Laura Vegas

birthday blog hop for kimber

February 18, 2012

someone is having a very special birthday today! and we are having a surprise birthday blog hop in her honor.

happy, happy 40th birthday kimber!!!

i have known kimber mcgray for years now, and she's just an awesome chick to hang around. she will always keep you laughing, that's for sure. she's a super talented scrapper and card maker. and she even plays a tough game of words with friends 😉

kimber, i wish you nothing but the happiest of days, on your big day! and most importantly of all, i hope you get to eat lots and lots of cake!

{featuring NEW dear lizzy neopolitan & NEW my mind's eye goodies}

if you're just stumbling upon the blog hop, make sure and head over to the jillibean soup blog, where you can start the hop from the very beginning.

if you're making your way through the blog hop, you should have arrived here from catherine tachdjian's card share, on the scrapbook & cards today blog.

and next up on the blog hop, you'll want to go and visit becky williams! enjoy!
slice informercial – a layout share

February 17, 2012

i'm back with another layout share for you. another layout that was started, then put away and forgotten. only to be pulled back out last week. this one is about my slice informercial trip that i took about 2.5 years ago.

i had started this layout forever ago. but i really didn't get very far. basically, i had two sheets of white cardstock, and all of the photos attached, just like you see here. i was lifting myself, from another layout i had done about a different trip, and using the same sort of photo placement. so the photos on here were all arranged and adhered, with the idea that i'd be adding all my pattern papers around them.

then i created THIS layout for an assignment. which didn't work out, so i blogged it. and i even mentioned the fact that i had this layout started, but had just never finished it. even though i had a layout done, i still wanted to finish this one at some point. it had more photos, and more room to tell the story.

while at CHA, kristin and linda at were sweet enough to share some of their new lily bee papers with me. i decided to put them right to good use, and pulled out several sheets to use. i started with the pink polka dot strip across the center of the pages. when i went to adhere it, i realized that my white cardstock page wasn't quite 12 inches wide. which seems strange, since cardstock is 12×12. lol! it was a noticeable amount too. so i decided to trim down a tad bit from the top and bottom as well, and then mat both pages on green cardstock.

i used a notebook paper border punch on some of the aqua and yellow dot pattern papers, and then layered them together across the top of the pages. i also used a scalloped edged punch on the yellow patterned paper, to go across the bottom of the pages, and a small strip next to the photo you see above.

all of my photos across the bottom of the pages are 2×3 inches in size. such a great way to get lots of photos on a layout. i have 16 photos across the bottom, and 4 larger focal photos across the top. i also pulled out some fun flowers from bella blvd, to embellish the page. i had wanted to give a little seperation between the word "slice" and "infomercial" in my title, and the flower was perfect. there are four flowers in a pack, so the other three decided to find a spot to stay as well.

i used some of my bella blvd simply simona chipboard alphas for my title. they fit perfectly on that pink strip of pattern paper.

i had plenty of room for journaling on this layout. i fit the first part of my story, on the first page. and then a larger journaling piece on the second page. i printed my journaling on some older scenic route grid patterened paper. love that stuff.

yay! another trip and adventure scrapped and in the albums! feels good! i will most likely print out my blog post about this trip, and add it into the album somehow. i love going back and reading those, since i tend to have more info in there, since i usually blog about it while it's fresh in my mind.
bella blvd & unity stamps: inspiration day cards

February 16, 2012

i have a few cards up on the bella blvd blog today. it's our bella blvd & unity stamps inspiration and giveaway feature. i was working with the calendar month stamp for my two cards.

i started both of my cards on a white cardstock base. i cut an additional piece of white cardstock that was a tad bit smaller than my card, and ran it through the cuttlebug to emboss it. i used a circle embossing folder on this boy card. then i distressed the edges a bit, and adhered it to the front of the card. adds a bit of interest, and another layer of texture. i added a few border strips from the baby boy collection. i like the simple colors against the white. clean and crisp.

