Laura Vegas

Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life

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Bella Blvd: Liberty Softball

September 22, 2016

I've got my last official layout up on the Bella Blvd blog today. Not that you won't see Bella on future projects, because you will! But I had committed to creating one of my monthly projects for September and here it is. And if this layout looks familiar to any of you long time readers here, it's because I decided to lift one of my favorite layouts that I created for Kerri Bradford years ago (seen HERE).

When the new collections arrived on my doorstep a week ago, I knew the first collection I wanted to play with was Oh My Stars. I'm a sucker for star patterned paper, as it's such a great fit for so many every day projects. I wanted to continue with my recent focus on sports themed layouts, and dug up some older photos of Sarah on one of her softball teams.

I started out by die cutting an open circle background from the navy blue star patterned paper, using a cut file from Kerri Bradford. I built my entire page on the white grid patterned paper background, so I knew the background piece would stand out great against the white. I pulled out a few additional patterned papers to incorporate into my design, all from the new collections.

You all know that I love to mix a cursive font along with a clean font for my titles. I often achieve this using all die cut words/alphas, along with my patterned papers. On my Bella layouts however, my go-to choice is to mix the Sienna chipboard alphas in with a die cut cursive word. In a way, I think this title work has become a signature part to almost all of my layouts. Also, I never even attempt to save the dots to my i's when I die cut words, so I always dot my eyes with a coordinating enamel dot.

I always pull my colors from my photos when it comes to choosing patterned papers. Which helps explain the pink, as Sarah had pink on her glove. I didn't want to use just black, navy blue, and green, so the pink was a nice touch of color to mix in. I wanted to add the "shoot for the stars" designer clip to the page, and while I couldn't clip it to my journaling block, tucking it behind it worked just as well.

If I were to create this layout again, I probably would have picked a different pink patterned paper to mix in, as the one I used didn't quite match the designer clip and the chipboard star (which I picked out at the end of the design process).

I adhered my photos along the bottom of the page, adding a few small strips of patterned paper in as well to add some more color. I also tore off small pieces of the navy blue washi sticker (from the Alex collection) to add where the photos overlapped.

And that's a wrap! Catch me back here next week, where I plan on sharing three never-shared-here-on-the-blog before layouts with you all. I even dug them all out of albums to get the detail shots I was missing.
Bella Blvd: Saying Goodbye

September 20, 2016

I have some bittersweet news to share today. I've worked for Bella Blvd for a little over 5 years. I have managed and led 5 creative teams, with a total of 73 unique designers from all over the world making up those 5 teams (some designers were on 2-4 of the 5 teams). I've invited 55 designer to guest on the Bella blog, with 13 of those designers also serving on one of our creative teams at some point. I've put together involved reveal posts for over 50 new collections – during winter releases, summer releases, and mid releases – along with numerous embellishments releases. I've coordinated 22 newsletters, lining up contributing designers, and searching out layouts and designers from online galleries to feature as well. I've created 62 layouts for 62 monthly project sheets, complete with step-by-step instructions. I've created an additional 230+ projects (layouts, cards, and altered projects) for blog work, catalog work, and booth work for trade shows. And countless other tasks that I won't bore you with.

And I've loved it. Every minute of it.

That being said, I made the hard decision a few weeks ago to step down from my position as Creative Team Coordinator for Bella Blvd. It's a job that I've held for over 5 years. It was a job that became a part of my every day routine, and not a day went by that I didn't do at least one thing Bella related. It was a job that was roughly 80% computer work and behind the scenes work, managing the blog and creative team, and roughly 20% design work, creating layouts and other projects for the blog, project sheets, catalogs, and trade shows. It was a job that I was really, really good at, and quite frankly, a job that I think I rocked. It was a job that fit perfectly into my schedule, while still working a full time job as a daycare provider in my home. Basically, it was a job that I loved.

