Laura Vegas

Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life

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Just Because: Daily Practice

February 12, 2016

I'm back to share another "just because" layout with you. I love that I've had more time lately to create … well, just because. I mentioned on a post last week that I had ordered a bunch of 4×4" photos using the FreePrints app on my phone, and this is another layout where I put several of those fun square photos to use.

All of the square photos across the top of the two page spread are ones that I have borrowed (aka – stole) from Sarah's Instagram account. It would be awesome if she would willingly send me photos when I ask, but there's a massive lag in her response time 😉 So I have learned to just screenshot the photos, and as it turns out, most of them print just fine.

These photos were all from cross country season at school last fall, and I'm so glad that I was able to get a nice variety of photos. It may have only been six photos (the bottom two photos seen above are ones I took at the awards ceremony), but I'm so glad I have them. She may have more. In fact, I"m sure she has more. But I'll take what I can get for now.

I had six 4×4" photos, so I decided to line them up across the top of the two page spread. I knew the title I had planned would look better spread out along the bottom of the page, with the photos up top.

I will say the one thing about screenshotting the photos from Sarah's Instagram account (and even a few that she was conveniently tagged in, and I happen to see them) is that a lot of them ended up with different looks to them. I did my best not to get too hung up on that, and spread them out in a way that spread out the different looks. I like that there's a few photos of them at meets, a few they took after having team photos taken, and even a photo they took after an early morning practice in the rain.

I started by digging around in my Silhouette library for cut files I could use on this spread. My intention was to use this layout for Kerri Bradford this month, which is partially why all of the cut files I picked out where from her (the other reason is that I'm very partial to her designs!). Then I decided to go with the love theme for my layout for her, so this became a layout just for the heck of it.

I started with a background cut, as I wanted to add a subtle patterned paper to the pages, but didn't want solid papers. And anyone that knows me, knows how much I LOVE this circle background from Kerri's Background Basics kit. I was looking for a neutral, subtle patterned paper, and ended up using this woodgrain patterned paper from Bella Blvd (from the wedding collection of all places).

It took me a while to come up with my title for this layout. There aren't necessarily a lot of sports themed cut files out there. Although maybe I'm not looking in the right places, or the ones I see just don't appeal to me. So I had to do a little brainstorming. I came up with "Daily Practice", knowing that I would also add a subtitle along with it.

I picked out the word "daily" from Kerri's Grammar School: The Adverbs kit, and pulled the word "practice" from Kerri's Something To Say kit. I cut them both from a green patterned paper from Little Yellow Bicycle (remember them?), as well as black cardstock. It was actually a sports patterned paper (some sort of field), but the main reason I used it was because it was the right shade of green, our school color.

I eventually figured out what I wanted my subtitle to say, and used some older High Five alpha stickers from Bella Blvd to spell it out. And just now, I'm questioning whether that should have read "lead" instead of "leads", but whatever 😉

To add a little something above the row of photos across the two page spread, I dug up this fun star border from Kerri's Stars & Stripes kit, cutting it from the same green patterned paper I cut my title from, as well as black cardstock. This cut file has a flourish you can use as well, but I left that part off for this layout.

I tucked it down under the photos a bit on both pages of the spread, and then machine stitched across to really hold it in place. I also added a black scalloped border sticker below the row of photos on both pages of the spread, machine stitching across as well. The majority of the time, when I want a scalloped border, I'll simply use my scalloped border punch on cardstock or patterned paper. But I happen to have a large stash of Bella Blvd stickers, and can usually find duplicates when I need more than one.

I finished the page off with a few small blocks of journaling, each matted on black cardstock to help them stand out. Sarah always comes up with the best captions/quotes for her Instagram photos, and I wanted to include one of them on this page. I also had a few stars I die cut from black cardstock, and added those across the bottom of the two page spread. I'm pretty sure I was going to add some enamel dots or buttons or something to those stars, but I must have forgotten about that idea at some point.

