Laura Vegas

Digital Project Share: 2019 / 2020 Shows

September 8, 2020

Hey everyone! I'm back to share a new project that I whipped up this week. Anyone else missing their favorite TV shows? I know I am! Since I don't have a single show on these days, I thought it would be a great time to document my favorite shows from last season, to add to the album that I set up last year. Quick recap of this fun little project.

This will be my fourth year documenting all of the shows I watch regularly. When I shared my 2018/2019 pages last year, I also shared links to my previous years pages as well. You can see that post HERE.

I also shared all of the details on how I approach this yearly project on THIS POST, where I shared my 2017/2018 pages.

I had already written a list of my on-going shows for the 2019/2020 season earlier this year, and every now and then I would pull it out and add any additional shows that came out (or started back up) to that list. Keeping this on-going list throughout the year really helps for this type of project, so you're not wasting time, trying to remember what you've watched – or leaving any good shows off the list 😉

I should also add that not all of these shows are on at the same time. While Thursday has something like 22 shows, I wasn't actually recording/watching 22 shows every Thursday. A lot of these shows run at different times of the year, or only run for half of a season.

I knew that I would approach this project the exact same way that I did for the last two years. Digital pages, using collage templates and a few digital patterned papers and digital stamps, which I would print out on my photo printer.

For my 2017/2018 pages, I had used template kits from Cathy Zielske – specifically her Six By Eights No. 06 kit, since the templates had the days of the week, which fit this project perfectly. I loved the format I used when I broke down my shows by what days they were on. Even though I used these same days-of-the-week templates two years ago, I decided I was totally fine using them again for this year's pages.

So my plan was to use the template with the day of the week on the left side of the spread, and then to use a second template for the right side of the spread, picking from Cathy's Six By Eight kits. I also ended up adding in a few Simply White 6×8 Life Pages templates by Tracy Larsen.

I used the 3×8" Everyday Layered Photo Template kit by In A Creative Bubble for the two 3×8" collages, tweaking them a little to create larger areas for my two photos. I could have chosen a different template for the second "Tuesday" page that would have held all these extra four photos. But since FBI and FBI: Most Wanted – as well as black*ish and mixed*ish – go together, and are on the same night, I thought it would be fun to add in the little insert, keeping them together.

I also used a few digital stamps from In A Creative Bubble, specifically her Watch & Listen digital stamp set. The digital patterned papers that I used are from random kits that I've had forever. I actually ended up using several of the same patterned papers that I used for not only my 2017/2018 pages, but my 2018/2019 pages as well, just because they matched so well. I'm totally fine with using the same papers, since while I do own a TON of digital kits, I'm not familiar enough with those kits to know where to find additional paper choices.

I used the 3×8" Snapshots Layered Photo Templates kit by In A Creative Bubble for the 3×8" collage to hold all of my Chicago shows – I wanted to put them all together on a little insert, just like I did last year.

Thursday is by far the night with the most shows. It seems to be this way every single year. Lol. I ended up doing two full spreads to hold all of the shows.

The collage on the right is one from Tracy Larsen, and it's one that I quickly realized works SOOOOO well for this project. I always download images for each show in a variety of sizes and orientations – square, vertical, horizontal, etc. But this collage would have worked perfectly for all of the pages, if I had wanted to keep things even simpler. Maybe I'll keep that in mind for next year 😉

Once I had all of my collages finished, I printed them out on photo paper, trimmed them, and slipped them into my album. This might seem like a silly little album to some (and proof that I watch way too much TV), but I just love it 🙂
Kerri Bradford Studio: Family BBQ

August 27, 2020

I've got another new layout for you, which I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. How awesome is Kerri's new Juniper collection of alphabet and number stamps? I'm a fan of tall and skinny letters, and I just love the variety of sizes. There's a size for any project!

We were supposed to have our annual family BBQ at my brother's last month, but Covid-19 has gone and ruined that 😦 So I figured I'd make up for it by pulling out the photos I took at last year's get-together and create a layout documenting the day.

For my title card, I used the Juniper Alphabet XL and Juniper Alphabet SM stamps to create my title, stamping "family" onto a yellow metal rimmed tag. I added a little date label using Kerri's Today's The Day printable, and scribbled in the date.

