Laura Vegas

i have this card all ready to mail off … and thought i’d share it. the chances are slim to none that the person receiving this card would ever be looking at my blog. lol! and what a brilliant idea … to actually send out the cards that i make so that someone else can enjoy them. lol!

super easy .. just something i did really quick last night. the stamp is from autumn leaves … from their new “cuteworld” collection. and i actually used my colored pencils … i don’t think i’ve ever colored in a stamped image. nothing fancy … you know i keep it pretty simple. lol! but i had to use this little birdie … gave me the perfect excuse to use a googley eye!

supplies:
pattern paper – scenic route
journaling spot, colored pencils – heidi swapp
chipboard, rubons, ribbon – making memories
stamp – autumn leaves

and on a sidenote. i can’t vouch for all target stores. but i can tell you that we have a brand new target about 5 minutes from us that just opened (i’m in CA) … and i stopped in there over the weekend. and i happen to find a TON of new making memories product … falala, spellbound, and some other collections that are exclusive to target. our regular target doesn’t have any of it yet. so maybe this store just got it in early. but you might want to keep you eyes out for it!

so about a week or so ago … we decided to re-do our downstairs bedroom. it was originally my scraproom. but since i moved upstairs … it’s always just been this extra room where everything leftover got dumped. the extra loveseat, the extra big oak shelves, and anything else that had no where to go. i had been wanting to get an expedit shelf to put in there for the last few months. which i guess was the start of my plan. then about 2 weeks ago … it dawned on me. why not actually make it a room that we actually use for something.

this isn’t the best photo … but it’s all i got before the girls totally took over the room. lol! so we painted the walls … a great “refreshing pool” color from behr that i got at home depot. it’s like an aqua/turquoise color. we were painting over a dark green … so we had to prime the walls first … which was more work. and yes, i still have to finish around the 2 windows in the room (see the green up there?) … just havn’t gotten around to a day where i have time to take off the blinds early enough in the day before the sun beats down on the windows. lol!

then the expedit shelf … from ikea. if i could … i would put one of those shelves in every room in my house. that is how awesome i think they are! i have 2 of the large ones in my studio … and love them! you can put an incredible amount of stuff on there …. without it ever looking crowded or cluttered. and i knew exactly what the shelves would be for.

i moved ALL of my finished and in-the-works scrapbook albums downstairs. really didn’t make much sense to have them upstairs in my studio … where no one ever looked at them. i would do a layout … and stick it in the album. no one ever got to see them. another advantage to moving them downstairs that i didn’t even think about? god forbid there is ever a fire or anything here … but you know how you always hear of people grabbing their photos … because most of those can’t be replaced. i realized … while carrying over 50 albums down the stairs … that i would have NEVER been able to get those out of the house if it came down to it. lol! those suckers are heavy! and yes, i have over 50 albums on there … actually filled with layouts! i would multi-task … everytime i went upstairs for anything … carry another stack of albums down. lol! those 2 larger baskets on top hold mini albums. and i also made tons more room in my studio … those albums were taking up a ton of space that could be used for things that i actually use more often.

the other thing i did was to move a lot of our dvd collections in there … and all our cd’s. most of them are in those red and black boxes … or the baskets. i have the entire collection of “friends”, “gilmore girls”, “sex & the city”, and more on dvd. not something i use all the time … so i stuck them in the boxes. which has made more space in the cabinets under our tv in the family room … so that all our games aren’t crammed in there so tightly. all our cd’s are in there. i have them all on itunes now … so we really don’t use the cd’s themselves all that much. makes sense to store them out of the way a little more. i also have a spot that holds the girls soccer albums and dvd’s from their teams. a spot to hold all the family dvd’s and tapes of the girls from when they were little. i have a spot that holds all the girls gameboy games and accesories … and a spot for their nintendo ds games and accesories. and then there are just some decorative things mixed in.

the great thing too … is that the only thing that i bought on that shelf … is the 2 turquoise fabric bins. everything else on there … the boxes, the baskets, the metal tins, the accesories … they all just came from other parts of the house. i love that … love to re-use things and move them around to make things look new. the other thing that i did buy … was the 2 chairs. these are really comfy folding chairs … they are super comfy to sit in. and if need be … we can fold them up and get them out of the way. on the opposite wall (across from the chairs) … we have a low, wide tv stand. all we have is a  boombox and a little 13 inch tv/vcr combo … with a dvd player. we don’t have any tv hookup in that bedroom … but we can use it for watching movies. eventually i would love to get a little bigger tv in there … but no rush on that. the girls also moved some games, some magazines, and other stuff to the tv stand. 

and the girls have officially named it the “hangout room”. before this … the only thing this room was really used for was for nikolas to take his naps. lol! but the girls are loving this … they have been in there for the last week non-stop. one thing i wanted … was for them to have a spot to go when the daycare kids are here. as much as they love to hang out and play with them … they also have their moments where they want to do their own thing. and i don’t let them go upstairs and play much … since usually joe or the babies are sleeping up there during the day. but if they took stuff out in the playroom … the little ones would get into things … or they’d have to pick up when the babies woke up from their naps. so now they have their place to go … and spread out to their hearts content. i have 2 days a week when i have to have a playpen in there … since i have an extra little one that needs a room to nap. but the rest of the time … they have free reign. and they love it!

