Laura Vegas

Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life

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Flashback Friday: Favorite Things

October 14, 2016

Sharing a fun layout today that is one of those "all about me" type layouts that I like to do from time to time. I created this one back in 2012, and while I can't remember exactly what the "assignment" was for this one, I know it had something to do with favorites. How I came up with the idea to do a layout about Pinterest, I'm not sure. Was 2012 when the Pinterest craze started?

One thing I do remember is that this was when I was just starting out using mist sprays, and when I used to actually spritz them right onto the page and go with it, no matter how they turned out. I quickly learned to unscrew the caps, and flick the end of the nozzle to make little splatters and droplets on the page instead. A little more controlled than just spritzing away.

And see that metal rim circle tag on the die cut heart, with the little flair button in the center? I have a TON of those metal rimmed tags. Actually, they're just the metal rims, and they're meant to work with this Tag Maker tool from Making Memories. I never really used them to actually make tags (you can insert your paper in the tag and then smush down the rims with the tool), but I used to love using them just like this. Little buggers to adhere though.

That green tag that holds part of my title is a very old product too, from Lil' Davis. I really loved those tags, and I'm pretty sure I still have some of them. I am 99% sure that the title cut files came from the Silhouette store. And I know I always say that I don't even try saving the dots to my i's, because I always seem to lose them. And it looks like that was the same story four years ago, when I made this layout, seeing as how I dotted my i with a brad.

I had to go and dig around in my files to find out what I used to create these fun little polaroid photos. And this may explain why I did my layout about Pinterest. I used the "I Love Pinterest {Templates}" by Crystal Wilkerson, so these were all little templates, that already had the text on them. All I needed to do was insert one of the photos off the coordinating Pinterest board, from things that I've pinned. So cute.

Sadly, I can't seem to find her older digital creations anywhere, so they may not be available anymore. But these could be created with a small photo, matted on a piece of white cardstock (or printed and trimmed with a large white border) to give the look of a polaroid photo. And then simply use alpha stickers, of Photoshop, to add the text.
Just Because: Beautiful You

October 12, 2016

Today, I'm sharing a layout that I created a little over a year ago. Again, for a project that just never ended up happening. The starting point for this page was the colors. A few specific colors. From there, I dug around for my patterned papers, and from there I found some photos to match. These photos were ones that I took of my friend Deneen's daughter years ago, when we took my girls and her twins out for a little photo shoot.

The patterned papers I decided on were from Pebbles, Dear Lizzy, Basic Grey, and I think a little Amy Tangerine. I used a cut file from the Silhouette store for my title, cutting it from two different patterned papers.

The floral patterned paper from Dear Lizzy was the real starting point for this page, as I knew that I wanted to fussy cut them out to use as more of an embellishment, as opposed to just a piece of patterned paper. To give them some texture and dimension, I crumbled up each flower cluster and then flattened them back out. When adhering pieces like this, I only add adhesive to a few areas, so that I'm not fully adhering the piece down. I didn't want to fully flatten out what the crumbling did to the flowers.

To embellish the page, I added some buttons, enamel dots, and some brads created from the patterned paper I used for my title.
Sharing An Oldie: She Is Hilarious

October 11, 2016

Hey everyone! I've got three more older, never before seen layouts to share with you this week. This one here was created back in 2011. That's FIVE years ago, which is just crazy to me, for whatever reason.

My "assignment" for this project at the time was dimension. I seem to remember there was something more specific in regards to how I achieved that dimension, and I'm pretty sure it had to do with using just paper. I turned to these fun patterned papers from Pebbles for this layout.

There was one paper that had these fun banners that covered the entire page, and I knew when I saw it that it would be fun to fussy cut them out. In all honestly, that is NOT my definition of "fun". Fussy cutting is always more tedious and painful to me. Lol. But it's also always worth it.

The banners crossed over each other on the patterned paper, so how you see them arranged here is exactly how I cut them out from the sheet of paper. Which might explain why this was so painful to do, and try and keep them all connected. And ignore the ends of the banners (on the sides of the layout) that are all bent. That's from me moving the layout in and out of the album to re-photograph it.

I loved these older corrugated alphas from Jillibean Soup. I still have tons of them, and should use them more often. And yes, I turned the "o" sideways so that the title would fit below my photos.

