Laura Vegas

nine year old you – a bella blvd layout

October 7, 2011

today is the last day of out design team introductions on the bella blvd blog. stephanie and i made a last minute decision to re-introduce ourselves, along with all the new girls. so i whipped up this quick layout yesterday.

any guesses, as to what collection i used for this layout?

if you guessed the brand new mid-release, winter wonder, you'd be right! i just love the colors and patterns in this collection. the thing is, i live in california. the part of the state where we don't have anything close to "winter" weather. lol! snow? snowflakes? skiing? sledding? mittens and scarfs? ummmm. no, we don't have those sorts of things here. but that's not going to keep me from using a super cute collection ;)

the great thing about bella's pattern papers, is that you will always find super versitale patterns, that can be used for anything. at first glance, you might assume that i used a lot of pattern paper for this page. but i didn't. on both the green circle paper, and the yellow chevron paper, i simply cut some one inch strips. then i cut the ends at an angle, and adhered them up against each other. if you look closely at the photo above, you can see where the cuts are in the corners. i used a sheet of kraft cardstock, to build my entire layout on top of, so the strips sort of gave the look of a frame around the edges.

so the entire middle part of the page was empty, and then i added my white cardstock piece in the center of the page, which covered up the empy spot. but not before i misted my paper. yes, you read that right. i misted something! took me forever, but i think i'm ready to jump on the misting train. lol! i used some "piglet" pink mist, from studio calico. the color worked perfectly.

head over to the bella blvd blog, to check out who else we're introducing and re-introducing today. and you can also find 5 fun/random facts about me, which you may or may not know yet.
my mind’s eye: october guest designer

October 4, 2011

i'm really excited to be joining my mind's eye for the month of october, as their guest designer! if you head over to their blog, you can read my post, where i shared a bit about myself and my family, how i started scrapping, and shared some of my favorite my mind's eye layouts from over the years. keep in mind, some are newer layouts. and some are super duper old layouts (like 4-5 years). i've used my mind's eye products since the beginning of time, and have always loved them!

this was a new layout that i created over the weekend. i used the lost and found: sunshine collection, in great yellow, brown, and aqua colors. that yellow polka dot paper, on the background, is that great paper i mentioned before. with the glitter around the edge of each circle.

i choose some of my favorite photos of us, from a family get-together back in june. i love all the cool frames apps and square photos that people are doing these days, with their iphones and smartphones. but i'm not cool enough to have a fancy phone like that, and i can't pry the girl's ipod touch's out of their hands long enough to use for taking photos. so when i saw the new insta-frames, by audrey neal, i knew i had to have them. it gives the same look, but i can do it with any photo i have. i just added the frames, and cropped my photos to fit. after printing these all out (at 2 inches square), i trimmed each one and adhered to my layout.

in my head, i thought the 6 photos would fill up the space well. i must have mis-judged, since 9 photos would have worked better. so i just cut some squares of pattern paper, to fill in the gaps on my little collage. which worked out well, to handwrite just a few facts about the photos.

i love the die cut title pieces, for pulling a layout together quickly. this one here says "such a lovely day". it also has glitter around the edges, which ties in nicely with the background pattern paper. i adhered it with lots of pop dots, and tucked some decorative pins behind it.

the burlap trim is nice and thick, and added some great texture to the page. i adhered a strip of it down the left side of the page, and then embellished it with brads and buttons. you see the layered pieces? those brads come just like that, with the layered paper pieces behind them. they are so quick and easy to use. i love premade products like that!

i'll be working on quite a few projects over the month, for the my mind's eye blog. i'm really looking forward to it, and hope you'll keep your eye out for me!
bella blvd: NEW mid-releases

October 3, 2011

today is reveal day for bella blvd's first ever mid-release! i'm so excited for these two new *limited edition* mini collections! what makes this morning even more exciting, for me personally, is that the UPS dude just dropped off a box a few minutes ago, containing all these new products!!! i cannot wait to create with these gorgeous new papers and stickers!

i'm only going to show you a few pieces from each collection. you'll want to check out the bella blvd blog, to see the collections in full! you can see the winter wonder collection here and the spring flings and easter things collection here.

i admit, that we don't have anything that resembles "winter" here in my part of california. lol! but i can think of plenty of uses for this collection, since the patterns are so versitile.

aren't the designs gorgesous, fun, and full of color! there are also a few new miniature stickers being released, which have turned into one of bella's best selling items. make sure and check out the blog, so you can see every single item in each collection. and we have giveaway's too, so be sure and get your name in there for a chance to win these!
world card making day