i stamped the calendar month image onto white cardstock, using an orange ink, and then cut around it and distressed the edges. i adhered it to the card, using pop dots, and then added a onesie chipboard piece, along with a few word stickers. i even found a fun "congrats" flag to tuck behind the onesie.

i started the girl card just like the boy card. white cardstock card base. and then i used a flower embossing folder on my additional piece of white cardstock. i used a few border strips again, from the baby girl collection, and a scrap of ruler paper from the we're expecting collection.

this time, i heat embossed the calendar stamp image, on white cardstock, using yellow embossing powder. i used it the same way as the first card, which is just using the calendar image as a background for the rest of the elements on my card. i knew the chipboard cupcake would make for a great birthday card. the flower on the cupcake was green, so i added an aqua flower gem to match the rest of my card.
winter CHA 2010 – a layout share

February 15, 2012

every once in a while, i find myself in this "get-er-done" mood. where i pull out things i've been putting off taking care of, and dig out things that i just never got around to finishing. sometimes, this applies to things around the house. and sometimes, it applies to scrapbooking stuff.

when i got back from CHA two weeks ago, i was feeling super inspired and really wanted to scrap and be creative. then i realized that i was creatively drained at the same time, from all of the projects, blogging, etc, that i had done leading up to CHA. so i went into my "get-er-done" zone, and decided it was a good time to tackle some of my half finished layouts.

winter CHA 2010 was the first CHA i had attended, a full two years ago. and i started a layout about it shortly after the trip. i was all gung-ho, and wanted to get these photos scrapped and in the album. originally, i had the top 2/3 of what you see here on my two pages. white cardstock background. new dear lizzy pattern papers across the top (new at the time, since that show was when she released her first collection). all the photos were just like you see them here. then i had a transparency across the bottom of the pages, along with some thickers for my title. i never did like the letter stickers i choose for my title, the transparency didn't look right, and i had a ribbon on there that just wasn't doing anything for me. that's how i left it. never finished it.

then about a year ago (probably after CHA last year), i pulled it back out to re-work it. i ended up taking off the transparencies from the bottom of the pages, and replaced them with the aqua polka dot paper. and then i left it again. never finished it. no title, no nothing.

another year later, and i decided that it was about time to actually finish this poor, neglected layout. i'm sure if i was starting all over, from scratch, this layout would look totally different. but i worked with what i had going, since i really did like the arrangement of the photos and the patterned papers. and truthfully, i really didn't stress over anything i added. just grabbed stuff and went with it.

kind of like how when i look at the placement of these glittered chipboard flowers and the flair buttons now (only hours after having added them to the layout), i'm not sure i love where i decided to adhere them all. but it's all good. every now and then, it's nice to NOT have to worry about making every layout perfect or trying to make it live up to what someone else thinks it should look like. i deal with that in assignments and "work" layouts. so i enjoyed these "just for me" layouts.

for my title, i wanted to find some chunky chipboard letters, since "CHA" is such a short word. i came across these super old glittered chipboard letters from making memories, and decided to use them. i like the mix of lowercase/uppercase, and fonts. the little wooden letters were in a bag next to the glittered letters, so i just went with it and used them for "winter". once again, i was just grabbing whatever i came across first.

my intention was to put "2010" under "winter". the number stickers were the last thing i added to this layout. once i picked the peachy thicker numbers (to match the peachy ribbons), they didn't fit next to my title. so i just adhered them at the top of the page.

not sure that wooden letters and glittered letters really go together. but they're both brown, and that's all i cared about at the moment 😉

for my journaling, i typed up three seperate text boxes, and then printed them on a grid patterened paper. i wanted to trim them into tag shapes. i made a few of my cuts a bit too close, so that when i cut the corners off the tops, i came super close to cutting off a letter or two. that bugs me a little. but i wasn't about to waste good grid paper to re-print it. lol! just went with it.

