chipboard frame from Basic Grey. Gold glittered accent dots (not sure where they're from).

For the birthday cards, I fussy cut around the stamped numbers before adhering them to the cards. Once the embellishments were added on, and the sentiments complete, I added any little finishing touches, like the little silver accents, the metal flowers, and the enamel stars.

Product tidbits – Enamel stars from Bella Blvd.

I can't wait to create even more cards with these fabulous stamp sets! I think I need to make it a goal to use each and every sentiment on at least one card 😉