Things change in the course of 5 years however. And sometimes, the place where you've been doesn't always remain the place you should be. There's been a lot of change at Bella, especially in the last year or two, and there's been a tremendous amount of growth, especially with the addition of the Illustrated Faith brand to Bella's family. And while that's all great – somewhere in that growth, I got lost a little. In short, I had to accept that Bella wasn't a good fit for me any longer, and it was time to say goodbye. It wasn't an easy decision by any means, and wasn't one that I wanted to make. But it was one that I knew I had to make, for myself.

Which means that as of last week, I am no longer with Bella Blvd. They did a very sweet farewell post for me this past weekend, and I was asked to share a handful of my favorite layouts from over the years, along with answering some questions about my time there. You can read that HERE. If anyone reading here happened to have commented on that post, please know that your comments mean the world to me. I will also be sharing one last Bella layout later this week here on my blog.

As for what's next for me? I have no idea. I've already been asked, numerous times, if I will continue to scrapbook. And the answer is a big YES! I am in no way leaving the scrapbooking world, or hanging up my trimmer (is that what one does when quitting this hobby?). I've got way too many projects to complete, projects to start, projects to brainstorm, etc. I am still designing for Kerri Bradford, which I absolutely love! And I am tossing a few ideas around in my head for what I'd like to do next.

But for the moment, I'm not moving on to anything new, or starting a new adventure anywhere. Not that I know of anyways. I will be taking the next few weeks to simply re-group and adjust to this big change. And to figure out what to focus on next. In the meantime, I've dug up some layouts created for different types of projects, that I have never shared here on my blog, and I will be sharing those over the next few weeks.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Recipe Binder

September 19, 2016

Happy Monday my friends! I have some unhappy news, if you haven't seen or heard already. Kerri Bradford's website was hacked this weekend, which I know has to be an infuriating thing to deal with. So for the time being, she's decided not to put her site back up, and is focusing on getting her new site up and running very soon. I had a project that was scheduled to go up today, so I'll be sharing it here in full for you all.

I've been on this kick to get random areas of my life organized and in order, and one of those areas was the kitchen. Mainly, my recipe binder. I've had a binder in one of the kitchen cabinets where I put recipes that I print from online websites. They started out slightly organized, and then I got to where I would just shove papers in the binder, or yank them out and lose track of them.

I figured if I prettied up my binder, it would motivate me to keep it in order. My plan was simple. Create a divider page for each section of the binder that would be slipped into a page protector, and name each section as well.

I started out by cutting a circle background for each divider page. I think anyone that knows me and my style knows that I LOVE circle backgrounds. I decided to use the background cut file from the Life Additions: Background kit, as it could be sized to fit most of the 8.5×11" page.

I knew that I would just need to add some paper strips along the side to cover the remaining inch and a half that the circle background didn't cover. I picked out 12 different patterned papers, in 6 different colors.

I went with tone-on-tone patterned papers to keep them on the simpler side, so that my die cut words would stand out. I ended up picking out some older papers, from Making Memories, Echo Park, and I think My Mind's Eye (I'm drawing a serious blank right now).

From each patterned paper, I was also able to cut the strips of paper to add to each page where the circle background didn't cover my white cardstock.

I relied heavily on Kerri's Tasty kit to label my divider pages, adding in one extra word from the Lazy Days kit. Once I jotted down what my sections would be – appetizers, salads & sandwiches, pasta, chicken, beef, etc – I then wrote down one of the descriptive words from Kerri's kits to go with each.

I sized each word to fit on the circle background part of the divider page, and cut all of my words from a few sheets of dark brown woodgrain patterned paper.

I had a package of white tags laying around, and decided to use those on each page to write the rest of my section descriptions on, but Kerri has some really fun tags in her Attach It kit that would be perfect for this too.

I was really close to digging out alpha stickers to spell everything out with, but in the end – as much as I'm not a fan of my own handwriting most of the time – I did decide to just hand write the rest.

As for inside the binder? I simply punch holes in recipes I've printed out and add them into the binder, as opposed to slipping all of the recipes in page protectors.

I find a lot of great recipes on Pinterest, and I've found that when you print some of those recipes out, there's no photo of what it is the recipe is for. And I like photos, so I know what I'm trying to make.

