Laura Vegas

Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life

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Jillibean Soup: Hello High School

October 10, 2018

Hey everyone! I have a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog last month. They had tossed out the idea of school layouts, and even though my girls are done with school (not counting college, which Sarah is still in), I had an idea that I thought would fit the request.

I have created "first day of school" layouts for both of the girls – maybe not for every year, but for a lot of them. But I thought it would be cool to make a layout showing their "first day" photos for their high school years. I mainly thought of the idea after seeing new cut files for the high school years in the Jillibean Soup Silhouette store.

I divided my page up into four rows, one for each year of high school. This allowed me to print my photos as 2×3" pics, and still gave me plenty of room to add patterned papers, my cut files, etc. I sized each of the year's cut files to fit within the rows, and cut each one from black cardstock.

I gathered up Alyssa's first day pics and Sarah's first day pics, and printed them side by side, so that they were essentially one photo. This gave me one photo that was 4" wide and 3" tall, for each year.

I staggered the photo placement in each row, so that the photos weren't all lined up in the same spot on the page. I then cut 2-3 pieces of patterned paper to fill the rest of the row, adding my die cut year to the larger piece of patterned paper.

I wanted to add a title as well, since the die cut years didn't really make up a "title" in my mind. I ended up pulling out some crazy old Jillibean Soup alpha stickers, as I was looking for red stickers. These alphas were from way back when I was on their design team like 8+ years ago.

It turns out, I missed taking a first day of school photo for both Alyssa and Sarah, their junior year. Funny, since they were totally different years. I only missed 3 years of "first day" pics, during their 13 years of school. And I guess it just sort of worked out that one of those was Junior year for both of them.

It still seems like just yesterday that they were in high school. Except it wasn't just yesterday, and now I have one that's graduated from college and one that's in her second year of college. Times flies, that's for sure!

I pulled out some puffy stickers, hearts and butterflies, and color coordinated them to the patterned papers. I love how they're subtle, when paired up with the same colored papers.
Jillibean Soup: Gather Round The Table

October 4, 2018

Hey everyone! I have a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog a while back. I think you all know by now that I love to work with pocket pages. They're not just for Project Life albums, as they can easily be used for your every day scrapping as well. I had the idea for this layout a few months ago, and I'm so glad I finally took the time to execute my idea.

We have this old coffee table in our family room. We've had it for well over 18 years, and it's been a well loved table. By our little family for sure. But mostly by 17 years worth of daycare kids. It's always been one of their favorite places to play, and it shows, if you were to see this table in person. It's taken one for the team, that's fur sure. It's completely beat up and covered in dents. I guess you could say it has a "distressed" look 😉

I have taken so many photos of kids playing around this table over the years, and I knew they would make a great layout. I had gone thru my external hard drive a while back and pulled out any photos that I thought would work for this layout idea, and finally took the time to sit down and figure out what I wanted to do with them.

I love creating photo collages, so that was one option. So was printing out the photos and adhering them to my pages in a collage like fashion. But I was really itching to create a pocket page spread, and I knew all of the photos would work great as little 3×3" photos, since I take so many of my photos on my phone as squares.

I knew that I had a 12×12" pocket page protector that had all 3×3" pockets, and that I wanted to use that for one side of my two page spread. For the other page, I came across a pocket page protector that had a large 6×12" pocket in the center and two rows of smaller 3×3" pockets – one row at the top and one row at the bottom.

The larger 6×12" pocket across the center was the perfect spot to house my title, journaling, and a few simple embellishments. For my title, I used one of Jillibean Soup's cut files to die cut "gather" from my favorite woodgrain patterned paper. I pulled out some older red corrugated alphas to complete my title, along with a few green alpha stickers.

I printed out my journaling and created a tag shape, matting it on a piece of green patterned paper. I added a floral puffy sticker to the bottom of the tag shape, rather than using string or ribbon.

I decided to print all of my photos in black and white, since they had a lot of different colors going on, as they were all taken over the course of a few years. Some of the older photos had been taken with my much older cell phones, which didn't give me great quality photos. So turning them all to black and white helped make those photos look a little better.

Working with black and white photos also allowed me to use whichever patterned papers I wanted to use, since I wasn't trying to coordinate my papers to my photos. I came across the "love my tribe" 3×4" card, taken from one of the Bite Size Bits patterned paper, and was able to trim it down into a 3×3" card to slip into a pocket on the first page of the spread. I pulled the colors for the rest of my patterned paper choices from that one card.