I had all of my photos already printed as 3×4's and 4×6's, so I went with my go-to grid design, arranging the photos across a traditional, two page 12×12 spread. I pulled out a few coordinating patterned papers (all from Amy Tangerine collections), trimming them into 3×4's pieces to fill the empty spaces, and one 4×6 piece for my title card.

I printed out my journaling onto two 3×4" cards, adding one to each side of the spread, and added a stamped phrase to the top of each using the new Block of Summertime stamp set.

I recently printed out Kerri's Summer Mix printable, and wanted to include one on each piece of patterned paper.

I trimmed a small 3×1.5" piece of black/white patterned paper to add along the bottom of each piece of patterned paper, and then adhered the small printed phrases, adding tiny staples where the papers meet.

I then added a simple, single chipboard embellishment to each of my patterned paper pieces to finish off the spread.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Trips Out

August 25, 2020

Hey all! It's been a minute since I've shared anything here on the blog. I had a new project up over at Kerri Bradford Studio a week or so ago, and just totally forgot to schedule my own blog post. Oops.

Hey everyone! Isn't that crazy that it's August already? This is such a weird year. It almost feels like it was just yesterday when the state of California was issued a "stay-at-home" order back in March – but at the same time, it feels like that was ages ago. The reality is that it's been a little over four months (when writing this, which was almost a month ago) since that day. I, for one, have taken the "stay-at-home" order very seriously and only left my house or went anywhere when absolutely needed. While some of our restrictions were lifted/loosened at the start of June (and some were then tightened back up again in July), I still find myself not going anywhere.

I started putting together a small 6×8" album to document some of our Covid-19 related stories, and thought it would be cool to document how little I've gone anywhere these past four months. In normal times, this might make me look a little like a loser. Lol. But seeing as how we're all living thru a pandemic, it makes me feel proud that I'm doing my part to keep those around me safe by staying home when possible.

I didn't have any specific photos that I wanted to use for this spread, so I went photo-less, which is something I have no problem doing. There are basically 4 places that I have made trips to over the last four months – the only 4 places that I have gone outside of my house (although I have stopped by my parents house to pick up masks that my mom makes, but I'm not counting that). I knew that the 2×2" pocket page would work perfectly for this, as it has 12 little pockets, and I could use three pockets for each of the four places that I have gone.

For each of those places – Safeway (grocery store), Target (no explanation needed, am I right ;)), Arco (gas station), and Costco (work) – I used one little pocket for the name of the place, one for the number of times I've been there over the last four months, and one for the journaling. I used Kerri's Juniper SM alphabet stamp set to stamp out the names of each place, squishing the letters together as needed to fit onto those little 2" squares.

I then used her new Outnumbered (Two) stamp set to stamp out the number of times I've been to each place. I was originally going to stamp both the solid number (in a coordinating color) and the outline over it (in black), since I LOVE the look of them layered together – but since I ended up adding patterned papers into those same pockets, I decided to simply stamp the outline onto white cardstock. I then fussy cut out each number, adhering them onto the patterned paper squares.

I used the fun "here and there" printable from Kerri's Tiny Details kit as one of my 3×4" filler cards, printing it out onto cardstock. After typing up my main 3×4" journaling card, I added a few fun icons along the top using the Iconic digital stamp set. I love having the digital versions of the stamp sets, as well as the physical, since I do all of my journaling in Photoshop and it's so easy to add digital stamps, sizing them as needed.

I used the fun half-circle month stamps from Kerri's new Year Round stamp set around the edges of my title card – using March, April, May, and June, as those were the main months this story covered. Although technically, the "facts" for this story cover mid-March until mid-July 😉 I drew some rough half-circles around the stamped months with a fine-tip pen, and then added my title using some chipboard alphas.

Maybe one of these days, I'll venture out to a new store or a new place. But for now, I'm fairly content not really going anywhere. Which is weird. But then again, what's not weird about life right now?!
Kerri Bradford Studio: 5 Long Months

July 21, 2020

Hey everyone! It's been a minute since I've popped in with a new project, but I finally have something new to share – a 6×8" spread that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio.

I have always been a huge fan of large titles on my layouts. Most of my "layouts" these days are the smaller 6×8" pages, or pocket page style layouts, and Kerri's new Thick/Thin/Thick Outline + Number stamp line-up is perfect for creating large titles on smaller sized projects. I used a mix of the new stamps, as well as the new When stamp set, to create this fun little 6×8" spread about how long it's been since my last haircut.

