Laura Vegas

Ali Edwards Story Kits: Guest Storyteller

February 1, 2017

Hey all! I can't believe a full month has gone by since I last posted. I promise, I'll be back to sharing more projects soon. Life has just been busy lately, so there's been a little less creating going on here.

I was thrilled to get an email a few months back asking if I would be interested in being a Guest Storyteller for Ali Edwards Story Kits. There was no hesitation on my part, and I jumped at the chance. I was asked to work with the Numbers Story Kit, and it was such a fun one! I actually had so many ideas for my two projects, that I had a hard time narrowing down what I would create.

I ended up creating a pocket page spread, with a bit of a sarcastic twist, about "Being a Teenager By The Numbers" (thanks to my 17 year old for the inspiration), and a traditional layout about what items of clothing are most important (and one that's the least important) when it comes to me filling up my closet.

If you're a subscriber to Ali's Story Kits, you can check out my contributions in the classroom (they just went up today). I had so much fun working with this month's kit, and I want to thank both Ali and Katie for inviting me to guest for them.
What Will My Focus Be

January 4, 2017

Hey everyone! Since we're now several days into the new year, I figured I had better take a few minutes to blog something.

Since making the decision to step down from Bella Blvd four months ago, and with really only one commitment each month to scrap for, I have obviously been doing less scrapbooking overall, project wise (I still do tons of scrap related things and odd projects here and there). I think part of that was just going from doing a TON on scrap work, and being super involved in the industry, to doing hardly anything at all. It was a big change, and a big adjustment for me creatively. With less direction and less assignments, I'm really on my own as far as what I want to work on. And while this can be a great thing, it can also be overwhelming. It's as if I have no clue what to work on most of the time. Soooooo. I needed to come up with a plan.

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish, scrapbooking wise, this year. What it is I want to focus on. What is more important to me now, as opposed to last year, or even five years ago.

A month or so ago, I read THIS blog post by Ali Edwards, talking about finding your "enough". Whether it's figuring out what projects are enough for you, what supplies are enough for you, what techniques are enough for you, what stories are enough for you, and/or what photos are enough for you. I love this idea. Things change from year to year, and what is important for you to document and work on one year, may not be as important to you the following year. There's only so many creative hours in my days (not sure about YOUR days), so figuring out how I want to spend those hours, and knowing my "enough" for the year sounds like a good thing.

I was then reminded of THIS blog post by Becky Higgins from a year ago. I love reading about other people's process, when it comes to documenting, and the how and why behind their scrapbooking choices. And I found this post full of great ideas and tips. While I am not a diehard Project Life fan, I find myself saying "yep, I get that" and "yep, I do that" to so much of what Becky talks about. Not just in that one post, but with so many of her thoughts on scrapbooking, organizing, and documenting.

Then, late last week, Becky shared THIS blog post. Basically an overview of what she did this past year, memory keeping wise, and what she'll change going into this year. More great tips, especially on managing photos on your phone. Many of which are things I do already (daily delete, dump and backup, etc).

Several months ago, I also decided to take Scrapbook Your Year, a self-paced e-course from Cathy Zielske. The entire concept behind this course is something that I've had in mind for a few projects I want to take on. And while I can totally do it on my own, I knew that there would be some great info, some great resources (templates, digital cards, etc), and hopefully give me a little kick in the tush to get moving on it. And it has.

Somewhere along the way, my mind compiled lots of the thought processes shared between these three blog posts (and one e-course) – and most likely additional thoughts I've read on social media, whether from Ali, Becky, Cathy, or someone else – and after mulling them over, I kind of sort of came up with some scrapping goals for this year.

I partially completed my Project Life album for 2016. What I feel very proud of is that I have all of my photos in the albums (I ended up with two albums) for the entire year. All fifty two weeks worth! That's a massive accomplishment to me. But. I only have filler cards added in for the first four months of the year. I was doing this part once a month, just like I was adding the photos in once a month. But I got off track at some point, and never quite got back around to doing the filler cards. And if I'm being totally honest, I haven't done any journaling yet, or made my weekly title cards. I have post it notes in the pockets, telling me which week the spreads are for.

I still feel great about the project, and I have no doubts that I can get it all finished up. All of the info that is needed to journal can be found on my Instagram photos, or by simply asking the girls to tell me about their photos. I am going to re-think the way I was doing the filler cards. But only because I have eight full months to get added in. So if I change up the way I was doing them a bit, I would only need to go back and fix four months worth. If I had more months that had the filler cards added in, I would keep going with what I was doing.