i even cut a bit too much off the bottoms, and they looked too short. so i dug some scrap pieces out of my garbage, and adhered a strip to the bottom of each tag, to make it appear longer. i'm sure no one would have noticed that. but now that i pointed it out, you can totally see it on this one, right? lol! i finished the tags by stapling some dear lizzy ribbons to the top of each tag.

and there you go. my winter CHA 2010 layout is finally done!!! two years after i started it. i love how working on something like this, and finishing it, makes me feel SOOOOO accomplished. silly, i know. but it does. and i have two more of these "get-er-done" layouts that i'll be sharing soon. a layout about THIS trip. and one about THIS trip. both layouts were started forever ago, and then pushed to the side. feels good to have them all done finally.
valentine – a creating keepsakes layout

February 14, 2012

happy valentine's day! i was thinking that it was too bad that i never got around to creating anything "valentine-ey", so that i'd have something cute to put up on the blog today. then, i happen to remember this layout that i never got around to sharing. i took THIS LITTLE TRIP just about a year ago, and this was one of the 24 projects i had put together for it.

i had created some samples to show how to incorporate "pockets" on your scrapbook pages, using pattern paper. this was one of the layouts that i threw together at the last minute. i knew i wanted to do long pockets, across the entire page, and had to come up with something fun to tuck into those pockets. that's when i thought about valentines.

i miss all the little valentines that the kids do when they're little. my girls are 12 & 15 now, and it's been a few years since passing out valentines was considered "cool". lol! at least i can look back on their valentines from their younger years. i have them all saved and in their school albums. but i went ahead and pulled some of sarah's out, from first grade, to use on this layout.

i used some fun fancy pants pattern papers, and cut them into varying size strips to go across the page. i cut them at a bit of an angle, since i didn't want them going perfectly straight across. i wanted them to tilt a little here and there. before adhering them down, i machine stitched around the edges of each paper strip. then i adhered them, adding adhesive to only the bottom and sides of the strips. i started adhering them at the top row, and worked my way down, slightly overlapping each strip. since there's no adhesive on the top, you'll have created "pockets", and you can then tuck things inside.

i added a few large buttons, to either side of the page. i picked out a favorite photo of sarah from first grade, and added it to the layout, along with a quick chipboard title. i should really go and add something on the layout, to show what year this was and what grade. i was in such a rush, when i was creating these and getting ready for the trip, that it was all about being as quick as i could.
fun & games – a creating keepsakes layout

February 13, 2012

i have a layout share today from scrapbooking ides for every season, a special issue from creating keepsakes.

As seen in the Scrapbooking Ideas For Every Season special issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

for this assignment, i was asked to create a layout with a gameboard inspired background. and it was supposed to be winter themed. this threw me a bit. after all, we don't have "winter" here where we live in california. so we certainly don't have many winter themed moments. then there was the "gameboard inspired background". what could i do with that?

after much thinking, i came up the perfect board game to use as inspiration for my layout. scene it! it's one of our favorite games to play, here in this house. we have a wide variety of scene it games. a few disney channel versions, disney movie version, nickelodeon channel version, twilight versions, etc.

i started by taking out one of the game boards, to use as a template for my layout. i knew i was doing a two page spread. and it turned out, that the game board was the PERFECT fit! i set two sheets of blue cardstock side by side, lined up the board on top, and then traced the board onto my cardstock. i cut those out, and then adhered them to my pages.

i used a white grid pattern paper for the base of my pages. i wanted a clean background, to let everything else stand out. the grid just adds a bit more interest, than plan white cardstock. i also added a few strips of black/white pattern paper, and a embossed red cardstock, along the tops and bottoms of my pages.

then i got to work finding photos to add to my "gameboard". since the girls (and admittedly, both joe and i as well) are huge disney channel and nickelodeon channels fans, i set out to find our favorite shows and stars. google images was my friend for this. i typed in what i was looking for, and then searched for the best photo i could find, in a size that would copy well for printing. for our favorite tv shows, i looked for great cast photos whenever i could.

