Laura Vegas

Scrapbooking And A Little Bit Of Everyday Life

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family get-together

June 27, 2011

it's been a while since i've shared some family photos, hasn't it? we had a little get-together, with my family, about two weeks ago. we managed to squeeze a lot of celebrations into one night.

we had my mom's birthday, my birthday, and sarah's birthday. all within an eleven day period. we also added in my dad's birthday, which was in the middle of may. and we w0rked in father's day for my dad and joe, since it was a few days away. btw. aren't my girls just the most adorable things 😉

joe and sarah.

me and alyssa.

how cute does her hair look? she just had about seven inches cut off, for a fresh summer look.

alyssa could not even be paying any attention to me. but as soon as she catches sight of my camera, she automatically goes into "smile" mode. lol!

i think sarah was trying to get into "smile" mode, but didn't quite make it in time. and alyssa then went into her "peace sign" mode.

this is how sarah looks the majority of the time. ipod touch in hand, and seriously focused on either free texting, free apps and games, and occasionally, some music 😉

we always write our names on our cups, so that we can keep track of them. sarah usually writes not only her name, but lots of other random things.

like i said. random stuff. lol! we don't even question what she does anymore 😉

me and sarah. two of the birthday girls.

i'm blurry, but joe looks fine. i'm thinking i havn't taught alyssa my focusing tricks yet. will work on that with her.

i failed to get too many photos of everyone else in the family. well, i DID get some shots. but they were when we were eating, and they weren't very flattering pics. lol! luckily, sarah was on picture duty too. she had gone around and took self portraits, with each of us.

sarah and grammie (aka, my mom).

sarah and papa (aka, my dad).

sarah and uncle scott (aka, my brother).

sarah and aunt kathy (aka, my sister-in-law).

we ate good food. we caught up with each other. we sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather that finally found it's way to california. the girls thought about going swimming in uncle scott and aunt kathy's pool. but they had already gone in grammy and papa's pool earlier that day, so they decided against it. we had cake and ice cream, and opened gifts and cards. a great night with family.
maggie holmes photography workshop *GIVEAWAY*

June 24, 2011

photography. it's honestly a love-hate relationship with me sometimes. i love photos. i have scrapbooking. you have to have photos to scrapbook. and i want to have good photos to scrap with. i can get gorgeous photos. i can also get cruddy photos. i think that's where part of my frustration lies. in that i never know what i'll get.

here's one of my photos that i shared yesterday. looks pretty good, right? the colors look so much better on my computer, but i won't get into trying to figure out what typepad does to my photos. lol! but i guess i should show you what my original photos from that day looked like.

this is one of those photos that i can't really tell you what went wrong. could be settings, could be my external flash, could be lighting, could be user error. the thing is, i don't get the technical stuff behind photography. i have just never taken the time to learn it, like i should. luckily, i'm pretty good with the editing, so i can save these types of photos. but i'm at that point, where i'm ready to learn how to get the good shots straight out of the camera.

enter my good friend, and fellow CK dream teamer, maggie holmes. she's an amazing photographer, who i have admired for years. she's been teaching workshops for a while now, and i keep thinking that a class is exactly what i need. maggie is just getting ready to start another session of her beginner/intermediate photography workshop, on july 11th. and i'm excited to be participating in her class.

Online Photography Workshop: Beginner/Intermediate

Do you have a film or digital SLR but don't know how to use it? Do you want to learn how to shoot in manual and how to nail your exposure every time? Do you want to push your photography to the next level and learn how to capture more artistic and meaningful photographs? If so, then this is the workshop for you.

Workshop Description:

The workshop is a 6 week online course that will cover the basics of photography (and much more). Topics will include shooting fundamentals such as exposure, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and white balance. I will also teach you how to shoot in manual mode so that you can stop being frustrated with the images you get from auto mode and start to get the results you want from your camera!

But don't worry, it isn't all about the technical stuff! Much of the workshop is also focused on creativity, style, composition and lighting. I will even teach you how to get those sparkly eyes in your photographs! And, when I am teaching you the fundamentals and the technical stuff, I do it in a way that is understandable and fun!

Throughout the course I will also share my own personal opinions and "rules of thumb" as to how I do things and how I get the shots I get. This is your chance to get a peek into my brain and how/why I do what I do. In a nutshell – I am teaching in 6 weeks what it has taken me years to learn and figure out the hard way!