Project Life is something that I do want to continue with for this year. I love that it's a random assortment of photos from our daily/weekly lives, giving little glimpses into our everyday doings. Some photos could probably be used on a layout, and some have a larger story to tell. But the majority of our pictures these days are just little things, random things. Nothing worth doing full layouts about (personal preference of course). So the Project Life concept is a good fit for those photos, and giving a home to all of the randomness of our lives.

I have been debating whether I want to keep doing the physical pocket page Project Life, or possibly doing the digital Project Life instead. I have the app, and use it for prepping my photos for printing and such. But I've been tossing the idea of doing it digitally around in my head for a few weeks, and while I'm not totally sure yet what I'll do, I have this feeling I would be far more successful in keeping up with it if I do it digitally. Creating the weekly pages on my phone or on my iPad Pro appeals to me, since I'm always on them. The thought of digging out supplies, and hunkering down in my scraproom isn't always that appealing to me 😉

I've had this idea in my head for over a year now, in terms of doing something with the years and years of daycare photos I've accumulated. I've been doing daycare in our home for 15 years now. For many, many of those years, I would take photos of the kiddos constantly. And for many years, I also scrapped all of those photos as well. At some point, I made a conscious decision NOT to scrap the daycare kiddos so much. And somewhere down the road, I made the decision to turn a huge majority of those layouts into a digital book (shared HERE and HERE), and gave most of the layouts to the families to keep.

So while I still have three albums that hold layouts of the daycare kiddos, and I have a few digital books of various kinds of them, I can't help but think about all of the photos that are just hanging out on my external hard drive. Or in a box, or on negatives, seeing as how the first five years I did daycare, I was shooting with film.

Just this past weekend, I started working on the plan that I've had in my head. I'll be doing a few 9×12" pocket page albums, and the albums will be 95% photos. I really won't be adding much to them, other than divider pages and maybe a small page of journaling for each section. I randomly started with 2007 and 2008, and put in a huge order for photos from those years that will be here at the end of the week. I hope to share more about this project really soon.

This is a huge one! I'm not even sure I should put in on my list right now, as I know it will be a huge undertaking. But I do hope that I can get a start on it at some point this year, even if it's just working on parts of it. It's kind of the same idea as the daycare albums. I have more albums than I can even count, containing more layouts that I can even count, filled with photos and stories from our daily lives.

However, there are also tons and tons of photos that have never been scrapped, and stories that didn't quite make it onto layouts. I want to have a one-stop look at each year, that includes a wide variety of photos from the year. Instead of having layouts spread out into different albums (Alyssa's albums, Sarah's albums, my albums, family albums, etc), and only finding the photos that I decided to scrap. I have this idea of doing something along the lines of Project Life type albums, but without all the fuss. The photos would be the focus, and whatever stories and journaling I can remember, or want to add in.

A big part of this is also doing something with the girls first few years of life, as I was scrapbooking Creative Memories style back then. WAY back then. When it was a thing to scrap literally every photo you took, and the pages had basically no journaling (just a generic sentence written under each photo) and no real meaning. I'll have to share some of these older layouts to really get the point across, for any of you that weren't scrapping 18-20 years ago 😉

I'm still tossing around the idea of doing physical albums, or digital. I might even do a mix. Maybe do physical for the earlier year, as the first 10 years of Alyssa's life and the first 7 years of Sarah's life were on film. And then maybe I'll do some digital albums for the years I had digital photos. We'll see if I can settle on a solid plan.

I started working on the girl's sports albums last year, and would love to finish those up. I haven't shared too much about them (other than some photos along the way on Instagram), but I did talk a little about them HERE. These are going to be very simple albums, that are probably 85% photos.

I've already printed several years worth of photos and they're all slipped into the pocket pages already. Truthfully, I have many years of sports with no photos to show for them. I simply stopped taking photos at games, after years and years of taking hundreds of photos at each game. So some years will be very simple to do. I've already die cut team names for all of the divider pages, and most of them are even adhered to the pages, along with team photos and individual photos of the girls.

So while I've already made some great progress on these albums, at some point I pushed them to the side, and I haven't gone back to them. The most time consuming part of what's left to do is sorting thru folders of photos, picking which photos to use, sometimes having to edit the photos, and then getting them ready for printing and ordering.

The girl's school albums are ones that I do work on every year. Sometimes twice a year. I have blogged a lot about these albums, and you can find all of the posts HERE (just ignore the first two posts that show up, as those pertain to my own school albums).

Alyssa's albums are pretty much complete, but I do admit I find random papers and such here and there, and usually stick them somewhere to deal with later. I want to take that last group of high school memorabilia and either add it into the albums, or toss them. Sarah will be graduating at the end of May, so I'll be able to finish up her albums as well.

