today is the big day! the new mid-release collections, by bella blvd, are shipping out to a store/online store near you! over on the blog, we are going to be sharing TONS of projects this week, from all of our designers, featuring our two new collections. head over HERE to check out what's up today!
Laura Vegas
Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life
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thought i'd share a taste of how we spend a lot of our friday night's, this time of the year. on the high school football field.
the band getting ready to take the field for the national anthem, to start the game. see that little building, right behind the "manteca football" sign? that's the band's snack bar, where i do my share to help out, every now and then.
last week just happened to be homecoming. and the first time i have taken my camera to a game.
the manteca buffaloes, taking the field.
because it was homecoming, and they were announcing the queen's and princess's during half time, the band didn't do their usual half time performance. but it was cool to see everyone out on the field, during the announcments.
that's alyssa in the back. they were all really excited to wear the hats last week. NOT. they don't like the hats. or the uniforms, for that matter. they're really hot, and it was really hot last week.
of course there are cheerleaders. lots of them in fact.
and there was football.
i think my favorite part from the band, is at the end of the games, when they play. they do the school song, and then they play "R-E-S-P-E-C-T". and then they go into a bunch of other songs, and just have lots of fun with it.
sarah and a few of her BFF's, tawny and natalia. they spend more time running to the snack bar and the bathroom, than they spent actually watching the game.
and it's always a good night, when we have a scoreboard like this. with a buffalo win!
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i have a really quick and simple project up on the my mind's eye blog today. just a few ideas for creating fun little treats for a halloween class party at school.
you can read all about them, find more photos, and hear why i created such simple treats RIGHT HERE.
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time to announce a winner for the free class pass that Shimelle has generously offered up for her new online class, Pretty Paper Party.
what are the chances? the random number generator choose the first comment wins!
i always laugh when i see kate's comments come into my inbox. "stinkydudette". too cute! congrats kate! i will forward your email address over to shimelle, and she'll be in touch with you!
i loved reading all the comments on how much paper you have. i suppose you all want to know how much i have, right? here's my guesstimates. cardstock – 35 inches. yes, it's true. pattern paper – 60 inches. that sounds absurd. and yet it's really not all that much. my paper stash takes up two full rows on my expedit shelves. it's really one of the cheapest supplies we use as scrappers. and you just never know what color/pattern you're going to need. which is why i like to have a good stash on hand 😉
i'll be back a bit later today, with a simple little halloween project share that i created for the my mind's eye blog.
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There are online classes for everything these days, and Shimelle has been teaching online scrapbooking classes for years – but she's decided it's time to kick it up a bit and go from online class to a four-week online party, and you're invited. Pretty Paper Party is the party to attend if you have a collection of paper stacked up for a rainy day, if you have more scraps of paper than you know what to do with (but you know you don't want to throw them away!) and if you've ever put a piece of paper back in your stash because it was just too special for the photos at hand. Through printable prompts and tutorial videos, Shimelle and dozens of special party guests will share beautiful and innovative techniques you can achieve with the paper you have already collected.
I'm super excited to be one of Shimelle's special party guests for this fun party! I had to read her email a few times, to be sure she sent the invite to the right person ;)
The party has barely started, and there are already goodies to hand out! Shimelle is offering up a FREE CLASS PASS to one of my lucky blog readers! Just leave me a comment, and give me a guesstimate (is that a word?) of how many inches of paper you have in your stash. I'll leave comments open until Tuesday evening, and then I will announce a randomly drawn winner on Wednesday morning. And if you've already signed up, you can still enter the giveaway. If chosen, Shimelle will refund the cost or you can give the class pass to a friend.
Class starts today, but as with any good party, it's okay to arrive fashionably late. The class has no deadlines and everyone receives permanent access to all the class materials, so anyone can RSVP to the party at any time!
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yesterday, on the bella blvd blog, we had our first saturday sketch's post for october. this time, i decided to create a card sketch. i asked our card designers, as well as one of our layout designers to create projects based on the sketch, and i figured i would play along too.
i used the new spring flings & easter things collection for my card. i usually follow sketches pretty closely. i think my main reason for following this one so closely, was that i was the one to create the sketch. lol!
you can find my actual sketch, and see what all the other talented designers did, right HERE.
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it's challenge day on the my mind's eye blog today!
The challenge: Design a card based on this wonderful sketch and use “FALL” as your theme (sketch by Anam Stubbington).
The rules: Use ANY My Mind’s Eye products (current or past) as long as your project has at least 80% My Mind’s Eye products.
The deadline: Add a link to your project to the bottom of THIS POST using inlinkz by Sunday, October 23, 2011 (midnight, MST). Please include your first and last name and project name when uploading. (a photo of your layout or project will show directly in the post)
The PRIZE: The winner will receive three ENTIRE collections of their choice! We will also award an honorable mention winner with one collection of their choice! All winners will be featured in a blog post and have bragging rights!
i have a confession to make. i'm a wingnut. i did the "fall as your theme" part of the challenge. but i totally missed the part about the sketch. i mis-read my email, and didn't piece all the info together correctly. leave it to me. soooooooo. here's my fall layout, which looks nothing like the sketch;)
the closest i could come to fall photos, were a few from the pumpkin patch, a few years back. these are the times when i really wish we had more of a "fall" season here. we get the fall weather. what we don't have much of, is the fall colors. the trees around here aren't grown up enough, to really drop that many leaves. not like in the movies, where you see the streets lined with huge trees and leaves ALL over the yards and streets. yes, i sort of want that look. lol! and our trees are pretty much green. we get a touch of orange leaves on one tree, and there's a few down the street with yellows. but overall, not a huge "fall" look around here.
