Laura Vegas

Citrus Twist Kits: April Guest Designer

April 1, 2014

I was excited to receive an invitation a while ago to be the April guest designer for Citrus Twist Kits. It's been a while since I have worked with a monthly kit, and I welcomed the challenge of working with a hand-picked set of coordinated products. Today I am being introduced on the Citrus Twist Kits blog, where you can read a little bit about me, see a current photo of my scrapspace, and read some fun Q&A's. And I'm pretty sure if you leave a comment on THEIR blog, you'll have a chance at a little giveaway (check out the link for details).

Along with my introduction, I am also sharing my first layout created with the April kit. Since Citrus Twist Kit is a mid-month release club, the full reveal of the April kit won't go up until April 5th. So you'll have a better idea of the products I was working with this coming Saturday, when the kit goes up. But for now, I'll share a bit about my layout.

I loved the Amy Tangerine tags that came in the kit, and they really acted as starting points for all of my projects. I pulled out this first tag with the yellow "today" on it, and then paired it up with some pink and yellow patterned papers, and the black chalkboard patterned paper.

I had cut a few little strips from a sheet of patterned paper that I thought I might use on my layout, concentrating on all the yellow ones. This "I've got sunshine" one reminded me of a photo collage that I had printed out of Sarah forever ago, but had never used. This was a selfie that she had taken with her iPod, edited on her own, and created this four photo collage. I thought it was super cute and printed it.

And so my title was born. Hello Sunshine. I used my Cameo to cut the "Hello" from the black chalkboard patterned paper, and the "Sunshine" from yellow patterned paper.

There was a variety of Maggie Holmes Styleboard Frames in the kit, and I knew I wanted to incorporate them on all of my projects. I wanted the larger square one for this layout, but as-is, it wasn't working for me. I wanted to bring more pink into the page, to go along with the pink patterned paper strips along the top and bottom of the page, so I decided to paint it pink.

I brushed on a few coats of pink acrylic paint and let it dry for quite a while. Then I ran the frame thru a dotted embossing folder to give it more texture. The pink ended up being just a tad too bright for my liking, so I spritzed it with some white misting spray.

I die cut a fun layered sun with my Cameo, using the same yellow patterned paper that I used for part of my title. I cut the center circle twice, making one slightly smaller, just to add some extra interest. I machine stitched around each of them and then layered them all together, adding the fun black polka dot badge to the center.

I'll be sharing a few more projects during the month. Don't forget to check out their site if you're in the market for a fun kit!
One Imaginative Afternoon

March 26, 2014

This layout here is the last of the five new layouts I created a few weeks back. I'm pretty sure the only reason I was able to create 5 layouts in just a few days time, was because I took two days off work. Since I haven't created anything since. In fact, I do have a few projects that I need to make in the next week or so, and I'm struggling. It's like I forgot how to scrap, where to start, etc. The product just sits there and I keep shoving papers around and getting no where. Wish me luck on that 🙂

Anyways. This ended up being a pretty basic layout. I had come across these photos of Sarah a while back and created this super quick photo collage. These were taken while doing one of our "photo shoots" several years ago. And yes, these were taken AFTER getting the good shots. As we were leaving, we wandered past a baseball field and Sarah decided to go through the motions of a complete, imaginary softball game. I guess she was reliving her youth, as she played softball for several years when she was younger. She pitched, batted, caught a fly ball, fielded a grounder, kept score, and even cheered in the stands. I love her goofy ways!

I chose the "afternoon" title from Kerri Bradford's Today kit. Except I made it thicker. I love handwritten words, but every now and then I find that some of them are a bit to thin for what I need. Kerri did a video tutorial on how to do this, which you can view HERE. I spent way more time than was necessary looking for alpha stickers to complete my title. I wasn't even thrilled with what I did pick, but I did finally settle on something.

I made a very teeny tiny dent in my massive button collection to embellish the right side of the photo collage. I pulled the colors from the striped patterned paper along the bottom of the page.