i had to add this: this is NOT a room for the daycare kids. lol! well, amanda does have permission to go in there … she’s just like one of “my girls”. lol! but no little ones in here … so i don’t have to worry about little hands getting to my albums. i have a safety gate that gets put up right outside this room (and the bathroom, now that nikolas can open doors) … so the little ones just look over the gate at the big girls playing in there. lol!

and an extra bonus … the girls have been looking at all the scrapbook albums EVERYDAY! i love walking by and seeing them going through them one by one. although they have gotten many lessons about turning the pages carefully … and putting the albums back in order … and always having clean hands. but other than that … free reign!!!

photo storage … NOT something that i’m good at … or something that i even have a system for. i don’t do so bad at our family photos. but then i add on all the photos i’ve taken of all our daycare friends … and that is when i start to feel overwhelmed. so many kids … from so many years. i did a rough count in my head … and i think we’ve had over 22 different kids in our daycare over the past 7 years. that’s a lot! and that also means a lot of photos. some i scrap … some i don’t scrap. so what do i do with them all?

take this layout … totally random pics of ariana from throughout just last year. i think one of these actually made it’s way onto a scrapbook layout. and i think 3 or 4 of them are in the “2007 Favorites” book i had made through shutterfly last year. but i still had these prints out in a pile. do i keep them in a regular photo album … in case i want to scrap them? if they’re in the photo book or on a layout … do i really need another copy floating around?

and what about this layout … totally random pics of ady from throughout just last year. i believe only one of those pics was on a layout … and i’m guessing a few made their way into the “2007 Favorites” photo book. the others are random … ones that honestly i probably wouldn’t scrap at first. but i still love them all. especially now that she’s not in our life anymore … i still want to hold onto the memories. but what do i do? stick them into a regular photo album … maybe scrap them one day?

i have serious issues with having photos in too many spots. and i’m really not looking for advice or anything (although i always love to hear what everyone else is finding works for them). i have read so many things on this … i have the books … i’ve debated on the systems that people rave about. but for me … i just havn’t figured it out yet. lol!

last year when i did that photo book through shutterfly … it was a light bulb moment. i realized that to make one of those every year was a brilliant idea. that way i get all the totally random photos in there … all the day-to-day pics that show our little life here with these kids. all the photos that i might not think to scrap … because they’re not technically perfect. and it sums up the year so nicely.

so with that idea in mind … i havn’t ordered any prints of my daycare photos for myself this year at all. for the parents, yes. but i usually like to print the pictures myself if i’m going to scrap them. so why order all these extra prints. i know i’ll make a book at the end of the year. and why do i want all these extra pics … if they’re going to be in the book? then i’ll have the same photos in numerous places. what if i order a copy of the pic … and then decide to scrap that pic, only i print it myself to get the size and borders that i want? then i have it on a layout, in the book at the end of the year, and i still have an actual print of the pic laying around too? that is when i feel even more overwhelmed … because i have too many photos in too many places.

this is where i found myself yesterday during naptime … sorting through my stack of daycare photos that i have collected over the last year or two. i actually have been doing daycare for almost 7 years … but i’ve already solved this problem with the first 5 years worth of photos. lol! so as i went through the photos … i started pulling out the ones that i’ve already scrapped … or the ones that were in the “2007 Favorites” photo book … put them in the “toss” pile. then some of them were pretty similiar to other photos … so i’d stick those in the “toss” pile. i actually had a pretty big stack to toss … and i did just that … threw them all in the garbage. then about an hour later … i pulled them back out.

i just couldn’t do it … couldn’t get rid of them. and then i remembered these layouts that i did a few months ago. not great layouts by any means … but great memories and less photos laying around in random piles. so that is how i came to create these 3 layouts since yesterday … the two here and the one in the post from this morning. i just picked out some photos … cropped them without even measuring or planning … and then arranged them onto a layout. i know it probably looks like i planned and measured … but i seriously just cropped without thought … and they just managed to all fit together so nicely. then i dug out some older product … even some super old product. didn’t worry about journaling. didn’t feel the pressure of making anything jaw-dropping or innovative. just had fun … good, simple fun! and managed to get 22 photos taken care of on just 3 layouts … how awesome is that?

and the thing that i love the most about these layouts? that none of these photos necessarily go together … most were taken at different times and in different places. they don’t match … they’re all random. but when put together on a layout … they look like they were meant to go together. they tell a story … even without words. every photo on there means something to me. i can remember taking every single one … what we were doing and who else was there … and why they’re all giving me the looks they’re giving me. i treasure every photo here … every memory. and i am so glad that i took the time to put them all together … to hang out in our albums for years and years.

i know … this is what scrapbooking is all about! i know this … i read this … i understand this. but sometimes i get away from it a little … and spend too much time trying to make incredible, fanastic layouts that are perfect in every way. but i always seem to come back to this type of scrapping every few months … and i love it.

i don't have much time to blog right now … but wanted to share this layout while i have a few minutes. then i'll come back tonight … and tell you how this layout came to be and why i love it! let's just say i'm trying to clean out and organize photos … and i was going to toss these (shocker … but there's a story to that). so i'll get to the details later … along with a few more layouts.