I also finally took the time to photograph a huge stack of art projects from the girls elementary school years a while back (and then tossed them all), and those photos will be here at the end of this week so I can add them into the albums.

Gosh. This is an album that is long over-due to be finished. The 6×8" mini album I started to hold all of the band photos from Alyssa's high school years. I started this album her senior year of high school, and she's now halfway thru her third year of college, so I should really get this album finished. I've done a few blog posts in the past about this album, and also shared a bit about it HERE (that also contains the links to the previous posts about it).

I still have some photos that need to be sorted, printed, and added into the album. After which, I'll need some title cards, section dividers, journaling, and filler cards.

I also started a 6×8" album last year for my scrapbook related travels from over the years. I shared a little bit about it HERE, which was over six months ago, and I still haven't made any progress on it. I also just re-ordered some of the photos that are in the album, as I originally had some printed with white borders and some without (certain sizes didn't have the border option). It's bugged me that they're not all the same, so I have some replacement photos coming at the end of the week to switch out.

This is something new for me, but something that's been a big thing for years. Ali Edwards does her "Day In The Life" and "Week In The Life" projects/albums every year (or sometimes more than once), and I've always been very intrigued by the project. I purchased the Week In The Life album kit back in 2015, and even have a few of the Day In The Life mini kits. Every time this project comes around, and people start doing it and sharing their albums, it reminds me how much I want to do it as well. I just need to pick a week, or a day or two, sometime this year, and make it happen.

Of course I'll still be making layouts! I'm not giving up on those. I think, in general, I make way less layouts now than I used too. Partly because the girls are older, and they don't want me scrapbooking their stories all the time. Partly because with less design team and assignment work, I'm not creating layouts just because I have to create them. Which means when I create them, it's because I WANT to create them. And yes, I still have lots of layouts that I want to create.

I also want to continue to use my Story Kits from Ali Edwards, and get some stories documented. Whether in our family albums, or my own personal albums. I even have my "All About Me" album that could use some attention. So there will still be regular projects and layouts showing up as well. That's my plan at least 😉
Kerri Bradford Studio: Hello Christmas 2015

December 22, 2016

Hey everyone! I know it's been quiet here. I really do plan to get back to more blogging once we get past the holidays. I do have a new layout to share today. This was created for Kerri Bradford Studio, and I was waiting to share until her new site was up. She's still dealing with issues out of her control, so in the meantime, she's been sharing our projects on Instagram and Facebook this week!

After working really hard last year to catch up on years worth of Christmas layouts, and with Christmas 2016 just days away, I figured I had better get to documenting last year's Christmas photos. If you know me, you'll know that I'm all about getting as many of my photos on the page as I can. So for something like a Christmas family get-together, I turned to one of my go-to two page designs, getting 22 photos on the spread.

If this design looks familiar, it's because I have used it more times than I can count! I even used it on a few previous Christmas layouts. I use a full 12×12 photo collage on one side of the spread, and a smaller photo collage on the other side, leaving me plenty of room for my title, journaling, and sometimes, even a few more photos.

Kerri's Stoyboard templates are my go-to choices for creating photo collages, and the only ones I even use anymore. While I often tend to use the same ones over and over, she's got tons of choices to fit whatever your needs are, as far as how many photos, and size and orientation of photos.

I like to keep with a white background on the top half of my first page, since the two page spread is so photo heavy. Rather than a plain white background, I die cut a ton of stars from Kerri's Out Of This World kit, using white cardstock. The white on white adds interest, without being overwhelming.

Kerri has SO many choices for Christmas titles, so it can be a little hard deciding which to use. I usually start by looking for one that fits the space I have left for my title, as that usually narrows things down a bit. I decided on the "hello Christmas", from the Yuletide Greetings kit, and cut it both from patterned paper and black cardstock, to layer together for a little shadow effect.

When it came to picking out patterned papers for this layout, I came across these super old papers from Making Memories. They matched perfectly, so they were my obvious choice. Sometimes, I wonder why I hold onto things for so long, and other times, I'm so glad I did hold onto them for so long!

I don't always feel the need to journal on my Christmas layouts, and it's something I've talked before. I guess I feel the journaling would be almost the exact same every year. However, if I find myself with extra space to fill on a layout, I will add some journaling. And that's exactly what happened on this layout. I had a little space to fill, and rather than just filling it with more patterned paper, I added in a journaling strip that went the length of the page.
What I’ve Been Up Too

December 7, 2016

So, it appears that I haven't blogged in three weeks. Oops. I'm not sure I've ever gone that long without posting. While I used to be really big on posting randomness here on the blog – little tidbits about life and what's going on – over the years I seemed to switch over to only posting when I have a project to share.

