Laura Vegas

zachary in photos

June 9, 2011

alyssa and sarah used to read my blog from time to time. they really came, looking for photos and stories about the kids. i guess i don't share those things as often as i used too. because i was recently told, by my daughters, that "your blog is boring". lol. yes, my girls are soooooo funny 😉

so, i figured i would post a slew of photos of our favorite boy around here. zachary. these photos were all taken in the last 4 months.

it's bugging me to no end, that the colors in these photos look so bad here on my blog. on my computer, in photoshop, and when i print these, they have a TON of color, and are brighter and more sharp. it's just typepad that sucks out the colors, leaving these all looking kind of drab. and yet, photos of layouts that i post on here, look just fine. weird.

this photo has vibrant blues and reds in real life.

only a real boy, can pull off the beaded look 😉

you can see how in the earlier photos, zachary was wearing jammies. and now he's in shorts and tshirts. and some sweaty hair. shows the changing of the weather.

he's just about 18 months old now. and i refer to him as "a real live boy". lol. he's not a baby anymore. he's a little person, with a huge personality. he makes us laugh constantly, and we have so much fun with him. i know he looks so serious in most of his photos, but he's so far from serious.

yes. i think this shows some of his crazy personality, don't you 😉
organizing pattern paper

June 8, 2011

last weekend, i was organizing some pattern paper from a favorite manufacturer. then i had some other pattern paper to put away, and got to organizing that manufacturer as well. next thing you know, i ended up going through every single sheet of pattern paper that i own. my life could truely be one of those "if you give a mouse a cookie" books. lol!

as of tonight, my pattern paper is completely organized and cleaned out. every few months, i feel the need to weed through my stash. i'm still holding onto pattern paper that is over 5 years old. obviously, if i have kept it around that long, i really do like it. and i tend to have the mentality of "i can do something with this, right?". but every time i clean through my papers, i get a little bit better about letting go of what i havn't used in forever, or what i can't see myself getting around to using.

these 4 cubes on my ikea expedit shelf hold all of my pattern paper. last week, my stash took up 6 cubes on the shelf. yes, i seriously weeded out 2 full cubes of paper. and it felt good! this doesn't account for my cardstock. i keep my cardstock in the clear horizontal paper trays, in the 5 cubes below the pattern paper.

i use the cropper hopper vertical paper holders for my pattern paper. each one holds up to 400 sheets of pattern paper. i'm not going to do the math, as to how many sheets of paper i have in those cubes. lol! personally, i like to buy THIS SET, that comes with 1 paper holder, 4 paper pouches, and 12 dividers. the paper pouches hold up to 50 sheets of pattern paper. i love to use those for individual manufacturers, to seperate collections from a favorite manufacturer, or even to hold 12×12 sticker sheets and alphabet sheets. and the dividers come in handy for seperating papers within the paper holder or the paper pouches.

one thing that i never seem to do in my scraproom, is to label things. i have kept all those paper holders up there, without any labeling as to what is inside of each one. so when i go to look for a certain paper, i will pull out each paper holder, until i find what i need. since i am now freshly organized and have similiar manufacturers grouped together, i thought it was a good time to label things.

i do sort and organize my pattern paper by manufacturer. it's just how i work, and how i scrap. 94% of the time, i can tell you who made what paper, just by looking at it. a talent that will get me no where in regular life, but counts for something in my scrapping life. lol! most of the time, i just toss all the papers from each manufacturer in together in the paper holder. if i have a LOT of a manufacturer's papers, then i will seperate some of the collections within their spot in the paper holder.

the paper holders have this small cut out circle on the front. so i figured i would adhere my labels, directly over that circle. i had a few different ideas i was tossing around. but i finally decided on a basic punched out circle. sometimes, if i want to get something done, i need to make it quick and easy.

i went with a 2.5 inch circle punch. so i created a bunch of 2.5 inch text boxes on a page, in a word processing program. i typed in the names of the manufacturers for each paper holder, centering them within the text box and resizing my font as needed. some paper holders have one or two manufacturers, and some have three or four manufacturers. after i printed them, i used my fiskars circle punch to punch out each set. i used 4 glue dots on each circle, to adhere it to the front of the paper holder.