I love that the Thick XL and Thick Etc XL stamps have the Thick Outline XL and Thick Etc Outline XL stamp sets as well, as they're just a fun way to make your alphas and numbers stand out. While I am a very clean and linear scrapper, who uses many, many rulers to always make sure things are straight and even – I love the perfectly imperfect look you can create with the outline stamps (although you can also line them up perfectly as well).

I always have pages from Kerri's Label kit printed out and ready to grab for adding smaller stamped words/phrases, and I used them to stamp the month of my last hair appointment and the month of my next appointment using new When stamp set.

I tucked little alpha stickers – oldies, but goodies, from Making Memories – above each of the labels for the "last appt" and "next appt". I was digging around for some sort of embellishment to add to my spread, knowing that it needed a little something, and I came across these old metal plaque embellishments from Making Memories and thought they'd be a fun addition.

My appointment is in less than two weeks and I'm not sure who's more excited – me or my hair!

Update: I wasn't able to share this until today, and my appointment was scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday). But as of a week ago, the hair salons here in my part of California were shut back down. So no appointment 😦 And now a lot of the facts on this layout will all be a lie. Lol.
2020 Reading Album: Books 7 – 9

June 10, 2020

I set a goal to read 25 books in 2020. I'd like to say I can read more than that, but I also know life gets busy, so I want to be realistic and not aim too high. I started this 6×8" album project to document the books that I read, knowing that I can continue to add to it for several years (and I have a second matching album I can use as well).

I shared a bit more about my plans for this project in THIS POST. Since I'm following the same basic format, and using a lot of the same basic supplies, I won't be sharing too many details in these posts – so please refer back to that first post to find the main info on this album project 🙂

Book #7 | Family Pictures, by Jane Green

Book #8 | How To Hack A Heartbreak, by Kristin Rockaway

Book #9 | The Honey-Don't List, by Christina Lauren
Project Life 2020: March Memories

May 14, 2020

Hey everyone! I'm finally getting around to sharing my March pages in my 2020 Project Life album. I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS post, where I shared my January pages.

I mentioned that I wasn't going to limit myself to a certain number of spread each month. I'll use however many pages I need, as I love to include the majority of our photos each month. For March, I ended up with 6 spreads, one of which includes a 6×12 insert.

I have a lot of the Stories By The Month digital kits from Ali Edwards, which is what I'm pulling my monthly title cards from. If the actual "____ memories" card doesn't match in any given month, I can easily use the "____ memories" digital stamp that's in the kit (same writing) to create my card.

I'm working at least one of the 3×3" configured pocket page protectors into my album each month (but will use a second if it works with my photos).

So many of our photos work well as squares, and I can simply trim the 3×4" photos down to the 3×3" size.

Since this whole Coronavirus pandemic really went into effect in March, I decided I wanted to include a full spread within my March memories dedicated to Coronavirus related things – some factual, some funny, and some personal stories.

Persnickity Prints has been creating these awesome Coronavirus timelines that you can download and print, so I printed out the March timeline, slipping it into an 8.5×11 page protector that was trimmed in width a bit to fit.

I don't know about all of you, but I've been screenshotting Covid related things like crazy during the last two months. I picked out a variety of them to use in the 3×3 pockets, making this an easy page to fill up.

I printed Kerri Bradford's Stay Safe printable to go on the backside of the timeline printable, which is on the left side of the insert seen above.

I do have some pandemic related stories spread throughout my March stories and journaling, but I wanted to type up a few journaling cards specifically to include in this dedicated spread.

Traci Reed Designs has put together a round-up list of all of the Covid-19 related freebies out there, with links to where you can find/download all of them – find it HERE.

Here's the third spread for the month of March.

I took a screenshot of all of the baseball games that Joe originally had on his schedule when the stay-at-home order went into place here, which quickly turned to red, as they were all cancelled.

Yes, that's a photo of the Costco I work at, where the toilet paper, paper towels, and water are usually located. I don't keep my phone on me when I'm working, or I probably would have snapped a photo. Luckily, I found this one that someone shared on Facebook and "borrowed" it for my album.