And without many projects to share, I have less posts going up. I do have a couple coming, but in the meantime, I thought I would just give a photo-inspired update on what I've been up too the last month. And if you happen to follow me on Instagram, you've most likely already seen these 😉



Scrapbooking. Yes, I'm still scrapping. Not as much as I used too, and not as much as I would like to be. But I am still working on scrap related projects. I have a few new projects coming soon to Kerri Bradford Studio (she's working as hard as she can to get her new site up).

I also have several layouts in the works. They have patterned papers picked out, photos printed, journaling printed, and titles and other elements die cut and ready to go – now we'll just see how long it takes me to actually assemble and finish them.



Daycare kiddos. Yes, I've still got all kinds of little ones here with me. All. Week. Long. They keep me busy! I was going strong with 7 kids (a few full-time, and a few part-time), but as of last week, two of those kiddos left, as their mom will be staying home with them full-time now.

The five I have now (9 month, 17 month, 18 month, 3 years, and 3.5 years) have me exhausted by the end of the day. But they're all soooooo adorable, keep me laughing, and give me more snuggles, kisses, and hugs than you can imagine.



My oldest, Alyssa, is in her junior year of college. She's got an insane course load, and is extremely busy keeping up with it all. Being a music major is no joke. She also has two jobs on campus, one of which is a newer one, and one that led her to tell me "THIS. This is what I'm here to do" – which just makes my heart happy!

We went to their band concert a few weeks ago, and it was nice to visit with her for a while after. The college is only 20 minutes away, but we don't see her often, with how busy she is. She's got a week and a half left of this semester, and then will get to come visit for a few weeks.



My youngest, Sarah, is a senior in high school. She recently finished sending in college applications, and prefers not to talk about it unless forced too. Lol. She somehow became the stat girl for the varsity football team, going to all of the games with the team on the bus. She's not quite done with that, as they advanced to the Division 3-AA Nor Cal Bowl this coming Friday night.

High school soccer was moved to a winter sport this year, instead of being a spring sport. This means that instead of games starting around the beginning of February, we started mid-November. And goodness, it's COLD out there! I mean, we are in California, so cold to us is low 50's ;)



We hosted a very simple, small Thanksgiving dinner at our house. I probably shouldn't say that we "hosted", as my parents actually cooked a turkey and several of the other dishes, and brought them to our house. But I made my famous mashed potatoes, and some desserts.

Alyssa and I threw together a very last minute table setting, using a kraft paper roll, vinyl dots left over from my kitchen backsplash project from years ago, and a sharpie pen. And then we scrounged up candles and a few other things from other places in the house. Nothing fancy, but it worked. And I made sure to take some family photos that day, while we were all together and looking nice, for Christmas cards.



Gilmore Girls! One of my all-time favorite shows ever. I even re-watched the entire series this summer, in preparation for their return. And it did not disappoint. I won't spoil anything, for those that may not have watched yet (if you haven't, what the heck are you waiting for).

I will say that I've always been Team Logan. I loved Winter and Fall the most. And while the ending had me hoping that they'll be back for more, I can totally see how it came full circle. Also, I can guarantee you that I will be watching it again. And again 😉



Thanksgiving weekend, we got down all of the Christmas stuff from the attic. Our pre-lit artificial tree doesn't have any working lights on it anymore. Hasn't in years. Every year, I say I'm going to buy a new tree, and every year, I sit there and string all the lights onto it. We've had that tree for 14 years, so I know we got our money's worth out of it (I'm pretty sure we paid about $120 for it, back in the day).

With all of the itty bitties around here, I don't put up too many decorations, as little hands are into everything. I had the tree up, with just the lights, for a full week, before I finally put some decorations on the tree.



Next on my to-do list is address and mail out our Christmas cards. And I guess, since Christmas is apparently creeping up on me faster than I realize, I should probably start thinking about who I need to buy gifts for. The only thing I've planned so far, is the daycare kiddos, since I knew I was going to make the fleece blankets for them. The fabric is bought, they're trimmed and slits made all around the edges – now I just need to tie them all and wrap them up. I also thought I would bake cookies this year. I used to make a massive amount of cookies back in the day, but I haven't done that in years and years. I need to set aside some time for baking too.

That's a pretty good summary of what I've been up too. Hopefully, I'll be back to share a few Christmas projects with you soon. I'd love to say I'll be working on other projects in the meantime, but that may or may not happen.
Craft The Story: Ali Edwards – Tough

November 16, 2016

Hey all! I'm back to share another pocket page spread from my 6×12" album. For this one, I dug into the "Tough" Story Kits from Ali Edwards. This was actually the first kit that I wanted to work with, and one that I knew exactly what I would use it for. Well, the first project I would use it for, since there's still plenty left for some other stories. Which is good, because I have quite a few stories that come to mind that will really fit this theme.

