Laura Vegas

Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life

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Kerri Bradford Studio: [inter] National Scrapbook Day

April 29, 2015

I've got a new project up at Kerri Bradford Studio today! I've had this idea to create a 6×8" All About Me album for quite a while, but have never taken the time to get it started. Sure, I do some layouts about myself here and there. But I wanted to have a place to record a variety of different things about myself, at this point in my life. Whether those things are serious, funny, or just plain random.

When Kerri asked us to make something for her [inter] National Scrapbook Day celebration, I figured this was a good time to get started on this album. And then hopefully, it will motivate me to add a few pages here and there over the next few months. Kerri has so many words, phrases, and shapes that have always caught my eye, knowing they would work great for an album like this.

I will most likely create pages very randomly for this album, and that's exactly how I got myself started. I browsed thru Kerri's shapes for a few minutes, and went with a few of the first things that I came across. Ever since seeing the cute little television that is part of The History Project class, I knew it would be perfect for documenting some of my favorite TV shows.

I decided to do a full 6×8 "layout" for one side of the spread. I cut the circle background (you know I LOVE my circle backgrounds) from Kerri's Life Additions: Backgrounds kit from white cardstock, and adhered it to a piece of white cardstock. I quickly noticed that there was some wiggle room in the 6×8" page protector, and it can actually hold a 6.25"x8.25" page, so I then matted the page on a piece of charcoal grey cardstock.

Kerri has a few different versions of the word "favorite", and I ended up using the one from the Just Because kit, cut from a scrap of red Crate Paper patterned paper. I used some tiny alpha stickers to finish the title.

I cut the TV out of a piece of chalkboard-ish patterned paper, and cut a scrap of a grey lined paper to tuck behind the screen. I almost left this page as is, without any other embellishments. I had it photographed and everything, and when I shared a sneak peek of it on Instagram, Kerri noticed that I had adhered the TV upside down. Lol. So after turning that cute little TV around, I ended up adding some enamel dots from Bella Blvd and an arrow sticker in the upper corner.

I just love the two inch pocket pages for the 6×8" albums. I knew it would be perfect for recording a lot of things in an all about me type album. I looked online to find logos for my favorite shows, making sure to find ones that could also be cropped into squares, knowing I would be using a divided page protector with 2" pockets.

I also looked for larger sized images, and really had to play around with different ones for each show. So many of the images out there are sized super small and aren't great for printing. I had several that I thought looked slightly blurry, but they all turned out pretty good. I guess it helps that the pictures are only two inches.

It was a pure coincidence that I managed to find so many photos with the same color scheme!

I have a TON of favorite shows, so I ended up adding in an additional divided page protector, and trimming off one row of photos, making it a 4×8" protector. I love the look of different sized pages mixed into these small albums, as it adds a little variety to things.

I still had a few more on my list that I needed to find logos/photos for, so I will be adding those to the backside of that smaller protector. This will allow me to document 28 favorite shows. I have way more than that, but I'm focusing on my main ones. Lol.

When I came across the "keep it real" cut in Kerri's Something to Say kit, it gave me the idea to record a few "real" tidbits about myself and my life. I think oftentimes, without intentionally trying, we can give off the illusion that our lives are a bit more perfect that they really are. So this was a chance to "keep it real" and write down a few things that others may not realize about me and/or my life.

I cut my title from some older Crate Paper patterned paper, as well as from white cardstock, so that I could layer them together. I sized it pretty large, so that it would fill up the majority of the 6×8" page. I can't even remember who makes that text patterned paper, but I cut it to 6×8" and the matted it onto a 6.25"x8.25" piece of black cardstock, so that it fit better in the page protector.

I cut out a few circles from some really old pink distressed Basic Grey patterned paper and machine stitched around them. I arranged them along the outside edges of the page, and trimmed off the excess.

I used another two inch pocket page for this spread as well, knowing that it would be a good way to add my different thoughts individually, as opposed to journaling them all together. I added in a few squares of coordinating patterned paper, so that the page wasn't all journaling and to break up the white cardstock squares.

