Laura Vegas

Bella Blvd: Favorite Shows

June 26, 2014

Today, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we're sharing our Pinterest Inspired feature. And I couldn't resist playing along with this inspiration piece! I think I mentioned this the last time I did a Pinterest Inspired layout, that when I go to chose images for our designers to use each month, I almost always have an idea in mind when I pick each image. And this was no exception.

{Image Credit: Pinterest}

I loved this creative cluster of yarn balls, which were shown as a hanging decor item. I'm a sucker for circles, and the color scheme is gorgeous. I immediately pictured lots of circles on my page, in a similiar cluster/pattern. I knew I wanted to keep with the same colors as well, so I dug through my entire Bella patterned paper collection to find the perfect papers in pinks, aqua, and tan.

I pulled a few patterned papers from the Birthday Girl collection, one from the Birthday Boy collection, and one from the Play Date collection. I've always loved this fun circle patterned paper and it just so happens to come in several different colors throughout the collections. I also added in some embossed cardstock from Core'dinations for a little added texture.

I started out thinking I would only machine stitch around some of the circles. Not all of them. But once I started, there was no way to stop. It felt weird to not do all of them. I'm not great at machine stitching in circles, which is why I go around three times, just so make it look like it's meant to be a bit random.

Once they were all stitched, I went about arranging them on my page. I had them all arranged just like I wanted them, and then realized I had forgotten to mist my white cardstock background. So I carefully moved the circles off the page, keeping them in the same basic configuration. That plan didn't work so well, and once I went to place them all back on, I spent more time than I care to admit trying to get them just perfect.

At some point, I decided to make this a non-photo layout. I thought it would be fun to document my favorite TV shows at the moment. I'm not going to lie. I watch a LOT of shows. I'm loyal to a LOT of shows. Which is kind of weird, because I really don't feel like I watch that much TV. The only time that I even watch my shows is late at night. But I somehow manage to fit all of these shows into my viewing time.

But typing these up, I felt like I was leaving out so many shows. I even Googled the network line-ups for the 2013-2014 season, looking for shows that I might have forgotten about. There's plenty of half hour comedies that I love to watch, but sadly, the majority of them all got cancelled this spring. Figures. There's random shows that I also watch here and there, and I'm totally addicted to watching Lifetime Channel movies.

The circles were the perfect way to organize my list of shows. I was able to group them by network, listing all the shows for each channel together. It was kind of weird to realize that there are a few channels that I hardly watch anything on. And we can obviously tell that ABC, USA Network, and ABC Family are my most loved channels.

I think layouts like these are fun to look back on. I like to think that I'll remember everything. But I know I won't. A few years from now, I'm pretty sure I'll still be watching some of these shows and some will be long gone and replaced by new favorite shows.
Simple Stories & Kerri Bradford: Designer Team Up

June 19, 2014

All this week, the designers at both Simple Stories and Kerri Bradford Studio have been teaming up to bring you projects showcasing the fabulous Simple Stories collections mixed in with Kerri's amazing cut files. Today's my turn to share what I created for our week long feature.

When I sit down to create my layouts for Kerri, I usually get so caught up in incorporating her amazing cut files into my page design that I oftentimes don't end up including many embellishments or "extras" on my pages. I've mentioned a few times that I honestly think I could get by with just cardstock, patterned paper, my Cameo, and a few basic embellishments. I don't always need the other "stuff".

Then again, it can be fun to use lots of other "stuff" on my pages. The Simple Stories collections have so many fun embellishments, chipboard, stickers, project life style cards, and even die cut cards that coordinate with their collections. So I went about this layout a bit differently, since I found so many different elements that I wanted to include on my two page spread. I only used three cut files from Kerri, and then focused a lot on using the extra products and embellishments.

I was sent the new Good Day Sunshine collection to work with. I didn't have any plans as to what I was going to make, or what photos I would use. I just knew that I would make a summer layout, since summer is one season that we do really well here in California.

Somewhere along the line, I remembered these photos we had taken a few years back (actually, 5 years ago, now that I did the math) on a day trip to the Alameda County Fair. I have tried numerous times to scrap these photos, but I just never found the right papers or products to go with them. This was also partially because the colors on the photos were a little "off". Turns out, I've picked up some new editing tricks over the last five years, so I was able to fix some of the color issues, which made them easier to work with. And this collection ended up working perfectly with the photos.