I really went back and forth on my plan for this project, going from doing a pocket page spread, to maybe a one page layout, back to a pocket page spread, and so on. I knew I wanted to include a good amount of journaling, and I finally settled on doing a pocket page spread, with one side being a full 6×12" page.

I used a 6×12" layered template from Ali Edwards (found HERE) to type up my journaling in. This made it SO much easier to know just how much space I had to journal in, rather than using Word and a text box (those 2 things and I do NOT get along). The template I used had space for a 4×6" photo on it, and I knew I would be adding a 4×6" card from the kit, so it worked perfectly.

I knew that I wanted to use the "tough" acrylic word in one of the 4×6" pockets. I picked out one of the 4×6" cards, and adhered the word directly to it using some mini glue dots.

I don't have a ton of photos of myself, but I do have this one that I took of myself at the beginning of the year. I was actually working on my tax stuff at the time, but the look on my face felt fitting for what my journaling was about. And turns out, it was taken right around the same time that so many things really started changing for me.

I knew that I wanted to include this 3×4" card with the quote "she stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails". I'm not a big one for quotes (meaning I don't pay much attention to them sometimes), but oddly this fit my story. And it's exactly what I did. Adjusted my sails so to speak.

My journaling took me way longer than I thought. I had a lot of words I would have loved to let spill out onto the page, just to get it off my heart (is that a saying, because it's what keeps coming to mind when I talk about it). I consider myself a pretty good writer. And while sometimes my writing can read more like ramblings, I think there are other times where my writing says everything I'm thinking, in a clear and concise way.

I tried to sum up some of what I've gone thru this year (and leading up to this year, if I'm being honest), and the lessons I learned thru the experience. It's real. It's honest. I think I've always been very truthful in my writing and in how I interact with people, and I don't try to sugar coat anything, just to make others happy. It's what happened. It's what I've gone through. Basically, it is what it is (my life motto).

After I printed out my journaling, and trimmed it to 6×12" in length, I adhered this 4×6" card to the bottom of the page. I had intentionally left room right above it to add a chipboard strip from the kit, and added one of the little plastic strips (which I totally thought was washi until I went to use it), adhering a few enamel dots to either end of the strip.

In some ways, it felt very therapeutic to work on this spread. I needed to get some of these thoughts off my heart. Off my chest. However you want to put it, I just needed to get some words out of my head and onto the page. Sometimes, when things happen, when things change, you are able to get a sense of closure and turn the page, close the book, or whatever it is you need to do to move on and put it all behind you. Other times, there's absolutely no closure, nothing to make you understand why things happened the way they did. So it's a little harder to just move on and forget about it. That's where the "it is what it is" comes in, I suppose.
Craft The Story: Ali Edwards – Drive

November 10, 2016

I'm pretty sure I promised to be back to share another pocket page with you this week, but I decided to share a layout instead. I'll save that pocket page I mentioned for next week 😉 The layout I'm sharing today features some products from the "Drive" Story Kits from Ali Edwards.

This wasn't one of the themes that stood out to me right away, as I was picking out a few kits to play with. But somewhere along the way, I thought of the idea of documenting teaching my girls to drive. I love that theme of each kit can be used in so many ways. I did a layout not too long ago about Sarah getting her driving license (seen HERE), but I thought it would be fun to do a page about both of the girls together.

The first thing I did was dig up any photos I had taken of the girls in the car, while they were learning to drive. It was something that I would do occasionally when taking them out. Snap a photo of them, almost always at a stop light or parked (or even waiting on a train). I used a template from Kerri Bradford to collage these photos together and print them out.

I had picked out a few of the 3×4" cards from the Story Kit that I knew I wanted to incorporate into the page design, and also a few circle embellishments. I used those as the starting points to picking out my patterned papers, looking for coordinating shades of green, aqua, brown, and yellow. This actually ended up being very easy to do, and only took me a few minutes. That never happens, but it did!

I found a sheet of brown cardstock from Die Cuts With A View that matched that "you got this" card perfectly. And then added in some patterned papers from Amy Tan and Fancy Pants.

I also knew that I wanted to use the acrylic "drive" word that came in the kit. I just love the acrylic words from these kits, and they're one of the main things that drew me to the kits to begin with. I paired it up with some brown alpha stickers from Jillibean Soup to complete my title.

Since the top of my layout was going to be just the white cardstock, I used one of my favorite cut files from Kerri Bradford to die cut a circle background, also from white cardstock, to layer up there for a little texture and interest. I used a few of these transparent circle embellishments from the kit, and simply stapled them in place using my Tiny Attatcher.

