Laura Vegas

They Really Did Rock: Treat Bags

October 23, 2013

This is new. I created a project just for fun. Not because I had to or because anyone told me too. It was created just because I wanted too. I really should do this more often. If only I had more hours in my days! Of course, this project has a story behind it, and the story is what inspired me to create the simple project. But if you don't care about the story (I won't be offended, as I know some only want to see projects ;)), just scroll down a ways.

This past Saturday, we had a soccer game worth sharing about. We have a U-19 team of 16 players, but on Saturday we only had 10 players show up for the game. A few we knew weren’t coming and a few we found out weren’t coming at the last minute. Meaning, we found out when they didn't show up to warm up. We play with 11 players on the field, so we knew it would be asking a lot of the 10 that did show up. Our games are 80 minutes long (40 min halves), so that’s rough with no subs. Especially when we have 2 girls with really bad asthma, who definitely need those breaks during the game when they’re having a hard time. The coaches gave those 2 girls strict instructions to come out the second they had any problems breathing. No questions asked.

We put those 10 players on the field to start the game,
but we had one go down with a bad injury about 15 minutes in. We were playing
in the next city over from us, and they are not known for their fields, to say
the least. This player stepped in a hole and did something to her knee, ending
with her getting carried off the field by the coach and the referee. She felt so bad, and kept trying to convince the coaches she could go back in, but they weren't having it. Since this put us down to just 9 players on the field, in a show of good sportsmanship,
the other team did remove one of their players (but still had 10 out there). Another
20 minutes or so in, we had another player go down. She has asthma, which is
what I thought the problem was, but it was actually her ankle (that she was
already having issues with) that took a good hit. We finished out that first
half with 8 players on the field, and were up 2-0.

We started the second half with our same 8 players, and
the 2 injured on the sideline, knowing that one of those 8 players had to leave
halfway into the half. These girls were playing their hearts out and giving it
their all. Which is why I knew it was only a matter of time before Alyssa had
issues with her asthma. And about 25 minutes in (as we were playing with only 7
players), Alyssa went down hard with an asthma attack. It was bad. We knew she
was done for the day, even though she kept saying she had to stay in. This meant
we were down to just 6 players (that includes the goalie), and you’re required
to have 7 players on the field to play.

With only 15 minutes left in our 80 minute game, we
weren’t ready to just give up. Our team had worked too hard to just walk away
from a game we were dominating, even with less players. We were also finally playing a team from our own city, as we had been up against teams from the opposing city for the last 5 weeks, and the girls had been looking forward to it. And this other team came in undefeated (we've only lost 1 game). The player with the
injured knee said she would go out on the field, just to be a body. After being
given strict instructions to not move at all, and to literally just stand there,
she slowly made her way onto the field, as Coach Joe was carrying Alyssa off
the field. Our injured player did exactly as she was told, and stood in one
spot like a statue.

So the other 6 players (with one in the goal) kept the
game going for another 15 minutes. We were strictly playing defense. But as you
defend your goal, you do end up kicking the ball to the other side of the
field, so then Sarah had to hightail it back to her forward position, as she’s
one of our faster runners and our main scorer. The other team did finally score
against us in the last few minutes. But Sarah took it right back and scored
another goal. With their 10 players to our 6 players. We ended up winning the
game 3-1. It was really awesome to watch our 10 players come together like
that. They all gave 200% of themselves and worked their butts off during that
game. They left that field exhausted, beat up, and worn down. But I think we
all left that field feeling very proud too!

For the rest of the weekend, I kept thinking about how those 10 players deserved a little something special. And I knew I wanted to put something together, as I'm the team parent. It would have been simple to buy some clear cellophane bags to fill with goodies. But I'm a crafty person, and I always prefer to make something if I can.

I picked out a treat box from the Silhouette library. It's a little flap box that I've used before. I decided to cut them all from kraft cardstock, as I have a ton of it in my stash (and I very rarely use kraft). I sized each box to the largest I could get it out of a 12×12 sheet of paper. I also added a few stars to the part that would show on the front, to create some little star cut-outs. After each one cut, I lightly misted them with some purple spray mist.

