Laura Vegas

Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life

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Project Life 2018: Week Sixteen

June 22, 2018

Hey all! I'm back to share week sixteen in my 2018 Project Life album. I'm feeling really good about where I'm at in this album. I've been working on getting more of my journaling cards typed up, and I have all of my May photos added in as well. I'd really like to get a few more weeks knocked out, or even thru the end of May, as I still need to go back and finish a few months in my 2017 album.

It turns out, it took me a full three weeks after getting my new glasses, to get them done right. It turns out, they had me down for just reading glasses, and didn't take into account that I mainly use them for computer work. Even though she asked me how often I was on the computer, and I said a LOT.

I really need to start writing down what I use, when it comes to digital elements. I'm fairly certain that the "here's what happened" is from Ali Edwards, but don't totally quote me on that. I have sooooooo many kits, between all of the designers I love and use a lot, and I can't seem to find where I found it.

All of my filler cards for this week, as in many of my more recent weeks, are from the cards I had printed using kits in the Project Life app. I mentioned a few posts ago how much I've loved using them, and how easy they're working out for me. I'm not limiting myself to pulling just from those cards, but they are were I've been looking first. And if I can't find something that works, I will definitely turn to all of my older pocket page cards.

Update on those shirts, in case anyone is wondering. I'm sure you're not, but this falls under "not that you care, but now you know" – a quote that I used a lot when I'm talking to the girls and/or Joe, and I know they don't care at all about what I'm saying ;)

I desperately wanted that grey and white shirt to fit, because I thought the striped sleeves and little ruffle, were so cute. And it did fit. But it fit a little weird in the shoulders. I guess my shoulders aren't as wide or something (I had the smallest size, so that wasn't the issue). But I found a few great shirts, that were super inexpensive. I doubt I'll start shopping at the Gap though, as I'm more of an Old Navy girl 😉

I originally picked out the orange diagonally striped "yes" filler card to go in the middle of the second page of the spread (where you see the camera card below). But since the filler card on the opposite side of the spread had some orange to it, it just seemed to work better in that top pocket. The "yes" was going to be pointing at a photo, but I guess we can still say "yes" to week sixteen.

But that's ok, since the camera filler card worked well too. Alyssa had gone to take senior photos with the graduating seniors in her sorority, and she had sent me that Snapchat photo on her way in. She sent me several of the photos they took that day as well, and I picked out one to include that you can see below.

Have I mentioned lately how much I'm loving Project Life? Maybe I have. Lol. I've been saying this for a while, but it's just the perfect fit for where we are in our lives right now. It's such a great way to document all of the random photos and stories that we have, and I love that I am also able to incorporate the girl's photos and stories in as well to get their voice in the album.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Yosemite National Park

June 20, 2018

Hey everyone! I've got a new pocket page spread up at Kerri Bradford Studio today. The girls took a day trip to Yosemite National Park last summer and ended up with so many gorgeous photos that I just knew that I needed to do something with them. I had them all printed as 3×4's, so my first thought was to create a 9×12" pocket page spread (I also added in a 6×12" insert page). I am definitely loving the pocket pages these days!

When I first started planning out this spread, I had plans to use some of Kerri's printables – but I also had plans to use some of her cut files along with my Silhouette. I had things planned out, within my Silhouette software. Sized and ready to cut. And then somehow I ended up changing things up, and doing everything digitally. What can I say? I'm also loving creating a lot of my elements digitally in Photoshop these days.

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

For my title card, I started by adding the mountains from the Escape digital stamp kit along the bottom of my 4×6" canvas. Next, I added the "national park" from the Feel Free digital stamp kit above the mountains. I used Kerri's Weathered Door Alpha kit to add "Yosemite" to the top of my title card, using the PNG files from the kit.

I had several pockets within the spread to play with, and went searching thru Kerri's kits for fun elements to use for filler cards. I started by finding a few printables that fit the the theme of my spread. For a few of the cards, such as the That Summer Feeling card above, I printed them as-is, since they were perfect just as they were.

I think I put the most work into creating my journaling card. Not that it was hard by any means. I just used pieces from 5 different kits, so I guess more time was spent looking for what I wanted within Kerri's kits. I started by using one of the 4×6" designs from the Recipe Card kit for the main part of my card. The aqua dotted background was a great fit, although I did change the shade of the aqua color a bit to match the aqua in the "there is no time to be bored" printable (I'll talk about this in a bit ;)).