I often save my journaling for the end of my page design, but if I know I'm going to print out a large amount of journaling, or a longer block of journaling (like here), I will do it before I start the layout so that I make sure I have enough room for it.

I wish my printers made it easier to print journaling that is 12" long (well, 11.5" if you consider the margins). I don't have a wide format printer, so I just trim my cardstock to 8.5×12" to print on. I know for a fact that my journaling lines were 11.5" long, yet they printed much shorter than that. And there was also more room on the right side than on the left. That stuff bugs me, but not enough for me to keep trying to get it to work right.

I also included one photo of myself in the car. I had more photos of the girls, but they didn't quite match the other photos. In digging around for photos, I had also pulled out a bunch of myself I had taken, while running errands, driving kids around, etc, since I had another layout idea in mind at the same time. So I ended up pulling one of those photos and using it on this collage. I thought the little sidenote there was kind of funny!
Craft The Story: Ali Edwards – Craft

November 7, 2016

Hey all! I have finally gotten around to working on some new projects. I'm going back and forth between wanting to do the layouts I'm used to creating, and doing more pocket page type projects. So I'm doing a bit of both. Honestly, my creative mind is all over the place lately. It's actually doing more thinking and planning, than actually creating and making. But at least it's doing something!

I've said for quite some time now, that at this point in my scrapbooking, I need my layouts to have meaning and to tell a story. I've created more "fluff" layouts in my time than I care to admit. Layouts that I made because I had too, and not because I truly wanted too. I could go on and on about that, but that's another story for another day 😉

Something that I knew would be perfect for me right now is to finally start digging into my Story Kits from Ali Edwards. I had kept my eye on the Story Kits since the day they launched, but it wasn't until they had a big sale on past kits, late last year, that I finally decided to purchase a few of them.

I then decided to subscribe to the kits for 2016, and have just been stock piling them when they show up each month. I just never seem to find the time to get to them, but I thought about them all the time (they sat out on my large island in the playroom in a cute basket). Well, now that I have very few scrapping commitments, I have the time to do some of the projects I never had time for in the past.

The "Craft" kit was one of the first ones that I decided to play with. I love that you can get multiple projects out of each kit, and tell multiple stories. There's so many takes you can do with each theme, as far as what type of stories or moments you want to document. For my first project with the "Craft" kit, I knew I wanted to do the obvious idea of documenting a bit about my love of scrapbooking.

I used a few of the cards that came in the kit, slipping them right into the pocket pages, and not really fussing with them at all. I had a different journaling card in that right pocket, but I knew that I didn't really want to hand journal. I know there's something to be said for including your own handwriting in your albums. But for me, I feel like my own handwriting doesn't really fit with my style. That sounds weird. But it's how I feel. Lol.

So I used a journaling card from one of Ali's digital kits, and typed up my journaling in Photoshop. There was a word or phrase on this digital card, but I simply removed it and replaced it with the "passion", which was a digital stamp from the "Craft" digital stamps. Once I had all of my journaling cards typed up, I printed them out on a sheet of textured cardstock.

I love the idea of keeping these layouts/pocket pages simple and clean, in what is really my true style. I added two chipboard pieces to this 4×6 photo and called it done.

There were a few of these cute little wood words in the kit, and I picked out two of them to add to two different photos. The "click" and "story" (seen below) words went well with what I was journaling about.

I used the same digital journaling card for these 3×3" pockets, but cropped them in Photoshop before I started typing in my journaling. The main part of the card – the journaling lines – weren't affected when trimming off an inch from the height of the card. I added a little piece of washi tape from my stash to the top of each card.

The "making stuff" card was a 3×4" card, but I trimmed it to make it a 3×3" card to fit in the pocket. I added a few number stickers for the year (found these itty bitty Basic Grey stickers in my stash, and I wish I had more of them, since they're so cute!), and a little chipboard piece.

When I went to find some photos for this pocket page spread, I had this photo in mind to represent "photos". I had shared this photo on Instagram late last year, and it was just a pile of little 2×2" photos that I had trimmed up after a big photo order. I loved all the itty bitty photos of my daycare kids piled up, and all of those little faces looking back at me!

I had changed the photo of my camera to black and white (it had a few clashing colors in it), so I knew I wanted to have one more black and white photo on the spread. I originally had a different photo here, but had to change it, after I changed the photo on the first page. The albums in this photo are actually red, so the photo looks a little off in black and white. Oh well.

