Laura Vegas

Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life

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Kerri Bradford Studio: The Ballpark

September 15, 2017

I've got a second layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio today! As another part of our family's little stay-cation back in July, one of the other things that we did was take in a minor league baseball game one evening. If you ask me, attending a minor league game can actually be more fun than attending a major league game.

It's a smaller venue. You're not dealing with the massive amounts of traffic, parking, and people. It's just got that small town feel to it, and it's fun to go out and support your local team.

Joe has been umpiring high school baseball, and occasionally some college, for well over ten years now. Baseball is his thing, so he just loves being out there and watching the sport. I really only took one intentional photo during the game, and that was a photo of Joe watching the game, taken from behind. I knew he was in his element, calling balls and strikes from where we were sitting out on the lawn.

I did snap two very candid photos with my phone - one of Alyssa, and one of Sarah and her boyfriend. I may have came back with three photos, but I knew it was enough to document the game.

I kept my page design pretty simple. I started by adhering my three 4×4" photos from top to bottom, along the left side of the page, with a few strips of patterned paper. I don't have many sports themed products, so I pulled out some very old sports patterned papers from Bella Blvd.

On the right side of the page, I started at the top, and worked my way down, adding in cardstock, strips of patterned paper, my journaling block, and even one of our tickets from the game. I'm glad I thought to save one, since it did cross my mind that I could include it somewhere on either a layout or in our Project Life album.

If you know me, you know that I love to include some white-on-white action on most of my layouts. It works really well for the space behind my title, since I'm usually die cutting my titles from black cardstock and/or patterned papers.

I used a piece of a white cardstock circle background, cut from Kerri's Background Basics kit, and adhered it over the top right corner of the page where my title was going to go. I then went straight to Kerri's older The Ol' Ballgame kit for the title, which I cut from black and red cardstock.

I knew I would keep my embellishments super simple, and started out with just a few enamel dots. But I couldn't decide on a third color that really looked right to me. I then remembered having some really old baseball buttons from Making Memories in my stash, and I think they were the perfect finishing touch for this layout.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Destination San Francisco

September 13, 2017

Hey everyone! I've finally got a few layouts to share, and the first one went up at Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday. As part of our little "staycation" at the end of July, our family took a day trip to San Francisco. We only live an hour and a half away, and yet I can't even tell you the last time that I have been there. My girls have both gone here and there, on day trips with their friends. But I'm pretty sure the last time I went out that way was back in high school. Lol. I left it up to Alyssa to guide us to a few good places in the city, since she's been there the most.

While there were a few times that we purposefully thought to stop and snap a few photos, we didn't really force the camera on each other that much during the day. So I was pleasantly surprised when, between Alyssa and I, we managed to get a good variety of photos from the day on our phones.

I do one photo order each month for my Project Life album, and I order just about every photo from my phone (and any the girls send me) as 3×4" photos. I knew that I would only include 2-3 photos from this trip in my actual Project Life spread for the week, so I had tons of photos leftover to create a layout. I did go and print the 3 photos I used in my Project Life album again, so that I could include them on the layout as well.

Since I had quite a few photos I wanted to include, and they were all 3×4", with the exception of one 4×6" photo, I decided to arrange all of the photos around the outside edges of a two page spread. I've used this page design before, and it's a great way to get lots of photos on a two page layout.

And it's pretty typical that I'll line up all of my photos across the page, and I'm somehow left with a gap. Meaning a few of the photos didn't print at exactly 3×4". Never fails. This is why I simply added the small strips of black and white dotted patterned paper to the outer side of each page – to hide that gap!

I always build my layouts on white cardstock. Sometimes I'll end up covering up all of that white with photos and patterned paper. And other times, I end up letting some of that white cardstock be a part of my page design. Once I had my photos adhered in place, I realized that there wasn't really one or two colors that I could see myself incorporating in terms of patterned paper. I very randomly choose the black and white dotted patterned paper strips, while looking for a potential blue patterned paper, and from there I just gave up on adding anything other than neutral colors.