There will also be an exclusive message board for class members where you can share your photos, critique each other, share ideas and ask questions. This is where you will post your assignments to get feedback from me. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of the workshop is the chance to get personalized and individual attention each week! I am here to help you through each and every lesson!

you can find additional information, on the dates and price, HERE. i highly recommend her classes, and know so many friends that have taken them and loved them.

maggie is such a sweetheart, and so super generous, that she has offered up a free spot in her class to one of my blog readers! that's a $250 value, people. that's huge! if you're REALLY serious about wanting to learn to shoot in manual and learn all the technical aspects of photography, you'll want to get in on this giveaway. just leave me a comment, and tell me one thing that you really wish you could improve on, in your own personal photography. comments will be left open until tuesday night, and i'll randomly choose a winner on wednesday. good luck!
look who came for a visit

June 23, 2011

look who came back for a visit. so fun to see these two kiddos back together, even if just for an afternoon.

haley is actually back with me for the summer break. so she'll be around all the time. nikolas has come for a few short visits, here and there. well, he had came by the house on father's day, to bring joe a card.

and the first thing he asked was "where is haley". as if she should just be here ALL the time. lol!

so we told his mom and dad to bring him back during the week, for a visit, since haley would be here. i've been told how much he misses us. he knows he's welcome here anytime he wants.

flashback to september 2008. almost 3 years ago.

awwww. they've grown up. all three of them ;)

i used to have to work really hard to get photos of haley and nikolas back in the day.

but, on this day, they were all about having me take their picture. they would take turns, coming up and doing something cute for me. this is one of nikolas's karate moves.

zachary is not so cooperative with the photo taking. it's the age. i keep reminding myelf of that.

zachary had a great time with the kids. nikolas has only seen zachary a few times, but he LOVES him. dotes on him, and was always giving him hugs.

joe and his "boys". the boys that have come through here, always have a special place in joe's heart. he calls them "my boys". totally made his father's day, when nikolas stopped by to see him.

flashback to january 2009. two and a half years ago. the color was terrible on this photo, which is why it's black and white.

two and a half years later. sure, the kids are bigger. and i have bangs. but that's about all that's changed. they're still awesome, funny, and sweet. and i still love them more than anything. and the color was still terrible in our photo, which is why it's once again black and white 😉
friend for life – a creating keepsakes layout

June 20, 2011

i have another layout to share today, from the tips & tricks: fabulous flowers issue from creating keepsakes.

as seen in the Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks: Fabulous Flowers issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

this is another layout, where i went digging through older photos, looking for some to re-scrap. i found these 3 photos, along with an additional one, on a plain blue cardstock layout. and it had a vellum title, saying something about friends. that was it. seriously? so i tore off these three photos, and decided to scrap them. this it the girls, with 2 of my past daycare kids.

but more importantly, riana and amanda are friends of my girls. these photos were taken over 8 years ago, when the girls had both been with me for at least 2 years already. and 8 years later, they're still friends, hang out at school, go to each other's birthday parties, and occasionally share the same class.

this layout was part of an article on creating your own unique flowers, by mixing and combining flowers of all different types. to create my flowers, i used a mix of felt flowers, clear plastic flowers, paper flowers, and metal flower grommets. the different textures add lots of dimension to my flowers. and the colors all play off the papers and the photos. i used a few die cut borders for my flower stems.

the pink dot paper is from bobunny, and the rest of the pattern papers are all from bella blvd. it's kind of hard to see in that top photo, but i added tiny alpha stickers to a few of the clouds in the yellow pattern paper, for each of the girls names. the red letter stickers are from jenni bowlin. i love the "school" feel to those stickers.
happy 12th birthday sarah

June 20, 2011

we have a birthday girl in the house today!

i cannot believe she's turning 12 years old today. i say this every single year. where on earth does the time go?!?! she's growing up faster than ever. she's almost as tall as me. and she's a total mini-me, in the good ways and the bad ways. she drives us crazy with how much she can talk. and yet, most of what comes out of her mouth, keeps us laughing all the time. we love her more than anything. happy 12th birthday, sarah bear!
little emily – a layout share

June 17, 2011

fancy pants is one of the amazing sponsers for the CK dream team. they generously sent out a box a few weeks ago with one of their new collections, called baby mine. it's an adorable baby collection, fitting for both boys and girls.

i knew right away i wanted to do something with this fun collection, but i knew that digging around for alyssa or sarah's baby photos would take forever. and if something is that much work, then i will usually put off doing it, and then i would never get around to this collection. it's the way my mind works. i have this super talented scrapper and photographer friend, krista lund, that lives close to me. we had met up for coffee and chitchat a while back,spending a few hours catching up.

i remember saying something about occasionally not having photos to fit the product that i wanted or needed to scrap with. and she said i was more than welcome to borrow her photos. so i took her up on that offer, and she sent me a ton of super cute photos of her baby girl, emily. i'm actually doing a few layouts for her, but this is the first one that she's seeing.

there are so many cute pattern papers in this collection. but what i really wanted to use first, was the flocked transparency. it's a really thick clear transparency, that has the yellow flocked pattern on it. so the flocking gives this fun, fuzzy feel to it. since it was clear, i adhered it to white cardstock, so that it would really stand out. then i matted the white cardstock, with the blue cardstock.