So I will usually right click and save the photo off Pinterest, or the website where I get the recipe, print it out, and adhere it to the backside of the printed recipe. I should have taken a few photos to include here, but really, it's pretty self explanatory.

For the front of the binder, I cut a circle background as well, but because the front of the binder was larger than my divider sections, I used the Background Basics kit so that I had a large background to work with. I love the "food glorious food" cut file from Kerri's The History Project class, and cut that from the same dark brown woodgrain patterned paper to add to the page. I slipped that right into the slot on the front of the binder. Easy peasy.
Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet – Alex Collection

September 6, 2016

Yesterday was the first Monday of the month, which means we had a new project sheet up on the Bella Blvd blog. For this month's layout, I was asked to use the new Alex collection, and to create a layout with a back to school day theme.

I obviously don't have boys, so my first task was to track down some photos. Luckily, the lovely Kelly Goree has three handsome young boys who had just gone back to school, and the colors of her photos were perfect for this collection. My main photo is the three boys together, and then I collaged their individual photos together into a little strip.

My original plan for this layout didn't quite work out, and since I had already cut a few of the patterned papers, I had to be a little creative going forward (I only had 1 sheet of each paper to work with). I did a lot of piecing together of small pieces and long strips.

I was also asked to incorporate the designer clips into this layout. The new clips are made of plastic, and come in a variety of shapes. I knew that I wanted to include a few above the photo strip, but I didn't want to cover up the boys faces by actually clipping them in place. So I simply adhered them behind the photo strip.

I always build my layouts on white cardstock. Always. As I was piecing together papers and photos, I ended up leaving two sections of the page open so that I would have white cardstock to work with. I layered two pieces of the white star Clear Cut transparency over those areas, just to add a little interest.

For my title, I used the grey alpha stickers from the new Fundamentals sticker sheet that comes in the collection, along with a chipboard word from a Chip Script sheet and some Tiny Text alpha stickers. And I just had to use the fun little backpack, which was trimmed from a 4×6" card from the Daily Details patterned paper.

I think one of my favorite things from the new release is the Tabbies. A package full of tabs, in all different sizes and shapes. They're great for tucking here and there on projects. It wasn't until I was halfway done photographing this layout that it dawned on me that the aqua designer clip needed something. So I quickly added a "3" number sticker, since there are 3 handsome boys on the page.

You can download the September project sheet, complete with supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.
Bella Blvd: Great Outdoors

August 25, 2016

I'm sharing a new two pager over on the Bella Blvd blog today. Ever since the Campout collection came out, I've been meaning to scrap these photos from way back in 2006. My sister was out visiting from Denver, and her and my dad decided to take Joe and the girls camping for two days. This was right after a family wedding, where I played a big part in organizing the day. And also during a time when I was going thru some chronic pain issues, so that big wedding day totally kicked my butt. Which explains why I didn't tag along on this trip.

I grew up in camping family. We would take these 2-3 week camping trips, driving hours and hours each day, sightseeing along the way, and setting up camp in a different KOA campground each night. We had systems in place, everything super organized, and we could set up and take down the entire campsite (tent and sleeping bags of course) in record time, over and over. My little family? We don't camp. Ok, we did take the girls camping once when they were little. But it was with a previous daycare family, and they were experts, which made it easy for us. We wouldn't do well on our own 😉

While my go-to way of getting tons of photos on the page is to use photo collages, I've been making an effort to show different ways of including photos on my recent two pagers for Bella. But I just had to re-visit the photo collages for this layout, and looking back to the last time I used them on one of my Bella two pagers (on my April layout HERE), I just now realized that I used the same exact collage template. I guess you can say it's a favorite of mine.

I'm glad my dad (or my sister) took these photos on their trip. They were taken on a simple digital camera, before I even got into the digital side of photography. They had some pretty funny photos, and of course, Sarah was her hilarious self in many of the pics.