After arranging all of my photos on the spread, I was left with a 4"x9" section on each page (or 18" across the spread). Since I decided to keep that middle section white, I knew that I wanted to add a little interest to it. I die cut a circle background from Kerri's Background Basic kit from white cardstock, and adhered it right over that center section. I love the white-on-white effect, and it adds a subtle touch.

For my title, I combined the "destination" from Kerri's Pack Your Bags kit and "SF" from her Weathered Door Alpha kit, cut from patterned paper and black cardstock.

I finished off the second page of the spread by adding a 3×4" Project Life card and my printed journaling. Normally, I'll add a few simple embellishments, like enamel dots or buttons. But I just didn't feel like the spread needed much more. I added a kraft tag near the title, along with the date, and a little tab on the side of my journaling block as well.

I'll be back Friday with another layout share. It definitely felt good to do a few layouts, after not doing any for the last two months. I didn't even realize it had been that long since I last made one. But my Project Life album is seriously calling out to me as well. I'm falling further behind, and need to get caught up on that before it gets more out of control ;)
Project Life 2017: Week Twenty

August 31, 2017

Hey all! I'm back to share week twenty in my 2017 Project Life album. This must have been a slower week, as I didn't have as many photos. I think I actually had some additional photos, but they weren't anything super important.

We finally sold our van! Yay. The journaling card for this photo is to the right of it, on the second page. But "good riddance" is the first thing that I thought when the dude that bought it drove away in it. That van was nothing but a money pit and I'm so glad it's gone.

Week twenty included Mother's Day, and I had a few photos I wanted to include from that day. We had driven out to see Joe's mom, and to take her to lunch with Joe's brother and his aunt. We don't see her all that often, even though she's only an hour away.

I was glad that the girls and I took some time to take photos that afternoon, when we got back home. I got some great photos with each of them separately, and of the three of us together. I do wish we had seen my mom that day, so that we could have a photo with her too.

And without realizing it, this would be our last family selfie in the van. You can even see the "for sale" signs in the photo. We sold it just a few days later.

I try not to overthink my Project Life spreads. I've been keeping them simple, which helps me get them done. I've actually even simplified my digital journaling card selection, and have been turning to the ones that are super easy to type up – as opposed to the ones that require each line of text to be a different layer in Photoshop.

I printed out a page of journaling cards a while back, and realized that they didn't leave me any room to add any embellishments, and/or some color. So I do try and make sure to have one or two of those types of cards each week, just so that I can add a little something to mix it up a bit.

I definitely kept this week's spread super simple. I only added stickers to two of my photos, a few tiny enamels to one of the journaling cards, and one tag embellishment to one filler card. I didn't think the week needed anything more added in.

I was actually reaching for my Pebbles chipboard drawer, to add something to this pink grid filler card, when I noticed my drawer of metal rimmed tags. I knew I had some "friends" tags in there, and without even debating over other options, added it to this card. Love this photo of Sarah and two of her best friends.

I hope you all have a great three day weekend! I'll be back to share more next week 🙂
Project Life 2017: Week Nineteen

August 29, 2017

Hey everyone! I know I disappeared there for a while. I'm drowning in daycare babies these days, and that has meant that my creative time has been pretty much non existent the last week or two. I finally got around to finishing up two more weeks in my 2017 Project Life album, just so that I'd have something to share.

So week nineteen had quite a few photos that I wanted to include, so I added in a 6×12" pocket page insert. This allowed me to use plenty of extra photos – seven extra photos to be exact.

Here's a look at the first part of the weekly spread, which shows the 6×12" pocket page insert added in on the right side of the spread. I've been thinking that I might go back and add tabs to any of my insert pages, since they're usually smaller than my main pages. Just to help them stand out more, as an extra page to flip.

Still loving the these Weekly Edition Journaling Cards, from One Little Bird, for my weekly title cards. In my last photo order from Freeprints, I went ahead and ordered the cards for the rest of the year. The peachy filler card is from Studio Calico. It matched the selfie of Sarah in the row below it, and I ended up incorporating more of the color on some of the other cards.

Forever ago, I had picked up some $5 kits from Studio Calico during a big sale. I took the kits all apart and put like products together in a few of the zipper pouches. I was looking thru them while working on these pages, and came across the fun little tear apart words/phrases – like the "beautiful" I added to the photo of Sarah. I used a few of them throughout this week.