I really am becoming a patterned paper, cardstock, photos, die cuts, and sticker scrapper, aren't I 😉
Kerri Bradford Studio: Love You Sweet Thing

February 10, 2016

Hey everyone! I meant to get back over here earlier this week with a different layout, but ran out of time. I'll share that one later this week. Today, I've got a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio.

When Kerri suggested we create love themed projects this month, I wasn't really sure what I would make. Then I came across this selfie that my youngest daughter, Sarah, had taken a while back, and with the colors, I thought it would make for a great love themed page.

I decided to mix the "{heart} YOU", one of the freebies in Kerri's Hello There class, and "sweet thing", from Kerri's February Fourteen kit, for my title. I cut both the heart and the "you" three times from my patterned papers. I layered the three sets of "you" letters together, one on top of the other. It thickens the letters up and almost mimics the look of chipboard.

For the pink hearts, I ran each one thru a polka dotted embossing folder, layered them together, and then machine stitched down the center to hold them together. The sides of the hearts aren't adhered together, so it gives some extra dimension to the heart. I also added some pink enamel dots to the top heart, right up top of the polka dots.

My journaling is all about how much I love her, whether she's the sweet thing that I know and love, or the sassy, stubborn, challenging thing that I see more often than not in her teen years. She's not always easy, but I always want her to know how much I love her.

All of my patterned papers are from Fancy Pants, from an older collection I believe. I actually started photographing this layout and realized it needed a little something in the top left corner. So I pulled out a few large buttons, from Fancy Pants as well, and added them along that side strip of patterned paper. Love digging into older products in my stash!
Just Because: Green Hand

February 3, 2016

A strange thing happened this past weekend. I created three new layouts. Just because. Well, actually one of those was for an assignment. But it was also created a full week ahead of the due date, which for me is quite unusual, as I'm more of a last minute person. That was actually the third layout I created this weekend, after creating two new ones just for the heck of it. Being truly inspired to create, just for me, is something that doesn't happen that often around here.

I mentioned in THIS post last week that I've been using the FreePrints app on my phone to order photos taken on my phone. I mentioned that I tend to take square photos when using my phone, intentionally, for whatever reason. Not exactly sure why I do it, but it's just what I do. And I like that this app keeps those photos square when ordering them (they still print on a 4×6", but you just trim off the sides that are blank), as opposed to forcing them into a 4×6" image. There are times when I'm ordering all of those square photos, which leave me with 4×4" pics, that I wonder what exactly I'll do with them.

Well, I did do something with them. I used five of them on this layout, all photos I took with my phone. I'm a big line-them-up scrapper, so I love to arrange my photos in linear ways, lining them up side by side, or working them into a collage. So I did know that the four inch square photos would work, even if I end up with designs that have a similar look to them. That's not something that bothers me anyways.

For the first semester of Sarah's junior year of high school, she took a floral class, aka Art/History Floriculture. I know I gave her a bad time, as she had several electives that semester, and I was like "floral, really?". But as it turns out, it was a really hard class and the hardest one she had that semester. She aced it with an A+, but she always let me know that it was a lot of work.

Since this layout was about that floral class, I decided to use a floral die cut background, in white on white of course. I used a cut file from Kerri Bradford's Background Basics #3 kit, cut from textured white cardstock, and spritzed with just a smidge of both black and green mists before adhering to my white cardstock background paper.

My title came from the award they received for being a part of the class, which was their "FFA Greenhand Degree" award. I cut the word "green" from green patterned paper (all papers from Simply Stories) using a cut file from Kerri Bradford's Bloom kit. And whenever I need a good chunky font for a word, I turn to Kerri's Weathered Door Alpha [All] kit. I cut the word "hand" from yellow patterned paper and the outline of the word from black cardstock.

I have really been bad about taking photos at school activities, sports, etc for several years now. I do find it so much easier to take a few pics here and there, now that I have a good phone. I never lug my huge camera around, but whipping out a cell phone is so easy and convenient. We were at this little awards ceremony night, and all of the new students earning their FFA Greenhand Degree went outside to stamp their handprint in green paint on a banner.