Alyssa would probably kill me for using this photo of her (second from the left). But the look on her face pretty much sums up how she felt about the entire trip. Because my sister was only in town for a few days, to take this 2 day camping trip, the girls had to miss a day of school. And that one day ended up being the ONLY day of school Alyssa ever missed in 13 years of her K-12 school years, and she will tell you about this trip being the reason for that to this day!

I like to size my collages so that I still have plenty of room up top for my title, journaling, and often times, more photos! I printed four extra photos, thinking I would add two to each side of the spread. I ended up wanting to include this 3×4" "keep calm and camp on" card from the Daily Details patterned paper, so I decided to mix it in with three of those four photos on the first page of the spread.

A large majority of the time when creating two pagers, I end up mirroring the two pages design wise. I'll use the same patterned papers, in the same sizes, along the top and bottom edges, and along the sides. This works well for me, as I'm a very linear scrapper. I might have to challenge myself to do something a little different for my next one, just for fun.

Only having one photo to add up top on the second page of the spread allowed me more room for my title, which ended up working out perfectly. I was originally going to die cut my entire title, as I completely forgot the Campout collection had coordinating chipboard. Once I pulled out the "outdoors" chipboard letters, I decided to die cut the word "great" to complete my title.

In the end, the only embellishments I added to this two page spread were a few chipboard clouds and a tree on the top part of the page, and a few tab and word stickers. Over the years, I've gotten to where I prefer my layouts without a lot of bulk, so simple and clean works well for me.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Celebrate A Freakin’ Awesome Season Lady Buffs

August 11, 2016

Hey all! I had a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday. I know I've said this a few times lately, but I honestly can't remember where I've said it. My blog, Instagram, in conversations with friends, in my head. Who knows. Anyways. I've had sports on my mind lately, when it comes to layouts and even some album projects!

One layout that I've been wanting to make is this one here, documenting an awesome season – a freakin' awesome season – our high school girls varsity soccer team had. Seeing as how they took home not one, but two major championships, I knew I wanted to create a layout filled with photos taken throughout the season.

I'm sure you all know by now that I love creating white-on-white backgrounds for a lot of my pages. Since I only needed to cover about half of each page with the die cut background, I was able to use a smaller sized background from the Life Additions: Backgrounds kit. Usually, I just cut full 12×12 backgrounds, and then save the extra parts I don't use for other projects. But it was nice to be able to use just two 8.5×11" pieces of white cardstock for my two background pieces.

For my title, I turned to the Weathered Door [all] kit for the "Lady Buffs" part of my title. Our school mascot is the buffalo, so the varsity soccer players are referred to as the "Lady Buffs". The Weathered Door kit comes in so handy when you need a word that Kerri doesn't have in kits. I mean, obviously there isn't a demand for "lady buffs", so it's not something Kerri would have 😉 I went back and forth on the first part of my title, and finally settled on "celebrate", from the July Four kit.

I had every intention of using small alpha stickers for the middle part of my title, and it was going to read "an amazing season". I'm glad I stopped, just before adhering my stickers, and checked out Kerri's stamps I have on hand. I came across the "freakin' awesome" from the For You stamp set and it was perfect for this title! I knew I wouldn't be able to stamp it directly to the page, with my die cut background, so I stamped it onto a scrap piece of cardstock and simply cut it out and adhered it in place.

All but three of my photos are cell phone photos, taken by either myself or my daughter. I had this thing going (which I've mentioned when sharing a previous layout), where at the start of each game, I would snap a photo of the team getting ready to take the field. I would Instagram them each time as well. So I managed to collect a good amount of photos by the end of the season.

I was able to get Sarah to send me some photos she took during the season as well, with a little begging and pleading. I gathered up all of these photos, and arranged them into two collages using a template from Kerri's Storyboard: Instagram Style kit. My two main photos, both taken by the newspaper photographer, were printed as 4×6" photos to include on either side of the collages.