I'm adding a "currently" card each month for each of us. I ask Joe and the girls to give me their answers to the 5 categories – just whatever comes to mind first, or what stands out as a favorite during the month. That's Sarah's card above.

I created my own digital "currently" card, using digital stamps from Studio Calico and Kerri Bradford Studio. I have these cards saved as templates for each of us, with our names on top. So it's super easy to pull up the cards for each of us every month, and fill in the boxes.

This fourth spread for the month of March, seen above, has a 6×12" insert on the right side.

Here's the fifth spread of the month, with the 6×12" insert on the left side.

This is the sixth, and last spread, for the month of March.

As of two days ago, all of the Monopoly game pieces are officially gone. Whoohoo! I actually took an updated photo earlier this week, as there were about 15 piles of game pieces. Lol.

If you have any questions on anything specific within these pages, feel free to message me. I'm patiently (or maybe not so patiently, as I placed my order a full 2 weeks ago) working on my April photos to arrive and I'll get started on my April pages.
Kerri Bradford Studio: Covid-19 Themed Pages

May 4, 2020

Hey everyone. We celebrated (inter)National Scrapbook Day all last week over at Kerri Bradford Studio last week. I meant to get on here last week and share my projects, but Typepad wasn't letting me upload any images.

We're focusing on Kerri's Lay It All Out: Travelers Notebook kit this week. The first sentence in the kit's description reads "These templates are designed to help you get your memories down even faster than before" – and that's exactly what they did for me.

After die cutting several of the templates from white cardstock using my Silhouette Cameo, I simply laid the templates over white cardstock cut to TN size (I create individual pages that I slip into my Life Crafted album as opposed to using an actual travelers notebook) and drew in my lines with a fine tip black pen.

Once those lines are drawn out, you end up with a great start to your page, as you know where the journaling will go and you have empty spaces for photos and any other embellishing and/or title work that you want to add in.

So much of the thinking and decision making is already done for you, which simplifies the process and really lets you focus on getting your stories and memories down.

I am not one to use my own handwriting on my layouts – never have been if I'm being honest. But. I decided to go for it on these pages.

I have been wanting to document this crazy Covid-19 time that we're all in right now, and this was the perfect way to get started on some of those stories. I didn't want to spend a ton of time on these little spreads, and using my own handwriting really simplified my process.

I worked a few of Kerri's new stamp sets – Denali, Denali XL and Denali Etc XL - into my pages, along with stamps from five other recent sets.

I added in a little patterned paper and a few simple embellishments and in no time at all, I had four spreads completed.

I can't wait to use the Lay It All Out: Travelers Notebook kit to create more pages documenting this weird time that we're all going through.
2020 Reading Album: Books 4 – 6

April 20, 2020

I set a goal to read 25 books in 2020. I'd like to say I can read more than that, but I also know life gets busy, so I want to be realistic and not aim too high. I started this 6×8" album project to document the books that I read, knowing that I can continue to add to it for several years (and I have a second matching album I can use as well).

I shared a bit more about my plans for this project in THIS POST. Since I'm following the same basic format, and using a lot of the same basic supplies, I won't be sharing too many details in these posts – so please refer back to that first post to find the main info on this album project 🙂

Book #4 | The Saturday Night Supper Club, by Carla Laureano

Book #5 | Brunch At Bittersweet Cafe, by Carla Laureano

Book #6 | The Solid Grounds Coffee Company, by Carla Laureano

I had originally colored in the little books on this card, for the book rating – but the color pen I used ended up being all wrong and didn't match at all. My pen collection is very limited, so I'm holding off on coloring in this re-printed card for the time being. I'll go back to it at a later time, once I have access to more color options.
Ready For Consumption

April 14, 2020

Hey all! I had a third travelers notebook sized layout in the works using Kerri Bradford's April stamp release, but due to some printer issues, it took me longer than planned to get it finished. And by "printer issues", I mean that my printer decided to take a full 4 days before it would actually print it. It does this to me quite often, and it's highly annoying.

Anyways. I had wanted to use Kerri's new Eat stamp set, and randomly picked a recent photo that had a story attached to it. I used one of the templates from Kerri's Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit to print both my photo and my journaling.