I left four pockets empty on the second page of the spread, as well as one extra pocket on the first page, so that I could add in a few filler cards. I added a fun letter board saying to each pocket, which were all hand cut out of the Goodness Gracious paper from the Farmhouse Stew collection. I matted each one onto a piece of patterned paper, and added a few quick staples to the top of the letter board saying.

I just love seeing all of these cute photos of the cute kiddos, playing and having fun around my well loved table. Individually, they're fun photos. But when you pull together a wide variety of photos like this, they can tell such an amazing story that just can't be told with a single photo.

As beat up as this table is, we never gave any thought into replacing it. Seeing as how the kids would just take a beating to any new table we got as well. Lol.

I should also mention the "food basket", as that goes hand in hand with the table. The basket at the end of the table holds all of the play food and dishes. I have always kept that basket at the end of the table. Even going back years and years, that basket has always been there. And I'm pretty sure I have a photo of just about every kiddo I've watched sitting IN the basket. The kids always loved to sit in the basket, and there were times I'd even find two kids in the basket at once. Lol.
Jillibean Soup: Sunday Groceries

September 23, 2018

Hey everyone! If you haven't heard the news, Jillibean Soup is celebrating their 10th birthday, and they're having a 10 day long celebration that you should definitely check out. Stop by the Jillibean Soup blog to join in on the festivities, as well as get in on the giveaways 😉

I wanted to share a new layout that was up on their blog earlier this month. I think I've mentioned (although I could be wrong) that often times, I will browse my cut files, looking for titles that inspire a layout idea. I came across a cut file that had "groceries" in it several months ago, and I finally got around to creating the layout that I knew it would be perfect for.

Sunday is my grocery shopping day. It's part of my weekly routine, and I rarely change it up. Once I'm up and ready, I figure out what we need, try and plan what I'm making for the week, and go thru my grocery store ad and app to make sure I know the sales and deals. It might seem like a weird thing to make a layout about, but it's a part of my everyday life, so I love that I took the time to document it.

I ended up combing two different cut files, pulling one word from each, to create my over-sized title. I love how "groceries" looks, die cut from the brown woodgrain patterned paper. I sized my title to fit across the top of my photo collage, as I love a great, large title.

I knew I had a variety of photos to use for this page, so I picked five of them to use to create a photo collage using a template from Kerri Bradford. I printed out my journaling to fit below the photo collage, and added a few strips of patterned paper between the collage and the journaling.

I needed a little something in the upper left corner, so I added a coordinating kraft banner tag. The cute little puffy coffee cup sticker seemed like a good choice to add to the tag, since part of my regular routine is to also grab a frappacino from Starbucks on my way out the door.

I had some empty space in the middle of the page as well, where I had a gab between my title and the photo collage. I found a few tab stickers and phrase stickers in coordinating colors and added those to finish off the page.
Jillibean Soup: Adventure Is Always Worthwhile

September 18, 2018

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog a while back. I've lost all track of time, but I think it was up at the end of August. Since I was asked to focus on summer themed layouts, I had to do some digging for photos to use. My goal was to find photos that I hadn't scrapped yet, and to avoid re-scrapping photos that are already on layouts within my albums.

I came across these photos from a family trip to my uncle's cabin, way back in 2001 I believe (I had it written down, but failed to add the date to the layout, and now I can't find the info). These were film photos, since this was years before I went digital (was digital even a thing in 2001?). And to make things even trickier, I had already trimmed down some of the photos to random sizes.

Not having digital images to work with can make things a little limiting, but I knew I could work with what I had to create a great layout. Back in the day when I would use film photos, I would simply start trimming little bits here and there off each photo, working them into a collage as best I could. The photos always ended up being totally different sizes, but they would eventually fit into a grid-like fashion on the page.

Once I had my photos trimmed down, and arranged across the center of a two page spread, I then knew how much space I would have left to work with. I die cut a circle background from white cardstock for each side of the two page spread, using a cut file from Jillibean's Silhouette store, and adhered those to my white cardstock page bases.

I kept the patterned paper minimal for this layout, adding thin strips of a floral patterned paper across the top and bottom of each page. I knew I would work some additional patterned paper into my die cut title and some circle accents that I added at the end.

I also added in this 3×4" card from one of the Bite Size Bits patterned papers that said "the details documented" across the bottom. The orange worked well with my color scheme, and it helped fill in a gap within my photo "collage". I added a small corrugated frame to the card, which I backed with a scrap of white cardstock and added a sticker to the center.