how cute is this font? and you'll never guess what it's called. "too much paper". i thought it was highly appropiate for labeling my pattern paper. lol! you can download it for free from kevin and amanda, one of my favorite places to find fonts. you're very welcome 🙂

i'll show you my four cubes of paper. this will give you a good idea of what manufacturers i'm fond of. you know making memories is up there. after 4 years of designing for them, i have built up a very large stash of their papers. the two paper holders that are turned around, hold a lot of "backstock". extras of what is in the other two paper holders.

i also have a large supply of bella blvd, and even a lot of basic grey. not sure if you can tell, but in that first bella blvd paper holder, i have some of the paper pouches inside. i have one that holds their older alphabet sheets, and one that holds their newer alphabet sheets.

fancy pants, little yellow bicycle, echo park, pebbles, american crafts, dear lizzy, and jillibean soup.

the first paper holder here, holds assorted papers. these are really just manufacturers that i have a small amount of papers, but not a lot of papers. this holder, has a TON of different manufacturers inside. that second paper holder? that has all that paper that's 3-5 years old, that i can't seem to get rid of. lol! classic chatterbox papers and ki memories papers, that i never seem to use, but can't get rid of yet. the last two paper holders, have 4 manufacturers in each. more favorites of mine.

in the "assorted paper" holder, i use these 12×12 white file folders. they're pretty ancient, and i can't seem to find anything like them to link you too. they have the hanging file folders, but these are just regular folders. i probably have about 20 of them, in just this one paper holder.

in the rest of the paper holders, i use the clear dividers to seperate papers. i use them to seperate manufacturers from each other. or to seperate collections, within the same manufacturer. they have tabs on the top, so i guess i could really label those too. baby steps, people. baby steps 😉

so there you go. my entire pattern paper collection. totally organized and labeled. i feel like i made such a huge accomplishment, with this one little project. next up, maybe i'll even label all the baskets of embellishments on my shelves. maybe. we'll see.
precious cutie little one – little yellow bicycle guest designer layout

June 7, 2011

my last guest designer project went up on the little yellow bicycle blog over the weekend.

i had every intention of digging out some photos of my girls when they were itty bitties, to scrap my tiny princess layout. that would be so much easier, if they were itty bitties when digital photography came around. lol! i never found the time to dig for photos, so i settled on scrapping my other favorite girlie. miss haley.

you can find more info about this layout, along with additional detail shots, on THIS post. you can also read the last part of my Q&A session, which was fun to write up. i want to thank little yellow bicycle for having me along this past month. i always love the collections they come out with, and it was a pleasure to play with a few of them for these projects!
slice: embossing tips

June 6, 2011

i wanted to share some slice projects today, that feature the embossing tips. have you tried these yet? they're a lot of fun to play with.

on this layout, i used the embossing tips on the green paper. this is actually the backside of a sheet of pattern paper. you will do your embossing on the back of the paper you want to use, so that it pushes out the shapes on the opposite side. does that make sense? if you use a paper that has a white core to it, you can then sand down the embossed areas, to make them stand out more. btw, this is my parents cocker spaniel, jenny. isn't she cute!

the embossing tips come in 3 different point sizes, along with a 6×6 foam mat. you want to make sure and set your paper on the foam mat, and then set your slice on top of that to emboss. do not use the glass mat. BUT. if you have the handsfree mat, it has a foam mat on the backside. love that you can have just one mat, that serves both purposes. you'll want to experiment with the different tips, to get a feel for the look they produce on different papers. to use, you simply take out your blade, and screw in the embossing tip.

i choose a fun pawprint shape, and randomly embossed it all over the sheet of paper. then i used a sanding block, and rubbed it over the top of the raised areas. super simple to do.

i did some embossing on this doggy treat jar as well. and yes, i know what you're thinking. sarah's webkinz cocker spaniel, looks exactly like jenny. it's true 🙂

i used the embossing tips on some brown cardstock, to slice this bone shape. i trimmed around the edges, and then sanded down the raised areas.

the embossing tips work really well on vellum. when you emboss on cardstock or pattern paper, you usually want to sand those raised areas to get a defined look. but on vellum, the embossing is definately more noticable. you'll want to test it out, to see which side of the vellum is best to use. i remember one side working better than the other, and showing better. but i can't remember which side that was.