My journaling took me forever to type up. I started out making it about Sarah and how she did this season, but then realized that with my title, the page was really about the team as a whole. Then I would get to certain parts, and I felt like I should have pulled out the newspaper articles/clippings, so that I could add in the stats and facts about some of these big wins. But those were already put away in her school album upstairs. Let's just say that both of their big wins – the VOL title and the Section title – were huge for the school's soccer program, and the school itself. I did end up adding some tidbits about Sarah and how she did this season at the end of the journaling.

I also cut a tab using the Simplicities: Best Thing Ever kit to add to the side of my journaling block, so that I could add the year. If anyone is wondering about my paper choices, my green patterned papers came from Simple Stories, and my grey patterned papers came from Amy Tangerine.

I just love the two main photos on this spread. The one on the left side of the page, with the green jerseys, was from their VOL win. And the photo above, with the white jerseys, was from their Section win. Both such huge moments for these young ladies, for their team as a whole, for the soccer program and their dedicated coaches, and for the school. Once I add this layout to her school album, I will most likely add all of the newspaper articles and clippings directly after it. Just need to figure out how to arrange all of those still.
Bella Blvd: Junior Year

August 10, 2016

It's that time of year. Time to send our kids back to school, to new grades, new classrooms, and new teachers. The schools here went back last week, I'm seeing many of you starting this week, and some of you may be lucky enough to have a bit of summer break left with your kids. Whenever your child returns to school, one thing that I think we all end up with are those must-have "first day of school" photos. And today, over on the Bella Blvd blog, I've got a new layout up with just that kind of photo!

I used to scrap these first day of school photos as just that. "First Day Of School" layouts, with journaling that said something along the lines of how they were excited to go back to school, meet their new teacher, and see their friends again. A few years back, I got the idea to scrap that first day of school photo at the end of the school year (you can see that layout HERE). This allows me to document all that happened in that particular school year. Sort of a "looking back" take on how the year went. Of course, I didn't get this idea until my Sarah was in high school, so I'm a little late to the game on this way of documenting. But I love the idea none the less.

For my layout, I turned to the Star Student collection and pulled out a few patterned papers that coordinated with my photo. I knew that I wanted to keep with a white cardstock background for this page, so I layered a white woodgrain Clear Cut over my cardstock for a little subtle interest.

I usually only manage to get one or two photos of my daughter, as she's a typical teen and thinks I should be happy that she allowed me those one or two photos! So I picked one photo and printed it big. Really big. I also typed up my journaling ahead of time, which isn't something I normally do. I wanted to be sure the photo and my journaling were the focus of this page, so I wanted to plan around those from the start.

I arranged my photo and journaling block in the center of the page, and then randomly cut my patterned papers, along with an embossed piece of cardstock, into pieces to layer on either side. I distressed the edges of all of my papers and machine stitched around the edges before adhering them in place.

I really do love the idea of journaling about the school year and pairing it up with that first day of school photo. It's hard to remember what happens from year to year, as they all start to blend together (or maybe that's just me!), so I welcome the chance to sum up the year on this type of layout. If you never got around to scrapping last year's "first day of school" photos, why not give this approach a try!
Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Project Sheet – Oh My Stars Collection

August 1, 2016

It's the first Monday of the month, which means the August project sheet is up on the Bella Blvd blog today. For this month's layout, I was asked to use the new Oh My Stars collection, which will begin shipping later this month. I was also asked to incorporate texture and dimension into the page design, and to use our new Tabbies as well.

If you remember, I created a catalog layout for this collection, that I shared a few weeks ago (seen HERE). It just so happens that I had incorporated all of those things in that layout, without even realizing I'd be creating something similar for the project sheet layout. And without really meaning too, I lifted some of the same basics design ideas of that first layout into this layout here.

I was looking thru the patterned papers in this collection, trying to decide what color combo I would use. I came across this fun circle patterned paper, with the aqua, yellow, orange, and green circles against the white with black dots. I knew this would make a great background paper for the layout, and then pulled the star patterned papers to match. I also loved this 4×6 "Super Star" card from one of the patterned papers, and decided to use that as my title.