This text patterned paper is a really old paper from October Afternoon. I own quite a few sheets of it, as I was slightly addicted to it several years ago. I threw on the chipboard banner pieces at the last minute, as the top of the page needed a little something. All in all, a very simple page. Which is always a nice change of page every now and then.
Special 14th Birthday Party

March 24, 2014

A little over seven months ago, I had shared a birthday party layout that I had created for Kerri Bradford Studio. It was a two page layout, with one of those pages being a full 12×12" photo collage. I had actually created some photo collages for another birthday party layout at the same time, with the intention of scrapping it to share shortly after the first one. But life happened, and I never got around to it. And then it got pushed to the side and forgotten about.

Well, I dug out those photo collages a few weeks ago, and set about scrapping them. These photos are from Alyssa's 14th birthday party, which was about three and a half years ago. She had her party at Boomers, which is a local fun and games spot that has miniature golf, go-karts, rock climbing, water boats, and an arcade. All of these photos were taken by Alyssa's dad, while I did all the editing. I love that they're so bright and colorful!

Quite a while ago, I had received some Echo Park collection paper packs, and one of them was the Happy Days collection. At first glance, it might not have been something that I would get much use out of. But I specifically set it aside, with these photos in mind. And I'm glad I did, because it ended up working out perfectly.

I ended up creating two photo collages for this two page spread. I did a full 12×12" photo collage, which has fourteen photos on it. I then created a smaller photo collage, which has eight photos on it. So on this one two page spread, I was able to include 22 photos!! Both photo collages were created using template from Kerri Bradford's Storyboard #7 kit.

I was originally going to die cut some little banner pieces from the patterned papers in the collection kit. However, the sticker sheet that came with it had an entire row of these fun little banner stickers, which tied all of the colors in from the striped patterned paper strips that I added above and below the photos. I embellished a few of them by adding coordinating enamel dots.

Once again, I choose a chunky font word and a cursive font word to combine for my title. I cut both of them from black cardstock, and then from my aqua and red patterned papers. I adhered them all together, slightly offsetting the black cardstock cuts to help the patterned paper cut stand out. I don't always remember to do this, but when I do, I really like how much it can add to my titles.

I used a few additional stickers to round out my title. The "special" arrow came from the Echo Park sticker sheet, and then I dug around my stash for the small number and letter stickers to match. I added a few more enamel dots for good measure.

Random tidbit: I recently came into a huge assortment of enamel dots, using some product credit I had for recent published work. So I had joked to a few friends that I would be adding enamel dots to EVERYTHING I create 🙂

This is the exact same template that I used on that original birthday party layout, which was one of Sarah's many swimming parties. I like that it has a good mix of vertical and horizontal openings, with both small and larger openings. When I create larger photo collages, I have them printed at Costco. It's super convenient for me, since it's only about 2 miles from my house.

There were some fun tab style stickers on the sticker sheet and I thought I would add them here and there to my photo collages. It was a really simple way to embellish the collage, which is really one of the two "pages" in this layout spread. I also adhere these 12×12" layouts to a sheet of cardstock, just to make them a little more sturdy.

These types of layouts are some of my favorites to scrap. I know sometimes it's overwhelming to scrap events or moments that have a TON of photos. But I also LOVE that I can take an event with a ton of photos, use a ton of those photos, and document it on a simple two page spread. It always feels really good to get these types of layouts done and in the books.
Music

March 18, 2014

I mentioned last week that I had taken two vacation days from my adorable, but exhausting, daycare kiddos. I managed to get 4 new layouts created in those two days, and I still have 3 of them to share. This layout here came about very randomly. As do a lot of my layout, if I'm being honest.

I happen to be ordering a few photo enlargements from Costco, and had a 6×12" photo collage that I had to order, since I don't have a large format printer. I had room on the sheet for another long collage, so I started digging around for photos that I could use. I came across these photos of Alyssa and Zachary (my cousin's son, but also one of my previous daycare kiddos), taken this past Christmas, and decided to use them. I used a storyboard template from Kerri Bradford's recent Photo Strips #1 kit to create my collage.