And as if the fussy cutting didn't take me long enough, I also pop dotted the entire banner piece to the page. I'm sure I didn't add a pop dot behind each and every little banner piece, but I know that I did use a ton of tiny pop dots on this page.

Oddly enough, now days, I rarely every use pop dots on anything. It's not like this layout here has a TON of dimension, to where it's a super bulky layout. But I do find myself loving the flatter page these days, as I can fit way more layouts in my albums.
Flashback Friday: Sweetie

October 7, 2016

Gosh, I sure did a lot of layouts in 2012 that I was never allowed to share. So many of the ones that I dug up were from that year. This is another one that I created in 2012, using an older photo of Alyssa, but journaling in present tense (at the time anyways).

The "assignment" for this layout was to actually scraplift myself. Well, that wasn't a problem. I scraplift myself ALL the time. As for this design, it was inspired mostly by THIS layout.

I know I've got a mix of My Mind's Eye, Dear Lizzy, and Jillibean Soup patterned papers on here. I'm not positive if these fun little polaroid looking cards were cut from a piece of Dear Lizzy patterned paper, or just lost pieces from a package, but I know I thought they were the cutest things ever. I distressed the edges and pop dotted them to add lots of dimension.

And this woodgrain patterned paper from Jillibean Soup? I was in love with it! I got a lot of use out of the one sheet I had, and I'm pretty sure I still have a little square or something that I just couldn't part with. And those buttons? I love me some buttons!

I'm really loving re-visiting some of these older layouts. It's funny how I have a good handful of layouts from the last year or two that I don't necessarily love, for one reason or another. Yet, I go back to these layouts from years ago, and find myself inspired by how simple and clean they are. I might just need to scraplift this one again!
Just Because: Truly Cute

October 5, 2016

Sharing a more current layout with you all today. I created this layout a little over a year ago, for a project that didn't quite pan out. It features one of my favorite daycare girlies ever, Amanda. Crazy that she's a junior in high school now. Just as crazy that Sarah is a senior in high school!

I picked my title out from the Silhouette store, combining two words from two different cut files. I just love the cut files with the skinny outline of the word. They can be a little trickier to adhere, but I still love them.

The buttons were a purchase from Studio Calico. I don't shop there much at all. Except when there's a good sale. I'm pretty sure I was buying a few old kits during a big sale or something, and then added on these buttons as they were super cheap. And it just so happened that I was able to find the perfect colors to match my patterned papers from those sets.

As for my paper choices, I used a lot of older Pebbles patterned papers, along with some My Mind's Eye and I think even a bit of Doodlebug.

Considering how much I love buttons, and just how many of them I happen to have in my HUGE button stash, I feel like I don't use them all that often anymore. Unless I do, and I'm just not remembering using them. I should make a point to get more use of them, maybe along with some ribbon 😉
Sharing An Oldie: She Is Our Little Sweetie

October 4, 2016

Hey all! I'm back with a few more older layouts to share this week. This is another layout that I created back in 2012, with some older photos of Sarah. She's such a character. I remember buying that huge lollipop at the mall, just so we could take some fun photos. And she did not disappoint.

This layout was created around the same time the birthday collections had come out at Bella Blvd, so most of the papers here (if not all – not sure off the top of my head) are from the birthday girl collection. I know there were some great flowers to fussy cut from those patterned papers, and I made numerous projects at the time where I scrunched up those flowers and added the fun buttons and crochet flowers to the centers.

I believe that part of my "assignment" for this layout was to not just use a photo collage on the page, but to creatively add other elements to parts of that photo collage. I used a storyboard template from Kerri Bradford, which had a section in the center where it had this sort of 3D effect. I actually printed that part of the collage twice, and then cut out those three photos (collaged together) and adhered them with dimensional adhesive to give a raised look.

I also covered a few of the openings in the collage with patterned paper and cardstock. I added some journaling to one space, some chipboard alphas to the other, and some buttons to the third. A fun way to fill up the spaces in a template, if you don't have quite enough photos to fill all of the spaces.

For my title, I used a cut file from the Silhouette store, along with some tiny alpha stickers. I used this same title on another layout I'll be sharing. I love the font, and mix of capital and lowercase letters.