  

supplies:
library card, label stickers, felt flowers – creative cafe
foam stickers – american crafts
glitter stickers, rubons - making memories
brads – deja views

i had the chance to photograph an adorable little girl this past week. this is presley.

presley’s mom was my neighbor, ziek’s, teacher at school last year. and ziek’s mom … my good friend ruth … would tell her about me. did that make sense? lol! ruth is determined to get me in business … i know she is! and i love her for it too! last week was so crazy busy with all the work we were doing around the house (more on that later). which was probably a good thing … because it didn’t leave me any time to get nervous. i’m not normally nervous … but this was the first time i’ve ever taken photos of someone that i didn’t know.

 

presley was so adorable … almost 3 years old. she was definatley more interested in playing on the toys in the yard. so i just sort of followed her around and tried to sneak in some shots while she did her thing.

she just loved our playhouse. she kept walking around saying “i’ll be back in a minute” … over and over. and she had this piece of tanbark that was her “baby”. and when anyone would come to the door … she would say that “so-and-so is in the shower”. too cute … love that age!

and this one. she would stop and get all serious … and cup her hand around her ear and say “do you hear THAT?”.

thinking of birthday wishes … and princesses and cake.

and one of her and mom.

thanks so much, tanya and presley … for letting me spend a little bit of time with you. hope you like them as much as i do!

i gave you an extra few minutes … but mainly because i got caught up doing laundry. lol! so i used the random number generator site again … gotta love technology sometimes. here’s what it spit out for me:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
5
12
Timestamp: 2008-07-21 05:20:03 UTC

Hi Laura. Recently I have been addicted to ribbon. I have been working hard to increase my ‘stash’. I would love to win one of these envelopes. Thanks for the opportunity. Posted by:Cherri Engle| July 20, 2008 at 05:36 PM

Hi Laura, So when does ribbon get old? I would love some ribbon. The more the merrier. Posted by:Machelle Hathaway | July 20, 2008 at 06:02 PM

congrats cherri and machelle! email me your addresses … and i’ll get your ribbons mailed out. and thanks to everyone for playing along! if i could … i would send you all a few yards of ribbon. lol!

i am in the middle of cleaning … in about 10 different parts of the house. so i came across this huge backstock of ribbon … back from when i taught classes and had stocked up on ribbon because i used so much in my kits. so i thought i’d do a super quick giveaway. i have 2 padded envelopes full of ribbon. keep in mind this is older ribbon … mostly from michaels. totally random. so if you’re picky about your ribbon … this might not interest you. lol! but if you don’t mind the older stuff … you might want it!

just leave a comment in you’re interested … and you only have until 10:00 tonight, my time. i don’t know what “my time” is exactly … never know what time zone i’m on. lol! but basically, you have 5 hours. then i’m drawing two names. i’m doing this fast … because i’d love to be able to get this mailed tomorrow … since i already have a few things to take to the post office. such the multi-tasker, i know!

edited to add: i’m too lazy to figure out the time thing. so i’m hoping that you are all too lazy to figure it out too … that way i don’t feel so bad about my laziness. anyways … 2 hours, 15 minutes left as of right now … which is 7:45 california time!

have you been checking out the MM blog this weekend? they’re still doing tons of giveaways … and showing tons of photos and projects from the show. i thought i’d share a few more of the projects i created for the show.

this was using the poolside paperie collection.

this tin was made using the mocha paperie collection … and the slice.

and this altered notebook was created with the rouge paperie collection … and the slice as well.

CHA is finally here … and making memories is there announcing all they’re incredible new product collection! and just because we’re not there with them … doesn’t mean we can’t join in on the fun! they are having a day of hourly updates and giveaways on their blog! you can win it before you can buy it … how cool is that! so make sure and check it out … every hour in fact. lol!

and i can finally share a peek with you. some great new collections and products coming out … i had so much fun working with all of it! there are tons more where these came from … but here’s a project that i did using the new “spellbound” halloween collection.

edited to add: since a few people are already asking … i got the paper mache houses on the clearance aisle at michaels for $2 each. they had tons … so maybe you can still find them. lol! i did another set of them too … hopefully, i can share them later!

so make sure you’re checking in on the making memories blog … all day long! and if you’re looking forward to the SLICE coming out soon … then check out this site as well!

i was honored when megan asked me if i would host a guest challenge over on her new site, sketchbooknz. she has a great site going … lots of fun challenges and sketches … and a great place to chat. my challenge was to use ribbons and flowers in creative ways.

   

another thing that i love to do … is to really mix up my product. sure, the collections are always nice to use on their own … after all, you know that it's going to coordinate. but i love to pull product from all different collections … and to also mix older and newer embellishments together. everything on this layout is making memories … but i still have a wide variety going.

 and here is my matching card. same products … same basic design … just on a smaller scale.

  

so make sure and go check out her site HERE. you can find out more about the challenge and how you can participate! and thanks again megan for asking me to host this challenge!