I used the black/white striped border from the Border patterned paper, cut in half lengthwise, along the top and bottom of the page. I also tore off a few piece of washi tape from the new Washi Sticker book, and added those to the top left corner and bottom right corner of the page.

I printed several 2×3" photos to use on the page. I was originally going to use five photos, but in the end I used one of the spots for my journaling instead, using four photos on the page. From the star patterned papers, I cut pieces slightly larger than my photos, and then some more pieces slightly larger than those first pieces of papers. I knew I would be double matting my photos, but wanted to have plenty of pieces to play with until I got the final combinations right.

I went thru the Tabbies pack, and picked out several tabs in coordinating colors. I knew I wanted to add a tab to each layered piece, whether it was a photo, the journaling block, or my title piece. I used my Tiny Attacher to staple them in place.

I ended up using the black star patterned paper on each photo, the title piece, and the journaling block. I love how all of the other colors really "pop" against the black, so I wanted to pair the black with all of my layered pieces.

As usual, I distressed the edges of each paper and machine stitched around the edges. I did this all before adhering any of the pieces together. I matted my photos with the smaller of the two papers, and then adhered them to the larger pieces with pop dots for extra dimension.

To embellish the page, I pulled out some coordinating star die cuts from the Paper Pieces package, and adhered those around the page. I also used some of the large black enamel dots to add a little something to the centers of some of the circles on my background paper.

You can download the August project sheet, complete with supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.
Bell Blvd: He Will Forever Love The Game

July 21, 2016

Hey everyone! I've got a new two pager up on the Bella Blvd blog today. I've had sports on the creative brain lately, and have numerous projects started using sports photos of my two girls. But when a photo of my husband, Joe, popped randomly into my inbox one night, I knew it was time to make a layout about him doing what he loves to do – umpiring baseball.

Joe has been umpiring for years and years, and I have to admit that I've never been out to watch him in action. He does mostly high school baseball, so I'm usually working when games are happening. So to have a photo of him land randomly in my inbox, sent from another umpire, it's a nice surprise. I have a few of those photos that I wanted to include here, and I also have some photos I took of him and his gear several years ago. I printed my two main photos as 4×6's and the others as 4×4's.

When it comes to scrapping sports photos, I turn to some simple basic patterns for my patterned papers, as Bella doesn't have a recent sports collection. I'm a huge fan of star patterns in general, and they're perfect for sports layouts. I also love a good grid pattern, and anything with circles. Three of my favorite patterns to scrap with. Although in all honesty, when I set out to pick my papers, I really look for anything and everything that will match my photos. That's my main goal.

An on-going trend you'll find on my layouts is a multiple font title. I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I love to mix a large cursive die cut word with clean looking alphas. And the Sienna chipboard alphas are my go-to pick, as they add a bit of dimension to what is often an "all paper" layout. I die cut the word "forever" using a cut file from Kerri Bradford's Grateful kit.

Because I often use quite a bit of patterned paper on my layouts, I like to add a bit of die cutting to the background of my page. In this case, I die cut a circle border piece to go on both sides of the spread. Even though I die cut the border from patterned paper, that bit of whiteness that shows thru helps break up the heaviness that can come from covering the entire page with patterned papers.

I started out having four 4×4" photos, but one of the photos just didn't look right on the page. So I decided to leave that photo off, and added a 4×4" piece of star patterned paper in it's place. To help my chipboard star stand out, I punched a circle from patterned paper to layer beneath it.

I am a huge advocate for journaling on layouts, and it's very rare that you'll see a layout from me without it. Sometimes, I have more to say than other times, but there's always journaling there. I had more to say for this layout, so I printed out my journaling in a large paragraph, and matted it with some green patterned paper. I took out some of my older Bella Designer Tape to add to the top, and machine stitched over it.