I had a lot of colors going on in the photos on this weekly spread – peach, purple, orange, maroon. It's nice when it all just magically works together. At least, when I look at it, it feels like it ended up working together. Lol.

I'm pretty sure I've added this chipboard camera to a journaling card in a previous week, but it was the first thing I thought of when typing up this card, so I left room for it.

I believe this was another Studio Calico filler card, but don't quote me on that, because I might be wrong. The peachy banner sticker was from a really old Becky Higgins kit, and matched the filler card on the first page perfectly. I've been pulling out my older chipboard pieces from Pebbles quite a bit to add to my filler cards.

Sarah's been working at her job for three months now, and I have yet to get a picture of her in her work uniform. She doesn't understand that I like to document these types of things. Lol. But when she left for her first day at her new job, I did take a picture out the front window of her driving away.

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

This side of the 6×12" insert is pretty photo heavy, with four 3×4" photos. The two photos above actually go with the journaling card and additional 4×6" photo to the right, on the next page. I knew that I wanted to include not only the photo of Alyssa and I from that day, but the photo of Alyssa, her dad, and her grandpa as well.

I'm so wordy sometimes. There are times where I don't have enough journaling to fill enough of the journaling card, and times when I seem to have too much that I want to include. My font here may have been a little small, but I got all the words down, so it's all good 😉

I screenshot both of these Snapchat photos that Alyssa had sent to me, as I thought they were pretty cool. The one on the left was taken when the commencement band was practicing for graduation (which she's played at for a few years), and the one on the right was taken on the day of graduation, before the ceremony.

The 4×6" photo and the journaling card here go with the photos of Alyssa, her dad, her grandpa, and I from the previous page. She had so much going on during this week of May, as it was her last week of school.

Between year end ceremonies, graduation, and graduation parties, she had a busy week. Which meant lots of photos, which always makes me happy.

And there it is. Week nineteen finished and complete. I'll be back Thursday to share week twenty. And then I'm hoping that with the 3 day weekend coming up, I'll get a few more weeks finished up.
Project Life 2017: Week Eighteen

August 18, 2017

I was on such a roll with my Project Life album, and for the most part, was getting each month done before the end of the following month. And then summer happened. And I fell behind. I am super good about getting all of my photos in right away. I have a good routine of ordering my photos at the end of the month, and as soon as they arrive, I sort them out by week and add them into the pocket pages.

A while back, I ended up with an unplanned day off from the daycare kids. I used that day to make a huge dent in my album. I already had some of my journaling cards typed up and printed out. But that day, I finished all of my May and June journaling cards. I also went thru and added in filler cards for any remaining pockets. It felt so good to make some progress. But then life happened again, and I didn't get back to the album until last weekend.

So with that said, I'm picking up where I left off and sharing week eighteen in my 2017 Project Life album today.

I've mentioned before that I always add my photos into the spread first. Next comes the printed journaling cards. Followed by any filler cards for any remaining pockets. Once I get all of that finished, then I will move on to adding any other simple embellishments I feel are needed to finish the spread.

I really just go spread by spread. I might add more to one spread than another spread. I might think a week looks good, with minimal stickers, chipboard, etc added in. Or I might want to add something to the majority of the photos. It just varies. There's no rhyme or reason to how I end up completing these weekly spreads.

When I have empty space on a photo, I do think it's fun to add a little something to embellish it. My journaling cards are all pretty much black and white for the most part (I say mostly, because this particular week happens to have one with color). So it's fun to add extra color by ways of stickers, chipboard, die cuts, etc – and since a lot of my journaling cards don't leave room for anything to be added, that leaves me with the photos to embellish.

I've been making good use of all my smaller stickers that I never seem to use on layouts. One of these days, I might even get crazy and work some stamps into these spreads. Not sure why I don't use them that often.

I even pulled out some super old rub-on's, like the "kisses" on the photo of Sarah (the heart was something she added to her photo herself). I always have to test them out before using, since over the years, some rub-on's just don't work like they used too.