You'll notice I'm doing a 6×12" album. This is a new size for me, but one that I've really been wanting to try out. I've been really loving the 9×12" albums, and am currently working in that size for my 2016 Project Life album and the sports albums I've been putting together for the girls (will share more on both of those soon). But every time I see 6×12" pocket pages while scrolling thru Instagram, I think "ohhhh, I just love that size". And I thought it would be the perfect size for me to use as I work thru these Story Kits.

While I did cut down a few 12×12" chipboard albums to 6×12" albums a while back (you can read about that HERE), I knew I wanted an actual 6×12" album for this project. I had read about THESE albums (from Hobby Lobby), on someone's Instagram a while back, so I went and picked up a few when they were on sale. And while you can find the 6×12" pocket pages from Becky Higgins (seen HERE), I bought one of the big packs of 12×12 pocket pages (seen HERE) at Michaels with my coupon, and just cut them in half with my trimmer. More bang for your buck 😉

Hope you're all having a great Monday. I'll be back later this week to share another pocket page with you all!
Buttons Galore: November Guest Designer

November 3, 2016

Hey all! After a short little blogging break, I'm back with a few new projects to share. I was asked to guest design this month over on the Buttons Galore & More blog, and I jumped at the opportunity. Buttons are one of my absolute favorite embellishments! I have a massive button collection, and yet I can never pass up adding more colorful buttons to my stash. They just speak to me!

I was able to pick out a selection of buttons to work with, and without really knowing what I would be creating, I choose fun shades of Sky Blue, Candy Apple Green, Cotton Candy, and Lemon Yellow. When I had the buttons in front of me, and started to think about what I would do with them, these photos I took of my cousin's baby girl were the first thing to pop into my head. That photo on the left is one of my favorites of her!

One of my favorite ways to incorporate buttons onto my projects is to add them to the centers of shapes. I tend to use a lot of flowers, circles, and stars on my layouts, and buttons are the perfect addition to any of those shapes. For this layout, I started by die cutting a floral background piece from white cardstock, using my Silhouette Cameo die cut machine. I love that it had lots and lots of flowers to embellish with my buttons!

I wanted to add some subtle interest to some of the flowers on the background piece, and vellum came to mind. I was able to find an individual flower cut file that matched one of the flowers on the background piece. I sized the flower numerous times to match up with the flowers on the background piece, and then cut them all from a sheet of vellum. To add some texture, I ran each vellum flower thru a dotted embossing folder before layering them over the background flowers.

Personally, I always thread my buttons when using them on layouts and cards. I don't like to have any "naked" buttons on my projects 😉 My go-to way to adhere my buttons, is to thread my string through the button holes, and then laying the string ends flat against the button, I add a glue dot (or sometimes two if it's a larger button) right over the string. This holds the ends in place, and I can them simply adhere my button to where it needs to go.

The exception to this rule, is when I'm working with clear buttons. I don't want those strings and glue dot to show through the clear button. So for those buttons, I will take the extra time to use a needle and stitch my button directly onto the page.

I tend to be a more simpler scrapper, in that I keep my embellishments more on the simpler side. So I am always turning to buttons, as well as basics like brads and enamels. Oftentimes, they are all I need to finish off a project mostly made up of photos, cardstock, and patterned paper.

I wanted to whip up a quick card to share with you as well, using the same idea of adding buttons to the center of flowers. This is actually a lift of a card I created for Bella Blvd years ago. I searched my blog high and low for the card, but I never did find it. So I may not have ever shared that one here. Anyways. This time I fussy cut some flowers from a sheet of patterned paper to create this easy birthday card.

A fun, and super simple, way to add texture to paper flowers (whether die cuts or fussy cut from patterned paper), is to crumble them up really good. You can even lightly mist the paper with water to make it easier to work with. Then you simply un-crumble your flower, flattening it out as much or as little as you like. Add a threaded button to the center of each flower, and you've got the most adorable little flowers to add to your projects!

I had so much fun creating these projects, and I hope you enjoyed them too! Thanks Buttons Galore & More for the opportunity to guest design for you and create with your colorful buttons!
Scrapbook & Cards Today: A Peek Into My Work Life

October 21, 2016

After sharing so many older layouts over the last 3-4 weeks, it's nice to be here sharing a NEW layout with you all. After making the decision at the end of last year to step down from the Scrapbook & Cards Today team, it was so nice to be invited to contribute to the Scrapbook & Cards Today: Fall issue a few months ago.

I was asked to create a layout for the Take A Number feature, which centers around the idea of working numbers into our projects. I was asked to give a few ideas that I might want to try out for my layout, and one of them had to do with breaking down my work day by the numbers.

When I started thinking about this layout, and how I would break down my work day by the numbers, I had SO many different ideas going on in my head. I knew I had to settle on just a few main numbers, so I decided to focus on the number of hours I work each day, the number of kiddos I have each day, approximately how many meltdowns we experience each day, and approximately how many hugs & kisses I receive each day.