The label at the top of the recipe card is from the same kit, and there are a few different ones to choose from. I added a few additional elements to my card, using a few PNG files from cut file kits, and a few digital stamps as well. The orange puffy heart sticker is one of the few physical products I used on this spread.

For the "wild" printable, from the Pine Tree kit, I scooted the design on the card up a bit (it was originally in the center), knowing that I would be adding some patterned paper along the bottom third of the card.

When I set out to create a few more filler cards, along with my title card and journaling card, I used the color picker tool within Photoshop to match the colors on the No Time To Be Bored printable card. I wanted to use the same shades of orange, brown, green, and aqua when creating my additional cards so that they would all coordinate perfectly.

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

For my "adventure" filler card, I used Kerri's new Wander kit, using the PNG file to add the fun outline word "adventure". I love outline words like this, and was so excited when I saw that Kerri made a new kit full of them. I can't wait to use them with my Silhouette. I then adding a digital stamp from the Feel Free digital stamp set along the bottom of the card.

I also created another 3×4" filler card by adding a simple digital stamp, from the Away digital stamp set, along the bottom of the card, knowing that I would add a larger piece of patterned paper to the rest of the card.

I found this older patterned paper above in a 6×6" paper pad from Studio Calico that matched the colors in the "there is no time to be bored" printable perfectly. I also used a few additional patterned papers from a few other 6×6" paper pads from Studio Calico. A few strips of washi tape, a few tiny staples, and a puffy heart sticker were all I needed to embellish my cards.

The printable above, from the The Sun On My Face kit, was actually the very first one I found and printed out when I set out to create this spread.

For the "this is pretty awesome" printable, taken from the Beautiful Somewhere kit, I added the trees from the Feel Free digital stamp set along the top part of the card.

I love how this pocket page spread turned out, and I had so much fun pulling designs from so many of Kerri's kits and combining them to create all of my cards to fill my empty pockets. There's so much you can do digitally, using her designs – whether they're actual digital stamps, printables, or the PNG files from her cut file kits. The possibilities are endless!
Project Life 2018: Week Fifteen

June 19, 2018

Hey everyone! I finished up a few more weeks in my 2018 Project Life album, so I thought I'd share them here this week. Here's a look at week fifteen.

For this year's weekly title cards, I'm using 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. I created the cards for the first half of the year back in December, and ordered them all at once.

I'm sure my mom is just thrilled that her little car accident made it into my album. Lol. It happened right across the street from my house (and about 2 blocks from her house), and I had taken a few quick photos out the window. After having gone over there to make sure she was ok of course ;)

I used a digital stamp from Kerri Bradford Studio on the top of the journaling card above. Alyssa was looking thru my album last week and she pointed out that I missed a word. It should read "ASuop Graphic Design Show". Honestly, I probably won't go back and fix it. That's just how I am. Lol.

I'm still loving 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. Although that inspection I had (the photo on the right) ended up having a longer story that will come up later in another photo. Let's just say that being a licensed daycare provider can be a hassle sometimes.

When I went to pick out a few filler cards for this week, I had a hard time picking out a few colors to focus on. Usually, it's easy. I knew that grey would be one of my colors, and I went back and forth between pink, maroon, and green for two of my other colors. I felt like those were the more dominant colors in my photos.

I finally decided to stick with two grey filler cards, after finding that cute "you make me happy' cloud card that I just had to use. The cloud has little pink cheeks, and the filler card on the left works in the grey, black, and pink, along with a few other subtle colors. All of my filler cards were from my stack I had printed from kits in the Project Life app.

One of the newer journaling card sets that I picked up from In A Creative Bubble are the Here + There Journaling Cards, and they've already been put to good use in a few weekly spreads.
Jillibean Soup: 2 Cool For School Cards

June 18, 2018

Happy Monday! I had two new cards up on the Jillibean Soup blog last week. One thing that I have been doing when I set out to make a card, is to look thru the Pea Pod Parts package and see if I can find a die cut or two that would be a good starting point for a card. These two corgi's, from the 2 Cool For School collection, were too cute to pass by. Personally, I can't see myself using these adorable corgi's on a layout, but they work perfectly for cards.

I picked out a few patterned papers to coordinate with the cute corgi's. I created 2 layouts and 3 cards for Jillibean Soup for this month, and somehow I used the same main colors/papers on most of them. It wasn't planned, but just sort of happened. Two of the patterned papers here are from from the 2 Cool For School collection, and the woodgrain patterned paper is from the Farmhouse Stew collection.