I was going to go with "you're awesome" for the front of the box, but in sizing the word "awesome" to fit, it was going to be too small to cut well. I have had issues with certain cursive words not cutting as well when I try and make them too tiny. So instead, I used this "you rock", which was taken from the phrase "you rock my world". I cut these all from one sheet of black cardstock.

I added the sentiments to the box templates before assembling the boxes. It's a lot easier to do this step first, since you can really push down on things to make sure they're adhered really well. I also added a silver brad to the hole in the middle part of the front piece, since it's harder to add those on once the boxes are assembled.

Then I went about assembling the boxes. I won't lie. I found this step to be the most annoying. No real reason. They're easy enough to do. Just make all the folds to get the shape, and adhere a few pieces together to get them to hold. But it still annoyed me. These boxes, once assembled, aren't huge. They're about 4 inches tall.

I added a second silver brad to the flap piece, and then tied them to each other with some purple/white twine to hold them shut. Our team color is purple, hence the purple misting and twine.

I put some black crepe paper in the bottom of each box, before filling them up with goodies. So on some of the boxes, that black showed thru the cut-out stars. But on most of them, you could see a little silver peek at what was inside.

Hershey's Kisses was my candy of choice! Everyone loves chocolate! I filled up those 10 boxes with chocolate and sent them off with Joe to hand out to the girls at practice on Tuesday. Just a little something-something to let them know how much we think they rock!!!
Scrapbook & Cards Today: Friday Night Football

October 22, 2013

I'm back to share my second layout that was featured in the Fall issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today. If you still haven't downloaded this issue, you can find it RIGHT HERE.

I was asked to create a layout about a family tradition for this assignment. This wasn't actually my first attempt, but unfortunately my first layout was to similiar to a theme that another designer covered. So I started over. And now I'm sort of glad I had to start fresh, because this layout is one of my very favorites in a long time. I talked a bit about that in THIS POST, where I also shared a layout inspired by this layout.

Friday night football games have become a favorite fall family tradition for us. It started when Alyssa was a freshman and playing in the marching band. If I'm being honest, out main reason for going to the games IS to see the marching band. I mean, isn't the football game just the opening act for the half time show 😉 Just kidding (to any of you football moms!). While we're definitely there for the band, we do enjoy everything else that happens out on that field as well.

I used a storyboard template from Kerri Bradford's Storyboard #8 kit for my photo collage. I took most of these photos during a Homecoming game two years ago, and I also snuck in a photo of Alyssa and her friends that she took with her iPod.

I pulled out the most perfect patterned paper from Little Yellow Bicycle, as well as some coordinating die cuts. Our school color is green, along with black and white. I added in touches of tan/kraft as well.

I trimmed off the sides of the football field patterned paper, so that the sideline yardage would show on either side of the page. I also used that same green patterned paper to cut the "Football" part of my title. I used Kerri Bradford's Weathered Door Alphabet kit to cut the "Football", and "Friday" was a shape from the Silhouette store. And just a little FYI – I did dot that "i" in Friday before sending in the layout. I'm always losing track of my dots. Lol.

I journaled about how we all spend out time at the games. Alyssa is in the band, so she's out on the field before the game and during half time, and playing in the stands during the game. Sarah ran around with friends the first three years, but now that she's a freshman, she's in the band as well. Most games, you'll find me working the snack bar for the band boosters. And Joe can usually be found sitting in the stands, actually watching the football game.

In the magazine, they mentioned that I included an old ticket stub from one of the games we attended. While that woud be cool, we don't have actual tickets or anything. This fun ticket stub, along with the two pieces on the top half of the page, are all die cuts from Little Yellow Bicycle. I also cut the layered football with my Silhouette, using a shape from the Silhouette store. A few chipboard stars and wood buttons helped embellish the page.
Friday Night Lights

October 20, 2013

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. I thought I would share just a few peeks into what many of our fall Friday nights look like around here. Friday nights are spend under the lights, watching our high school's football games. It's been part of our family routine for four years now and w all really love it.