i used the embossing tips on some yellow vellum, for this cute little owl. you'll want to remember that you need to emboss on the opposite side of the paper that you want to use, as i mentioned before. for most shapes, it doesn't really matter what direction you're going. but take this owl for instance. he's facing to the right of my layout. i believe on the design card, he was actually facing to the left. because i embossed this on the back of my vellum, once i turned it around, he was facing the other direction.

this is where the "mirror" option comes in handy. this is a newer option that is on a lot of the design cards. it's the MS+, or the "mirror, shadow, speed boost". if you emboss, using the mirror option, it will flip your design around. so that when you flip over your paper, the shape will be in it's original form, and not backwards. this is a big plus, if you were embossing your letters. you definitely don't want your letters going backwards. lol!

here's another example on vellum. i embossed these cute butterflies on different colors of vellum, and then cut them out. i did cut them out by hand. if you're talented enough, and make some marks on your paper as to where the slice machine is actually placed, you can cut our your shapes using the slice. you just have to emboss. not move the paper. change out the embossing tip, for the cutting blade. and place the slice in the exact spot that you had it in. then you could cut out the same shape, using the shadow feature. this takes practice. i never quite mastered it, which is why i hand cut things like this 😉

and one last example of embossing. i embossed the outside piece of the sun, on this mini album cover.

i used the shadow option for this. i first sliced the yellow piece of the sun, using the regular cut. then i used the shadow cut, to emboss the orange piece, and then cut it out. this makes it slightly larger, and is the perfect size and shape to place your regular cut piece on. once again, i sanded down the raised areas of the embossed piece. i used a sheet of patterned paper, that had a solid color on one side. these papers almost always have a white core to them, which is perfect for sanding down.

i hope these projects gave you a few ideas for using the embossing tips, or maybe even convince you to get a set to add to your slice stash. if you have any questions, feel free to ask :)
these are the days – a creating keepsakes layout

June 3, 2011

do you remember THESE senior photos i took of my niece, jovaughnna? well, she graduated from high school last week. in fact, the first project on THIS post, was actually her graduation gift. i thought it was a good time to share this layout i created for the tips & tricks: fabulous flowers issue that recently came out.

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

i created this layout for an article on how to alter your premade flowers. the article ended up getting moved to an online article for members only, on the CK Club site. so it didn't quite make it into the actual magazine. luckily, you can still see my layout here 😉

i almost always start my layouts, by choosing papers. i used the colors in jovaughnna's shirt to determine what papers i would use. i really love the penmanship paper, by studio calico, and figured it sort of fit with the senior/school theme i was going for. from there, i choose the ruled paper from studio calico, and the red wood paper by october afternoon, to use as well.

the chipboard title piece, and the chipboard border piece (2nd page), are both from the mix it up kit, an older CK kit of the month club. i can't believe they still have some of those kits left. so many amazingly fun pieces in that kit. both of these pieces were raw chipboard. i heat embossed the title piece, using silver metallic embossing powder. and i really love those black letter stickers from jenni bowlin, and was glad i could work them into my title.

since my assignment was to alter flowers, i choose these older white flowers from making memories. i know white is kind of basic, but they really went with my layout. i used an embossing folder, and ran them through my cuttlebug, to add the embossed circles. then i used a glue pen to draw around the outside edges of the flower, and then sprinkled silver glitter over the edges. i layered some additional flowers, and secured them all with a denim fabric brad, and tucked two maya road pins under the flower. and that green piece, is a leather like trim, from bo bunny.

these flowers actually went through quite a few changes, before my layout finally got sent in. i guess i shouldn't have picked white flowers. turns out, they don't photograph very well. lol! i don't have a picture of the final version, for some reason. but i ended up adding some stickles to the embossed dots, and then added some silver chalk to them as well.

hmmm. got some glare going on this photo of the second page. i really wanted to use a good selection of jovaughnna's photos on this layout, and i wanted them to really show. which is why i used five 4×6's, and one 5×7 photo.

i love this chipboard border strip. i sat and punched out the small chipboard circles, so you could see through the strip. i decided to adhere some white cardstock behind the chipboard piece, so that it showed through the dots. i heat embossed the border piece with a distressed red embossing powder. it gave it a a rough and gritty texture to it, as opposed to the shiny and smooth texture on the heat embossed title piece.