For this first card, I wanted to incorporate a stamp, and the "Hello" stamp from the 2 Cool For School stamp set seemed like a good choice. I stamped it with navy blue ink next to the corgi die cut, and then added tiny little alpha stickers below to complete my sentiment. A few puffy star stickers finished off the card.

Since there were two die cut corgi's in the Pea Pod Parts package, I figured I might as well create two cards at once. If you've got all of the coordinating supplies out, why not knock out two cards (or more) in one sitting.

There were several little phrase/word die cuts in the Pea Pod Parts package as well, and this aqua "good times" one was the one that matched so well with the corgi's bow tie. I played with this card, over and over, trying to decide if I should add a different sentiment, or maybe stamp another sentiment below the "good times" die cut. But I kept coming back to what I have here – it's simple and I like it. I added a few adhesive sequins to finish off the card.
Project Life 2018: Week Fourteen

June 13, 2018

Hey everyone! I had good intentions of sharing this project yesterday, but my internet was out almost all day on Monday. So sad. Doing a little catch up to make up for my lost day. So here's a look at week fourteen in my 2018 Project Life album.

The main two photos we even took on Easter, so I included them both here. For the journaling card, I used a few designs from Kerri Bradford Studio – a digital stamp, and a PNG file for one of her cut files ("easter").

Just like the last few weeks, all of the filler cards in this week's spread came from kits within the Project Life app (I had them printed on photo paper, along with my monthly photo order from Freeprints).

The photo on the right is a Snapchat photo that Alyssa sent me, before heading to work on Friday night. One of her work sweatshirts – meant for Friday night games – reads "Get Fired Up It's Fry Day" (McDonald's is one of their sponsors, I'm guessing ;)).

I literally just stopped typing to make myself a note to create the weekly title cards for July thru December, so that I can add them to my next photo order. I created and printed the first half of the year back in December, so I need to make sure I have them ready for July. Which will be here before you even know it.

Alyssa was here this past weekend, and I had her go thru and make notes for any photos in the album that I needed to type up journaling cards for. Otherwise, I end up texting her and it's just more work for her to text the info to me. She joked about how many mistakes I probably made, in writing the descriptions. Lol. I use what she tells me, but I also add more text a lot of the time – and I'm not always 100% accurate in what I think is going on 😉

She saw the photo/journaling above, and said "more like a lifetime of being a SF Giants fan".

And there's week fourteen. Super simple and easy. Just how I like them these days.
Project Life 2018: Week Thirteen

June 11, 2018

Hey everyone! I have a few more weeks of my 2018 Project Life album to share with you, so here's a look at week thirteen. It's funny how some of my week's colors end up coming together, as far as my choices when it comes to filler cards. I've said numerous times how I love seeing such a random mix of photos (and ones that come from different family members and phones) just magically work together, color wise.

Only one photo on this weekly spread had yellow in it, so it wasn't a color that I would have though to use for a filler card. I'll share how I picked that in a bit.

So, about those breakfast sandwiches. They didn't work out as planned, even though they look pretty good there, don't they? Lol. I see these done as freezer meals all the time, but there was no way around having the bread end up soggy. So I just bought some fresh bagels and english muffins, and swapped out the fresh bread when making them. Live and learn.

This reminds me that I still have about half of this cake in the freezer. It looked and smelled amazing, despite my funny mix-up, and having to go to the store and start all over on it while making it 😉 I actually didn't try any on Easter (what I baked it for), but you can be sure I froze all of the leftovers to eat when I was ready!

I originally thought I would use red for one of my filler cards, since three photos had touches of red. The photo of my patterned paper stacks above had a small touch of red, and the photo below of Alyssa and her friend had her friend wearing a red dress.

But then I came across this "we go together like" card, and I thought it would be fun to use next to the photo of Alyssa and her friend, Rachel. I could have checked any of those boxes, but the "bacon & eggs" was most fitting, since there's a few things on there that Alyssa would never eat. Lol. And it might be hard to see here, but the "bacon & eggs" is done in a deep shade of purple. Which just to happen to match Alyssa's shirt.

And it also just so happen to match Dom's shirt (Sarah's boyfriend) in the photo above. And I happen to have a card from my Project Life app filler card stash that went along with that "we go together like" card, in the same deep shade of purple. I picked out the yellow filler card since yellow was one of the colors on the "we go together like" card as well.