The journaling card above is a digital design from Cathy Z, found HERE. I simply changed the coloring on "ever!" from purple to blue, to coordinate with the rest of the spread better. Like I said, the majority of my digital journaling cards are simple – black and white. But I do have some that have a bit of color to them, and I'll use them if they tie in nicely.

Hopefully I'll be back next week to share a few more spreads. Looking forward to finishing a few more weeks, as I'm anxious to get caught back up with my album.
PHOTOPLAY: Magic Of Christmas

August 16, 2017

Hey all! I did a little disappearing act, while my laptop was off getting worked on. I sent it off with some neighborhood dude, thinking it wasn't anything major that needed fixing. Got it back a few days later, since he had to wait for a part to come in. Then handed it back off, and waited a full week for it to come back. And ended up with a whole new hard drive, which while he did let me know I needed (so I knew it was happening), wasn't something I had planned for. I've spent the last few days trying to get everything loaded back on. Programs, software, printers, fonts, photography actions, etc. The Silhouette software is going to be a major time suck, considering my library has all of 51 files in it (the ones that come free when you buy it). I may have cried. For reals 😦

Anyways. I have some Project Life spreads to share, but before I get to those, I thought I would share one more of the layouts I created for PHOTOPLAY. I worked with their Mad 4 Plaid Christmas collection. As soon as I saw the collection, I was happy to see that it would totally go with my photos. I've worked with a lot of Christmas collections that just don't match my photos, and it's always easier when they go together effortlessly.

There are a ton of great patterns in this collection, and I wanted to include quite a few of them. So I decided to use a page design I've used in the past, where I included several square blocks of patterned paper along the top of the row of photos.

I originally had photos of the girls wearing Santa hats, which was my main reason for using the "Hello Santa" 3×4" card. Somewhere along the way, I switched to the single photo of the girls, and a family photo, so it makes a little less sense. Lol.

Because the 3×3" card I included at the top of the page acted as my title, I didn't need to add a title to the bottom of the page, which is where I would have added one on previous versions of this page design. This left me the entire bottom of the page to add my journaling, stickers, die cuts, etc.

My blocks of patterned paper were all 3×3" in size, so the "Believe in the Magic of Christmas" worked in perfectly, since it was also 3×3" in size. I pulled out my button collection, and added several red, green, and white buttons to embellish the blocks of patterned paper across the top.

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If you aren't familiar with PHOTOPLAY, make sure and visit their website and check out all of their fun collections. I have one layout left, and it's a Halloween one. I'll share it when I can.
PHOTOPLAY: Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy

August 7, 2017

I thought I would share another layout I created for PHOTOPLAY, this time using their Cake: Party Animal collection. I really love the colors in this collection. There are three mini birthday collections, and I have to say that even though I have girls (and the other two collections are more geared towards girls), the birthday boy collection would probably go with the majority of my birthday photos from over the years.

First up, I had to find some birthday boy photos to use. I knew I'd have to borrow some from a friend, seeing as how I don't have boys, and the first person that came to mind was Susan Weinroth. She has three of the most adorable boys, takes awesome photos, and I knew the colors she usually gravitates towards would match the collection perfectly.

I really liked the aqua "happy birthday" text patterned paper in this collection (it comes in yellow in one of the other collections), and knew that I wanted to use it on one side of my page. I used the white confetti patterned paper on the other side of my page, and added a few small strips of patterned paper along the center, where the papers meet.

I layered a few additional patterned paper pieces together, to mat my photos onto. I wanted to use the navy blue patterned paper, to add that darker blue to the page, but it comes as a 6×6" square on the "Quad" patterned paper. Since it wasn't wide enough, and I had to work with what I had, I added a piece of the green diagonal stripe patterned paper to lengthen my "photo mat".

I used several of the stickers to create my title, pop dotting both the "happy birthday" and the "boy" banner stickers.

I added the fun little banner sticker in the upper right corner of the page, and also added the balloon sticker below, with the strings of the balloons coming out of my title piece. I dug through my button collection and found some coordinating buttons to embellish the page.