I started by cutting two large sunbursts, using Kerri's This & That Freedom: Just Shapes kit, from white cardstock. I lightly spritzed them both with yellow misting spray, and then adhered them to my white cardstock background pages. I love the white-on-white backgrounds for building my pages on.

I loved the die cut cards that came with the collection, and was immediately drawn to the larger aqua polka dotted card and the smaller white text diagonal striped card. These are shapes that I could also re-create with Kerri's cut files, but being able to pull them right out of the package and have them ready to use it kind of nice.

I pop dotted several of my photos and cards to add a little dimension to the page. I also bent the corners of all of my photos and cards up a bit. It's such a small thing, and yet I liked the way it looked. Once I had all of my photos and cards adhered across the spread, I started adding in some stickers and chipboard elements here and there.

I printed several photos in 3×3" and 3×4" sizes, and adhered them across the two pages, mixing in 3×3" and 3×4" cards from the Good Day Sunshine collection. I did intend to use more of the fun patterned papers in the collection, and in the end I only used two small strips of the yellow dotted pattern, two small strips of the pink dotted pattern, and the aqua dotted pattern to cut out part of my title.

When you love working with the white cardstock background pages like I do, and there are so many great project-life type cards to chose from, you can easily get away without using that much patterned paper.

I did have more photos that I wanted to include, but I just ran out of room as I was assembling this spread. My plan now is to add in a smaller divided page protector between the two pages of the spread, and then add in my extra photos and maybe a few more of the 3×3" and 3×4" cards. If I had my act together, I would have that done as well, to show you here. But truth be told, I do NOT have my act together right now. Lol.

I combined the woodgrain "Summer" chipboard letters from the collection with the die cut "sunshine" that I pulled from Kerri's Summer Lovin' kit to create my title.

Make sure and stop by both Kerri Bradford's blog and the Simple Stories blog to see the other projects that have been shared this week.
Kerri Bradford Studio: But First Let’s Take A Selfie

June 12, 2014

After Alyssa's high school graduation, I was so excited that I had gotten some great photos of her and her friends after the ceremony. But I was even more excited when she showed me all of the selfies they had taken BEFORE the ceremony. I love that my girls can capture the moments when I'm not around with my camera (or when they don't want me around!), and with the quality of camera phones these days, they really do get some great quality photos that I can incorporate into my layouts. And I couldn't wait to get this layout put together for my next project that's up over at Kerri Bradford Studio today!

I wanted to incorporate the majority of the photos that Alyssa took that evening, and ended up with 31 photos that I printed as either 3" x 3" or 3" x 4" photos. I created a two page spread that can stand on it's own. But I took it a step further, and included two divided page protectors to hold even more photos. All of the 3" x 4" photos went on the actual layout pages, and the 3" x 3" photos all went into the divided page protectors. *** Alyssa would want me to mention that there are 2 photos in here that were taken by someone else. The other 29 were all taken by her.

I dug around in my patterned paper collection, looking for dark green, yellow, black, and grey papers. Our school colors are green and white, and black is usually mixed in when needed. I added in the yellow to tie in with the CSF cords and drapes that many of the students were wearing with their gowns. I now know that I need to stock up on papers in the right shade of green to go with our school colors. It was super hard to find any papers to match.

I went straight to Kerri after seeing these photos, and put in a request for a "but first let's take a selfie" cut, knowing it would be perfect for this project. Turns out, she'd been meaning to put a kit together with some other popular words/terms that teens use these days, which you can now find in her Urban Dictionary kit.

This particular phrase comes two different ways. You can either cut the words out individually, or you can have them all connected. I chose to cut them all individually, since my phrase on the second page contained individual words as well.

I used several background cuts, on a variety of patterned papers, to create the borders on the sides of my base pages. I chose the circle and petal 3" x 4" backgrounds from the Life Additions: Backgrounds kit. I like that these were meant to cut in smaller sizes, and the 3" width was perfect for adding along the edge of my page.

I thought the "And Now Let's Do This" would make a great sort of "ending" phrase for this spread. Now that the selfies were taken and the pre-graduation excitement was captured, they were ready to get out there and graduate!