another circle and flower cluster on the second page, just like the first page. i love using my circle cutter and circle punches, to make different sized circles to fill in the empty spaces on layouts. and for my journaling, i wanted to print with white text, on black paper. there's different ways of doin this. i just created a text box, and changed the background color to black. then i typed my journaling, and changed the text to white.
handsfree kit for the slice

June 1, 2011

i know i have talked several times about how much i love my handsfree kit for my slice. and i have mentioned how, if you own a slice, you absolutely, without a doubt, need to have a handsfree kit to go with it. but sometimes, things are worth repeating 😉

"zoo fun" is an older layout, that i don't think i ever got around to sharing. i used the zootopia design card to create this layout. at the time, it was the first design card that had the layering feature on it. since then, making memories has come out with quite a few newer design cards that have this layering feature as well. btw, the adorable tiger face belongs to my good friend, lynn.

this layout is a great example of how handy the handsfree kit comes in. this layout has a TON of slicing on it. with the layering feature, you're cutting multiple pieces for each shape, that you'll then layer together. i had to have sliced at least 18 pieces for this layout, from what i can see here.

obviously, then handsfree kit is fabulous, because it's magnetic. before, you had to hold the slice in place while it did the slicing. which wasn't a huge deal to me. it's not like it takes forever to cut the shapes. BUT. once i had the magnetic mat, and i didn't have to hold my slice while it did it's slicing, i realized how nice it was that i didn't have to hold it in place. i don't know about you, but i can get a lot accomplished in 20 seconds. lol!

this gives you a little better look at the layering. you can see on the tiger and the giraffe, that there are two pieces to them. each shape on the design card has multiple pieces that can be sliced, and then layered together. some shapes have more pieces to layer than others. just depends on the shape.

it's a fun feature to use, since you can use different papers and colors, and mix them together. just like paper-piecing, back in the day. on the palm trees, you can see that i sliced the entire tree first, with the kraft cardstock. then i used the layering feature, to slice just the leaves on the palm tree, from some green pattern paper. i like to use lots of pop dots, when assembling my layered pieces together, to really show off the layering of the papers.

my second biggest reason for recommending the handsfree kit, is for the accuracey of the cuts. you will get MUCH more accurate cuts, when you use the handsfree kit. no matter how great you are at holding the slice in place while it's slicing, there's always going to be those moments where it shifts or moves. just enough to mess up your cuts. the magentic mat is so strong, that your slice isn't going to go anywhere. i guarantee it.

now, that's not to say you can put a little 4×4 square of paper down, and put the slice over that and have it cut properly. you definately need to have the paper you're working with, be larger than the slice, so that the magnetic frame clamps down on the paper from all four sides. as long as it's holding down the paper, it's strong enough that the paper will not shift.

there you go. my two biggest reasons that you NEED a handsfree kit, if you have a slice. anytime that someone asks me about it, those are the two reasons i give them, without a second thought. if you don't have one already, you might want to think about investing in one. it will make your slice even better, than it already is!
the letter “Z”: a little yellow bicycle project

June 1, 2011

i have a cute little project up on the little yellow bicycle blog, as part of my may guest designer spotlight. i know, today is the first day of june. but it's for may, i promise 😉

i used the adorable baby saurus collection to create this "Z" monogram for little zachary's room. you can read all about how i created this, along with the next batch of my Q&A session HERE.
ribbon flowers: a pebbles how-to

May 31, 2011

it's "how-to tuesday" on the pebbles blog, and it's my turn to share a little fun technique with you. my project also gives you a little peek at pebbles new mid-release, floral lane.

you can see how i took these supplies.

and ended up with this cute card. you can find all the instructions and step-by-step photos on the pebbles blog.
end of school year gifts – bravissimo projects

May 26, 2011

this is my second post of the day. wanted to sneek this one in, in case tomorrow is the end of your school year and you need a gift idea. scroll down for my layout share from this morning.

it's that time of year. the end of the school year. time for teacher gifts and graduation gifts. i managed to sneak one of each in this week, just in time to hand them out.