for adhering transparencies, i just use little glue dots in strategic places. since this has the pattern to it, you could easily just put small glue dots behind the yellow parts. i actually started out, by adhereing my photos to the transparency first. then i could add all the adhesive i wanted, behind those photos, since the adhesive wouldn't show. then as i added more embellishments, like this fun chipboard banner pieces, i would add another glue dot behind the larger embellishments. eventually, i had a good amount of adhesive spread out, to adhere the transparency to the cardstock. i made that sound super complicated, but it's not. you just have to get sneaky when adhering clear items.

banners are so popular these days. and i love that they have an entire set of chipboard banner pieces in a lot of their recent collections. there's a mix of styles to choose from, and plenty of pieces to make as small, or as large, of a banner as you wish. they have adhesive on them, so it's as simple as sticking them down into place. i added a piece of twine, tied in a knot at both ends, right above the banner.

the two main photos are both 4×6 in size. and the smaller photos are 2×3 in size. i adhered the smaller photos to the layout, using pop dots, to give them some lift. on this photo above, i thought it would be fun to add a dangling star rub-on, directly to the photo.

love the coordinating buttons for all of their collections. i threaded them, and then adhered them to the layout using glue dots. the little birds are die cuts, along with the journaling spot that i used to hold my title. on the birds, i added little brown epoxy dots to their eyes, and adhered them using pop dots. on the journaling spot, i added some of their chipboard letters to spell "emily", and also added part of a rub-on for the "little".

i really hope krista likes this layout! i have only shown her little peeks, so she's seeing this right along with everyone else. i'm lucky enough to be taking a photography workshop from her on saturday, where she's going to teach us all her tricks. i'm really hoping that the hands on learning will make all this technical stuff stick in my head this time. lol! and i'm bringing this layout along to hand over to her. you'll be seeing more of little emily, along with her big sister, on a few more layouts to come.
edge of the water – a creating keepsakes layout

June 16, 2011

a full month ago, i did a post about the new scrapbooking tips & tricks: fabulous flowers issue from creating keepsakes. and i showed a peek at this layout of mine, and said "i'll share more about it next week". let me repeat. a full month ago. lol! better late than never, right ;)

as seen in the Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks: Fabulous Flowers issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i really love how this layout turned out. i created this layout months and months ago. it happened to be around the time when i was using white cardstock backgrounds a LOT. and i was doing very linear designs, with the photos all lined up in rows. i wanted to mix it up a little.

and it all started when i was choosing my pattern papers. i had these two bella blvd papers picked out, and side by side, to visualize my spread. instead of using just pieces of the papers, and adding cardstock or more pattern paper, i decided i liked the look of these together.

the photos are from a trip to my uncle's cabin, back in 2005. i grew up, going to the cabin with my family every summer. we've managed to get there a few years with the girls. this family shot of us, is a favorite of mine, from our trips. i have had it printed as a 5×7 for years. glad i finally got around to scrapping it.

this is a fun technique that i have used before. i used a circle cutter, to cut a few circles from my sheet of pattern paper. i knew where i wanted my photo and title to go. so i just eyeballed where the circles would look the best, and cut them out. i then adhered the entire sheet of pattern paper to a full sheet of white cardstock, using lots and lots and lots of pop dots.

this creates a "window" of sorts. and you can then fill up this window, with whatever kind of embellishments you want. since this was the "fabulous flowers" issue, i went with flowers. i have a fun mix of paper flowers, felt flowers, plastic flowers, acrylic flowers, button flowers, and flower brads. i tucked some of the flowers under the edges of the circles, so that they were peeking out. and i added some coordinating rhinestones to some of the flowers as well.

the embossed sun sticker is from little yellow bicycle. i adhered it to some white cardstock, and then cut around the edges with my scissors. i do this a lot with stickers, so that i can then pop dot them up. i added a few brads to the sun, before adhering it with pop dots to my page. i also added a few strips of additional pattern paper from bella blvd.

i knew i was adding my journaling to a text based pattern paper. so i decided to go with white text, on brown. to do this, i created a text box in word and typed my journaling inside the box. i then changed my font to white, and changed the color of the text box to a dark brown. when i printed this out, there was a brown box on my paper, with the white journaling lines. much easier then trying to print on brown cardstock.

my photos on the second page of the spread still have the collaged look. but i didn't line them all up perfectly in rows, which is something i was doing a ton at the time. i arranged them in a way, that i could fit another cut out circle and this fun lace cut wave die cut from little yellow bicycle.

i was originally only going to use the wave on the left side of the spread. so i had cut off the part of the wave that extended off the page, and i threw it away. then i realized that the first page needed a little something else along the bottom. so i dug that piece back out of the trash, and added it to the first page. i'm very glad i did, since i think it pulls the two sides of the spread together.