October 1, 2011

today is world card making day. and i actually had some cards on hand, that i haven't shared yet. figured it was a good day to share them. i'm not sure if i'll be making new cards today, since we have soccer games and errands to run. i'm going to try and get craft at some point today 🙂

a birthday card! the one kind of card that i NEVER have on hand. and the one kind of card that we always need the most of. it never fails. one of the girl's will have a birthday party to go too, and 10 minutes before we need to leave, i'm rushing to make a card.

which is why most of my birthday cards look like this. 2 pattern papers, a strip of ribbon, and a sentiment sticker. done in this same arrangement. it's quick and easy.

i have a layout that i created a few days ago (will share next week), and i had some scraps left over. so i used some of those, to make a quick card, while i had everything out. those layered embellishments come, exactly as you see them. so i literally just peeled them off the sheet, and stuck them down on the front of the card. easy peasy.

wow. check me out. i did four full posts this week. all with projects to share. it almost appears that i'm back to some sort of normal blogging routine. lol! we'll see if it lasts 😉
bella blvd shares

September 30, 2011

i thought i would share some bella blvd stuff today. i hope you're all reading the bella blog, since i spend a lot of time blogging over there every day 😉 we've had lots of great stuff going on over there.

stephanie included this layout of mine, in her "friday's with stephanie" post today. bella is re-printing pattern paper for the first time ever, with their most requested and in-demand "cupcake paper". i have another layout using the cupcake side of the paper, that will be featured as a free step-by-step project sheet, coming soon. for this layout, i used the candle side of the paper.

we've been doing design team introductions all week long, and we'll be continuing it for most of next week as well. you can get to know each of our TWENTY-ONE new design team members, learn some fun random facts about each of them, see a few of their projects, and get links to check out their blogs.

we are taking monday, october 3rd, off from the design team introductions. but that's just because we have two BRAND NEW MINI COLLECTIONS to announce! these will be limited edition collections, and they'll start shipping out on october 24th. i have a box of the brand new product arriving tomorrow, and i'll be creating with it this weekend, so i can help show it off on monday 😉

we've also started doing some "saturday sketches" on the blog. twice a month, we will have a new sketch, and a handful of our designers will create layouts and cards based off them. we love to see everyone's takes on the sketches, so please share with us if you try it out. you can see the first two HERE, and HERE.
adventure – a kerri bradford studio layout

September 29, 2011

today, i have a kerri bradford studio layout to share. we're finishing out the "happy" theme for the month. creating layouts about things that make us happy.

i have never been a big traveler, and our family has never taken a real vacation. so it's been a big change for me, as i've been doing quite a bit of traveling over the last two years, all for scrapbooking related work. i'll be totally honest with you. i'm NOT a big fan of traveling. i think i have been on about 22 airplanes, over the past two years. i find that just getting to and from the events, completely wears me out and it takes me days to recover.

BUT. the reason i put up with the traveling, is that once i get to where i'm going, i have so much fun. i love being able to teach other's about scrapbooking and to be surrounded with scrapbookers that share that same passion as i do for paper and glue. so while the actual traveling doesn't make me very happy, what i am traveling too makes me very happy. and to be totally honest again. seeing as i work at home, taking care of infants and toddlers … every now and then, it's good for me to get out and be surrounded by big people, that can hold big people conversations with me 😉

this map pattern paper from little yellow bicycle is what started this entire layout. i found it in my stash a few months ago, and pulled it out, with the intention of doing a layout about the places that i have gone. once i started working, and pulling out more products (all from little yellow bicycle), and deciding on which of kerri's going places shapes i wanted to add, the second page just sort of happened.

the green brad marks where all my trips have started. from home. i guess i could have put the brad up by "sacramento", since that's where the airport is. but i put it where i live, which is an hour away. the brown brads mark the places i have gone too. and i did add a few orange brads, to some common layover cities that i seem to end up in.

i thought it would be fun to map out all my flights, including the layovers. but i realized the strings would all get criss-crossed, and wouldn't make much sense. plus, i had a few cities that i've traveled too, but that i also had layovers in. and two of these locations (utah and los angeles), i have flown to a few times each, for different things.

i used my silhouette to cut the "take a look" piece, from two pattern papers and some cardstock. i love that i can cut the entire piece from one paper (here, i used brown). and then when i cut the individual pieces, from other papers, i can layer them directly over the top of the original cut piece. makes it really easy to get everything lined up perfectly.