I've had the collage laying around for a while, and would randomly add pieces to go along with it. The black text patterned paper (from Simple Stories) has gotten a lot of use. I received one sheet of it for an assignment, and used pieces of the paper on that layout. I've also used strips on THIS layout, and THESE cards. And I still have pieces left over.

The circle die cut background piece was something I had cut for another layout. I had sprayed it with silver misting spray to completely cover it. At some point, I realized how well it would work on this page, so I swiped it from it's intended layout.

I just love the "I love music" shape from the Silhouette store (found HERE). In fact, one of Alyssa's shirts from TriM club at school has a very similar shape on the back. And she has said that if she were to ever get a tattoo, this is what she would want to get. Random tidbit for you there 🙂

I also found my "Music" title in the Silhouette store. I have always loved the look of the outlined title words. I cut the outline part from that same black text patterned paper, and the block part from a tone-on-tone red dotted patterned paper. For adhering those thin outlined pieces, I usually just run them thru one of my Xyron create-a-sticker machines. I have them in varying sizes, and use them for the majority of my die cut pieces.

I searched high and low in my stash for some music note patterned paper. I did find two, but one had too much cream to it (I'm not a cream person) and the other was more cutesy, with girly colors. Not quite what I was looking for on this page. I did however, have this fabric sort of "paper" that was black and white, but a bit sheer at the same time. I honestly didn't want to cut into it, but since I couldn't find anything else, I had to do it.

I felt like the circle die cut piece needed a little something, and dug out some super old metal rimmed tags from Making Memories. I know the middle one in the photo above looks kind of green, but I promise you, it's black. I choose a few silver, a few black, and a few silver glittered tags. These were the metal rimmed tags that you would use in the MM Tag Maker, a little hand held tool that would flatten out the rims after you placed something inside the tags (patterned paper, photos, etc). I used to use them all the time just like this. Nothing added in the middle. Just the flattened rims.

I had two openings in the storyboard template that I didn't have photos for, so I had filled them with some black digital chalkboard patterned paper before having it printed. If I had planned ahead a little more, I would have added my journaling directly onto the collage as well. It could have all printed together. But I don't usually plan that well in advance, so I printed out my journaling as white text on a black background.

I love that music means so much to Alyssa. It's so hard to know at 17, when you're making college decisions, what you want to do with your life. She's still deciding on what her exact plan is, but I'm fairly certain that music will be a big part of her college experience, one way or the other.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Gotta Love This

March 16, 2014

I had a new layout go up over at Kerri Bradford Studio over the weekend. I spent some time digging around my external hard drive a while back, taking notes of photos that I would like to scrap. A lot of them are ones that I have never used before, but I had some on my list that have shown up on a layout somewhere along the line. I have scrapped some of these photos of Sarah and her Teddy years ago, for a Creating Keepsakes assignment. I never really loved the layout, since I was asked to do specific things that I wouldn't normally do. So I have no problem scrapping these photos again.

I started out by cutting a open heart background, from Kerri's Heart Backgrounds kit. I cut it from white cardstock, and then adhered it onto another sheet of white cardstock. The white-on-white makes for a nice subtle background. I spritzed the entire piece with some tan mist, and then adhered it to a sheet of green cardstock, and machine stitched all the way around.

Brush script has been a huge trend these days in scrapbooking. I'm not about to try my own hand at it, so I was excited to see that Kerri came out with her Something To Say kit, which consists of ten hand-painted brush script words/phrases. I choose the "gotta love this" and cut it nice and large from both brown cardstock and a tone-on-tone tan dotted patterned paper. I really think brush script words/phrases are meant to be big and bold. Love the look.

I wanted to use one of the negative strips from Kerri's new Click kit, and choose the one with three openings. This allowed my photos to be roughly 2×3" in size (give or take a bit). I had a few additional photos that I had wanted to use, but I also didn't want to end up with super tiny photos. So I will most likely just add a divided page protector right next to this layout in Sarah's album, and slip the rest of the photos in.