The numbers that I used for the hours I work each day and the number of kiddos I have each day are accurate and easy to figure out. When it came to the meltdowns and hugs & kisses, it was more of a guesstimate. With a little exaggeration mixed in for humor, of course.

I was also asked to work a fun technique into the number part of my design. I immediately thought of my embossing folders and using them on chipboard. I used the Silhouette chipboard, and die cut my numbers with my Cameo using the Weathered Door Alpha kit (which also has numbers) from Kerri Bradford. I'm totally drawing a blank on whether I cut two or three of each number to layer together. I know I definitely layered at least two together, to make them thicker.

From there, my original plan was to paint the numbers, with coordinating paint colors, and then run them thru the embossing folders. I had paint colors that matched my papers perfectly. They were crazy old Making Memories paints, and sadly, three of the four colors ended up being totally dried up to the point I couldn't make them work (I have been known to use halfway dried up paint and love the texture it gives).

So instead, I die cut the numbers once again, from coordinating patterned papers, to layer on top of the chipboard numbers. From there, I ran each thru the embossing folder, and then lightly rubbed some sand paper over the embossed areas.

I arranged the numbers on three inch squares down the left side of the page. I also used my Cameo, and a cutting file from Kerri Bradford again, to cut some little 3" wide background pieces (I think they were 3×4 to be exact, and then I trimmed off the excess) from white cardstock and then layered those over the bottom cardstock squares. I machine stitched around the edges of each square, before adhering to the page.

I also cut some little tabs (using another cut file from Kerri) to go alongside each numbered square. I wanted to add what each number was for, and this seemed like the best way to do that. I used my older stash of Lily Bee tiny alpha stickers to add what each number represented. And I totally lucked out in having enough letters, in black, to do all of them.

For my title, I combined a few brush script word cut files from Kerri Bradford, along with some alpha stickers from Jillibean Soup. As for my patterned papers for this layout, I used lots of Pink Paislee, a little My Mind's Eye, and some old Studio Calico for the title.

I kept my embellishments simple, and stuck to buttons, one of my all time favorite types of embellishments. I went digging around for buttons to match my patterned papers, and even though I only needed three colors, I ended up pulling buttons from Basic Grey, My Favorite Things, and Fancy Pants to get the ones I liked.

For my photos, I pulled up a few photos that I thought gave a good little glimpse into my work day. I used a template for Kerri Bradford to create my photo collage, and changed all of the photos to black and white, since I had way too many clashing colors going on.

I made sure to include more details about each number represented on my page in my journaling. My work days can be crazy and insane, and I may lose my ever-lovin mind more than I care to admit. But my days can also be filled with laughter and smiles, along with more hugs and kisses than I probably deserve. I love my little people, my squad if you will, and I never take for granted the role I am lucky to play in their little lives.
Scrapbook & Cards Today: Chalk Fun In The Summertime

October 19, 2016

Hey again! As I was digging around for never before shared projects, I came across this layout I created for the Scrapbook & Cards Today: Summer 2015 issue, and apparently never shared with anyone. And yes, that is indeed an 8.5×11" layout. I'm pretty sure that I can count on one hand how many layouts I've made in that size. And truth be told, I've only made them when I'm told I have to make them.

This layout was created for the 3 Designer Challenge feature, where three designers receive the same exact products and then create our layouts with those same products. For this particular issue, we were sent some Pink Paislee patterned paper, cardstock (I want to say Stampin' Up), a package of chipboard elements (I think from Carta Bella), white alpha stickers, some decorative fringe from Jillibean Soup, and an embossing folder.

The title piece was actually the first thing I worked on, after printing my photos. I knew I wanted to use the embossing folder on some of the cardstock, and then add the alpha stickers to it to house my title. And I knew I needed that piece finished, in order to figure out the rest of the page.

This fun tissue paper fringe from Jillibean Soup is super fun! I received four different colors, and it took me for days to figure out which color I wanted to use. From what I remember, I was more limited on the patterned paper choices that I wanted to use, so the orange patterned paper was my main choice to add along the bottom and top edges. Some of the other fringe colors just didn't seem to work as well, so I ended up going with the red.

I'm really trying to remember the patterned papers I was sent for this. I seem to remember that a lot of them had busier patterns, and I just didn't find many that fit what I was trying to do. The white patterned paper, with little, tiny, colorful diamonds on it was a natural choice for the background. And then one of the patterned papers had lots of cute circles on it, and I punched out several of those to use on the page to add more color.

You can check out the other two designers takes on this challenge RIGHT HERE.

recent posts

about