I was sitting at the table inside and quickly thought to snap a photo of them all posing for a photo, while holding up their paint covered hand. It would have been so much better if I had been outside to get a good shot, but at least I got a shot of some sort, right? I also stopped on the way out to take a picture of her handprint, next to which she had signed her name. Add in the photo I had taken of her award while sitting inside, and a few photos of floral arrangements she's brought home, and I have a fun layout documenting a piece of her junior year.
Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Project Sheet – Valentina Collection

February 1, 2016

It's the first Monday of the month, which means we have a new monthly project sheet up on the Bella Blvd blog. This month, I was asked to work with the Valentina collection and to make a layout about someone I love. I'm not a huge lovey-dovey person, yet it seemed like the obvious choice to create a layout about Joe.

I picked out a few patterned papers that I wanted to use, and cut four large squares to arrange in the center of the page. I was originally going to use one of the patterned papers as the base of the page, but once I ended up using it in the center of the page, I went with a gray cardstock instead. I rarely use cardstock, other than white, but I really love how it looked in the end.

I layered the white cardstock onto the gray cardstock and machine stitched around the edges. For the four large squares of patterned paper, I did my machine stitching around the edges before adhering them to the page.

I knew I wanted to use the new Chip Scripts chipboard words for my title, and picked out "love you always'. I cut a piece of the ombre patterned paper, focusing on the lighter pink parts of the paper. I sized it to fit my title, machine stitched around the outside edges before adhering the entire piece to the center of the page, slightly over lapping my photo.

I cut a few pieces of borders from the Borders patterned paper to add above and below the title piece, and also cut a few 2×2" and a 3×4" card from the Daily Details patterned paper to add above and below the little border strip pieces. I finished off the page with some white chipboard hearts, stickers, and red enamel dots.

You can download the February project sheet, complete with a full supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.
Scrapbook & Cards Today: Merry Christmas 2014

January 28, 2016

I thought today would be a good day to share my layout from the Winter issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today (I'll tell you why it's a good day at the end of the post). I shared a layout back in December, where I mentioned that I had used Echo Park's The Story of Christmas collection for an assignment, and I then used my leftovers for a second layout. This is the assignment/layout I was referring too.

When I received the assignment in my inbox, I remember making a comment about how they either knew that I disliked scrapping Christmas and wanted to challenge me – or they had seen that I was challenging myself to scrap all of our Christmases and wanted to help me knock another one off my list. Lol. I would normally create just a two page spread about the holiday and include our photos on that spread. But for this assignment, I decided it was just easier to scrap our family photos we took that day. These photos were from 2014, which is actually a Christmas I haven't scrapped yet.

This collection was perfect for me, as the colors worked perfectly with our Christmas photos. These colors would actually go well with so many years of Christmas photos. And while I'm not necessarily a huge fan of off-white, cream, or anything beige, it just worked better with these patterned papers than the normal white cardstock I would turn too. I had a strip of this embossed, dotted cardstock from Core'dinations that was just the right size for what I needed.

I printed two photos, one at 3×4" and one at 4×6", and then added a 3×4" card from the collection in between the photos. And since things in my little world don't usually like to go as planned, my photos actually printed a tad bit smaller than what they should have (even after picking "borderless printing"), so I had a little gap in between the photos and the "december 25" card. I simple took a sheet of coordinating patterned paper, used my scalloped border punch on a few strips, and adhered those to cover the gap. Problem solved.

I always lean towards the simpler patterned papers in collections, and picked out a few polka dotted patterns, some tone-on-tone patterns, and the woodgrain and poinsettia pattern since I wanted more of the dark browns on the page.