This photo here is the one that recently showed up in my inbox, and it's such a great shot! It was this photo that inspired me to create a new layout about Joe, doing what he loves and what he puts his whole heart into. I fully admit that most of my layouts are about our girls, my daycare kids, and even about myself. I guess I needed a little nudge from the universe (or whoever sent that photo to me) to get my husband in the albums too!
Kerri Bradford Studio: Christmas In July

July 20, 2016

All this week, we're celebrating Christmas in July over at Kerri Bradford Studio. Kerri's got brand new Christmas stamps, a fun sale going on, and new projects from her design team all week long! And today it's my turn to share.

I'm not one to do altered projects very often, but when Kerri mentioned "home decor" as something fun she'd like to see for this week, I had the perfect idea. I have two 12×12" frames that hang by my front door year-round. I like to keep our Christmas decor super simple, and one of the three areas that I actually decorate in the house is our entryway by the front door. I had the idea to create two 12×12" altered canvases that could be hung in place of those frames during the Christmas holiday.

I knew I would keep the canvases pretty simple, overall, but I did want to make sure they had some texture and interest to them. This is where a few cut files from Kerri, along with some Silhouette chipboard, came in. I also used chalkboard paint, texture paste, silver metallic paint, silver glitter paint, and some black misting spray. All of these combined gave me just the texture I was looking for.

I picked out a circle background from Kerri's More Background Basics kit, and cut two of them at 6" in size. While it would have been much easier to work with one large piece, to cover the entire canvas at once, the circles would have been much larger than I wanted if I had cut it at 12" in size. So I just used the 6" background piece and figured I would move it around as needed.

I also picked out two Christmas words from Kerri's Merry Everything kit to feature on my canvases, and cut each one three times from the chipboard. The Silhouette chipboard is on the thinner side, but it's easy enough to layer 2-3 pieces together, to make a thicker word.

The die cut circle pieces were going to act as stencils for this project. I laid the stencil on the canvases and spread texture paste over it. This was my first time using texture paste, and while I wasn't exactly very neat about it, I like how it turned out. After I finished one corner of the canvas, I lifted the stencil carefully and moved it around until the entire canvas was covered.

Once the texture paste was dry, I painted the entire canvas with 2 coats of metallic silver paint.

After the metallic paint dried, I painted the entire canvas with 2 coats of silver glitter paint.

Once the glitter paint was dry, I spritzed both canvases with black misting spray. I should be transparent here, and say that I'm not sure the misting ever fully dried. I didn't think that one all the way thru. Lol. Might have been better to mist it before adding the glitter paint?

I adhered the three chipboard words together, for each word, and then painted each word with black chalkboard paint. I gave them both two coats of paint.

Once chalkboard paint dries, you have to "condition" the paint. I learned this when I painted one wall in Sarah's room with black chalkboard paint, and then looked it up on Pinterest to find out what to do to it next. You simple rub a piece of white chalk all over the paint.

Then you use a slightly damp rag to rub chalk in a circular motion until you get the look you desire. I couldn't remember if I was supposed to use a damp cloth or a dry one, and I actually ended up using both a little. Too much chalk came off some areas of the words, so I just rubbed some more chalk on and then rubbed it back off. I just played around until they looked right.

Once the canvases and my chipboard words were painted and dry, I adhered a word to each canvas, in the bottom right corner using glue dots.

The three layers of chipboard together made just the right thickness I was hoping for. This was my first time using the Silhouette chipboard and I know I'll be using it a lot more now. It cut perfectly!

I wanted to add a little something else to the canvases, but nothing that stood out too much. I remembered these silver glittered enamel dots that I've had forever, and they were the perfect, simple embellishment. I adhered a handful of the enamels to each canvas, adding them to the centers of the circles.

This was by far the messiest project I've made in a really long time. Even though it really wasn't all that messy. I don't get very "artsy" that often, so the fact that I used several paints and texture paste was pretty impressive. At least to me it was.

These canvases will fit in perfectly with my simple Christmas decorations. I hate that I have to put them away for months before it's the right time to take them out and hang them up. Feels sad to put something pretty and sparkly away, but I'm sure people would think I was crazy if I hung them up now 😉

Make sure and stop by Kerri's blog all this week, to see what else she has going on and see what the rest of the team is creating!