I really debated if I should machine stitch around the negative strip or not. I didn't want to start and end up not liking it, since I really didn't want to have to cut out the piece again. I went ahead with it, since I think that a good amount of machine stitching on any project just gives it a more "finished" look.

Did you know that you can also use Kerri's shapes to print onto your photos, or even for digital scrapping? Her kits all come with the "PNG" versions of the shapes, and you can pull those right into Photoshop, treating it just like a digital element. I added the "this look", also from the Click kit, to my main photo, changing the color to a dark brown.

I kept the embellishments pretty simple to finish off the page. Most of my page consisted of browns, greens, and white, and I felt like it needed one more color added in. I came across a few embellishmens from Basic Grey that had a rusty orange color, so I decided to go with that. I wasn't sure if I should use two different pieces right next to each other that said "you & me" (the chipboard and the flag), but they had the colors I wanted, so I just went with it. I added in a few other buttons from Stampin Up and Jenni Bowlin, to go with the nice orange one from Basic Grey.
Love, Love, Love

March 11, 2014

I managed to create 4 new layouts (1 of them a double page spread) in the last two days. Not bad, considering I only HAD to make one of them. It's always nice to create just for fun, with no "rules" or guidelines.

I've had these two photos of Sarah printed out and waiting to be scrapped for almost two months. I've paired them up with quite a few patterned papers and die cut pieces. And then I would steal pieces for another project, and have to find new products to add in. The one piece that stayed with these photos the entire time was the yellow heart patterned paper (from a Dear Lizzy collection).

I finally decided to work on the layout yesterday, and started out with a white cardstock background. I figured I would mat my photos on the yellow heart patterned paper and arrange it in the center of the page. I was actually looking for a paper for another layout when I came across a super old kit of die cut 12×12 papers.

Way back in the day, Creating Keepsakes magazine put out these KOTM (kit of the month) for a while. I pretty much bought every one they came out with. One of them was a ton of 12×12 die cut background papers. This had to be back in 2007 or 2008, which was way before we had our Silhouette machines that could essentially do the same thing. But I've still kept them all these years, and pulled out the white heart background to add to this layout.

Pulling out that old kit reminded me of another KOTM that I've held onto. It was a kit full of shapes, titles, and phrases, which came in chipboard, plastic, and white foam. I pulled it out to see what I could find to add to this page. I thought the "love, love, love, love" raw chipboard border would tie in nicely.

I added a strip of black text patterned paper along the top and bottom of the page, and to add bits of color, I added in some torn pieces of washi tape. The pink, yellow, and grey tapes are from Pebbles, and the green tape is from Bella Blvd.

I stuck with the yellow heart patterned paper, and then added in an older pink flower patterned paper from American Crafts. I machine stitched around each paper and distressed the edges before layering them all together and adding my photos.

And the reason that I actually added in the pink patterned paper is because I came across this pink chipboard flower from that same KOTM kit, and I really wanted to use it. No real reason. I just did.

I painted the chipboard "love" border piece with green acrylic paint. After it dried, I took a lighter green paint and swiped it along the edges, using my finger. I can't remember the last time that I used paint. I still use lots of chipboard alphas, but haven't used too many other chipboard pieces for a while now.

I had fun pulling out older products for this layout. I've been scrapping for over 19 years, and I'm the first to admit I have held onto some old, old products. There's just some that I can't seem to let go. It felt good to rediscover some of those products that I loved enough to keep around all of these years.
Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet – Molly Collection

March 11, 2014

Happy Tuesday everyone! My girls are on spring break this week, and left bright and early yesterday morning for a school band trip to Disneyland. I decided to take a few vacation days this week as well, since I was in desperate need of a few "mental health" days. I've been super productive and I'm getting so much done. I even have about five new layouts in the works, so I'm going to have plenty to blog about over the next week or two.

Today, on the Bella Blvd blog, we are revealing our March project sheet! This month, I was asked to feature the Molly collection, and to incorporate a clever title into my design.

I have become a big fan of creating longer titles, and mixing different types of stickers, die cuts, and chipboard alphas together to create fun and unique titles. So this wasn't a huge stretch for me. I knew I was going with a "selfie" theme, and came up with "documenting life: 1 selfie at a time".