If you aren't familiar with PHOTOPLAY, make sure and visit their website and check out all of their fun collections. I'll share my remaining two layouts that I created for them soon.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Behind The Scenes

August 3, 2017

Hey everyone! If you haven't heard, this week Kerri Bradford Studio is celebrating her SEVENTH birthday! I have to say that I feel so grateful that Kerri has had me along for the ride for 6 of those 7 years, as part of her small design team. I absolutely love designing for Kerri, and it's been by far the best team to be on for me.

Kerri decided to mix things up a bit for the weekend celebration, and instead of sharing new projects, she asked us to share a bit about our scrap spaces, and where the magic happens. It was perfect timing, since I had just finished re-organizing my space a few weeks ago. I've been trying to re-work my space a little, as what and how I scrap has changed over the last year or so. I'm hoping to make some changes that work better with how I scrap now. I'm not totally done, but am making progress here and there, when I have time.

I've shared bits and pieces of my space over the last few years, as well as a few organization tricks that I use. Anything related to my scrap space, and/or organizing, can be found HERE. This includes posts on my old scrap space (in the upstairs loft and also featured in Creating Keepsakes magazine) and what my current scrap space looked like when I first moved back downstairs, a full eight years ago.

Here's a few peeks into what my space looks like now.

My scrap space is located in the downstairs bedroom. It's a small room, but I've made it work for me over the years. The room has a large window on one wall, and a closet on another wall, leaving me two walls to work with. I have two of the large Expedit shelves from Ikea, and those take up my two remaining walls.

I used to have my desk directly under the large window, but soon realized that I didn't like working with my back to the door. So I now have my desk coming out from the wall, and into the room, which also allowed me to add some white storage cube drawer units under the window. I am a daycare provider by day, so there's always a pack and play set up for napping during the week in this room. So I have to leave floor space for that.

This first Expedit shelf holds all of my paper, both cardstock and patterned paper. I also keep some of my older idea books, Project Life cards, a 3 drawer unit to hold all of my cardstock scraps, albums containing my publications, and some other random supplies. Along the top of the shelf unit, I have some large glass jars that hold ribbon, flowers, trims, and some other supplies that I don't use that often.

I store all of my cardstock in horizontal paper trays, and all of my patterned paper in vertical paper holders. I keep all of my papers sorted by manufacturer, as that's how I know my papers. If I have a lot of certain manufacturers, then I will often keep them organized by collections as well. I also keep an 8.5×11 page protector in each manufacturer's section, to hold any patterned paper scraps, as I do use them quite often.

The biggest pet peeve about my space is that I don't have a lot of working space, or counter space. My desk is basically the only "counter" space I have for spreading out and working on, and it's just not big enough most of the time. I store my sewing machine on top of the white storage cubes, and drag it out to do all of my machine stitching. And my Silhouette Cameo can often times be found stored on the floor, when not in use. My closet also holds a lot of my larger tools, and supplies that I don't use as often.

My second Expedit shelf holds the majority of my embellishments, most of which are organized by manufacturer. I recently did some re-organizing and freed up some space on my shelves. So I have been able to bring some of my albums-in-progress into my scrap space and have them handy for when I want to work on them. I also have one cube that holds all of my printed photos (most of which are from my film years), which I also recently spend some time organizing.

I have had these metal, mesh basket for years, and they hold a ton of product. Some baskets might contain just one manufacturer, and some baskets might have two or three similar manufacturers together. I also keep all of my chipboard, alpha stickers, and random embellishments on this shelf unit.

I mentioned that one of my pet peeves about my space was not having enough working space. Well, I do have a really BIG working space, right outside the bedroom, so it makes up for it. This large island was built by my mom (yes, my mom!), and is 4 feet by 8 feet in size. It was custom built to my specifications, when I had my scrap space upstairs in out loft area. Years ago, when I got more involved in the scrapbook industry, I moved my space back downstairs to the bedroom (more convenient), and this huge island ended up in the playroom (aka the living room/dining room area). I actually do most of my creative work out on this island, running back and forth to my room to grab supplies and tools.

