Laura Vegas

bella blvd: spring flings & easter things project sheet

March 13, 2012

this past monday, on the bella blvd blog, we shared our newest project sheet. for our march layout, i featured the spring flings & easter things collection.

every month, stephanie gives me a challenge, for when i go to create these project sheet layouts. for this one, i was to create a layout that was based on the definition of a word. since i was scrapping some easter photos, i went with the word "hunt".

i included the definition of the word "hunt" in my journaling, and then added a few sentences to tie in the photos to that definition.

i also used some of the tiny alpha stickers, from the quattrofina alphabet stickers sheets, to add additional descriptive words to each photo.

you can view and/or download the spring flings & easter things project sheet RIGHT HERE.
our crazy family: a bella blvd layout

March 10, 2012

today is saturday sketches, on the bella blvd blog. and it was my turn to play along. this week, we're using a sketch from becky fleck.

i know i have scrapped this family photo before, on one of my CHA layouts. since those layouts don't come back to me, i wanted to get this photo scrapped on a layout for my own albums. and this sketch was perfect for it. i pulled out lots of bella's family dynamix pattern papers to get started.

a few things to point out, in this full shot of the layout. the pink border piece is from the new chipboard elements set. these borders are about 8 inches in length, so they won't stretch all the way across a 12×12 page. but since i only needed it to show on the top and the bottom, i just cut it into 2 pieces, and adhered them seperately. also, i used a few of our new buttons in the upper left corner. i wanted a simple look, that didn't compete with the papers. so i choose a few floral buttons, and just used them upside down, so just the natural wood shows.

i stayed pretty true to the sketch. i did change up the title piece a bit. instead of using a full circle to hold my title, i used a half circle, and went a bit larger in size. this was partly done because i had already adhered flowers all the way across the page, forgetting that i needed my title in there.

i wanted to add some texture to my page with the flowers. i hand cut them from a sheet of patterned paper, and then wadded each one up into a ball. just like you would a piece of garbage. then i flattened them back out, and adhered them to the page using pop dots. this is SO simple, and yet it adds lots of texture and dimension to the page.

check out the bella blvd blog today, to see three more designer's take on the same sketch.
a quick update

March 8, 2012

i had such good intentions of finding something to blog about last night. and tonight. things just feel off, if i don't blog a certain amount of days a week. i know, it's silly. some weeks are just busier and crazier than others. that's how it's been around here.

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last weekend, we had our last tournament for sarah's all-star team. that was a little over seven months straight, of soccer for sarah. it was a good season, and we finished with a fabulous weekend. but the break will be nice, before fall season starts up.

alyssa made the JV soccer team at the high school. so she's just finishing up pre-season games, and then we'll head into the real games. still lots of soccer going on. five days a week for her.

joe started umpiring at the high schools last week. he took a break from umpiring for a few months, since he was busy coaching sarah's fall soccer team, and also the all-star team. but he's back in full swing. just this week, he has 6 games. in addition to working his night job.

the girls have both had SO many half-days at school, and days off for random holidays and teacher work days. i think, since going back after winter break, they've only had one FULL week, with no days off. weird. and they're off all next week for spring break.

alyssa is so excited to be headed to disneyland next week for a few days, with the high school band. it's a trip they take every other year. lots of fun stuff planned. band stuff. recording stuff. and some disney mixed in.

i've been busy working on layouts for random projects and guest designer things. it seems i havn't been keeping very good track of things, since i keep doing the "OMG. i think i have something due tomorrow" routine. my procrastination and forgetfullness kill me.

i have a new daycare baby that started this week. a 4 month old. which suddenly makes me realize that the so-called "baby" that i had already been watching, isn't really a baby. as soon as you get a younger kid, you realize how HUGE the other kids really are. lol! today, i had a 4 month old, a 1 year old (actually, he turns 1 today!), and a 2 year old. all boys. it was a little crazy at times, but we all survived.

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that's the main stuff. the stuff that i can remember anyways. i promise i'll be back on saturday, with a layout share. i can promise that, because i have something going on on the bella blvd blog. and then hopefully, i can get back into a blogging routine next week.
bella blvd: new project sheets

March 5, 2012

Yesterday, on the Bella Blvd blog, we shared two new project sheets that are available for download and viewing! These are layouts that I create each month, that get turned into step-by-step projects sheets, with full instructions.

{photos by Lynn Ghahary}

You can download our fifth project sheet, featuring Bella's Winter Wonder collection, by clicking HERE.