If you get up close and really, really look, there are plenty of things about me that are "real", no matter how hard I try to come off like I have it all together. These were just some of the ones that came to mind when I sat down to journal. I'm sure that now that this is finished, I will think of some better ones!

Kerri was sweet enough to send me a few of her new stamp sets and they just happened to arrive in the mail the day I was finishing this page. So I worked two of her stamps from the One Fine Day stamp set, "seriously" and "oh me oh my", onto the page. They seemed to fit well. I'm pretty sure I didn't pick the right ink pad to use, since I was stamping them onto a coated sticker. But they're fine in my book, since I'm not an amazing stamper anyways!
Scrapbook & Cards Today: Hanging Out

April 27, 2015

Last week was my turn to share over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog, and I wanted to share my layout here today as well. Now that both of my girls are older (almost 16 and 18), one of the things that I find myself missing the most is the ability to get photos of them easily. If any of you out there have teenagers that love getting their photos taken, and do so willingly and without bribes, I would love to know your secret!

For the last few years, it's gotten harder and harder for me to get photos of them. Which in turn gives me a lot less photos to work with when it come to scrapping. Which then means I'm scrapping less layouts that I used too, and documenting less about their lives. I do think, that in some ways, it's a natural progression. They're not little kids anymore, doing cute and funny things, without a care in the world if mom snaps photos of them doing whatever it is they're doing. But after all these years of photographing them, and telling their stories, it's hard to have less options as they grow up, right?

While my girls aren't fans of me pointing my camera at them very often these days, I know that they both take tons of photos with their cell phones. I try not to ask very often, as I know they won't want to share all of those photos with me, but every now and then I will ask them to share a few photos with me.

When Alyssa was home from college for Thanksgiving break, the girls snapped off a whole bunch of photos on their phones while waiting to head out for our Thanksgiving dinner. At the time, they shared one single photo with me. And I was forever grateful! I've asked a few times since then, if I could get a few more photos to go with that one lonely photo. And finally, months later, I caught Sarah in a good mood, and she sent me about ten photos, no questions asked!

I printed out every photo, because quite honestly, I was just excited to have new photos of them! I finally decided to include just three of them, even though I wanted to use them all. They might all look slightly the same, and yet they're all different at the same time, showing off their goofy looks and funny personalities.

I kept the design of this page pretty simple, letting the photos take center stage. I went with my go-to, favorite supplies: lots of patterned paper, a large die cut title, machine stitching, and a few simple embellishments. Clean, linear, and simple.
Bella Blvd: Mid-Release Reveal – Riley Collection

April 23, 2015

Yesterday and today, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we are revealing our new mid-release! We have three new mini collections, and a collection of new 4×6 stickers perfect for projects of all kinds. Yesterday, we revealed the Riley and Rover collections, for cat and dog lovers. I worked with both of these to create two new layouts for the catalog. Yesterday, I shared my layout with the Rover collection, and today I want to share my layout with the Riley collection.

I fully admit that I am NOT a cat person at all. Not. At. All. But I do know lots of family members and friends that are cat lovers, so I knew I would be able to track down a photo to work with. I quickly remembered this photo that my good friend Deneen took of her daughter Kayley and their cat Whiskers. It's a gorgeous photo and I knew it would be purrfect for this collection. See what I did there 😉

Just like on my Rover layout, I knew the tone-on-tone grey text patterned paper would be great for the background of my page. While I didn't want them to look too similar, they were great for letting the title and embellishments stand out. And I didn't really realize it when I created these two layouts, but I used the black 3×4" card on both layout, and on both of them, I matted them on patterned paper.

I'm a huge fan of scalloped borders, so I almost always gravitate towards the two different scalloped stickers on the Treasures & Text sticker sheets. I think I need full sheets of just the 12" scalloped border stickers. Lol.

I used a few small strips of different patterned papers on either side of my photo, and then added a sprinkling of embellishments to the left side of the page. A few stickers, a chipboard heart, and some enamels.