I combined a few cuts, from different kits, to create this phrase. The "Let's Do" is from a freebie Kerri offered that read "Let's Just Do Today". And I used the "This" from "This Place", found in the Well Traveled kit. Always keep in mind you can mix and match words as needed from so many of Kerri's kits! Alyssa gets so annoyed at missing apostrophe's, so it bugged her that I didn't have one for "let's" on this page. I'm also missing the dot on the i in "this". I lost track of them and just forgot to replace them.

The "together" and "here & now" tabs are from the Love: Every Little Thing kit. There were only two of these tabs in the kit, and luckily, they both fit the theme of my layout. This entire spread contains very limited embellishments. Other than paper and some stickers, the only other things I added were a few buttons and some enamal dots and pearl dots.

Here you can see how the layout looks if you were to see it in person. This shows the two divided page protectors added right in between the base pages of my layout. It's very simliar to THIS layout I did last year.

I have a huge selection of divided page protectors from Becky Higgins and WeRMemoryKeepers. But I really love the October Afternoon 12" x 12" divided page protector. It's the only brand I've seen that has a full sheet of 3" x 3" squares, and it's actually the only 12" x 12" protector they have (unless I'm really missing something).

Just like the previous layout I mentioned, I chose to trim off one row of the 3" squares on the page protector. I like the idea of being able to see parts of the actual layout pages while looking at the inserts.

The "Love It" arrow piece is from the Need Directions kit. It's actually meant to be a paperclip, which I realized after I cut it. Of course, Kerri has a note on it that says exactly how it's going to cut, but I obviously didn't pay that much attention. It doesn't actually cut the arrow out, so I just slipped a piece of white cardstock in there (the green arrow is now behind the white cardstock).

I do realize that if I had left the divided page protector fully intact, and filled just about every pocket, I could have fit all of these photos into just one protector. But I like breaking up the photos, and adding in some patterned papers to some of the pockets. I also could have easily created 2 large photo collages, and fit all 31 photos on the actual two page layout. But it's fun to use the divided page protectors and mix it up a bit every now and then.

The patterned papers I ended up using are from October Afternoon, Pink Paislee, Echo Park, Little Yellow Bicycle, Fancy Pants, and Bo Bunny. I think that's everyone. I even dug around in my stash of Project Life cards (I own a ton, even though I'm not a Project Lifer) looking for some cards that might work, but I only found two that I ended up adding in.

The circle background came from the More Background Basics kit. You all know how much I love my circle backgrounds, right! I had even more little 3" x 3" pieces I was working on cutting, but my Cameo started having some cutting issues. At which point, I had this thought that maybe I needed to finally update my software. After I updated, I had no clue how to use the software, since it was very, very different from what I was used too. So I gave up at that point, and just went with what I had already cut.

I mentioned earlier that I kept my embellishments super simple. One reason being that I didn't have anything specific to go with the "high school graduation" theme of the page. And while I could dig around in my stash, looking for different types of things that could be mixed in, to make the pocket inserts a little more interesting, I'm totally fine with the simpler style and design that I ended up with.

I also used several of the square frames from the Sliders kit. I did spend more time than I cared to admit on whether I should round the corners of my photos and papers. The Slider frames had a slight rounded corner on them, while the "Love It" frames had a larger rounded corner on them, and the circle backgrounds weren't rounded at all. After rounding some corners of papers/photos, and then not liking how it looked (and having to reprint a few photos and re-cut some papers), I decided to not even worry about the fact that there's a variety of corner looks going on.

I also added in a few extra details on some of the patterned paper squares using a variety of alpha stickers. At some point, I'll see if Alyssa wants to add any more info to the pages. I really don't think she'll be forgetting anyone's name, but we can always add names in there.

If you're wondering, our school mascot is the Buffalo. We're the Manteca Buffalo's, which I couldn't fit with my alpha stickers. We're also known as the Manteca Buff's, for short, so I went with that.

Next up, I'm looking forward to doing some fun layouts with her graduation photos. And I should probably finish up the mini album I started with all of her band photos from the last 4 years. And while I'm at it, I should probably update both the girl's school album.
Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet – Summer Squeeze

June 10, 2014

It's that time again. Time for a new monthly step-by-step project sheet over on the Bella Blvd blog. This month, I focused on the new Summer Breeze collection for my layout, with a teeny bit of the Scattered Sprinkles collection mixed in.