but i love fall colors, and i found lots of fun my mind's eye products in my stash, in fun fall colors. some of my papers are definately on the older side, mixed in with some newer ones. i went with browns, tans, blue, and a touch of orange and yellow. i love their buttons! such unique designs, with lots of texture.
this transparency was meant to be a photo frame. but i thought it would be fun to use it as my journaling block. i adhered it to my layout, and then adhered my journaling strips right on top of it. we used transparencies in a lot of the classes i taught at CKC's this year, and i always got asked about the best way to adhere them. transparencies are clear, so they're a little trickier. but i simply adhere them with mini glue dots. i just try and put the glue dots behind a darker spot on the transparency, or behind a letter. if someone was to really look, they might see the glue dot just a bit. but i don't stress over it.
and here's my card. i used scraps that i had out from the layout, to create the card. i love those banner stickers. they come on a sheet, with about 5 different colors, and they have the little letter stickers to add to them. i've been holding on to that sheet forever, and was glad to finally use them.
i hope you'll play along with the challenge! remember, you can find all the details HERE, where you can also check out layouts by a few of the my mind's eye design team members. and you can see how they used the sketch 😉
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i have another layout to share, using one of bella blvd's two new mid-release collections. this layout also uses the new spring flings and easter things collection. but this time, it's more of a spring/everyday layout.
as i was looking for the egg coloring photos on my external hard drive, i came across these photos of one of my closest friend's, deneen, and her girls. i had taken these photos of them, over four years ago, and thought it would be fun to scrap them. they went perfectly with this collection. i printed the photos of the four girls as 2×3's, and i believe the photo of all of them is 5×8 inches.
i've had quite a few comments lately, on how straight my machine stitching is. honestly, it's really only straight when i do a zig zag stitch. and that's usually because i'm going along the edge of one of the papers. i just line up the center of the "foot" (is that what it's called?), to go along the edge of my paper, so that the stitching goes on either side.
if i'm doing a straight stitch, it will NOT be straight. so i purposely make it crooked as i go, and i make sure and go around three times. just like i did on these half circles. i did a little misting again, just to add a little color to the white cardstock. i did pull one pattern paper from an older bella collection, and that's the purple grid paper from the socialite collection. the flower paper along the side of the page, has a touch of purple in it, and i wanted to pick up on that.
the scalloped border sticker is from the socialite collection too. the buttons are all from fancy pants. love their buttons!
it just so happens, that i have a ton of projects going on right now. for a wide variety of things. it's a funny mix to see on my desk. i have spring, winter, halloween, and even graduation. it's no wonder that i've given no thought yet to halloween, which is coming up super quick. oddly enough, the girls havn't even mentioned halloween or costumes. i'm sure it will come up at the last minute. that's kind of how we do things around here 😉
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yesterday, it was halloween on the blog. and today, we're switching over to easter. lol! i've been playing with bella blvd's two new collections the last few days, and today i'm sharing a layout using the new spring flings and easter things collection.
i managed to find some egg coloring photos that i have never scrapped before. somehow, 2007 never made it into the albums. i didn't have that many photos to chose from, so i picked out four photos that i could line up across the page. originally, when i trimmed them from my sheet of photo paper, i left a white border around each photo. then i remembered that i had sized them at 3"x4", so that they would fit perfectly across the page. i started to trim off all the white borders, and decided that i liked the look of one photo with the borders, to make it stand out more.
i think you all know how much i LOVE my white cardstock. but sometimes, it's too plain looking, if i leave too much white space. for my taste, anyways. i'm trying to use my mists more now, and i have to say, i LOVE the way it adds a little sumpin-sumpin to the white cardstock.
on this layout, i used my mister huey's, by studio calico, in bonny blue and lemonade. i'm definately new to misting, but i've read enough and seen it enough to have a slight idea of what i'm doing. i keep a box in my scraproom, that i can mist inside of. i even know to mist the areas you want, before adding your other papers and photos. and yet, somehow, i managed to mist two of my photos. and they weren't anywhere near where i misted. go figure. it landed on sarah's face, so i had to re-print them.
i just LOVE the font of the alphabet stickers from bella blvd. i love how the inside of the letters in this collection, have little hearts on them. since occasionally, i do like to leave that middle piece there, instead of just throwing it away. now that i'm looking at it, i think that "g" would look really cute as a pair of sunglasses. don't you think? lol! the hearts could be little eyes 🙂
i have another layout with this collection, that i'll share another day this week. remember to ask your LSS to order now, since it's a limited edition release. they start shipping on october 24th!
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last month, i mentioned a new feature that we're sharing, on the bella blvd blog. free step-by-step project sheets. i am designing a fresh, never-featured-before project along with step-by-step directions for you to use. every month! it will be complete with a list of tools, supplies and the bella products needed. well, our second one is up today. and here's a peek.
head on over to the bella blvd blog, and you'll find the link to download the full project sheet. you can save it on your computer, or print it out to have on hand. i hope you enjoy!
Laura Vegas 