For part of my assignment, I was also asked to incorporate some shadowed title work. Totally not a problem for me, as I love to use a shadow effect on my die cut titles. I used a cut file from Kerri Bradford for my title, and I was able to cut both layers for my title from three 6×6" papers from the paper pad in the collection. I love using those smaller pads of paper, as the patterns are scaled smaller and good for die cutting and also cards.

So, back to why I thought it was a good time to share this layout. Technically, it's one of the last layouts I created for Scrapbook & Cards Today, as a part of their design team (I think my last one was really the 2016 planner layout). They just announced the 2016 team yesterday, which you can see HERE. After three years of being on that design team announcement image, it was a little sad not to be a part of it this time around. But that decision was all me.

After much consideration, and going back and forth with myself over it (and maybe a friend or two as well), I made the hard decision to step down from the S&CT team at the end of December. I have LOVED being a part of such a talented and amazing group of designers, and I just can't say enough kind things about Catherine, the editors, and everyone else behind the scenes. I spent three years on the Creating Keepsakes Dream Team, and then went straight into three wonderful years on the S&CT design team, and loved every year along the way.

But, with that being said, I just felt like it was time to step down – and in a sense, step away from the magazine side of things a bit. Part of it is a time thing. I don't have as much time for creating as I used to have, and for the last year I've spent a huge majority of my weekends feeling like I was cranking out assignments and meeting deadlines. Something had to give and this made the most sense. Which leads me to the other part, which is with my girls getting so much older, I feel like it's getting harder for me to work with a lot of assignments. I've found myself creating more layouts that aren't genuine, as I'm re-scrapping photos/stories I've already scrapped just to fit an assignment, or borrowing photos from friends because I just don't have the photos I need. I've chatted a bit about this stuff before, so it's not a new realization. It was just time to make a change that would help with both of those things – time limitations and re-focusing the time that I DO have into layouts that truly mean something to me and my family.

I am still one of S&CT's biggest fans, and am excited to watch what their team does this year. They really do put out an amazing publication, as I'm sure so many of you would agree. And if you haven't been checking them out, I hope you do!
Just Because: Creative Snapshots

January 25, 2016

Hey everyone! So, check this out. I made a layout. Just because. Not for an assignment, not for a deadline. Just for me. I can't even remember the last time I've done that. I recently had a few batches of photos printed, so I've actually been pulling from those photos here and there for new layout ideas. And that's how this one started.

I share lots of creative photos on Instagram, and I thought it would be fun to use some of those photos on a layout. Just a little peek into what I've been doing and sharing, creatively, over the last few months. I had all of these photos printed as 2×2" pics, without really knowing what I would do with them. I just figured at some point, I would use them for something. Well, I picked out ten of them to include on this layout, and got to work.

I had a few colors in the photos that stood out to me, and set out to find patterned papers in black, aqua, red, and yellow. A favorite color combination of mine. The black and white patterned papers are both from Amy Tan, the red is an older patterned paper from Crate Paper, and the yellow and aqua are newer patterned papers from Pink Paislee.

I've used this cool frame cut file, from Studio Calico, before on THIS layout. It's a great frame for mixing with lots of small square photos, so I knew it would be perfect for this page. I cut it from white textured cardstock, sizing it so that the openings were just a tad less than 2" in size, and spritzed it with both red and aqua misting spray.

For my title, I scrolled thru my Silhouette library, looking for something to catch my eye. I had several options going, until I came across this "Snapshots" and knew it was the winner. I've always loved the cut file titles with the outline to layer over the top. I die cut the inside from the red patterned paper, and used black textured cardstock for the outline.

My original plan was to fill all twelve spaces with photos, and to not add any journaling. I'm not one that thinks every layout needs to have journaling, when it comes to this type of layout. But after looking at my other layout using this die cut frame, I decided that I liked it with the little journaling block added in. I suppose I could have moved it to a different spot on the frame, so it wasn't so much like the other layout, but I like the way it looks in this spot.