I remember loving so many of the patterned papers in this collection, and wanting to use as many of them as I could. Using small pieces, layered together along either side of the photo collage, was a great way to get so many patterns on the page.
Live Inspired Podcast With Tracie Claiborne

October 3, 2016

I had the opportunity to chat with Tracie Claiborne last week for her Live Inspired podcast, touching on topics like my recent departure from Bella Blvd, my journey within the industry, double page layouts, re-doing and tossing out old layouts, as well as what I'm doing now. You can listen RIGHT HERE, or on any podcast app if you'd like to check out my ramblings.
Flashback Friday: Thirteen

September 30, 2016

I created this layout back in 2012, using photos of Alyssa from her 13th birthday, which was in 2009. And just three days ago, she turned 20 years old. Crazy!

This layout was created entirely from scraps, which was the assignment I was given. I tend to save a lot of my scraps of patterned paper, and even scraps of die cut pieces that I didn't end up using or only partially used. So this actually turned out to be fairly easy for me to do.

This layout contains almost all Bella Blvd products, with the exception of a few pieces. It's pretty interesting that I can actually remember the exact projects these scraps came from. Like the aqua diamond pieces, which came from a Halloween layout I had created for Kerri Bradford.

This fun brad makes me want to dig out my brad maker tool from Imaginisce. I thought that was a fun tool, and used it quite a few times. I mostly used it with patterned paper, but I should dig it out and try it with fabric sometime.

I feel like I said the same things every time the girls turned a year old. How I don't know how it happened so quickly. How time flies by so fast. It's true. So very true.
Just Because: Favorite Little Dudes

September 28, 2016

Hey all! Back to share another older layout of mine that never quite made it out to be seen anywhere. I created this layout a little over a year ago, using photos of all my favorite daycare boys from over the years. This, of course, was before the three adorable little dudes I watch now.

I'm trying to go off memory here on these older layouts, as far as what products I used. Just in case anyone is wondering. I know there's some Crate Paper, My Mind's Eye, and I'm thinking a little Echo Park.

I die cut a bunch of stars (I want to say from Kerri Bradford Studio) to embellish the two sides of the page with. I added coordinating enamel dots to the centers of each star, and also sprinkled some small black enamel dots around the page.

I used the Weathered Door Alpha kit from Kerri Bradford Studio for part of my title (and one of her hand drawn words for the other part). It's such a good chunky font, and I love to use it whenever I have a word that I can't find as an actual cut file.

I used two different templates, also from Kerri Bradford Studio, for my photo collages. I made all of my photos black and white, as there were a lot of clashing colors going on.

I will say, if I could create this layout again, I would have arranged my title pieces a little differently. I would have preferred to have "little' and "dudes" closer together. Just a random thought looking at this a full year later 🙂
Sharing An Oldie: Say Cheese

September 27, 2016

So, I mentioned last week that I recently dug up some older layouts that I have never shared, with the plans of sharing them over the next few weeks. Some of these are from several years ago, while others are from the last year or so. I love that even layouts created a full four years ago, like the one that I'm sharing today, show my same style and some of the same design ideas that I currently like to use.

Many of the layouts that I'll be sharing were created for workshops at Two Peas In A Bucket, as I was asked to contribute to a few workshops years ago. Well, with Two Peas closing shop over two years ago, and the workshops never going back up anywhere since, I figured they were safe to share 😉

I created this layout back in 2012, using photos from back in 2007. Back when I hounded my girls constantly for photos, and apparently someone got a little sick of me. "Papparatzii". Love it!

I used a mix of patterned papers from Crate Paper and Bella Blvd, while the banner is from Heidi Swapp, and the little camera is from Echo Park.

I'm almost positive I was asked to focus on computer printing onto journaling cards and label stickers for this layout. And I'm also almost positive that it took me many tries to get this little journaling block printed out with the journaling semi-close to being straight on the lines. Lol.

I die cut my title from two different patterned papers, and added zig zag machine stitching vertically along the "cheese" part of my title. I then pop dotted it on the page to add some dimension.

This crazy girl of mine happens to be celebrating her birthday today! I cannot believe that she's twenty years old now! We did a little family dinner this past Friday, since I knew we couldn't drag her away from classes today. I hope, despite her ten straight hours of classes, and everything else she packs into her school day, that she has an amazing birthday! Love her to pieces.