Love when finishing off a weekly spread is that easy, and things just magically coordinate and work well together.
Jillibean Soup: Cheers

June 7, 2018

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout up on the Jillibean Soup blog today. I didn't intentionally set out to scrap this photo of Joe and I, taken last fall as we headed out to a wedding. But as I was shuffling through the collections, looking for patterned papers that I might want to use, the Flashy Tint paper from the Shades of Color collection grabbed my eye, and I immediately thought about this photo.

The Flashy Tint patterned paper is on the left side of the page, and the other half of that paper has the same pattern, but in red, orange, and yellow. I knew that if I cut the paper in half, the green, aqua, and gray side would match my photo perfectly.

I then added in some yellow patterned paper to the other half of the layout, using a paper from the 2 Cool For School collection, to tie in with the yellow cardigan I was wearing.

I wanted to add a larger embellishment/accent in the center of the page, to cover up the spot on the patterned paper where all three colors meet. I found a Jillibean Soup heart cut file in their Silhouette store and die cut it in a variety of sizes. I die cut them from white cardstock first – mainly because I was die cutting my title and all of the stars from white cardstock, so it was easy to just add the hearts on there as well.

This ended up being an easy way to figure out the placement of the hearts, before I die cut them from patterned paper. Once I had the white cardstock hearts arranged to my liking, I picked out coordinating patterned papers to die cut several of the hearts from, keeping in mind where they were placed on the page.

The "cheers" die cut is also a Jillibean Soup cut file. It actually says "cheers to the new year", but I only needed the word "cheer". It also came with all of the stars, which were sprinkled above the title, so I used those as well. I added a few adhesive sequins to the centers of the larger stars for some simple embellishing.

Since I had the white cardstock hearts, as well as the hearts cut from patterned paper, I decided to layer them together. I offset them slightly, to create a shadow effect, and machine stitched down the center of each heart before adhering them in place.

And a little sad story about the making of this layout. I had machine stitched all of my hearts, and was halfway into adding the zig zag stitching down the sides of the black cardstock in the center of the layout, when my sewing machine stopped working. I'm not super knowledgeable about my machine, but did what I could to try and figure it out. I finally called my mom and asked if she could swing by and look at it (good thing she's only a few blocks away). And she called it. Time of death, Sunday, May 20th, 2018 😦

I'm pretty sure I had that sewing machine for a good 10 years or so, and seeing as how it cost me less than $100 that long ago, it served me well. There's no use trying to get something like that fixed, since you can buy a new one for next to nothing. Well, not exactly. But I did get a new one, super similar to what I had, for under $90 at Target. So I'm back in business with my machine stitching. Which is a good thing, because I think it adds so much to layouts and cards.
Project Life 2018: Week Twelve

June 6, 2018

Hello all! I'm back to share one more week of my 2018 Project Life album, and then I think I'll save the other few that I have finished for next week. Here's a look at our week twelve.

I love using this "this story" journaling card once in each weekly spread. It's from Cathy Zielske and comes in one of her online classes. But I love that it's set up with four of the cards on one page. So I just open it up in Photoshop, and I can whip out four cards at once, with hardly any extra steps.

Sure, if I was doing this card individually, as I do all of my other cards, I could get 5 or 6 printed on one page. But I'll sacrifice a little paper for convenience ;)

Sorry about the extra glare on the left pocket. It's due to the chipboard star, even though I peel off several layers before adhering it to cut down on the bulk. And if you're wondering, no, I did not add those hearts to the photo above. It was simply part of the Snapchat photo that Sarah sent me. The "field notes" card is from In A Creative Bubble.

I added the "seriously? seriously.", which is a cut file from Kerri Bradford Studio (I just used the PNG file), digitally to the ruled journaling card above.

Again, all of my filler cards for this week (just like the last 5 weeks in fact) were printed using the Project Life app, and pulled from various kits. While I'm not setting out to intentionally use ONLY filler cards taken from the Project Life app kits, they're working for me. If I hadn't have found cards that worked for any of these weeks within the cards that I've had printed, I would have gone straight to my 3×4" pocket card collection.

I just did my June order from Freeprints the other night, to order all of my May photos. And since I've been having great luck with the PL app cards, I decided to have some more printed along with my photo order. I went thru all of my purchased kits within the app, and just looked for any 3×4" cards that I could see myself using. Within the app, I put two cards on a 4×6" print, and saved them all on my phone. I also transferred them all to my laptop, in case I want to order any again.

I ended up with 142 cards (the photo above shows just a portion of those), and each has two cards once trimmed apart. In the Freeprints app, I get 85 free prints a month (just pay for shipping), and then any additional photos over those 85 only cost 10 cents each (and doesn't add anything to the $9.99 max shipping cost per order). So I'm getting 284 filler cards for about $14, which isn't bad at all.