I had an email today, asking me how I print the 2×2' photos, and thought I would add that to this post, since I used that size on this layout. Most of the time, I print my photos at home. So I just resize the photos to 2×2", arrange them on a sheet to print, and then trim them up. Another option is to create a 4×6" canvas in Photoshop, add six 2×2' photos to it, and then order it from wherever you order photos from (for me, it's usually Costco).

I recently tried out a few other printing options that I came across. Once of which I've been pretty happy with. It's called FreePrints, and it's an app that you download to your phone. You can get up to 85 prints a month for free, and all you pay is shipping. The shipping isn't super cheap, but it still worked out to less than I would pay for those prints if ordering from Costco. Plus, it was super easy to use and it's a great way to get those photos off your phone and printed. You can pick them from your camera roll, or even off your Instagram account and/or Facebook.

One reason I liked this app over another one I tried, also with free prints, is that it you upload a square photo, it keeps it square. In another app I tried, it forced it into a 4×6" image. I do mostly square photos on my phone, so I loved that it kept them square. Then you simply trim off the sides once you get the photos. I also used the PhotoGrid app on my phone, to collage four photos together into a square. Which allowed me to print four 2×2" photos super easy. And all done from my phone. Can't get any easier than that!
Kerri Bradford Studio: Week After Week

January 19, 2016

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio today. I've accumulated so many photos of my daycare kiddos lately, all taken with my phone, and thought it was about time to do another layout about what a typical work week for me looks like. Quite honestly, a typical work week for me looks almost exactly like any other work week I've had over the last fourteen years of doing daycare. Just different faces, as kids come and go.

I picked out a few photos that show a bit of the crazy moments of my days (kids making huge messes, huge amounts of kids, and lunchtime), and a few photos that show a bit of the calm moments of my days (sitting on the floor with little ones in my lap, and rocking babies to sleep), and combined them into one of Kerri's collage templates from her Half Pints #1 kit.

The colors in my photos were definitely all over the place, but I ended up picking my patterned papers pretty quickly. I find that when I don't have any particular papers in mind, I will often turn to my collection of Dear Lizzy and Amy Tangerine first to see what I can find. And that's exactly what I did for this page, as I ended up with a mix of patterned papers from the two of them. I thought the days of the week patterned paper would tie in nicely with the "week" theme I had going, and added a strip of it across the top and bottom of the page.

I was going to link up another layout I created about the daycare kids last year, and when I went to find it, I realized I had created it for my January layout for Kerri also. Must be a January thing, that I like to scrap the daycare kiddos. It's THIS LAYOUT, and I thought it was a fun coincidence that I talked about the colors being all over in my photos, and that I also turned to my Dear Lizzy patterned papers for that layout.

For my title, I loved the chunkier "week" found in the Life Additions: Weeklies kit, and cut it twice from my aqua patterned paper. I've said it before, and I'll say it again – I love a title combining a chunkier font with a cursive font. The "after" was actually taken from "afternoon", found in Kerri's Today kit, and was perfect for adding in between my two "weeks". I also cut each of the three words from black cardstock, which I layered behind my patterned paper words, slightly offsetting the two for a little dimension.

I left plenty of room to add my journaling, as I had a lot to say on this layout. I could have gone on and on about what makes up a normal work week for me, but I think I touched on the most important ones. I love doing layouts like this from time to time, as so much of the facts remain the same, and yet there's always bound to be a few new tidbits that stand out more at different times. Some years I've had less kids, some years I've had more kids. Some years, I've had lots of babies, and some years I've had way more toddlers.

This past year with the daycare has been the busiest year I've had in a long time. Anyone that follows me on Instagram already gets peeks into the craziness that makes up my days! Right now, I've got a 8 month old boy, 2.5 year old girl, 3.5 year old boy, 3.5 year old girl, and a 4 year old boy. I have another 2 year old girl that's been home with mom on her maternity leave, and will be back soon, along with her 3 month old baby brother. Like I said, it's pure crazy up in here. I love them all to death, but they seriously suck the life out of me daily. Every night, I wonder why I'm so tired – and then I think about my day, and say "oh yeah, that's why".
Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Project Sheet – Bella Bows

January 11, 2016

I'm finally back with something new to share. The January step-by-step project sheet went up on the Bella Blvd blog today. For this month's layout, I was asked to focus on the Bella bows. If I'm being totally honest with you all (and I always try to be!), I'm really not a bow person. So I really haven't used the bows all that much, since they came out a year ago.