I knew I wanted to add in some additional patterned papers, and backing some of the circle cut outs in the die cut background seemed like a great spot to add those in. I used the floral patterned paper as my starting point, and picked out a few other papers that tied in with the colors on the floral paper.

Since I finally got my new sewing machine up and running (which I'm pretty sure only took me about 2 minutes to do), I added my usual machine stitching here and there on the pages as well. On my July layouts, I didn't add any machine stitching and my layouts felt like they were missing an important piece.

For my title, I picked out a cut file from Jillibean's Silhouette store, and die cut it from a green patterned paper. I believe it actually said "Adventure is worthwhile", and I got rid of the "is" part. I can't remember for sure, but I know that I didn't use part of the cut file.

I used some small letter stickers to complete my title, adding the "is always" to the second half of my title.

I actually have about 8 more photos that I plan on adding to this spread. Well, not to these two pages, per se. I must have had an idea for these photos years and years ago, since so many of the photos were trimmed down into random sizes, and then some of them were trimmed into circles and ovals. Yes, you read that right. Which means is was forever ago, since the only time I cut my photos into ovals was back when I was only using Creative Memories products. I've done circles here and there, but I definitely got away from ovals.

My plan is to create a 6×12" insert, that will get added into the album, in the middle of these two pages. I already know I can fit those 8 circle and oval shaped photos onto two pieces of 6×12" cardstock. I will most likely keep it super simple, die cutting another circle background from white cardstock and adhering those to white cardstock page bases. And then I'll add the photos to those and call it a day. I meant to get that done before I shared this spread, but life happened and I just didn't get to it. When I do get around to it, I'll have to come back and share 😉
Jillibean Soup: San Diego Zoo

September 12, 2018

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog a while ago. I was asked to create summer themed layouts when I set out to make my projects back in July. I didn't really have any recent photos that needed scrapping, but I did remember that I had these photos of Alyssa that I printed out over a year ago that I had never got around to using.

The photos were from a trip she took to the San Diego Zoo with her dad and her grandparents, way back in the summer of 2002. It's actually a miracle that I even had digital images to work with for these. While I didn't go digital until around 2006, Alyssa's dad had gone digital several years earlier than that.

For my title, I wanted to use some of the large, chunky alpha die cuts, along with some smaller alpha stickers. I wasn't able to find two O's in the colors I needed, so I simply traced an O onto a scrap of aqua patterned paper. You can tell which one I hand cut, because I didn't do the cleanest job cutting out the inside of the O. Lol.

I had picked out several sheets of patterned papers in aquas and reds, but didn't really have any navy blue options that would work. I ended up going with a white background, so that it wasn't so patterned paper heavy. And since I love to add white die cut backgrounds to my white layout bases, I picked out a star background cut file from Jillibean Soup's collection in the Silhouette store.

I had a pack of these little shaped/colored paper clips that I thought would be fun to use on this page. They just so happen to be the perfect colors, and I ended up adding one to each of my three photos.

I still have four new Jillibean Soup layouts to share, but I seem to be short on time to actually sit down and type up some blog posts. I'll see if I can get another one up before the end of this week 🙂
Jillibean Soup: Every Summer Has A Story

September 4, 2018

Hey everyone! Has it really been almost a month since I've blogged anything? Oh my. I feel like I had a ton to share at the beginning of August, all at once. And it just so happen that all of the layouts I created for Jillibean Soup for August ended up being scheduled at the end of the month. So I'm just now able to share them. And oddly enough, all of the layouts I created for September are scheduled for this week, so I'll be sharing lots of Jillibean Soup layouts over the next week or so 😉

Anyways, I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog last week, so let's get to it.

A while back, my mom gave me a few old albums filled with my childhood photos. I was looking for a photo for a layout idea I had, and came across this photo of myself back when I was eleven years old. It gave me an idea for a totally different layout, and I printed out the other two photos right away.

And then the photos got pushed to the side, and I never got around to making that layout. But since I was asked to make a few summer themed layouts last month, it seemed like a good time to finally get these photos scrapped.

It took me a while to decide on a title. I usually start by looking to see if any of Jillibean's cut files catch my eye. Whether they work as a full title on their own, or if maybe a portion of the title/phrase will work – whether on it's own, or mixed with some die cut alphas or alpha stickers.

For this layout, I thought the "every summer has a story" phrase would work well. I knew I could work my journaling, and what I wanted to say about these photos, off of that title. I die cut the title from patterned paper and cardstock.