I started with the blue chipboard alphas, as I knew I needed more navy blue on the page. Then I added the pink alpha stickers for the "selfie", and the green alpha sickers for the rest of my title. The only thing left was the "1". I really didn't want to use the pink number sticker, since it kind of looks more like an "I". But I just couldn't find another #1 that would work, and I didn't have enough room to spell out "one". So the pink sticker it was.

I layered together some border strips and border stickers along the top of the page, and machine stitched along the top and bottom of my pink border strip. I distressed the edges of the circle flower die cut and adhered it along with a threaded button for the center of the flower.

I love the fun, colorful camera patterned paper in the Molly collection, but it was a bit too busy for this page. I chose to use the yellow tone-on-tone camera pattern on the backside, which made the perfect background for my photos.

I loved the "peace" die cut tag from the Paper Pieces die cut package, and it fit in nicely with my 2×3" photos. I used a circle punch to punch out the "selfie" camera piece from a 2×2" card in the Candid Cards package.

I have to admit that all of the photos on this page were taken by me, with my real camera. I could have found actual selfies that they girls had taken. But I chose to use these, as they capture the girls doing what they do best. Take selfies. I really do rely on them for photos, now that they're teens. They certainly don't want me trying to take photos of them that often. So I wait and use the photos they are willing to share with me.

You can download the March Project Sheet, complete with full supply list and step-by-step instructions, RIGHT HERE.
Scrapbook & Cards Today: Happiness Is Being With My Girls

March 5, 2014

I'm up on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog today with a brand new layout share, and I'm talking a little bit about one of my favorite ways to get a TON of photos on my pages. If you know me at all, then you know I'm talking about photo collages. I’ve been using photo collages on my layouts for over 7 years now (I went and double checked that, just to be sure). Whenever I want to use a large amount of photos on my layouts, collages are my go-to way of getting all of those photos onto the page in a clean and organized way.

On this layout, I was able to fit 10 photos onto one page, and I still had plenty of room to “play” with my patterned papers and embellishments. My style has always been very linear, and I love how clean the photos look when they’re all together within the collage.

I recently picked up the new Plus One collection, from Amy Tangerine, and I couldn't wait to use it for this layout. I actually dug into it for a few cards as well a few weeks ago, but I can't share those for a while 😉 I love the bold colors and graphic feel to the patterns. I had plans on working in a few of the 3×4 cards that are on a few of the papers, but once I settled on using a photo collage, that plan had to be changed.

Not the best shot here, but can you see the die cut circle strip mixed in between the patterned papers? That's another leftover piece from THIS layout. I make a good effort to use up leftover scraps and die cut pieces. I could have easily cut another piece of patterned paper to add in there, but two rows of the cirlces fit perfecty, so I just went with it.

I spritzed it lightly with some aqua misting spray. And then I didn't realize I had a blotch of it on the backside and moved it too quickly, which is why I ended up with a nice smear there on my background paper (and on the desk and a few other things as well).

I used a template from Kerri Bradford's Storyboard #6 kit, which was originally meant to hold 11 photos. But I did a little tweaking to the template to make it work for my 10 photos, by combining two smaller photo openings to make one larger opening. I did a video tutorial on that almost two years ago, which you can view HERE.

Another reason that collages are so nice to work with is that once you have your finished collage printed out and trimmed, you are really only working with 1 large photo (the collage itself), rather than a stack of individual photos that would have to be arranged and adhered. I won't lie. I like shortcuts like that.

I knew I wanted to use a strip of the yellow paper across the bottom of the page. It does have a "white washed" sort of look to it, but it was still just a little too "solid" yellow for my liking. I decided to run it through an embossing folder to add some texture to it. I've been using my embossing folders a ton lately (but on projects I can't share). After embossing it, I spritzed it very lightly with black misting spray.

The fun camera badge, as well as the black/white fabric brads shown above, are from Amy's Plus One collection too. I also added in some pink and aqua buttons from My Favorite Things. Love their buttons!