You can download our sixth project sheet, featuring Bella's Lovey Dovey collection, by clicking HERE.

I hope you check them out and use them for quick layout ideas. You can use them with the collections they're intended for. Or you can even take the design and directions, and use them with other papers or collections that you're wanting to use. I just finished up the projects sheet layout for March, so watch for that in the next few weeks!
the very thought of you – a kerri bradford studio layout

March 1, 2012

i had another layout up at kerri bradford studio yesterday. i really should have posted this yesterday, since it fits with the february/valentines/love theme. and now it's march. we can still have some love though, right 😉

this was one of those layouts that i started without photos, or without any idea of what photos i would use. i knew i was making a love themed layout. and i knew i wanted to use the love story collection, from fancy pants. i figured i would go looking for photos at some point. but i ended up pulling these photos of the girls, from years ago, that i had printed out for another layout.

i knew i wanted to use the circle background, from the more background basics kit. my intention was to cover the entire 12×12 page with these. three rows, with four in each row. so i started out cutting twelve circle backgrounds from white cardstock.

on the first run though the silhouette, when i cut the first eight, it turns out i should have changed my blade. i knew it was wearing down a bit, but i figured i could get a bit more use out of it. i spend forever trying to get these off my mat, and all the circles out. that'll teach me to be sure and have a good, sharp blade.

i pulled out my pattern papers, and started trimming an assortment of papers into the same size as my circle background pieces, and rounding the edges. i adhered them all together, and lined them up on a sheet of aqua cardstock.

i had two photos of the girls, that i printed for another layout. they were printed quite a bit larger, but it worked out perfectly to trim them into the same size as my circle background pieces. somewhere along the line, i decided to add the strip across the center of the layout, and only use the circle background pieces along the top and bottom.

i used my title and subtitle, to do double duty for my journaling as well. i like to think i'm pretty good about journaling, but sometimes, i don't have a lot to say. i got my title piece from the smitten kit, and cut it from a text patterned paper and some pink cardstock.

i wanted to keep the rest of the embellishments pretty simple, since there was already a lot going on with the different patterned papers. so i simply cut some hearts, from the XOXO kit, using different patterned papers and cardstock. a single threaded button on each heart and i was done!
valentine’s day – a kerri bradford studio layout

February 28, 2012

i had a new layout up over at kerri bradford studio yesterday! i got my silhouette out, broke out some new papers, and created two new layouts over the weekend. in between a full day of soccer and regular life stuff, of course.

for the month of february, we were focusing on "love" projects. i honestly wasn't sure what i was going to do, until the day i was digging around on my external hard drives, and came across these photos from alyssa's kindergarten valentine's day party at school. these photos are from 2001, which means they're 11 years old. and i've never scrapped them. these were actually digital photos too. i didn't hop onto the digital wagon until around 2006, so these were from alyssa's dad's camera.

digital images back then, are a lot different than digital images these days. lol! but i fixed up all the images a bit. there's a few blurry ones, but that's ok. i used a template from kerri's storyboard #1 kit, and printed out this photo collage. i used to use photo collages so much more in the past, and kind of got away from it because of magazine work. i've been having fun with them again though, since kerri has SOOOOO many great ones to choose from.

i used the large circles from kerri's background basics kit, on my red & white dot pattern paper (from bella blvd). this is one of those square background shapes, so i actually only cut a small section of the shape to use here. i cut three rows of the circles, just a tad bit shorter than 12 inches high. i also used the scalloped scribble border from kerri's borderlines #1 kit, on some aqua cardstock. i've used that shape before, and it's so cute.

for my title, i cut out the "valentine's day" shape, from kerri's XOXO kit, from aqua and red cardstock. i also cut the word "day" from white cardstock as well, to layer under the red word. i felt like it needed a little bit of white on that corner of the layout. you might notice that my "valentine's" word looks a little worn.

well, i had this bright idea to cut a few hearts from that same aqua cardstock. i positioned them to cut below where i had cut "valentine's" from, since i had just enough cardstock left to fit them. i had already removed my cutting mat from the silhouette though, so i knew i couldn't line it up perfectly. well, i forgot to delete the word "valentine's", before i hit the "cut" button, so it went and cut that word again. and i wasn't lined up, since i wasn't planning on cutting it. instead of starting over, i just used the word as it was. with a little raggedness to it, which i personally think looks fine 😉

i wanted to be sure to add the year to this layout, since it was from so long ago. i found the 2001 in kerri's decade 2000 kit. i did add a very light misting of mister huey's calico white spray from studio calico, to my 2001 piece and to my hearts.