once i decided to go to a two page layout, i figured i'd have lots of room to journal. because i did have a lot to say. since i tend to leave my journaling for last, there's times where i simply run out of room. or i find that i don't have a good enough spot to add it. so, i thought it was pretty funny when i ended up with this little journaling block, on a two page layout, with NO photos. lol!

i wanted to cut out the title and airplane fairly large. which is one of the reasons i added the second page. i was going to include my journaling on the bottom of this page. but i thought the boarding pass card would be nice to include, and then i pulled out another journaling block. these just kind of landed on the bottom of this layout, and i lost my journaling spot.

i used my silhouette to cut the airplane, from green pattern paper and from brown cardstock. i offset the green plane just slightly, and adhered it using pop dots. the "adventure" was cut from brown cardstock and orange pattern paper. i also punched some clouds from coordinating pattern papers, and pop dotted a few of them. i know there's always lots of clouds up there, when i'm in the planes.

so, there you have it. my first two page, no photo layout. it turned out NOTHING like i planned, when i sat down to create it. i think part of it was the fact that i hadn't scrapped a single thing in weeks. i was out of my zone, and just started tossing stuff on the pages. lol! i might even add some more journaling on the back of the layout, or add a smaller page protector in between the pages that can include more journaling and maybe some memoriabilia. we'll see. truth be told, i'll probably just toss it in my album, and call it done 😉
you and me always together – a layout share

September 28, 2011

a small miracle has occured, and i have a brand new layout to share today. i actually have another brand new one to share tomorrow as well. but this one was made entirely for no reason. just because. the photos are older ones of the girls. i came across them a few months ago, and printed them out to scrap them. finally did just that.

it's a simple layout. nothing fancy of special about it. and it's a 9"x9" layout. i got into this size about four years ago, and used to make them all the time. it's a fun size to work with. you can print your photos smaller, and save more on photo paper. and a lot of embellishments just seem to be made for the smaller page. sometimes, they can get lost on a 12×12 layout. but the size ratio on the 9×9 works really well.

everything on this layout is from my mind's eye. this paper here, with the glittered circles? we were using this pattern paper, in yellow, in one of the CKC classes i taught. but we were using the backside of it. i loved that paper so much, that i went out and picked it up in every color. i think there's just three colors. teal, yellow, and pink. but i got them all.

love that my mind's eye has all the fun die cut titles. they're so easy to use, and they match the collections perfectly. i adhered this one using lots of pop dots, and curled up the edges all the way around the piece.

i'll be back tomorrow, with a kerri bradford studio layout. it's a 12×12, two pager, with NO PHOTOS. i've done no-photo layouts before, but this was my first time doing a two pager.
old fashion rivalry – a creating keepsakes layout

September 27, 2011

today, i'm finally able to share this fun layout that was in the september issue of creating keepsakes. i cut it super close on the deadline to submit this, and apparently only took one photo of it. and i never took more pics, before i mailed it in. then it got held up coming back to me. it finally found it's way home last week, and i was able to get more photos of it.

here's the september 2011 sketch. i love working with sketches, and figured i would give it a try. i think i've said this before, but i tend to follow sketches, exactly as they're shown. recently, i have tried to mix it up and alter sketches, just slightly. but this is one i worked on AGES ago (beauty of the magazine world. lol!), and i think you'll see that i used this sketch as-is.

as seen in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

since this sketch had lots of 4×6 photos, i knew i had to find something to scrap about, that had lots of pics to choose from. i remembered this photos of joe and alyssa, that i had taken a while back. joe is a die hard LA dodger fan, and alyssa is a huge SF giants fan. actually, i'll let my journaling tell you what the photos are about 🙂

the sketch had this fun scalloped border across the bottom of the pages. i decided to use my silhouette to cut these, from some blue tone-on-tone pattern paper. even though i had had my silhouette for about four months, i still hadn't used it. working on this layout, was the first time that i actually took it out of the box and tried it out. i also cut those sketchy stars, from the same blue pattern paper.

back on the original sketch, months ago, there weren't any sizes on the photos. so i really did some quess work, trimming a bit here and there, and layering the photos all together. i kept going, until it all fit together nicely, and looked like the sketch.

i love these skinny fabric thickers, from american crafts. and on my buttons, i added mini brads to two of the buttons holes. i love doing that, instead of threading them all the time.

these two smaller photos of alyssa look so dramatic, don't they? lol! after all these years, she knows how to turn it on to the camera. but her and joe really were watching the game, through the window, while i took photos of them. when the dodgers happen to score, this was her "reaction" for the camera.

speaking of alyssa, today is her birthday! i can't believe that she's turning FIFTEEN YEARS OLD today!
CKU Blog Hop

September 23, 2011

Hi and welcome to the CKU Blog Hop! We’re excited to share with you projects that we hope get you excited about CKU Reunion, whether you’ve already registered, are planning to come, or wishing you were coming. The blog hop is from Friday, Sept. 23 at 10:00 am MT until Saturday, Sept. 24 at 10:00 am MT. If you get lost during the hop, come back here for the hop order (below). Have fun hopping!