There are so many bold and colorful patterns in this collection, so I thought I would use small strips of those papers to create the background of my page. A few of the strips are actually from the Borders paper, which is always a favorite of mine to use.

I used a large piece of grid patterned paper (mine is from the older Family Dynamix collection, but there is also a grid paper in last year's Trick or Treat collection), matted on the gray Scattered Sprinkles patterned paper, for the main part of my page. They formed a great neutral backdrop for my photo, title, journaling, and embellishments.

I used the fun alpha stickers from the Treasures & Text sticker sheet in the Summer Squeeze collection to create my title, along with some tiny gray High Five Alpha stickers to tie in with the gray dotted patterned paper and the "The Perfect Day" sticker from the Just Write Journaling sticker sheet.

You can download our June project sheet, complete with supply list and step-by-step instructions, RIGHT HERE.
My High School Graduate

June 4, 2014

Last Friday night, this happened. The big moment that marks the end of a huge chapter of our kid's lives. After spending thirteen years going to school, surviving Kindergarten thru 12th grade, the moments comes when they walk across the stage (or the grass, if you're like our school) and get their high school diploma. It's an awesome moment for our seniors. And even though it's a hard moment for us parents, to realize that our kids have gone and grown up and are entering adulthood, it's also an amazing moment, and a proud moment for us.

Our graduation ceremony is held on the football field, with all of the seniors, teachers, faculty, and the band on the field. That's the band you see in the photo above, and Sarah is in there somewhere. Depending what side of the field your senior is sitting on determines which set of bleachers you sit in. Home or visitors. Alyssa was closer to the visitor side, so we sat in the visitor bleachers. My only complaint was that there is only one set of speakers on the visitors site, where there are 3-4 sets on the home side. So we didn't hear the ceremony as well as we would have liked.

About a week or so before graduation, we had Senior Awards Night. Alyssa received her Life Membership Award for the California Scholarship Federation, along with her gold cords and tassle. The 16 students that received this award sat in the front row at graduation, so we knew it would be easy to spot her. That evening, she also received the Pinnacle Team award, as one of three students in our school to represent the top 1% of her class. Yes, we are unbelievably proud of her!!!

That's her, third from the right in the front row. Just like almost every other year, at graduation time, it was super windy out. I hadn't even though to pin her cap on, but I honestly don't think it would have helped. There were hats and cords flying everywhere. Everyone spend a good portion of the ceremony holding their caps on their heads. Lol.

We heard a few speeches, most of which were shorter than I thought they would be. Then they got to what everyone was waiting for. The distributing of the diplomas. We had about 370 students graduating in the senior class. They had tables set up on both sides of the field, so that students could feed in from both sides at once. That's Alyssa at the podium, having her name called out.

And there she is, diploma in hand. Well, the diploma folder in hand. I'm not sure if all schools do this, but they had to go into the office this week to pick up the real diploma. Which makes sense to me, since you really don't want to risk losing that important piece of paper in the craziness that happens after the ceremony.

After all of the diplomas were handed out, the graduates all walked out and spread themselves out around the edge of the football field (actually, the track around it). They were officially announced as the graduating class of 2014, and proceeded to throw their caps in the air. If the wind hadn't blown them off already!

And want to hear something weird? I didn't cry, or even tear up. And I ALWAYS tear up at stuff like this. Usually proud tears. Maybe it was the large venue, the fact that we couldn't hear that well (we were also surrounded by people in the bleachers that wouldn't stop talking, which didn't help matters), or the fact that it all went by so quickly. Or maybe I had just prepared myself so well for this moment, that I was able to just take it all in without it getting the best of me.

Sarah surprised us by being the most emotional one that evening. After she got done in the band, and had her instrument put away, she came rushing over to Alyssa. She was tearing up and gave Alyssa the biggest hug ever. I think it really hit her, watching her big sister walk up (pretty much in front of her, since she was in the front row of the band) and accept her diploma, that she wouldn't be around as much after she goes off to college.

Of course, the next morning, as soon as Sarah woke up, she came running into Alyssa's room, all happy to see her. And within about five minutes, she was talking about taking over Alyssa's room while she's gone. Lol.

Alyssa and her dad. His parents were there as well, along with her aunt, who flew in from Colorada to see her graduate. My parents and my brother were also there. I wish I had enough tickets to include my brother's wife, but luckily, she understood.

Alyssa and Joe. He has been a part of her life since she was just a year old, so he's been there for the entire ride.