The template that I used had a small phrase above the journaling, which I turned off before printing, knowing that I wanted to add my own stamped phrase. I love using Kerri's Label kit for my stamped words/phrases on all sorts of projects, and have sheets of them already printed out and ready to go.

For my patterned papers, I pulled out several older patterned papers from Echo Park. I specifically had the paper with all of the kitchen tools in mind. It took me a while to remember what manufacturer made it, and by the time I found it, I just picked two other papers that were mixed in with it. My photo was pretty neutral, color wise, which gave me more freedom for my color choices.

I love slipping these tiny layout spreads in my Life Crafted album. They're quick and easy, and perfect for little stories.
Project Life 2020: February Memories

April 13, 2020

Hey everyone! I'm finally getting around to sharing my February pages in my 2020 Project Life album. I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS post, where I shared my January pages.

I mentioned that I wasn't going to limit myself to a certain number of spread each month. I'll use however many pages I need, as I love to include the majority of our photos each month. For February, I ended up with 5 spreads, one of which includes a 6×12 insert.

I have a lot of the Stories By The Month digital kits from Ali Edwards, which is what I used to create the "February Memories" card. The actual "February Memories" card didn't quite match the colors I was working with, so I used the digital "February Memories" stamp to create my own card on a navy blue background.

When I have extra room on a journaling card, I will often move my digital stamped "title" and journaling up towards the top of the card, leaving some extra space along the bottom – I then use that space to add a piece of washi tape. Such a simple way to finish it off.

I'm working at least one of the 3×3" configured pocket page protectors into my album each month (but will use a second if it works with my photos).

So many of our photos work well as squares, and I can simply trim the 3×4" photos down to the 3×3" size.

This second spread for the month of February, seen above, has a 6×12" insert on the right side.

I'm utilizing my large collection of digital stamps for my journaling cards. I also have a large collection of physical stamps, but since I type up all of my journaling cards digitally, it's super easy to just use the digital stamps and size them as needed.

I wanted something that showed who played in the Super Bowl and searched on Google for an image to use. I printed it as a 4×6" photo, and just trimmed that photo in half since I ended up having all 3×4" pockets to use on the page I wanted to include these photos.

I was working the day of the Super Bowl, so I missed the party at my brother's house. I was scrolling thru Instagram that evening, and my aunt had shared these photos she took of my family. I was so happy to have a few photos from the day, even though I wasn't there, so I screenshot them to use.

Here's the third spread of the month, with the 6×12" insert on the left.

I'm not actually sure if Alyssa and her boyfriend went wine tasting on Saturday or Sunday, but I came across this filler card and thought it went nicely. So I'm hoping they went on Sunday. Although, I just realized I put "February 14th" on the journaling card, which was a Friday. Lol.

I used very few embellishments for my February pages. I'm not setting out to use many embellishments, as I like to keep my pages fairly flat and simple. But I'm also not against using embellishments, if I feel the need to add a little something here and there. The puffy "cook" sticker was from an Ali Edwards kit.

Here's the fourth spread for the month of February.

I mentioned before that I'm using a mix of filler cards, with the majority of them coming from the Project Life app (I have them printed along with my photo orders) – but I'm also adding in cards from digital kits that I have (printing them at home), like the two above.

I'm adding a "currently" card each month for each of us. I ask Joe and the girls to give me their answers to the 5 categories – just whatever comes to mind first, or what stands out as a favorite during the month. For the January cards, I had used a digital card that I found in one of my kits, but there wasn't a good spot for me to add our names to clarify who each card went too.

So I created my own digital "currently" card, using digital stamps from Studio Calico and Kerri Bradford Studio. I have these cards saved as templates for each of us, with our names on top. So it's super easy to pull up the cards for each of us every month, and fill in the boxes. I also replaced the cards from January with these newly designed cards.

This is the fifth, and last spread, for the month of February. With a 6×11" insert added in, to hold an online article that I printed out.

This online article goes along with the photo behind it, so I knew that I wanted to include it. It was written about the women in the Stockton Kings office, and Alyssa is among that group of awesome ladies.

I copied and pasted the article into a Word document and sized it to fit onto two 6×11" pages. I left some room at the top and bottom of each page, so that I could add strips of patterned paper on each side.

If you have any questions on anything specific within these pages, feel free to message me. I'm working on my March pages right now, so I hope to have those ready to share soon 🙂

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