here's one of the hearts that i cut out, using kerri's smitten kit. i ended up cutting these from the aqua cardstock, red cardstock, and some of the pink scrabble patterned paper (that and the woodgrain paper are both from jillibean soup).

when i went to crop this photos of the girls together, there was this huge blue pole next to them. i could deal with the blue showing behind them, but not with a huge blue pole next to them. so i just cropped them over to the side, and i figured i would add a little embellishment to the empty space on the photo.

i also added some little pearl accents to the hearts, and randomly next to my title piece. i shouldn't say randomly. i like things to appear "random" at times, but i put a TON of thought into the placement of each piece. lol! just a cute little extra touch.

i have one more "love" themed layout that i did for kerri over the weekend, that i'll be sharing later this week. stay tuned 😉
hello – a layout share

February 27, 2012

the this & that charming collection, from echo park, was one of my favorite new collections at CHA. i already managed to pick up a lot of my favorites from the show, and have started to play with all of them. i put this layout together over the weekend. it's pretty simple in design. but sometimes, simple is a nice change 😉

so, here's the story behind this layout. a few weeks ago, on a day i didn't have any daycare kids, i got a phone call. turns out, it was zachary, who had gotten a hold of grandma's cell phone and managed to call me. i was the last person she had called, and he must have just hit a button to re-dial me. he was talking a mile a minute. i didn't understand a lot of it, being that he just turned 2 years old at the end of december. there's a ton that i DO understand though, which is fun. after about 10 minutes of yapping away to me, grandma realized that he was actually talking to someone, and not just pretending. she was trying to get the phone back from him, and they ended up hanging up on me.

but zachary wasn't done talking to me, i guess. because he called back. at one point, i heard grandma say "laura. i can't get the phone from him, so just hang up whenever you have to go". lol! i finally told zachary that i had to go, and that i would see him the next day, and i hung up. well, he ended up calling me back two more times. it was all pretty funny. apparently, he had a TON to say to me.

later, grandma then sent me an email, "from" zachary, thanking me for talking to him. i thought it was so cute, so i saved the email. i thought it would be fun to scrap the story. well, when i was digging for photos last week for some other layouts, i came across these photos of zachary from a few months ago. he was talking on our old-school playskool phone. the one with the rotary dial. lol! i decided these photos would be perfect, to go with the story about his phone calls to me.

i copied and pasted part of zachary's email to me, and used it for my part of my journaling. click on the photo, to see it larger, if you can't read it here. feels kind of nice to have an idea for something, and get the story scrapped within a matter of weeks.
beautiful – a bella blvd challenge layout

February 24, 2012

i have another layout share today, as part of our challenge week, over on the bella blvd blog. our week-long guest designer, shannon tidwell, has done a great job this week, leading our challenges. and today's is all about using punched circles on your projects.

this is actually one of my CHA layouts. when we were starting to put this challenge week together, i realized that a bunch of the CHA designers has used punched circles on their projects. so it seemed perfect for a challenge. one of the patterned papers in the baby girl collection, has all of those big, colorful polkadots on the backside. i knew i had to punch them out and use them in a fun way. i started the layout, by trimming down my pink cloud paper, and matting it to the center of my white cardstock background.

i left plenty of room around the edges, since i knew the punched circles would need some room to groove. i worked on one side at a time, and tucked the circles under the cloud paper, slightly overlapping them as i went. i made sure to spread out the colors, and make sure i had some polka dot circles in there too.

once they were all arranged around the four edges of the layout, i machine stitched around the cloud paper. first off, because i love the look of machine stitching. and secondly, it's a great way to add some extra support to your page. i try and use great adhesive, but you just never know how well things will stick over time. with the machine stitching, those papers aren't going anywhere.

for my title piece, i used the purple journaling block from the cute cuts paper. i simply cut it in half, and adhered them side by side, making sure my title letters would fit. to give the tops of the journaling cards a more finished look, i added the chipboard measuring tape along the top.

make sure and stop by the bella blvd blog, to check out what the other designers did with this challenge. and you can also go back to earlier in the week, for anything you missed. we also want YOU to join in on our challenges too. we're inviting you to play along, and then upload your projects showing your take on any or all of the challenges. you can link your layout at the end of each post this week. we're giving one lucky participate a prize package worth $100! but to be entered in the random drawing, you have to participate. for each project you create and link on our posts, your name will be entered in the drawing. so the more you create, the more chances you have to win. have fun, and good luck!
a few winter CHA 2012 photos

February 23, 2012

i've been holding off on posting photos from CHA. mainly, because i was hoping to "borrow" some photos from those that had their cameras out more. lol. these are what i've managed to put together so far, so i figured i would just toss them up here. a very quick overview of my 4 days there. told only by the photos i have to share at this point.