i then pulled up each photo in photoshop, and resized them all to 1 inch x 1 inch. when i placed each photo onto my full sheet to print, i copied each one several times. i think i printed each photo 4-5 times, just to be sure i would have enough photos to go around the gameboard. after they printed out, i used a 1 inch square punch to punch out each photo.

i then set out to arrange the photos around the board. i spent forever on this part, trying to get them all lined up perfectly. i adhered each and every piece, using pop dots, for extra dimension. my "fun & games" title was cut with my silhouette, from black cardstock. i simply centered it across the two pages, and cut it where the pages meet, before adhering it.

i also cut some circles from a few different shades of blue cardstock, using a circle cutter. those mimic the circles on the actual scene it gameboard. the arrows were cut from the same red embossed cardstock that i used across the top and bottom of the pages. i simply dug up an old chipboard arrow, and traced it on the backside of the red cardstock, and then cut them out.

two things i have to point out about this layout, just because i thought they were kind of funny. this was supposed to be a "winter themed" layout. i was told that playing boardgames could be a winter activity that we do, which still makes this a winter themed layout. except that, after i had send this in, it dawned on me that the girls are wearing tank tops/tshirts in their photos. kind of a giveaway that i took these photos during the summer.

and when i sent this layout in, i was asked if i would be able to provide photo releases for all of the people in my photos. i had to laugh when i emailed back and said that they were all actors and actresses, and that i found all of their photos on google. i did NOT laugh when i was asked to provide links to all of the places where i had found these photos, which led me to google search them all over again. lol! i think it's also a great way to tell who has kids and can name all of these stars and shows, and who does not have kids (or your kids aren't quite old enough yet for some of these) and has no clue who the people in these photos are 🙂
bella blvd inspiration unlimited week: sophisticates chipboard

February 9, 2012

today, on the bella blvd blog, we are featuring some projects that focus on the new sophisticates chipboard elements. one of my cards made it into the lineup for the day.

this card started with the stars. there are two of them there. i just layered the green one on top of the orange and white one. worked out perfectly, that they fit together perfectly. so when i went to pull out papers and extras, i decided to go with blue, green, orange, and brown color scheme. once i started assembling everything, i knew it would make for a great masculine card.

i added the chipboard "Dad" letters from the family words chipboard set, and then used high five letter stickers in green and orange, to pull in the colors from the rest of my card.

a fun little football flag adds a nice masculine touch to the card, that i think any dad would love to receive!
bella blvd inspiration unlimited week: we’re expecting

February 8, 2012

we are still busy, busy, busy over on the bella blvd blog this week, sharing more CHA projects with you. this week we are sharing lots of projects that focus on the new embellishments. on monday, we focused on the new flags. yesterday, we focused on the new crochet flowers. today, we're focusing on the new designer tapes. and backing up a bit, last thursday, we focused on the new we're expecting collection. that was the day that i meant to share these next two cards. i somehow missed posting these, so i'm sneaking them in today.

i started this card with the "coming soon" chipboard piece. i choose some patterned papers in pink and tan, which i thought would look nice with the black on the chipboard piece. the measuring tape paper is from the we're expecting collection, and the tan chevron paper is from the baby girl collection.

i folded over two pieces of black striped designer tape, and adhered them to the card with silver mini brads. the "pretty soon" chipboard piece is from the we're expecting chipboard icon sheet.

i used a favorite border punch on some black cardstock, and machine stitched that above the measuring tape paper. i added a crochet flower, and a fun new button with mini brads in the center.

i choose a few more chipboard icons for this card, from the we're expecting collection. same idea on the papers. i just used the yellow measuring tape patterned paper this time. the pink cloud paper is actually a journaling block, from the cute cuts paper. i used a different border punch on the tan chevron paper, and tucked some small strips under the cloud paper, before doing all my machine stitching.

the little heartbeat chipboard piece is so cute!

although, that teddy bear is super cute too! i adhered her with pop dots, and tucked a new flag under, so that it looks like she's holding it. the "baby" alphas are from the sophisticates high five alpha sticker sheet.
the player – a kerri bradford studio layout