I try to watch at least two of the games each season, from the stands. Any other given game, you'll find me working the snack bar for the band boosters.

I love that Alyssa takes photos before and during the game with all of her bandmates. They show up early to get ready and she usually helps with face-painting.

A not-so-fabulous shot that I took while walking to the field from the back parking lot. On my way to the snack bar.

I'm already feeling sad that the next football game will be Alyssa's last game, as she's a senior. They all love marching season, and have so much fun together.

I'm so glad that Sarah decided to give band a try for her freshman year, along with her BFF Natalia. These two are always hilarious together, and never disappoint in taking tons of funny photos of themselves.

My view from the snack bar, located in the end zone. This isn't the best shot. We can actually see a TON from down there.

And tomorrow I'll be sharing a layout I created about our Friday night football game ritual. Hope you'll stop back by and check it out 🙂
Scrapbook & Cards Today: Today

October 17, 2013

Hopefully, you've all downloaded your free copy of the Scrapbook & Cards Today fall issue. If you haven't, you can find it RIGHT HERE. I have the first of my two layouts in that issue to share with you today.

This layout was created for the Fall Pagemaps Skech article, by Becky Fleck. I was given the sketch below, and asked to incorporate an interesting background into my page design. I knew I wanted something "fallish" (even though we don't really experience "fall" here in California!), and this photo of the girls and I has a fall feel to it, even though it was taken on Mother's Day 🙂

I chose a mix of patterned papers from My Mind's Eye to use, including a paper that had a variety of boxed numbers that I thought would work well for the little blocks scattered around the page. I knew right away that I would use a die cut background, and choose one of my favorite circle backgrounds from Kerri Bradford's Background Basics kit.

If you happen to catch my previous post from World Card Making Day HERE, and saw the first card where I mentioned using the circles that were leftover from cutting a die cut background … those circles all came from this project.

I cut a sheet of white cardstock slightly larger than the die cut background piece. I misted the white cardstock, very lightly, with green and pink mists. To adhere my background piece, I simply stapled it down on the corners. Yep, 4 tiny staples in each corner. I knew once I started to adhere things in the center of the page, there would be plenty of extra adhesive to help hold it down.

For the embellishment "border" going across the photo, I dug out some flowers by Prima that I had recently purchased. The pinks, yellows, and aquas were the perfect match for my papers. I added buttons and decorative brads to the centers of most of the flowers as well.

I mentioned that I had a sheet of patterned paper that had a wide variety of boxed numbers that could be trimmed from the page. I chose random blocks to add to my page, just as the sketch has the blocks scattered around the page. The numbers that I chose have no particular meaning. I picked them all for their colors, their shapes, or just because I liked them.

Make sure and head over to the Scrapbook & Cards Today site and download your free copy of the Fall issue, if you haven't already. It's a fabulous issue, with tons of gorgeous projects. You can find it RIGHT HERE!
Bella Blvd: Daily Chevies Cards

October 16, 2013

I disappeared again, didn't I? I hate when I do that, but life got busy and my blog wasn't one of those "I have to get it done" things on my list. I spent last weekend teaching at CKU Dallas. Which was super fun, as always! But it also involved two really long days of travel. It took a full 11 hours, both ways, to get me from here to there. I'm still trying to recuperate.

I do have a few post planned, but need to finish typing them all up. In the meantime, I thought I would start small and share a few Bella Blvd cards from CHA that I never got around to sharing. Both of these feature the Daily Chevies collection.

I thought this "You Ampersand Me" 4×6 card was really cute and decided to use it for a card. Love having a quick and easy sentiment that's all done for me.

Love the colors on this card. While the large chevron patterned papers are great, I love the versatile patterns on the "B" sides of the papers.

Keeping this post short and sweet. Will be back tomorrow with a layout share.
Scrapbook & Cards Today: World Card Making Day

October 5, 2013

Happy World Card Making Day everyone! I'm pretty sure it's almost half over for a lot of you. But I'm an east coast girl and Saturday is my one day to sleep in, which means I'm getting a late start over here. Including this blog post! Over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog, they have an all day card celebration going on. Every hour there is a new post featuring one of the design team members, including a new card, a sketch, and some tips and tricks. And there are a TON of amazing giveaways from their sponsors. You don't want to miss the fun! My card goes up later today, but you can get a sneek peek here.