And last, but not least, you'll want to check out the sale Kerri is having this week, as part of her SEVENTH birthday celebration! All downloadable kits and classes are 30% off and stamps are 20% off through Sunday. Stamps are already marked down. Use the code BIRTHDAY7 on orders of $10 or more at checkout on the download items. (Sale excludes the two newest Versed stamps from July and the two classes already discounted.)
PHOTOPLAY: It’s Party Time

August 1, 2017

Sorry for the long absence from blogging. The past few weeks have kicked my tush, and I just haven't had much time for creating. I have worked on some layouts, but a lot of them are ones that I'm not able to share at this time. And then life got busy with a visit from my sister, lots of family get togethers, a few vacation days with Joe and the girls, a new daycare baby in the house, and just normal life stuff. Hoping to have more to share soon, so that I can get back to blogging more often.

I recently created a few layouts for PHOTOPLAY, using some of their most recent collections. I have one to share today, and hope to be able to share the other layouts soon. I created this layout using a mix of two of their Cake collections – Cake: Panda Party and Cake: Rainbow Sprinkles.

I really love all the black and white in the Cake: Panda Party collection, along with the touches of pink and aqua. I love how colors really pop against black and white, so I'm already a big fan of using black and white on so many of my layouts. I also added in some yellow from the Cake: Rainbow Sprinkles collection, and pulled additional pieces of pinks and aquas.

I used THIS layout design as inspiration for this birthday layout, as I knew using circles of patterned paper along one side of the page would give me the perfect spots to add some of the fun stickers from the collection.

The collections have some great cut apart cards on one of the patterned paper sheets, and I love that there's a good mix of 3×4's, 4×6's, 4×4's, and even a 2×4' card. I used two of them here across the top of the page.

I had to dig deep for some birthday photos. I have TONS of birthday photos, but the majority of our birthday parties have been pool parties, which means that most of the photos are of the girls in swimsuits, wet hair, and in the water. I lucked out and found some photos of Sarah at her 9th birthday party that coordinated perfectly.

If you aren't familiar with PHOTOPLAY, make sure and visit their website and check out all of their fun collections.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Senior Year

July 12, 2017

Hey everyone! I had a new layout go up at Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday, and I'm here to share it with you today as well. Since Sarah just graduated high school a little over a month ago, I thought it would be fun to flashback a bit and scrap some photos that we had taken at the beginning of her senior year. It's crazy how fast the year went by. In fact, it's crazy how fast high school went by. I had several friends tell me that once your child starts high school, the time will fly by faster than ever, and they were right. Sigh.

I love a good photo collage, and this layout was the perfect opportunity to create one. I used a template from Kerri's Picture That [Squared] kit, and collaged five of my favorite photos from that day together. I love photo collages for many reasons. But one of the biggest reasons I love them, is that instead of working with five individual photos and figuring out their placement – I'm working with one larger "photo", and I can basically design the page around that photo/collage.

I'm a huge fan of white cardstock and patterned paper, so to mix things up a bit, I tried to use mostly colored cardstock on this layout. I do have a hard time using cardstock plain, or as-is. But there's easy ways to add a little something-something to it. Misting always helps, and I love to use my Heidi Swapp mists on most of my cardstock and patterned papers.

I also love to add texture to cardstock by running pieces thru an embossing folder. It adds a ton of texture and interest, with minimal effort. I have a wide variety of embossing folders, and they're something I need to remind myself to use more often.

For my title, I used Kerri's School Years: Add Ons kit, and die cut "senior year" from two colors of cardstock to layer together. I have a bad habit of losing the dots to my i's, which I tend to mention every time I use a die cut title containing an "i", so I added a brown enamel dot instead.

To break up the heaviness of the colored cardstock pieces, I die cut a circle background on a strip of green cardstock using a cut file from Kerri's Life Additions: Backgrounds kit. This allowed some extra white to come thru, from the white cardstock that I built my layout on.

I did work in two small pieces of patterned paper, which is the brown and white dotted pattern from Studio Calico. And I also randomly came across an old overlay from Hambly, with the brown leaves, and decided to add a piece of that in as well.

One of these days, I'll have to finish editing the photos we took at the end of her senior year and then get those scrapped as well.