I'm sure Alyssa's boyfriend would be thrilled to know there's a photo of him eating in our album. Lol. Hey, I use the photos they send me 😉

I have another two weeks finished and ready to share from my PL album, and will continue to share them next week. I'm also hoping to finish a few more weeks by this weekend, since I made such great progress on my journaling cards last weekend.
Project Life 2018: Week Eleven

June 5, 2018

Hey everyone! I'm back to quickly share a look at week eleven in my 2018 Project Life album. Since I follow pretty much the same basic concepts week to week, I don't always feel like there's much to point out. Lol. But I still enjoy sharing 🙂

All of my filler cards for this week's spread are from Project Life app kits (I talked about this a bit in yesterday's post). The card above had the white circle in the center of the card, so it was the perfect spot to add a simple embellishment. I wanted to bring in another touch of pink, to go along with the pink filler card I used on the second page, so I added a pink die cut heart.

As in previous week's, the journaling card with the ruled lines on it is the one that I get to be a little creative with. I came across a digital kit from Cathy Zielske that has all of these "hello" phrases, and the "hello funniness" fit the story for the photo that goes along with this journaling card perfectly.

Those kiddos. They drive me insane most days, but they sure are adorable. Lol. Also, it's super hard to get a photo with all of them looking.

I'm still loving 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 added a few enamel dots to the journaling card above to help fill in the empty space. I always ask the girls for tidbits or info to go along with any photos they send me. Sometimes I can stretch their info into a good amount of journaling to fill the cards, and sometimes I end up with less to say.

I'll be back tomorrow to share another week with you, and then on Thursday, I've got a new layout that I'll be sharing 😉
Project Life 2018: Week Ten

June 4, 2018

Hey everyone! I feel like May was a pretty slow blog month for me. Not intentionally, of course. I felt like I was on such a huge roll a few months ago, creating projects left and right. Which meant I had lots to share and blog about. And then my creative time slowed down, and without many new projects to share, I just laid low for the month of May.

I took some time this past weekend to do a little catching up in my Project Life album. I was a full two months behind. I had all of my March and April photos in the album, but that's as far as I had gotten. Seeing as how I was just about ready to order my May photos, I figured it was time to get some more weekly spreads checked off my list. I have five completely finished weeks, and I'll be sharing them here over the next week or so. So here is week ten in my 2018 Project Life album.

I've mentioned before, but I find that if I stick to my original plan each week – 4 digital journaling cards, and 3 Pocket Maps cards – that leaves me with one photo (since I almost always have 8 photos a week) that doesn't have a specific spot for journaling. It works out when one of those eight photos is a Snapchat photo, since it will most likely have some text on it.

And while there is a story to this photo, and I could have journaled about this particular interview that Alyssa went on, the Snapchat screenshot works just fine on it's own. And the "dream big" filler card pairs up with it nicely.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had some 3×4" cards from the Project Life app printed in a previous photo order. I had pulled all of my filler cards for weeks seven, eight, and nine straight from those cards – and turns out, I also pulled strictly from those cards for weeks ten thru fourteen. It's kind of crazy how working from a more limited set of cards has made it quicker and easier for me to find cards that fit just perfectly, rather than digging around thru a huge amount of cards from a variety of manufacturers.

I pulled out the aqua "dream big" card first, and then came across the floral card above. I then picked out an orange filler card, based off the floral card's color scheme. The three filler cards all fit together nicely, and worked with my photos for the week.

The card above is just a simple lined card, and then I can fill the space at the top with whatever I want. Using one of these cards each week gives me a little creative room to play. I really do have good intentions of using my physical stamps on these cards, but for the time being, I'm all about the digital. I poked around for a fun phrase to add to this card, but didn't find what I was looking for. So I simply typed the word "oops" in a fun font I have called "Taco Tuesday".

For this year's weekly title cards, I'm using 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. I created the cards for the first half of the year back in December, and ordered them all at once. Which means I'll need to create the cards for the second half of the year and add those to my next photo order, so that I'm ready for July.

I love that I'm using one of the J-Card Weekdays digital journaling cards from Cathy Zielske each week. It's just quick and easy to pick one photo – usually one that has a bigger story to go with it – and pull up the day of the week card that goes with it. One less decision I have to make while working on journaling cards for each week's spread.

I'll be back to share another week in my 2018 album tomorrow 🙂