For my title, I chose the "happiness" cut from the Silhouette store, and cut it from black cardstock and the aqua patterned paper from the Plus One collection. I used some pink alpha stickers from Bella Blvd to complete my title.

If you haven't tried creating photo collages, you should really give it a try sometime. I mostly use pre-made templates for my collages, but I have created a few of my own here and there. We've made two of those templates available for download over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog. They're simpl designs and easy to use. Perfect if you are just wanting to try them out, as they're free! You can head over and download them, RIGHT HERE.
A New Favorite Photo

March 3, 2014

I just have a quick photo share today. It's that time of year again, when the almond orchards are in full bloom. There's a short amount of time to take advantage of the gorgeous blooms before they all fall, and this year the few days of rain that we've had made that timeframe even shorter.

I did manage to get Alyssa out there one evening, trying our hand at her first round of senior photos. Sarah tagged along to keep us company on the side of the road, and eventually came out to help get some natural smiles out of her big "little" sister (since Sarah towers over her by about 5 inches).

And somewhere along the line, I captured this moment between the two of them. And I love it more than anything. It doesn't bother me that Sarah's eyes are closed, or that she's smushing Alyssa's head so tightly. These two are not only sisters, but they have become great friends as well. And this captured how much they really do love each other.

I already had this exact image printed as an 18"x24" print (complete with text, by Ali Edwards), and it's hanging up on the wall, looking gorgeous. Now I just need to find two more great shots, to switch out the two other frames on either side of the one holding this photo.
Much Needed Set Of Birthday Cards

February 27, 2014

I was really trying to get these cards posted last night, but it was so dark and dreary yesterday that I wasn't able to get any photos taken. The sun is out in full force today, thankfully, so I was able to snap these photos while the daycare kids were napping. And if all goes well, I'll get this post finished before they wake up.

I always need birthday cards, and yet they are the one kind of card I never seem to make that often. I have a crazy amount of thank you card, just saying hi cards, miss you cards, cheer up cards, and good luck cards. You know, the kinds of cards that I never seem to actually use.

There's always birthdays popping up randomly throughout the year. Some that I know about, and some that are total surprises to me (meaning the girl's friends!). Although, if I'm being totally honest, even when I know a birthday card is needed, you will most likely find me tossing one together two minutes before we're leaving for the party! True story.

I recently worked with the new DIY Boutique collection from Simple Stories for an upcoming layout in Scrapbook & Cards Today. Somehow or another, I accumulated a TON of scraps while working on my layout. I was cutting into papers left and right, not really having a solid idea in mind going into the design process. Instead of filing all of those scraps away, I figured I might as well put them to good use now, instead of hoping that one day down the road I'd want to do something with them.

These birthday cards were so easy to throw together. I choose a "happy birthday" sentiment from the Silhouette store, along with a fun scalloped border (both by Lori Whitlock). I sized them to fit the front of a standard card, and arranged them so that I could cut them from four different colors of paper. That would give me two "birthday" and two borders in each color that I could mix and match.

On the backsides of some of the patterned papers were bright solids that matched the patterned papers in the collection. I simply used a three inch strip of the pink, orange, blue, and green papers, and lined all four of them up on my cutting mat at once. Afterwards, I cut eight of the "happy" part of my sentiment, all from black cardstock.

I ended up using the same exact patterned papers for all eight cards. I cut a one inch piece of the "Lovely" sequin patterned paper to adhere across the bottom of the card, and a half inch strip of the "Newspaper" patterned paper to adhere directly above it.

I then added one of the border pieces that I cut underneath the newspaper print strip. I waited until I had adhered my sentiment before I added my machine stitching. I knew I was going to do a zig zag stitch, which would partially stitch on the "birthday" piece.

To finish off the cards, I added a few enamel dots to the newspaper strip, and a few stickers to the top right corner. Easy peasy, right? I did these all assembly line style, so I would adhere one element to all eight cards. Then the next element to all eight cards. So on and so on. Not sure how long these eight birthday cards will last me, but it's nice to know I have some on hand.

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