i used some brown foam thickers, and my favorite doodlebug loopy letters, for my title. the checklist die cut is also from little yellow bicycle. there were little check boxes in front of the items on the list. so i added a few mini brads to those boxes.

the second page of the spread was done the same way as the first page. i cut out my circle, once i knew where i wanted it to go. then i pop dotted this entire sheet of pattern paper, onto a sheet of white cardstock, using lots and lots and lots of pop dots.
she is adorable – a layout share

June 15, 2011

i'm short on time and words tonight. so i'm making this short and sweet, with a quick layout share. this is a layout that i did a few months ago, and just never got around to sharing.

for this layout, i used pattern papers from the it's the little things collection, from fancy pants. just like my layout of alyssa from the other day, this layout has a few photos of sarah that i have scrapped before. but that i don't actually have the layout to show for it. now, they're in my albums.

i love all the little birdies on these papers. the two little pieces there, were cut out from a full sheet of pattern paper.

i wanted to add in some nice light pink, to pull the light pink from the papers. i had to use the dear lizzy rose ribbon. partly because it's gorgeous, and partly because i love how it adds a ton of interest and texture to the page. i pulled out an older ribbon buckle, to embellish the ribbon.

that's it for today. or tonight, i should say. since i'm typing this at 12:45 at night. or is that the morning? either way, that's it for now 🙂
a favorite photo – a layout share

June 13, 2011

where did the weekend go? i'm so not prepared for today to be monday. lol! we had two grandma's with birthdays, last thursday and friday. we had sarah's 12th birthday party on saturday. it was my birthday yesterday. father's day is next sunday. and then sarah's actual birthday is next monday. yes, we're in birthday mode around here 🙂

don't want to leave alyssa out of it all, since her birthday isn't until september. so how about a layout share of her today? these really are some of my favorite photos of alyssa. and i have never really scrapped them before. i had created a layout with them for hero arts, a few years ago. but i don't even have that layout. my friend wendy sue, had created a layout with them, for a photo swap assignment. and i might have created a layout for making memories at one point, but i don't have that one either. so i figured i should get them on a layout for my own albums.

i used all fancy pants papers on this layout. i've been using a LOT of fancy pants lately on my layouts. i love the little banners too. they were on a sheet of pattern paper, so i just cut out a few of the banner pieces by hand, and adhered them with pop dots. the corrugated clouds are from jillibean soup, as well as the flowers seen below.

and that title? remember when i got a silhouette, last year? i actually do use it. lol! it just so happens, that the projects i have used them on, are for upcoming issues of creating keepsakes. so i havn't been able to share them yet. i used the silhouette for this title. i cut it out twice, from two different papers, and layered them together.

i picked out a few stick pins, in colors to match my papers, and tucked them behind one of my photos.

i used up some of my journaling sprouts, also by jillibean soup, by using them to embellish the bottom of the layout. i trimmed the sprouts down, so that i could adhere them against the edge of the brown velvet trim.

i added a few corrugated flowers, with threaded buttons in the centers. i adhered the flowers with 3D glue dots, tucking the stick pins in so that the glue dot also held the pins in as well. i think i had intended on adding the date to one of those blank journaling sprouts. should go back and do that.
eleven years old – a pebbles layout

June 10, 2011

i have a new layout up on the pebbles blog today. i decided to use the new mid-release floral lane collection for my layout.

i know i have scrapped this main photo of alyssa before. but i wanted to get her "eleven year old" birthday photos on a layout. we started taking these photos on the girls birthdays each year, where they hold up the number of fingers that they're turning.

how cute is this pink dot paper? i LOVE it! and all the pattern papers in the floral lane collection are textured. on both sides. they're so pretty. and they are all in stock HERE at 2peas. the new cursive alphabet stickers are from the floral lane collection as well. i added some pebbles and american crafts ribbons for some extra color.

when i did my how-to tuesday tutorial last week, i used some dimensional flower sticker. you see that green piece, under the pink flower button? i had taken the flower stickers off of that piece. for some reason, i still held onto these green leaf pieces, and they were perfect to add underneath the flower buttons. and i love the new candy dots for this collection, which are tiny buttons.

i thought i would share a little tip with you, on these white scalloped edges i like to use from time to time. sometimes, i really do mat full sheets of paper or cardstock, onto another full sheet of paper or cardstock, to get the matted look. but there's times when i want to get the most out of my papers, and don't want to use more paper than i really need to get the matted look.

this is my favorite trick, for adding a nice white mat around my inside paper. i take scrap pieces of white cardstock, and use my scalloped edge border punch along them, before trimming them into skinny strips. i used a 2 x 12 inch piece of white cardstock, to make all 4 edges for this layout. i adhered the pink pattern paper first. and then i added adhesive to my strips, and tucked them under the pink paper. super simple.