So I ended up using them in a pretty simple way – by lining a handful of bows up across the page. Since I wasn't asked to use a specific collection, my patterned paper options were wide open. I have this little drawer where I store photos that I print for one reason or another, and then don't end up using. So I started out by just digging thru those photos to find one I could use for this page. The photos of Alyssa that I decided to use are some of my all-time favorite photos of her, and I liked that I could incorporate a lot of black and white into the page.

I started with the white/black ruled patterned paper from the IF Whatever Is Lovely collection, as it makes a great background paper. I dug out a few green patterned papers, to play off the green in the photos, and then mixed in pink just because. The papers are a mix of IF Whatever Is Lovely, Fresh Market, Family Frenzy, and Valentina collections.

I already had the 5×7 photo printed, so I simply printed two more photos as 2×3's to add to the side of the page. I don't do layouts with just a single photo that often, so I try not to do it much for the project sheet layouts either. And by adding a few smaller photos, it also gave me a few more places to add some stickers for extra embellishments.

I used the pink dotted alpha stickers from the Fresh Market collection for my title. Which I admit, I got the title from the sticker by the two smaller photos.

I also added a piece of the pink confetti Clear Cut transparency along the bottom of the page, which added a fun touch, layered over the white/black ruled patterned paper. It helped bring in some more pink to the page in a light and fun way, instead of adding on a "heavy" strip of pink patterned paper.

You can download the January project sheet, complete with full supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.
Bella Blvd: CHA Winter 2016 Reveal Week – Chip Scripts

January 1, 2016

Today I wanted to share the layout I created for the Bella Blvd catalog, focusing on the new Chip Scripts. I mentioned in yesterday's post that I love working on the embellishment focused layouts for the catalog, since I get to mix patterned papers and other elements from all of the new collections, rather than focusing on just a single collection. This applied to this layout as well. I used quite a few patterned papers from the new IF She Blooms collection, and then added a patterned paper from the Sweet Baby Girl collection and the Sweet Sweet Spring collection.

I knew right away that I would use this black & white striped floral patterned paper from the She Blooms collection. I only had them print me half a sheet (I worked with mock up product for these), as my plan was to use it along the top of the page. I spritzed it with just a little bit of white misting spray as well, and added some black enamel dots to the centers of the flowers on the patterned paper.

I started playing around with some different options for my title, using the five sets of Chip Scripts, and came up with these two words to combine. I love the script font on "fabulous", mixed with the chunkier, block font of "memories". And when I laid them on the black & white striped floral patterned paper, they ended up looking perfect to me.

I also wanted to work in a few of the "love" chipboard words. I had a few different ideas in mind, but once I had printed out my 5×7" photo (of my gorgeous niece, Jovaughnna, from when I took her senior photos several years ago), I found that I could fit two of the "love" words along the side of the photo. By adding in a chipboard heart, they were the perfect fit.

And while you can certainly alter these chipboard words/letters to make them any color you want (and it was something that I thought I would end up doing), for this layout, I decided they looked just right in their natural state.

I layered a piece of the white chevron Clear Cut transparency over the yellow dotted paper, which I had first spritzed with some black misting spray. My favorite of all of the Clear Cuts are the white ones, as they add such a subtle look by simply layering them over a patterned paper.