most of us have family members or friends that are graduating from junior high school, high school, or college. i think one of the most given gifts for graduates is good old fashioned cash. it's usually my gift of choice. and while opening up a card to find a $20 bill or a $50 bill is pretty cool, i wanted to come up with a more unique way of giving the gift of money.

so i picked out a few pieces from the bravissimo collection, by making memories. you can find these at your local michaels store now. i picked out a small rosette, a medium streamer, and a medium sentiment. i choose the silver and white sentiment first, and then matched the streamer colors. then i picked out a rosette to compliment them both.

these pieces are so easy and simple to assemble. they come with glue dots or foam dots, depending which piece you're buying. it even tells you, "place sentiment here", "place rosette here". you can't mess up. i adhered the sentiment to the rosette, and then rosette to the streamer.

then i glue dotted the ribbon to a glass jar. this is just like the jar i used for my oreo cookie jar, last week, except it's taller. they were both from target. then i filled up the jar with money.

instead of giving a $50 bill, i asked for all one dollar bills. i loosely rolled each one, and placed it in the jar. i just thought it was a fun and different way, to give the gift of money. i have a certain neice, who is graduating from high school tomorrow. i think she'll like this 😉

next up, is a fun teacher gift. i started this one, by choosing the sentiment. the "A+ Teacher" sentiment came in a 4 pack. you get 3 sentiments, and one metal piece. the teacher sentiment had a touch of green around the outside. so i choose this fun green ribbon. this ribbon was all assembled, and i just had to add the sentiment to it.

i had bought a few boxes of pencils. i knew i wanted to bunch them up, or put them around something. i went in search for a container and found this. it's from a wall vinyl piece that i had gotten in the mail. i took the vinyl piece out, to find a spot for on my wall. the container is made from a thick chipboard type of material. once i took the lid off, it was the perfect height for the pencils.

i used a hot glue gun to adhere the pencils around the container. it took me about 5 minutes, and 36 pencils, to cover the container in pencils. then i hot glued the ribbon to the front. the inside of the container is empty. so you just have to come up with something to fill it with. i figured it would make a cute pencil cup. and i still had a box of pencils left. so i stuck all the remaining pencils inside. you could also stick candy inside, extra school goodies, or even flowers. some daisies would be cute. not in water of course, but just for presentation.

i think you really have to see these in person, to appreciate how nice they are. i'm super impressed with the quality of the ribbons. each one has lots of layers to them. fun papers, chipboard pieces, and really cute ribbons. and they're durable and strong.

in fact, i was actually trying to bend this ribbon a little bit. i wanted to see it curve a little more around my pencil covered container. but it's made with such quality, that it won't budge. which is a good thing, in my book.

for more fun ideas, check out the bravissimo blog. it's called a daily dose of happy. how fun is that! and if you're on facebook, make sure and become a fan of the bravissimo facebook page, to keep up with ideas, news, and giveaways. speaking of giveaways, i saw that maggie holmes is hosting one on her blog today, for a chance at some bravissimo goodies 😉
favorite things – a pebbles layout

May 26, 2011

this week, it has been all about favorites on the pebbles blog. whether it was our favorite products, favorite colors, a favorite photo, or our favorite things. here is my take on the theme.

i decided to create a layout, documenting some of my favorite things right now. i have made a few of these layouts in the past. it's always fun to look back, and read what my favorites were back then. some are still on my favorites list, and some have been put to the side for new favorites.

i used my circle cutter, to cut different sized circles from an assortment of pattern papers. i used a few papers from the happy go lucky collection, and a few from the ever after collection. i love how they work so well together. i machine stitched around each of the circles, before adhering them to my layout. you might notice that i make very rough, not-so-perfect, circles when i'm stitching. i'm not very good at making my stitching straight and perfect. so i just do it a little wonky on purpose. but i go around two to three times, so that it looks a little more random.

on each circle, i have a short list of my favorites for a certain theme. i covered favorite tv shows, favorite music, favorite foods, favorite drinks, favorite hobbies, and favorite colors. under "best stuff", is my favorite things of all. i used my tiny alpha stickers from making memories, to add the theme to each circle.

i added my title using some older pebbles letter stickers, and added a border sticker and some ribbon along side the title. a few chipboard flowers, and some glitter flower brads, and the layout was complete.

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