Since the top part of my layout was white cardstock, I wanted to add a little texture and interest. I usually do this by adding a die cut background, cut from white cardstock as well. But I just happen to have a ton of white cardstock circles from one of my other layouts (they were the negative pieces from a circle background that I had cut), so I decided to use a bunch of those along the top of the page.

I used an embossing folder, and ran them all thru my Cuttlebug. I don't always think to use my embossing folders as often as I should. I love the easy texture they add, with very little effort.

I thought it would be cool to find photos of the girls, similar to the photo of myself – and taken around the same age that I was in my photo. I was eleven in my photo, and Sarah is eleven in her photo. Alyssa is actually ten in the photo I found of her, but it's close enough.

I printed the photos as 3×3" pics, and arranged them across the page, adding small pieces of patterned paper below each photo as well. I was looking around for something to embellish those patterned paper pieces, and thought it would be fun to add the two digit year that each photo was taken. I probably should have added an apostrophe after the number, so that you know it's the year. And not just random numbers. Lol.

Since the photos had different looks to them, and the photo of myself was a much older photo (that I scanned using my printer), I ended up changing the photos to black and white. This also allows you more freedom when it comes to picking out products, as you can use any colors you'd like.

I actually started by picking out this 3×4" card from one of the Bite Size Bits patterned papers, and then picked out all of my other patterned papers based off the colors in the card. I also added a little puffy "love" sticker to the center of the larger flower on the card. I usually keep my embellishments pretty simple, so that little circle, and a few additional stickers at the top of the page were all I felt the layout needed.

I'll try and get another layout posted on Thursday or Friday. Hope you're all having a great week!
Jillibean Soup: Sassy Pants

August 9, 2018

Hey all! I have a new Jillibean Soup layout to share with you today. I created this one way back in June, but it didn't go up on the Jillibean Soup blog until late July, and then I sort of forgot all about it. I guess it's ok that I waited to share this, since I can't share my last set of Jillibean projects until the first week in September. This is why I forget about stuff 😉

I've pulled out these photos of Sarah and I a few times over the last year or so, but always end up sticking them back in the box to scrap later. But when I sat down to figure out what I was going to make for my June layouts for Jillibean, I came across a cut file in their Silhouette store and knew it would pair up nicely with these photos.

The original title was "fancy pants", but I knew that I would drop the "fancy" part and just work with the "pants" part of that cut file.

"Sassy" seemed like the perfect word to describe my girl, as we do often call her Sassy Sarah 😉 I ended up using some corrugated alphas for the first half of my title, and die cut "pants" from some navy blue cardstock.

Once I figured out my plan for the page, I ended up having some empty space along the top of the page where I would be adding my title. I'm sure you all know that I'm not always a fan of plain white cardstock. I love to create a simple white-on-white look with a background cut file, and I happen to have a leftover piece of a woodgrain background from THIS layout, so I added that along the top of the page.

My photos were all 3×4's, so I decided to create four 3" columns across the page. I added a photo to each column, staggering the placement, and then picked out a patterned paper for each column as well. The patterned paper in the column where my journaling is was the first paper I picked out and where I pulled the other colors from for the rest of the page.

I also found several 2×2" cards, cut from one of the Bite Size Bits patterned papers, and added one to each of three columns that had photos in them.

I then picked out a few flowers from a Pea Pod Parts package that coordinated with my papers, and added a flower along with each 2×2" card.

Lastly, I added a tab die cut or sticker to each photo. I often debate over adding additional embellishments to my pages, as I'm not one to force anything onto a page just for the sake of adding product. I don't even think it crossed my mind to add anything else to this layout. I have more layouts these days that are made up of paper, photos, and die cuts, and I'm totally fine with that 🙂
Kerri Bradford Studio: Making Time

August 8, 2018

Hey all! I'm sharing another new layout that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. I love that I was so inspired by these sketches, and that I was able to create five new 6×8" spreads for my personal album.

While these sketches were designed for traveler's notebook layouts and 8.5×11" pages, they can easily be adapted for other sizes – whether 12×12", 9×12", 6×12", or 6×8" – whatever size you're loving right now! For this 6×8" spread, I used sketch #3 as my starting point.

I only had four photos, so I printed them each as 3×3" photos, and arranged them across the spread as shown in the sketch. I've actually created a sort-of simliar 6×8" spread on the topic of reading (seen HERE), and even used a few of these same photos. But every time I would see the bookshelf die cut (linked below), I would think about doing another layout on the theme.