Me and my girl. I can't even put into words how proud I am of this amazing child of mine. She's smart, she's a hard worker and self motivated, and she's driven and determined to be the best she can be. She's just an all-around good kid, with a kind heart and great intentions. She's got a good head on her shoulders and makes smart decisions. I can't wait to see what she accomplishes next. Love you baby girl!

I have many more photos I would love to share from that night. But since I'm already working some into layouts, I figured I won't bore you with them here. And if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you've probably already seen them. One way or another, they will all be appearing here on the blog sometime soon, as I'm excited to get them all scrapped and in her school album.
#alyssasenioryear: A Final Look

June 2, 2014

Earlier this year, I did a blog post simliar to this post. I shared a quick look at the first part of Alyssa's senior year of high school. All of the photos were ones that I have shared on Instagram, with the hashtag #alyssasenioryear. I have continued to share photos related to her senior year, using that same hashtag. I think it's so fun to pull up all of the photos at once, just by clicking on a simple hashtag, rather than having to scroll thru my entire Instagram account looking for photos that fit what I'm looking for.

I was going to share a small handful of photos from graduation. But I thought that before I share those, I would take a final look at all of the photos under my #alyssasenioryear hashtag (excluding the ones from graduation). These certainly aren't all of the photos from her year, and they don't give a full overview of all that she had going on. But they're the photos that I happen to share to help document her year, from my viewpoint.

I was going to add a brief description of each photo, so they would make more sense. But I know myself well, and I know my descriptions would NOT be brief. So, if you're really dying to know what they're all about, follow me on Instagram (link is in the upper right sidebar) and click on that #alyssasenioryear hashtag 😉

I'll be back tomorrow to share a small look at graduation.
Laina Lamb Design: Graduation Cards

May 29, 2014

I'm back. I totally disappeared there, didn't I? There's always SO much happening in the last few weeks of the school year, and having a senior this year makes it even crazier. Blogging has just been the last thing on my mind. Not that I had much of anything to blog about, even if I did want to post. I have been working on two seperate, yet related, album projects that I will share later on. I did take a few minutes to whip up a few simple cards though.

Graduation has been on my mind. Big time. Alyssa graduates from high school tomorrow evening, and I still can't believe it's happening. I got a message from my talented friend, Laina Lamb, a while back, asking if I would want to work with a few of the dies and stamps that she designs thru My Favorite Things (her dies can be seen HERE, her stamps can be seen HERE). She knew that I had a senior in high school, which meant that I would definitely be needing some graduation themed products to put to good use.

Because I've had so much going on, and the album projects were taking up most of my creativity, I ended up keeping these two cards pretty simple. It wasn't my intention starting out, but just sort of how they worked out. Not that creating these two little cards didn't involve me making a huge mess of my scraproom. Lol.

I loved the Graduation Accents die, and knew right away that I would use the "congratulations" die for a few cards. It fits perfectly across the front of a standard card. I got the wild idea to die cut these out of white textured cardstock, and then heat emboss them. I can't remember the last time I heat embossed anything. And once I started, I quickly remembered how messy it can get. I shouldn't say "messy". It just required me taking out a lot more "stuff" than I normally use when making cards. But I love the look of it, once it's done.

I rarely ever buy cards anymore, since I have everything I need to create my own, which saves a ton of money. But the one thing I miss about store-bought cards is having the words written for you. When I create my own cards, I have the short and sweet sentiment on the front, but then I'm left with that empty white space inside the card. And while I consider myself a pretty good writer, I am always at a loss for what to say inside cards. I decided I would use the Happy Graduation stamps to add a little extra sentiment inside the cards.

I stuck to a black, green, grey, and white color scheme for these cards, since those are our school colors. I have a hard time finding the right shade of green patterned papers, when it comes to matching our school colors. I found this paper which was a perfect match, and it was actually a soccer field patterned paper. I ran it thru my Cuttlebug in a dotted embossing folder.

I used silver embossing powder on the first card, and black embossing powder on the second card. I had another card in the works, using green, but quickly realized that none of my green embossing powders were anywhere close to the right shade. I also spritzed on a little white and black misting spray to my patterned papers, so they weren't so flat looking.