If you’re following the CKU Blog Hop, you should have come from Piradee Talvanna's blog. If you stumbled upon this blog post and want to see all the CKU Blog Hop participants, make sure to go to Mou Saha’s blog to start from the beginning.

Mou Saha

Teresa Collins

Stacy Cohen

Piradee Talvanna

Laura Vegas (you are here)

Stacy Croninger

Michelle Hill

Megan Hoeppner

Kim Watson

Join us at CKU Reunion in San Diego, CA October 27-29 for a weekend of creating, connecting, and inspiration. You’ll spend one day completing an album that will be ready for photos when you get home, and another day creating in four 90 minute classes including mixed media canvas art, fabric creations, jewelry, and more. Plus, there are evening crops, bonus classes, goodie bags, a commemorative tote, and so much more all for only $295! And you’ll be learning from some of the industry’s finest such as Lisa Bearnson, Teresa Collins, Stacy Julian, Michelle Hill, Megan Hoeppner, and other inspiring teachers. You know you want to come, so register today so you’ll have plenty of time to pack your supplies for the trip. See you in San Diego!

Want to hear more about Megan Hoeppner's class description?

Album Track: Got Your Number
We've got your number in this incredible 11 page 12" x 12" album class. Join us as we count the ways numbers impact your everyday life. You'll look back on important numeric events in your life, such as memorable milestones (marriage, graduation, etc.), and significant (and playful) quantities (the number of children you have, the amount of times you indulge in your favorite vice every day, etc.). And you'll have a blast personalizing your album with numbers unique to you-your home address, your lucky number, etc. Plus, as you add up the numbers of your life, you'll learn innovative techniques such as coloring with Twinkling H20s, stitching, and misting all while using Pink Paislee's NEW Daily Junque line. Top it off with clever ideas for using unexpected supplies, such as cupcake liners, washi tape, bakers twine, and more, and you've got one fresh album. Whatever your digit, this album is rated a 10.0 for fun and creativity!

as seen in the November 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

I pulled up this older layoutof mine, which incorporates numbers into the design and the journaling. This is a photo of an online friend's son, Adler. I was scrapping some photos for her, just for fun. When it came time to scrap this photo, I turned to her blog to find some journaling to go along with it. She had this great post, about him always saying "three minutes mom … just three minutes … that is it, and then i'm outta here". That's all the time he would allow mom to take his pictures. Too cute!

I used some pattern papers by Creative Cafe and WRMK to start out my layout, and then added the number paper from American Crafts to go with the theme of the page. For my title, I used a mix of foam letter stickers from American Crafts, and glitter mini stickers from Making Memories. Three velvet star brads finished off the theme of the layout.

Next, head over to Stacy Croninger blog, to see what she has in store for you!
never going to happen: a creating keepsakes layout

September 21, 2011

i have a layout share today, from the september issue of creating keepsakes.

as seen in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

for this assignment, i was asked to use a themed collection, to do a non-themed layout. i'm really big on this idea. that just because a collection is geared towards a particular theme, doesn't mean you can't use it for everyday layouts. i decided to use bella blvd's cute pet collection for my layout. now, we don't have pets. you could say, that pets are the reason we don't have pets. alyssa is allergic to them, so it's not something we'll ever have to consider.

when i first created this layout, i debated putting an "X" over the cute little doggie. like saying "no dogs allowed". i'm glad i didn't keep that, since he's too cute to cover up :)

did i ever mention that i bought stock in these doodlebug loopy letter stickers? love them! not usually on their own. but paired with chipboard letters, they're so fun!

i'm desperately trying to get back on track, after coming home from CKC last weekend. i had such a great time, and i'll have to blog about it later. usually, i can swing a day off, when i get back, to sort of re-adjust myself. that didn't work out this time. which means i worked the 2 days before i left for texas, then spent 5 days traveling, teaching, and working my tush off, and then i worked 3 straight days after that. let's just say i arrived home at 10:30pm, on sunday night. and i had daycare kids here by 7:30am on monday morning. including a 5 month old, and a 20 month old that isn't feeling well. i'm SOOOO looking forward to having tomorrow off from the day job 🙂

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