To see the full reveal, and get in on a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it, head over to the Bella Blvd blog for more details!
Bella Blvd: Mid-Release Reveal – Rover Collection

April 22, 2015

Today and tomorrow, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we are revealing our new mid-release! We have three new mini collections, and a collection of new 4×6 stickers perfect for projects of all kinds. Today we are revealing the Riley and Rover collections, for cat and dog lovers. I worked with both of these to create two new layouts for the catalog, and I'll be sharing them today and tomorrow. First up, I wanted to share the Rover collection.

I don't have a dog. In fact, we've never had pets of any kind, other than a goldfish that lived for two years and a hamster that lived for a few weeks. But my parents have always had a dog, so I pulled up these photos I took of their previous dog, Annie, several years back for this layout.

I used the grey tone-on-tone text patterned paper for my background, knowing that the other papers and my photos would stand out well against it. I cut several strips of patterned papers, as well as used a few border strips, to add to the left side of the page and along the bottom of the page.

I added some of our newer star chipboard elements to the page, in coordinating colors, along with enamel dots.

Both the green and brown Amorie chipboard alphas coordinate well with the Rover collection. I used the green alphas, along with the black alpha stickers from the Treasures & Text sticker sheet for my title.

To see the full reveal, and get in on a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it, head over to the Bella Blvd blog for more details!
Kerri Bradford Studio: Grateful Every Single Day

April 16, 2015

I have a new layout up over at Kerri Bradford Studio today. Every few months, I take photos of my cousin's adorable little family. I've gotten into the habit of printing out a few of my favorite photos each time, and creating a layout with them, and this layout is from our most recent photo session, back in February.

I wanted to keep this layout fairly simple in design, and I knew a white-on-white background would make a great backdrop for my photos and a big, bold title. I knew I wouldn't be adding any journaling to this layout, as these are just family photos with no real story behind them. Just a pretty page that they can have. But I really should add the date to this one before I give it to them.

I went to my all-time favorite circle background cut, from Kerri's Background Basics kit, and cut it from white textured cardstock. I adhered the background piece onto another sheet of white textured cardstock and then spritzed the entire piece with green and black misting spray.

I cut out the center of the text patterned paper (from Crate Paper) and matted it on top of my cardstock background, to create a frame of sorts around the outside edges of the page. This is a great way to utilize your patterned paper, since if you were to have cut down the white cardstock and matted it directly on top of the patterned paper, you would have covered the entire center anyways. I also used my scalloped border punch on some strips of red patterned paper, tucking them under the "frame" on all four sides.

I cut my title, "grateful", from Kerri's Grateful kit, from a black diagonal stripe patterned paper from Echo Park and added a subtitle using some skinny alpha stickers from Jillibean Soup.

I cut several hearts, using Kerri's XOXO kit, from coordinating patterned papers to embellish the page. I only ended up using six of them, even though I'm pretty sure I cut about twenty of them. I topped each one off with either a button, jewel, or enamel to finish off the page.
Bella Blvd: Step-by-Step Monthly Project Sheet – Simply Spring Collection

April 6, 2015

Today, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we're releasing the monthly project sheet for April, which features the new Simply Spring collection and our new Bella Bows. I used a few photos my cousin's cute kiddos, Zachary and Madison, as I knew they would match perfectly.

I picked out several sheets of patterned paper and cut blocks from each in varying sizes. I knew that I wanted to do 3 vertical rows of paper on the page, but I didn't want the pieces to line up exactly the same on each side.

For the center piece, I ended up using a full 12" piece of the pink woodgrain patterned paper, and then layered a 12" piece of the cloud Clear Cut transparency directly over it. I distressed the edges of all of my patterned papers, and machine stitched around the edges before adhering any of them to the page.

I adhered my two photos to the center of the page using pop dots, and then arranged my title underneath. I used the "sunshine" letters from the Chipboard Icons sheet, and then used some of the white Amorie chipboard alphas to complete my title.

I then embellished the page with lots of chipboard pieces, from several of the chipboard sheets. I used the Simply Spring chipboard icons, the WhatNots chipboard, the Symbols chipboard, and the Flowers & Clouds chipboard.

And for the first time, I used a few of the new Bella Bows. I have to be honest, I'm really not a big bow person, so I haven't used these before. But I think the white ones looked really cute on here. I also added some of our new enamel dots to finish of the page.