February 2, 2012

i'm switching gears a bit today. i've had SO much bella blvd stuff to share. but i also created a layout last week that just went up on kerri bradford's blog a few days ago.

i was feeling the need to do a fun sports layout, and decided to scrap some of alyssa's softball photos from 6 years ago. all of my papers are from the making the team collection, from bella blvd.

this layout design just sort of happened by accident. i had printed my photos as 2×3's, and i also had one more photo that i printed larger. i didn't end up using that one, once the layout got going. anyways. i trimmed my photos up, leaving a nice white border around each one. i knew i wanted them on a big strip of white grid patterned paper, to go the length of the page.

i had adhered the photos across the grid paper, overlapping them a bit as i went. my intention was to trim off that entire strip, and then add it to my page. i didn't pay much attention to where i adhered them on the sheet. once i started pulling out pattern papers, i decided to just build right on the grid paper, working around where i already had the photos. i think it worked out nicely.

i had a little gap between the last two photos. i had planned on filling it in with something, but i wasn't sure what. i simply took a few thin strips of blue and green patterned papers, and adhered them in between the photos, and then machine stitched down the middle. i also used some of the brand new designer tape from bella blvd, to tape down my photos. i love that yellow chevron tape the most!

i knew i wanted to use the circles from the background basics kit. i LOVE cutting the background shapes on my silhouette. i'm not lucky enough to have a cameo (not yet anyways ;)), so i'm still cutting on the silhouette SD. so i can't cut the full 12×12 background shapes. but it's all good, because i can still cut shapes 12 inches long for fun borders. i just selected a portion of the design to cut out, and adhered that across the top of my page.

the stars are from the ol' ballgame kit. i resized them to a few different sizes, and cut them from black cardstock. i picked out a few brads and a button, to add to the centers of each star.

kerri has lots of fun titles and phrases in the ol' ballgame kit. i choose to use "the player" for my title, because i knew my journaling would be more about alyssa as a softball player. and not so much on her team, or how the year went.

i tend to go towards my regular journaling strips the majority of the time, which i love. but when i have more to say, a few journaling blocks work so much better. i also found one of the new flags from bella blvd that coordinated with my layout nicely, so i tucked it behind one of the journaling papers.
bella blvd inspiration unlimited week: baby girl

February 1, 2012

i'm home from CHA. took a hardcore road trip home late last night. 1 potty stop. went a straight 2.5 hours without seeing a single car, but passed about 317 semi trucks during that same time. and at least another 200 parked on the side of the highway and at 2 of the rest stops i passed. i'm not even exaggerating. TONS of semi's. 5 hours and 5 minutes of total drive time, and i arrived home at 2:50am. i'm alive and kicking this morning, and trying to catch up with what i missed while i was gone.

over on the bella blvd blog, we are having an inspiration unlimited week feature! actually, you know we like to make our "week" features TWO weeks long, right? so that means for the next two weeks, we will be featuring lots of CHA projects using the new collections and products. each day we will spotlight a certain collection or certain embellishment collection. today is all about the baby girl collection!

this card started with the journaling card i cut from the cute cuts paper. i love the purple dots on the top and bottom of the card. i also wanted to use the chipboard cupcake.

one of the pattern papers has lots of colorful circles all over it. i had punched a ton of them out for another layout (that i haven't shared yet), and had a few extras laying around. so i added those to the top of the card.

i also stitched right through my letter stickers. just fun to do. and i've ben adding stitching to a lot of my designers tapes as well.

i wanted to use the little girl monkey chipboard piece on this card. it's so cute!

i just love the font on the alpha stickers! i go back and forth on either leaving the centers of the letters in, or taking them out. i sort of like how the white centers look on here. the yellow chevron sticker was a quote bubble, so i just cut off the extra little bit to make it an oval sticker.

go check out the bella blog for some great baby girl projects from a few of our designers. they all put together some amazing projects, and i'm excited to finally be sharing them on the blog.

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