I have a few books that I've picked up over the last year or so, with the intention of starting to read again. I've seen a lot of people rave about "Girl Wash Your Face", so I figured it was worth a shot. And "Talking As Fast As I Can" was a no-brainer, since I'm a huge Gilmore Girls fan. I also have another book written by Lauren Graham, but forgot that I had it when I went to print these photos.

The "Home Organization" book isn't really a book you'd read cover to cover, I guess. But it's filled with soooooo many great tips and ideas, and I'm always wanting to really read my way thru it. And I'm a big "Younger" fan (a show on the TV Land channel), so when I learned there was an actual "Marriage Vacation" book (a big part of the story line revolves around this book on the show), I had to get it.

I die cut the fun bookshelf from black chalkboard patterned paper, using Kerri's A Good Book kit, and adhered it directly above the photos on the first page.

I cut the word "time", using the Happy Birthday kit, from a pink patterned paper for my title. I die cut it twice, mainly because the first time I cut it, my machine messed it up. Lol. I cut it twice on the second try, to make sure I ended up with at least one good once. I got two good ones, so I layered them together for a little thickness.

I added my journaling along the top of the second page of the spread, and added a few simple chipboard elements to finish off the page. Super simple and easy, and just my kind of layout 🙂
Kerri Bradford Studio: So Yeah

August 6, 2018

Hey all! I'm sharing another new layout that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio, as part of her birthday celebration last week. These are old photos, from years ago, and they tell an old story, from years ago. But I think it's one worth documenting. Since any photos of me taken back in 2006-2007, I'll most likely be wearing a hat (or a fun hair piece added in with my real hair). There's a close up of my journaling later in this post, which explains why 😉

Kerri asked if we'd like to work from some sketches, and provided us with three to choose from. While these are set up for traveler's notebooks and 8.5×11" layouts, they can easily be adapted to work for any size you desire.

For this 6×8" spread, I used sketch #3, and with the exception of moving my journaling placement and adding an additional photo, I stuck to the sketch as it was. I printed all of my photos in varying sizes, and arranged them across the two pages, overlapping them as needed.

I've had these photos in a folder on my laptop for well over a year, with the intention of creating a layout with them. I often come across photos, while looking for completely different photos, and get ideas for layouts. So I've learned to plop them into a "for layouts" folder, so I don't forget about them – and I don't have to go digging for them again, as they often come from totally different months/years.

I die cut a flower background from white cardstock, using Kerri's Background Basics #3 kit, and added that along the top of the two pages to create a white-on-white look. I added my die cut title, using the Summer Vibes and Something To Say #2 kits, to the top of the left page of the spread.

I adhered my journaling along the top of the right page of the spread. Took me a few tries when it came to printing it, as I need to remember to size my font down a bit on these smaller spreads. A few simple enamel dots were all I added to embellish the page.

After wearing a hat almost every day for that year or two, I have to say, I've never worn a hat since. Lol. I kept my hats for a while, as I had a hard time finding ones that I really liked on myself. But eventually I got rid of them, and crossed my fingers I wouldn't have those same hair issues again.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Mama Needs Some Chocolate

August 4, 2018

Hey all! I'm sharing another new layout that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio, as part of her 8 year celebration! As I mentioned yesterday, I ended up super inspired and created five 6×8" spreads for my personal album, and today I'm sharing the second of those five spreads.

Kerri asked if we'd like to work from some sketches, and provided us with three to choose from. While these are set up for traveler's notebooks and 8.5×11" layouts, they can easily be adapted to work for any size you desire.

For this 6×8" spread, I used sketch #1. I kept with a full 6×8" photo for the right side of the spread, and didn't end up adding anything to the photo.

Have you tried this stuff? Let's just say that if you haven't, you should. It's soooo good. Or maybe you shouldn't. It's also like crack, and you won't be able to stop eating it. Lol.

Instead of an additional photo for the left side of the spread, as shown in the sketch, I used that spot for my title. I printed out the "mama needs some chocolate" printable, from Kerri's Mama Needs Some kit, and used that for my title. I had an extra piece of a circle background that I had die cut for another project, using the Background Basics kit, and it ended up being just the right size to use on that left page.

I was originally going to print my journaling so that I could cut it into two tag shapes (to go with the tag on the sketch), and add one to the top of the page and one to the bottom of the page. But I ended up with too much to say in my journaling and ended up trimming them into blocks of journaling instead. I added a simple tab die cut and a few enamel hearts to finish off the page.

I'll be back to share my three other layouts next week. Make sure to stop by Kerri's blog, if you haven't already, to keep up with all of the fun stuff she had going on this past week!