You can download our April project sheet, complete with supply list and detailed instructions, right HERE.
Scrapbook & Cards Today: Birthday Celebration

March 26, 2015

I'm not sure if you've heard, but Scrapbook & Cards Today is celebrating their 9th birthday, with a celebration on the blog that's lasting for 9 straight days! Each day they're sharing a project created by one of the team members and hosting a giveaway from their generous advertisers. I must not have been paying attention, as my cards went up on day four (Tuesday).

The one type of card that I always find myself needing more of is birthday cards, which is why I love to mass produce them a few times a year. My Silhouette Cameo comes in super handy for this, as I can cut pieces for numerous cards at once, and then simply piece them together.

Design team member Nicole Nowosad designed a free birthday cut file (containing a handful of different designs), which you can find HERE. We were asked to incorporate one or more of the cut files into a birthday themed project. I picked out a few designs from the cut file and arranged them in my Silhouette software so that I could cut all of the pieces for 6 cards at once.

I picked out a few different patterned papers (one set for girlish cards and one set for boyish cards), and cut strips of each paper to place on my cutting mat: one pattern for the sentiment, one pattern for the scalloped borders, and 3-4 patterns for the little banner flags. So after running my cutting mat thru twice, once with each set of papers, I had everything I needed to make 12 cards, assembly style.

I used white card bases for all of my cards, and also cut a piece of white cardstock for the front of the card, just a little smaller than the size of the card. I ran those thru my Cuttlebug, in a dotted embossing folder. Then I spritzed them with some misting spray - black on the girlish cards and tan on the boyish cards.

I kept these cards very simple and fairly flat, so that they're easy to mail if needed. I trimmed down the scallop borders just a bit, since they were taller than I wanted them, and then added a strip of patterned paper along the top, along with a piece of ribbon. Ribbon? Yeah, something I have TONS of and never seem to use anymore.

I added the "birthday" to my "happy birthday" sentiment using tiny alpha stickers on these two cards. But I will most likely dig up a "birthday" stamp to use on the other cards once I put them together. Just easier than using up all of my alpha stickers.

You'll want to visit the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog and check out all of the other projects that have been shared so far, and get in on the fabulous giveaways. For an opportunity to win each day's prize package, just leave one comment on each day's post before 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 4th. They will be announcing all of the winners on Sunday, April 5th.
Scrapbook & Cards Today: Little Miss Sunshine

March 23, 2015

As promised, I'm back today to share the layout that I created for a try at the cover of the spring issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today. If you haven't yet checked it out, you can download/view it HERE. The editors ask three designers to each work on a layout option for the cover, so we are each sent the same photo, title, and journaling. From there, it's all up to us where we go from there.

Isn't it the most adorable photo, of the most adorable little girl? That little girl, Emily, belongs to the talented Maggie Holmes, who is an amazing photograph (along with scrapbooker and product designer). I usually let the photos determine my color choices, and that's exactly what I did here. I knew I wanted greens and yellows, and a touch of navy blue to go with Emily's denim jacket. I also wanted to mix in a touch of brown and cream, a I saw more cream in her headband, even though I think it was a very light pink.

I had some small amounts of this cream text patterned paper and the brown woodgrain patterned paper, both from Maggie's Open Book collection, and thought they would make for a good background. I cut a circle background from the text paper using my Cameo and adhered it to white cardstock, before adhering that to the brown woodgrain patterned paper.

I thought this fun "sunshine" title that I found in my Silhouette library was really cute. I cut it from a green grid patterned paper from Simple Stories and also from the brown woodgrain patterned paper, and then layered them together. I used some navy blue alpha stickers from Jillibean Soup to complete my title.

I wanted to incorporate some lemons into the page design, as there were lemons in the background of the photo and lemons were also a part of the journaling. I came across this mason jar, also in my Silhouette library, and thought it was perfect for "holding" some lemons.