{alice carman, linda barber, and me}

i arrived on saturday, and helped pretty up the bella blvd booth, with stephanie and her team. i think it took about three hours to get all of the projects picked out and hung up, to fill the booth. alice is on the bella blvd team, and it was so nice to meet her, after months of emailing. and linda has been on the CK dream team with me, for two years. she's such a great friend, and it's always good to hang out at CHA together. after we all finished helping with set-up of various booths, we went and grabbed some dinner at chili's. and linda was nice enough to spend about 15 minutes doing some goofy survey on her phone, all so that we could have that free ice cream dessert 😉

{stephanie hunt and me}

stephanie snapped this quick photo of the two of us, right before the show opened on the first day. stephanie is so awesome, and she does such an amazing job with her company. i'm so proud to be a part of bella blvd! i stopped by the booth a few times each day. they were always super busy, which is a good thing at CHA! we had a super yummy dinner the first night, along with everyone from jillibean soup, lily bee, and nikki sivils

{suzanne sergi and me}

suzanne and i have known each other for a few years. we were on the pebbles team together, and she's also on the bella blvd team with me. this year, we decided to room together. and we stayed up WAY too late, talking about anything and everything.

{jill yegerlehner and me}

jill is the owner and creative genious behind jillibean soup. i loved being on her design team for two years, and i love hanging out at the jillibean booth every CHA. i'm great friends with everyone on her team, and they're all fantastic girls and great designers. whenever i had those moments of needing familiar faces, or just needing to chill out for a bit, i would always head to either the bella blvd booth or jillibean soup. both feel like home to me 🙂

{megan hoeppner, deena wuest, suzy plantamura, kim watson, cindy tobey, stacy cohen, and me}

our CK group (minus linda, who was working in the lily bee booth the entire show). i had never met cindy or deena before, so it was great to meet both of them for the first time. i spend most of the show walking the floor with kim, stacy, and suzy. we also had a CK dinner one evening, which was a lot of fun. always nice to hang out with everyone, and chat with the editors for a bit.

{amy tangerine, kim watson, suzy plantamura, stacy cohen, and me}

the adorable amy tangerine and her cute booth. i'm pretty sure we visited her every day of the show. along with elizabeth kartchner, who was right around the corner from her. one afternoon, amy had this fun little photo thing set up, the photo went straight to her laptop, and we were able to email it to ourselves. i thought that was a really fun touch.

{me, linda barber, and kim watson}

linda finally escaped the lily bee booth on my last day there, so that she could walk with us for a few minutes. too bad she had come down with a cold, and was feeling so bad that she ended up leaving early to go home and rest.

{me, stacy cohen, suzy plantamura, and kim watson}

GCD studios had the most adorable booth, and also had this fun photo setup. they printed out the photo right there for us. i scanned it to my computer, but the coloring was so funky that i had to change it to black and white.

and that's my CHA re-cap. short and sweet. and stricktly told according to the photos i had on hand. if i had more photos, i would probably tell you more about my time there. each year, i say i'll take my camera and take more photos. and every year, i fail. miserable. and every year, i come home, and regret that i didn't get photos with about 47 different scrapbooking friends. i'll eventually learn, right?
happiness: a bella blvd challenge layout

February 21, 2012

we have lots of great stuff going on this week on the bella blvd blog. first off, we have a special week-long guest designer joining us. shannon tidwell! i've been a long time fan of her work, mostly at 2peas and for KI memories. it's been a lot of fun working so closely with her on this feature. she's heading up a week long challenge feature, where we have a different challenge every day this week. shannon has created lots of layouts for the challenges, and then our design team is playing along as well.

today's challenge is to use patterned papers from at least 4 different collections. that's actually really easy for me. i've always loved picking and choosing patterned papers from lots of different collections, and using them together on one layout. so i decided to double the challenge for myself. i choose patterned papers from EIGHT different collections for this layout.