I
always try and save my scraps or extra pieces when finishing up my layouts and
cards. I do a lot of die cutting with my Silhouette and I almost always end up
with extra pieces that I don't end up using. I also use a lot of die cut circle
backgrounds on my projects, so I have a pretty big collection of circles from
the negative pieces that are left over, since I have a very hard time thowing all of those circles away. I figure I can eventually find a way to use them. I have a drawer in one of my cabinets
that I toss all the extras into. I created this card using all scraps from that drawer.

The colorful pieces on this card were originally from two award medal accents that I created close to 3 years ago for a project featured in a magazine, and they have been sitting around in that drawer ever since. I took the "ribbon" tail pieces off of one accent, cut them down in size, and adhered them on either side of the layered circle part of the second accent.

I
have about 80 of those woodgrain circles leftover from a die cut circle
background piece, and managed to use up 20 of them to create a border around
the card. I ran a strip of adhesive around the card, quickly stuck down the circles, and machine stitched around them. Super simple. What I really want to do is take the remaining 124 circles and whip up more of this basic design, then embellish the center of the card to make quick birthday cards. The one kind of card I need the most.

I also made this super simple card with a few more left over circles. I have a ton of those yellow ones too, from another die cut circle background. The "hello" was left over from a batch of cards I made a while back for Kerri Bradford, and just never got used.

Even my card base was a scrap. I guess a card base can't really be called a "scrap", since it's more like an extra that will definitely get used. But I did already have it misted, as I had something in mind for it. Then ran out of time and put the card base aside for another day.

And this card uses scraps from a layout I did for Kerri Bradford a while back. When I shared that layout, I had mentioned that I had a LOT of leftover pieces, as my plans kept changing as I went along. This sunburst background was a 6×6" piece, and was already misted with the aqua (the colors look bad here, but show up better in the detail shot below).

I simply cut the background piece down to fit the front of the card, and added the "home" die cut piece which was already misted in yellow. A little machine stiching around the center of the sunburst, and a few tiny alpha stickers complete the card.

Make sure and visit the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog today. They have 13 posts planned for the day, so you'll want to have a yummy beverage and a snack handy, as you read thru everything! And make sure you leave a comment on each and every post, as there are some amazing giveaways going on! Happy World Card Making Day!
October Afternoon: September Guest Designer Part 3

September 29, 2013

Last Friday, my last project went up on the October Afternoon
blog, as their September guest designer. I really went back and forth with
myself on this project. I really wanted to use the Milk Money mini collection, along
with the fun 6×8 album. But I have designated school albums for both my girls
that I started years and years ago, so I knew that I really didn't have a need
to put together any sort of actual school mini album. I knew I could make it
work for something though.

I've been teaching at Creating Keepsakes University this year,
otherwise known as CKU. The event definitely has a "school" type
theme to it, so I thought I could make the Milk Money collection work with a
few photos I've collected along the way. I quickly realized that I haven't been
taking many photos at these events, so I'm hoping to snap quite a few more
photos at the last CKU in October to finish out the album. This is definitely a
work in progress.

I printed out whatever photos I could find, many of which came
straight from my Instagram and some even borrowed from other teachers at the
event, dug out one of my badges, and started pulling out all of the journaling
cards and accent cards that I thought would tie in nicely with my photos and
the event. I thought the little graduate girl was really cute, and it ties in
since the students "graduate" on the last night of the event.

Very rarely do I ever use my own handwriting for my journaling,
but I was trying to save myself some time and decided to put pen to paper. I
was reminded very quickly why I don't like to use my own handwriting, as I
didn't think about what I wanted to say before I started writing and I made
plenty of mistakes. I always journal better when I take my time and type it up,
plus I can fit more since I tend to write a little big. The "Pick
me!!!" card reminded me of the giveaways that we do in the classes.
Everyone loves when it's giveaway time and I pull out the little papers with
their names on them to draw from.