Please ignore my messy embossing on the stamped sentiments inside the cards. I did them at the kitchen island, while the daycare kids ate lunch. I knew I had little flecks of black embossing powder when I didn't want it. But I also knew that things were happening in front of me (dropped forks, sippy cup thrown on the floor resulting in a huge puddle of spilled milk, and kids begging for more of this and that food), and I just had to get it done. Sometimes multi-tasking doesn't work out as well as it should.

I had already die cut some numbers using Laina's Bright Lights Numbers & Symbols dies, so I thought I would use them on the backside of a few envelopes. And of course, a #SENIOR stamp, as hashtags are all the rage with the teens.
Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet – Lucky Starz

May 15, 2014

We released the May step-by-step monthly project sheet a few days ago on the Bella Blvd blog. This month, I focused on the Lucky Starz collection for my layout. I am a big fan of great star patterned papers. Just like good polka dots, hearts, and sometimes flowers, I especially love them in tone-on-tone patterns.

I started by picking out four colors of the star patterned papers to use to create the base of my page. I tried quite a few combos, but I was just drawn to the green, yellow, aqua, and orange combo, so I went with it. I cut a 3" x 12" strip of each color, adhered them to a sheet of cardstock, maching stitching along where the papers met. I then spritzed the entire piece with some white misting spray.

I really love the cursive text patterned paper, as it make a great background. I cut a large piece of it, and matted it on the black patterned paper with little white triangles. I spritzed the paper with some black misting spray, and machine stitched around the edges.

Next, I pulled out Surf n' Turf star patterned paper so that I could use the backside, which has all of these great words on it. For me personally, I couldn't see myself using this pattern as is, or even in large pieces. Once I saw a few of my talented Bella designers fussy cutting out words, I looked at it totally different. I'm not a fan of fussy cutting. AKA, spending forever cutting out intricate designs with scissors by hand. But sometimes, it's worth it.

Once I had my star patterned papers colors picked out, I went about looking for the right mixture of words to fussy cut to create my title. I knew I wanted a green word, a yellow word, an aqua word, and an orange word. And I knew I also wanted to mix in a word or two from chipboard. It took me a while, but I finally came up with a title that I liked.

I had worked in a grey 2" x 2" Candid Card, with a cute little camera on it, next to my photos. So I wanted to get a little more grey on my page. I chose a 3" x 4" Candid Card that had grey tone-on-tone stars on the backside and matted it on the black patterned paper with white triangles. I thought it would be a good spot to add my journaling.

Even though I wouldn't normally use the white text chipboard alphas on top of a white text patterned paper, I think it worked out just fine.

You can download the Lucky Starz Project Sheet, complete with supply list and step-by-step directions, RIGHT HERE.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Hello UOP … You Make My Heart Sing

May 12, 2014

My oldest daughter, Alyssa, is graduating from high school in less than three short weeks. I still can't wrap my head around that, let alone the fact that she'll be headed off to college in a few short months. College. It's such a huge process, especially when it's your first child and you're learning the ropes as you go. Every family and every student approaches this process differently, but we picked up some good tips from fellow parents of seniors and I now feel that I can even pass along some good tips to future parents of seniors.

The entire college process was a big part of Alyssa's senior year, and even with the big decision made, there's still a lot of steps that need to be checked off the list in the next few months. While choosing a college was a hard process at times, in the end it came down to an easy decision for her. I wanted to document her college choice and how she came to decide on the amazing college that she will be spending her next 4 years at. And where exactly will that be?

Alyssa is beyond excited to be attending the University of the Pacific this coming fall. UOP has been her dream college, and at the very top of her college list since the beginning. She fell in love with the school, the programs, the campus, and just about everything it has to offer. And we, her parents, loved it just as much as she did. UOP is a small, private college, just about 20 minutes from us. With everything we learned about the college, we knew it was a perfect fit for our girl. And it doesn't hurt that she'll be staying pretty close to home 🙂

Once the college decision was made, I knew that I wanted to document it. When I sat down to create my next layout for Kerri Bradford Studio, it was the perfect opportunity to do just that, as Alyssa had just confirmed her registration. My layout is up on her blog today, and I'm excited to share it here too.

About a month ago, Alyssa and I attented UOP's Profile Day. It's a day dedicated to all admitted students, where you could go visit the campus (for some, their first time, for us, our third or fourth time), attend a welcome assembly, hear from students and alumni, attend workshops on financial aid, housing, sit in on a Q&A session for your students department/major, and so much more. It was such an informative day, and we ended it with Alyssa stopping for a photo with the school mascot, Powercat.