the great thing about bella blvd papers, is that they have such great tone-on-tone patterns. this makes mixing papers easy to do. and you'll find so many of the same colors and shades, in many of the collections. when i was looking for a green patterned paper for this layout, i ended up with about 5 different choices, from 5 different collections, all of which would have worked. same with the aqua, or red, etc.

i thought it would be fun to do another sunburst on my layout. it's such a great way to use lots of patterned papers, and it looks super cool too! but, these sunburst do take a lot of work and thinking. lol! i snapped a few quick photos, while i was creating mine, to let you peek at my process. keep in mind, this is just the way i do them. doesn't mean it's the best way 😉

the word "happiness" from the sunshine & happiness chipboard set, was the starting point for this layout. when i went to choose my papers, i used these colors to make my choices.

and here's the final papers that i decided on. like i said, there were lots of choices for each color. i just made sure to have a good mix of patterns. chevron, polka dots, plaid, etc.

i knew i wanted my sunburst to go across the top of the page. so i cut a piece of white cardstock to the same size that i wanted my sunburst to be. i believe this is 4.5×12 inches. usually, you'll want to have something placed over the center of the sunburst. a photo, an accent, etc. my intention was to put my title over the center, and i knew i was going to use a large circle to add my title too.

so i arranged the circle template over where i knew i would be putting it, and then traced around it, onto the white cardstock. i made a pencil mark in the center of the circle, along the edge of the paper. then i used my ruler to draw the lines out … from that center pencil mark, to the outside edge of the paper. i varied the size of the bursts, making some thinner and some wider.

since i was going to be placing a large circle over the center of the sunburst, i knew i didn't need the bursts to go all the way to the middle. if more of the bursts would have shown, and i had something smaller being placed over the center, i would have traced the lines further in. if that makes sense. after drawing all my lines, i numbered each burst, so that i could easily keep track of where they go. otherwise, it's like a puzzle, getting them back together. then cut them all apart, using your paper trimmer.

i then used each burst, as a template, to cut out my patterned papers. i used just a tiny bit of removeable adhesive, to stick the template piece to the backside of the patterned paper, and then cut them out. i won't lie. i spent FOREVER getting a color combo and arrangement that i liked. several of these bursts, i cut out numerous times, from different papers, trying to get the right look.

then i adhered each piece to a 12×12 sheet of white cardstock. this is just the piece that i'm building my entire layout on. i started with the two orange corner pieces, and then worked my way in. on a few other projects, where i have created sunbursts, i have machine stitched along each burst. which takes FOREVER. so i skipped that on this layout.

and here you can see where i placed my large circle, over the center of the sunburst. i used my circle cutters, to cut two different circles, slightly varying in size. the top piece is an embossed white cardstock, and the bottom is a text paper. i adhered the layered circles to the layout using pop dots.

in my journaling, i mention "all my girls". i should clarify that only two of these are technically "my girls". the other four are previous daycare girls of mine. i've always lovingly called almost all of my daycare kids "mine". i used a photo template from kerri bradford studio, to create my photo collage.

i used my favorite grid patterned paper for the bottom part of my page. i really need to get more of it, because i'm down to my last sheet. the text paper along the left side, is the same paper that i used as the bottom circle on my title piece. the text is mostly red, which i thought was good, since i only used one piece of red paper on my sunburst. plus, lots of the words in the text are printed in other colors. most of which are the other fun colors that i used. it was meant to be used.

i ended up with all of these oddly shaped scraps of patterned paper, from cutting out my bursts. the day i created this layout, i had bought this tiny flower punch. i picked it up, after i realized i had no small flower punches, and recently, i had the need for one. since it was on my desk, i just decided to use it. i punched these little flowers out of each of the six papers i used on the sunburst. i adhered them along the text strip of paper, and then added little silver accents to the centers. i finished embellishing the layout with lots of little word stickers, in my six coordinating colors, and a few chipboard clouds.

make sure and stop by the bella blvd blog all week long, to check in on the fun. there is a TON of inspiration going on, with LOADS of new projects being shared. and we want YOU to join in on our challenges too. we're inviting you to play along, and then upload your projects showing your take on any or all of the challenges. you can link your layout at the end of each post this week. we're giving one lucky participate a prize package worth $100! but to be entered in the random drawing, you have to participate. for each project you create and link on our posts, your name will be entered in the drawing. so the more you create, the more chances you have to win. have fun, and good luck!

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