I thought the "What's for lunch" card was super cute.
But I could only find one photo of food from the events, and it wasn't the best
representation of the meals that were provided for the teachers. I really need
to get a photo of the bacon at the next show, since I do believe that's
our favorite part. Tons of bacon every morning. Loved it! But that's the beauty
of a work in progress. I can get a few more photos when I go in a few weeks and
add them right in here or even swap them out.

There's a story that goes with this last group photo, and the
"remember that time" card was a perfect match to go with it. That
story isn't quite one to share with everyone in the class though, so I will be
adding that in later! I included those last four photos that I snapped while
traveling to the last show. That's when I tend to take the most photos. Not at
the event, during the event, or in classes, since everything is always so
hectic and busy. No, I take them while I'm traveling, since I have way too much
down time than I know what to do with.

I want to give a huge "Thanks" to October Afternoon for inviting
me to be their guest designer for September! I have loved working with their
new Daily Flash collections, and I already have some more ideas floating around
in my head with everything I have left!
Kerri Bradford Studio: Loved This

September 26, 2013

I have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio today, and it's a new favorite of mine. It was actually inspired by a recent layout I did for Scrapbook & Cards Today. One that I haven't shared here yet, but you can find if you downloaded the fall issue that came out last Friday.

After creating that layout (about football), I realized it was an absolute favorite of mine. For several reasons. The overall style and look is just "me". It's the linear style that I love. I had a photo collage, which has been something I love to do with my photos for the last 5-6 years, but often don't do enough as I'm doing design team work or magazine work. It had a die cut title, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite ways to do titles. It had simple embellishments, and not a lot of extra "fluff" on it. And it was also the subject matter and meaning behind the layout that I loved the most. It was a layout I'd been wanting to do for a while, but had just never made the time to do.

And my thinking tells me that if I love a layout that much, then it's meant to be inspiration for at least one more layout, if not more. So I lifted myself, creating a layout with the same look and feel, and yet a totally different look and feel at the same time.

Obviously it has a different look and feel, since the first layout is all about Friday night football games, with lots of dark green, white, black, and brown.

And this new layout is all about hanging out with industry friends at CHA, with lots of pink, light aqua, yellow, and a light tan. I used a photo template from Kerri's Storyboard #1 kit for this layout.

I chose an assortment of patterned papers from Elizabeth Kartchner and Amy Tan's recent collections. Not the newest ones, but collections from within the last year. I knew there was a lot of color going on in the photos, and I did my best when editing the photos to get them to look close to each other in the colors and brightness. I wasn't sure what colors I would focus on for the layout, but when I came across these papers, they just seemed to work perfectly.

I cut the two file folders from the yellow and pink patterned paper (with the more solid look) using the Life Additions #2 kit, and I was orignally going to put my journaling on them in that upper corner. As I was digging out embellishments to add on, I came across this chipboard jar with the little hearts, and it just seemed to fit so perfectly there. So I just went with it, and figured I would add the journaling at the bottom of the page (which is where I had it on my original page anyways).

I knew I wanted to do a die cut background piece on the two sides of the layout. As hard as I try to choose a different type of background (stripes, chevron, etc), I almost always come back to a circle background. I can't help it. I'm a sucker for the circles. For this one, I used Kerri's Background Basics kit and cut the background from the pink chevron patterned paper.

For my title, I was originally going to do "Winter CHA 2012". But after much digging around, I realized Kerri didn't have the handwritten word "winter" like I thought she did. Lol. And I really LOVE the look of a two font title, with half of it being a more block type font/word and half of it being a cursive type font/word. I came across this "Loved This" title in the Pack Your Bags kit, and thought it was perfect. I cut both words from white cardstock, as well as the patterned paper, so I could layer them together.

All of the embellishments on the page are from Elizabeth's recent colletions as well. The crochet flower, the fun wood buttons, the chipboard pieces, and the flair. All fun little pieces that I've been hanging on to, just waiting for the perfect layout to use them on.