I spent more time than I care to admit trying to come up with a title for this layout. Oftentimes, I will do my title work towards the end of the layout design process. But for this layout, it was one of the first things I did. In fact, I was originally going to have my title filling up the entire left side of the first page. It took me a while to realize that I wouldn't have enough room for my journaling, and it made more sense for my title to span across the tops of the two pages.

I played with a mix of words from a variety of Kerri's kits, trying to come up with a fun title that "announced" her college choice. I looked at a ton of Kerri's brush script hand-written words, as I'm loving the look of them. I loved the idea of using the large "hello", from Kerri's Let's Go kit, and then adding her college choice directly after it.

I used the Weathered Door Alpha kit for the name of the college. The University of the Pacific is simply known as UOP to most, which is definitely easier to fit on a layout. Lol. I had dug out a wide variety of orange patterned papers to chose from, and ended up using a smaller 6×6 diagonal striped paper from Echo Park for the "UOP", as well as the arrow on the second page.

It finally dawned on me that the "you make my heart sing", from Kerri's Happy Stuff kit, was the perfect subtitle to use, as Alyssa is attending college as a music major.

I un-grouped the words, so that I could arrange them all going across the top of the right page. Once I had them sized to fit, I cut them out of black cardstock. I then decided to go back and cut out the words three more times. I adhered all four of each word together to thicken them up, mimicing chipboard.

I also wanted to include some photos of the college, but didn't have any of my own to pull from. So I did a Google search for images, and used those to create a collage using a template from Kerri's Storyboard #6 kit. Tell me that's not a gorgeous campus, right! It's actually ranked the 31st most "amazing" colleges in the country, and rightly so.

I can't remember the last time I journaled this much on a layout. I knew I had a lot to say, but I didn't have much wiggle room with a 5×7" photo and a 9×7" photo collage. It took me a while to condense what I had to say, into the space I had to say it in, and still make sure I got the most important details in there. I think I did fairly well.

Now wish us luck getting through these last 3 weeks of school. We have so many end-of-the-year award ceremonies, final band concert, and all of the senior/graduation activities that lead up to the actual graduation event. It's all happening so fast, with so much going on, that I haven't had much time to let the reality of it all set in. It's going to hit me like a ton of bricks before I know it!
Scrapbook & Cards Today: Super Fabulous Summer Golfing

May 8, 2014

I thought I would finally share my layout from the Spring issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today. I have been working on the "What's Next" feature for the last few issues, which means I'm creating a layout with the next season in mind. So for the spring issue, I created a summer themed layout. I was sent the new DIY Boutique collection from Simple Stories to work with.

This collection has tons of bright and fun summer colors, and then lots of black and white. I love how the colors "pop" more when mixed in with the black touches. I'm a sucker for small text type patterns, so I knew I would use the black text patterned paper. I also chose a diagonal stripe patterned paper and a subtle woodgrain patterned paper to use, along with lots of the solid colored papers.

I used lots of little strips of the papers for this layout. In fact, if you had seen my desk at the time I was working on this layout, you would have been amazed at the amount of little scraps I had laying around. I would cut a strip, and then changed my mind on the size and cut another one. The way I pieced everything together was way more complicated than it needed to be. But that's how it goes sometimes when you start without a plan.

I also pulled out some white cardstock circles that I had left over from another project and used them on my title piece. I knew I wanted to use some of the fun circle stickers, so mixing in even more circles seemed only logical.

I rediscovered my embossing folders and Cuttlebug in creating this layout. I know I've been embossing a lot more lately, but this layout is were that started back up for me. Since I was using a lot of the solid colored papers in this collection, I felt like they needed a little texture added to them so they didn't feel so flat. I used a variety of embossing folders for a fun, random look. I also lightly sanded over the embossed areas to bring out some of the white core of the papers.

The "super" and "fabulous" were stickers. I think you all know I love to include handwritten words in my titles, so I loved that it was as easy to do as peeling off a sticker and adding it to the page. I combined them with some fabric Thicker alpha stickcers and some green alpha stickers to complete my title.

If you haven't checked out the Spring issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today yet, you can view it online or download it (totally free) RIGHT HERE.

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