I had every intention of die cutting some lemons, but I came across a patterned paper from the Dear Lizzy Serendipity collection that had these cute little lemons and figured I would fussy cut them out to use. I lightly wadded them up, to give them a bit of texture, before adhering them and then added a few yellow enamel dots to each lemon.
Tackling Christmases Past: Under The Tree & Christmas Morning

March 18, 2015

Remember when I was on this kick of "Tackling Christmases Past"? I didn't forget about it, even though it's been about three and a half months since I shared a few layouts from this project. I shared my first two double page spreads HERE, and shared my second two double page spreads HERE. And then I got sidetracked with CHA work and the Creative Team call at Bella Blvd, and everyday life. But it's still on my to-do list, and I managed to knock out two more layouts last week.

And those two layouts are up at Kerri Bradford Studio today. This first layout covers Christmas morning, 2010. We always open gifts with just the four of us on Christmas morning. Unless the girls are with Alyssa's dad's family, then we'll do them later that evening.

I used one of Kerri's templates from her Storyboard #2 kit to create my photo collage. I don't usually take that many photos Christmas morning, now that the girls are older. Just a small sampling. Always a few of just the girls together, and I try my best to make sure Joe and I get in at least one photo.

I chose my title from Kerri's Merry Everything kit, and cut the "under the tree" from a red "joy" patterned paper from Studio Calico and a black chalkboard type patterned paper I had some scraps of. I also added a small strip of black star patterned paper from Studio Calico along the top of the page, and the green dot and aqua patterned papers are from Simple Stories.

I added a 3×4" card from Simple Stories in the upper left corner of the page, and then dug into my stash of Christmas embellishments. I ended up using some super old metal embellishments from Making Memories, along with their older chipboard buttons.

These photos are from the second half of Christmas morning, 2009. I know we had opened gifts with just the four of us that morning at the house. But then we went to drop the girls off with Alyssa's dad, to go celebrate with his family, and that is where they were given their big gifts, which were from Alyssa's dad, Joe, and myself.

I had cut the circle background, from Kerri's Life Additions: Backgrounds kit, out of white cardstock for an entirely different layout. One that never worked out. So I decided to use it on this layout. And somehow I ended up using a shimmery sheet of green cardstock for the base of my page. I rarely ever use solid colored cardstock, as I really love my white.

Once again, I used one of Kerri's templates from her Storyboard #2 kit to create my photo collage. The same template that I used for the first layout, in fact. I have another layout that I really want to make one of these days, related to when I posted these photos on my blog that year. It's a funny story, but it deserves a layout of it's own.

Once again, I chose my title from Kerri's Merry Everything kit, and cut it from the same black chalkboard patterned paper used on the first layout. As usual, I lost the dots to my i's, so I used some enamel dots to dot them. The red dotted patterned paper is a really old paper from Scenic Route.

I dug into my stash of Christmas embellishments, and ended up using these super old glitter foam tree and star stickers from Making Memories. This is also the only layout, out of the six layouts I've done, that I included journaling on. I haven't felt like any of the others really needed anything said, but wanted to include a little text on this one.

Once again, just like I mentioned when I shared my last two Christmas layouts, I almost got hung on these layouts. Thinking they looked a little plain and pretty similar to the previous four layouts (even though these are one pagers).

And once again, I had to remind myself that I'm totally fine with these layouts looking similar in design. That's the beauty of not feeling like I have to re-invent the wheel on all of these Christmas layouts. The entire point was to take something that I don't necessarily enjoy scrapping, and get-it-done. And that's exactly what I'm doing.
Bella Blvd 2015 Creative Team

March 13, 2015

Yep, it's that time again! Time to announce Bella Blvd's new 2015 Creative Team. It's very bittersweet, as we have to say good-bye to some amazing designers that have put their hearts and souls into their work with us over the past year and a half. I could not have been more impressed with my awesome team of designers from this past year, and I wish them all nothing but the best in their creative futures.

But at the same time, we're gaining a new team of designers (with a few familiar names from last year's team). And I truely believe this will also be a fantastic group of designers, and I'm so excited to start working with them all and getting to know them all better.

If you want to check out their blogs now, head over to the Bella Blvd blog, where I have them all linked up in today's announcement post. And then, beginning Tuesday, April 7th, we will begin introductions, as we get to know a bit more about each of these designers and see a few projects from their submissions as well.