I don't want to say that I have layouts that I don't love. But I fully admit that some layouts just mean way more to me than others, and are created for different reasons than others. And this is another layout that falls into my "LOVE this" category!
Bella Blvd: Introducing our 2013-2014 Design Team

September 24, 2013

Yep, it's that time again! Time to announce Bella Blvd's new 2013-2014 Design 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. 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, starting next Monday, 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.
October Afternoon: September Guest Designer Part 2

September 20, 2013

I am up on the October Afternoon blog again today, with my second project as the September guest designer. I have been having lots of fun using the new Daily Flash collection, and today I'm focusing on the All Boy mini collection. I was immediately drawn to it when I pulled all of the goodies out of my box. I love a good boy collection, even though I have two daughters. Luckily, as a daycare provider, I have plenty of boy photos to scrap!

While I knew I wanted to use the divided page protectors, I also knew that my plan was to use one as an insert page in between a traditional two page spread. As I was working on this project, I did all of my planning knowing that the divided page protector would be in between the 2 pages of the spread. In the end, I realized that if I simply removed the divided page protector, my two page spread actually looked pretty cohesive on it's own. That was pure luck, since the only time I placed these two pages together was when I added my journaling.

Here's a look at the spread, with the divided page protector mixed in. This is how I had it laid out as I was working. You'll notice that instead of having a full 12×12 divided page protector, mine is a bit smaller. I wanted it to be obvious that there were 2 pages to the spread, with the divided page protector in the middle, so I choose to trim one row off the page protector. So instead of four rows of four 3×3" pockets, I ended up with four rows of three 3×3" pockets.

I LOVE the woodgrain pattern on the No Girls Allowed patterned paper. It's gorgeous! But I knew I wanted to create a die cut background from it, so it was a little less overwhelming on my layout. I used my Cameo to die cut the circle background from the full 12×12" sheet, cut it half to make two pieces, and then adhered a piece to each page of my two page spread. I love a good circle background, as those little openings are really fun to fill up with embellishments.

I added the 3×3" and 2×2" square cards to the top corner of the first page. I knew I had to use the "dude" piece, as I call all of my daycare kids "dude". And I teach them to say "dude" when they're really young!

I had such fun digging thru my files to find some favorite photos of three of my absolute favorite daycare boys. I knew I had photos of each of them in Mr Potato Head glasses, or random sparkly glasses meant for the girls 😉

The Words & Arrows washi tape was perfect for adding a touch of that darker green to my page. And if you're looking to read my journaling here, and it's not making much sense, it's because I ended up extending the top two lines onto the second page. I needed more room to say what I wanted to say.

I printed out 3×3" photos to add to the pockets in the divided page protector, and filled in the remaining pockets with the 3×3" cards. I added some journaling strips to a few of the cards, but pretty much left them all as-is, without any extra embellishing.

Here's a look at the second part of the spread, after you flip over the divided page protector. I love having the die cut woodgrain paper on the outer edges of each page of the spread, as you still see the darker brown no matter which way the divided page protector is flipped.

This is the backside of the divided page protector. Just like the front side, I filled the pockets with either 3×3" photos or 3×3" cards. I ended up with four photos of each of the three boys, ranging from when they were just little babies, up until they were little boys.

On the first page of the layout spread, I choose photos of the boys in the silly glasses. For the second page, I dug up photos of the boys and myself. Most of the photos I end up capturing just show a child hanging on me or climbing on me. But I still love them!

The Tin Pins and Snap Caps made for perfect little embellishments to add randomly to the circles of the die cut woodgrain paper. And I know I mentioned before how much I love the October Afternoon buttons. And these circles are perfect for adding some buttons too. So I think it's really odd that I never even thought about adding some buttons to this spread. I might need to go back and add some 🙂

You can check out my project over on the October Afternoon blog as well, as I know they love the visitors. And check back next Friday, when I'll be sharing my last project! I think I might just have to break out this fun mini album. Wish me luck, since I can't remember the last time I've worked on a mini album!

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