I quickly realized that I should have asked for a full sheet of the black & white floral patterned paper, so that I could fussy cut a cluster of flowers to add to the bottom of the page. Luckily, one of the 3×4" journaling cards had a floral cluster on it. So I fussy cut that out, and made it work down in the corner, next to my photo.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog, HERE, to see the entire Chip Scripts reveal, piece by piece, and to enter the drawing for a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it! The randomly chosen winners for ALL of the reveal giveaways will be announced on Saturday, January 9th.
Bella Blvd: CHA Winter 2016 Reveal Week – Cute Clips

December 31, 2015

It’s CHA Winter 2016 reveal time over on the Bella Blvd blog! There are 6 new collections, along with new embellishments and a huge Illustrated Faith release. We started the reveals earlier this week, and will be continuing all the way thru Monday of next week. Today we are sharing the new Cute Clips embellishments.

I created a layout for the catalog, with a focus on the new Cute Clips. I love working on the embellishment focused layouts for the catalog, since I get to mix patterned papers and other elements from all of the new collections, rather than focusing on just a single collection. I used quite a few patterned papers from the new IF She Blooms collection, and then added a few patterned papers from the Sweet Baby Girl collection, Cute Baby Boy collection, and Sweet Sweet Spring collection.

As soon as I saw a sneak peek of the Cute Clips, I had an idea in mind for my layout. It wasn't quite like what I ended up doing, but it did involve stacked pieces of patterned paper, with the little clips added to the top of each paper. I think my original idea was to go all the way across the page with the different papers. However, once I got going, I ended up creating a stacked row of papers, three inches wide, along the left side of the page.

To the right of my layered papers, I used a strip of the floral patterned paper from the She Blooms collection, with a piece of white hearts Clear Cuts layered over the top to give it a more subtle look. The black and white large dot patterned paper is from the She Blooms collection as well.

Part of the reason I decided to make these layered papers all three inches wide, is that I used most of the black/white 3×4" cards from a sheet of patterned paper in the She Blooms collection. It was a great way to get more patterns onto the page, from a single sheet of paper. I cut several smaller pieces of my different patterned papers, keeping them all three inches wide, and then cut an additional little piece of each that I used my favorite scalloped border punch on. I folded the scalloped pieces over the top of the larger pieces, and machine stitched it in place.

I then spent way more time than was necessary arranging all of the pieces in an order that I liked. I adhered them, starting at the top of the page, layering them as I went. I made sure not to add any adhesive near the top of each piece, since I knew I would be tucking in my Cute Clips and some other label die cuts/stickers as well. Once I had the papers all layered down the page, I set out to find some coordinating label stickers and/or die cuts from the bits and pieces I had left (I didn't have all of the collections, or even full collections, for these catalog layouts). I tucked the labels, along with a coordinating clip onto most of the layers of papers.

I loved the aqua heart patterned paper from the She Blooms collection, and thought it was my best choice to add to the right side of the page, where my title would go. And for my title, I picked out a few words from our new Chip Scripts chipboard words. These words all come in plain white, and can be left as-is (which I did because they looked great as-is), or painted, inked, or altered to fit your needs.

I also picked out a few of the stickers from the She Blooms collection to add above my title, as they really tied in with my journaling. I added the pink chipboard heart from the Sweet Baby Girl collection, along with a handful of enamel dots in several colors.

I didn't have any set photos in mind when I started this layout, but quickly came across these photos of another one of my previous daycare girlies. Amanda was with me for years, was just a year younger than Sarah, and was best friends with my girls for years. She was honestly like a third daughter to me when she was younger, and I had always said that about her. Just a little over a year ago, as a freshmen in high school, she went into cardiac arrest in the classroom, where she had CPR performed on her for a half hour before EMS could get there. She came so very close to not being with us anymore, and it's a true miracle that she's alive today. While we don't see her that often these days (Sarah sees her at school), and she's not a big part of our lives anymore like she used to be, she is still a very special young lady to us all and we're so thankful that everything turned out ok for her.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog, HERE, to see the entire Cute Clips release, piece by piece, and to enter the drawing for a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it! The randomly chosen winners for ALL of the reveal giveaways will be announced on Saturday, January 9th.