Laura Vegas

taking a mini break

March 11, 2011

i like to think i'm a pretty good blogger. but i havn't been feeling it the last few weeks. partly, because i just don't have any projects that i can share right now. and partly, because i don't have any photos to share. i did randomly come across this one from four years ago, and thought it was cute.

but honestly, the main reason i've been scarce around here, is that i'm swamped with work. i'm scrapping like crazy, and have created lots of fun layouts. all for different things and different places. i'm even flying out of town next week, for something scrap related. it's good stuff. really good stuff. but it's keeping me super busy. mix my day job, my family, and all the regular life stuff, and it's just a little hectic around here.

hopefully, i'll be back around the middle of next week. and hopefully, i'll have something cooler to blog about by then 🙂
some older slice layouts

March 9, 2011

i was cleaning out some files on my computer, and i came across a couple of layouts that never made it to blogland. i'm actually not sure these layouts ever made it anywhere, to be honest. lol!

i created these layouts over two and a half years ago, for making memories. this was back when a handful of MM designers were working on the slice inspirations box, and using the slice for the first time. i only had a few design cards to work with, so i used a lot of hearts, stars, and circles. these two layouts (along with a few other projects), didn't make the cut into the box.

this was also the time when MM was getting ready to come out with the speciality papers for the slice. so i used a lot of printed transparencies, metallic paper, and glitter paper. do you like how that metallic heart looks all bent? lol! i remember adding the mini brads, as an afterthought. but it was already adhered down. so i worked those brads onto the heart, without removing it. no idea why i didn't just cut a new heart. lol!

i'm seeing a lot of swiss dot embossing on my projects from back then too. that must have been when i had first gotten my cuttlebug. i remember i used to swiss dot everything i could run thru that machine.

i actually think this bottom piece was quite clever. i randomly used the slice to cut circles in a strip of red metallic paper. i discarded the actual circles, and just used the negative piece that i had sliced them all from. i adhered it with pop dots, so that it was raised up. i had added some metal grommets and metal rimmed tags to each circle, and tossed a few metal flower charms on for good measure.

i might have to dig up a few more older projects to share this week, since i can't share any of the stuff that i've been working on the past few weeks. i'll see what else i can come up with tomorrow 🙂
spring canvas set – a making memories project

March 7, 2011

a few months ago, i created this fun project for making memories, using their new dilly dally spring collection.

i knew i wanted to create a canvas project of some sort. when i went shopping at michaels, i intended to get a 12×12 canvas to work with. i'm more of a square person, and can't really get into the rectangle shapes, such as the 8×10 size. anyways. i came across this set of three canvases, by artist's loft, with each piece being 4×12. i loved the idea of it. creating three seperate canvas pieces, but having them all hang together, to still give the look of one complete project.

i started out by painting each canvas with some light yellow acrylic paint. not super light yellow, but not super bright either. yellow can be a hard color for me, but i happen to have a few decent ones in my stash. i knew i was covering the fronts with pattern paper. so i just painted the edges on top, and then all four sides of each canvas. i then choose my pattern papers, and trimmed each to fit the front of the canvas, leaving some of the painted edges to show. i sewed a zigzag stitch with my sewing machine along the edges of each paper, and inked the edges with brown ink. i then adhered them to my canvases. i used glue dots, and they held just fine.

these fun rhinestone "spring" stickers come in the cute banner kit. i wasn't using the other banner pieces, but decided to use the rhinestone stickers. i pulled some basic white tags from my stash, inked the edges with some brown ink, and cut the bottoms of each tag at an angle. i took my floral fabric piece (also from the banner kit i believe), and ripped it down the middle. i love the frayed edges on here. i tied small pieces to the top of each tag, and then adhered them to the first canvas in the set, adding the "spring" letters on top of the tags.

i wanted the butterflies to appear as if they were flying off the canvas. i'm not sure i totally captured that feeling, but i tried. lol! these cute die cut butterflies come in all different shapes and colors. i folded each one in the center, and then bent out the wings a bit. i used mini pop dots behind each wing, to lift them up off the canvas.

to see a short video, that shows part of the making of this project, visit making memories. there's a "video inspiration" section on the right side. you can also watch it HERE on youtube, where you can find all their videos.
whoohoo, it’s a free weekend

March 5, 2011

this photo pretty much sums up how we're feeling this weekend.

photo from last summer

it's the weekend, and we have nothing going on. first weekend without soccer in a while. on traveling, no games. we slept in this morning. well, i did. we had sarah's soccer team pizza party last night, and 3 of her teammates ended up spending the night. they did NOT sleep in. but i did. sarah and i went to get haircuts. joe's parked on the coach to enjoy a day off, catching up on his DVR shows. he umpired 3 baseball games this week, in addition to his regular job. sarah's vegged out in front of the tv upstairs and texting on her ipod touch. and i'm locking myself in my scraproom, to try and get some projects marked off my to-do list.
alyssa’s 14th birthday – 5 months later

March 3, 2011

thought i would finally share some photos from alyssa's 14th birthday party. which was over 5 months ago. lol! alyssa's dad took all the photos that day, and i think he ended up having about 300 to choose from. it took me forever to go through and narrow them down. which is why i havn't gotten around to sharing them.

alyssa decided to have her party at boomers. it's got miniature golf, go-karts, rock climbing, water boats, and an arcade. she invited 8 of her closest friends from school. it's a good group of kids, and they've all been best friends for years. we started out with pizza, which the kids all ate in record time. i think they were just anxious to get out and have fun. sarah had invited her friend natalia, to keep her company. and so that she didn't bug alyssa and her friends. sarah and natalia were the only ones that ended up playing miniature golf. and they were also no where to be found for pictures. lol!

they started out with go-karts. i should add that alyssa had a soccer game that morning, before the party. her left thigh had been bothering her a bit that week. well, she went in for a powerful shot on goal, and she went down hard. she was in a ton of pain, and was having a hard time walking. not the best thing on the day of your birthday party. the poor thing had to really use that leg in the go-karts, because she's on the shorter side. her poor legs were stretched out as far as she could get them, just to reach the peddals. lol! on the bright side, she was tall enough to ride them ;)

kassidy. she had this focused and determined look on her face in every photo.

abe. you can tell he's taller, since his knees are all bent up. lol!

ruby. this was one of the only photos that alyssa's dad took of ruby. i guess the plaid shirt threw him off, and he forgot she was part of our group. no idea why, but i thought it was funny.

another alyssa. this photo cracks me up. we found a lot of photos like this of her, on the go-karts and the rock climbing wall. just a tad dramatic, right 🙂

jasmine. i felt bad, because she somehow missed getting on the track at the same time as everyone else. she must have been the cut off person, for how many could get let in. she had to run the track on her own.

telling stories from the racetrack 🙂

a few of them decided to try the rock climbing wall. alyssa only made it a short ways up, because her leg hurt too much. and this was right after the go-karts, so she was already feeling sore. this is alyssa and kassidy. kassidy made it all the way to the top.

mikey also made it all the way up. and he was really fast at it.

it does totally look like kassidy is ready to throw a punch at ruby. but i promise, nothing happened. just some very dramatic story telling.

on to the water boats. i think this might have been the big favorite that day. it was pretty hot out, even though it was october (her bday is september, but the party was in october). so the water boats were refreshing.

it was really just their group out there together. except for one little boy and his mom. i told alyssa later that i felt bad for the little boy. he was probably scared of all these teenagers, acting crazy and being loud. but she said that he was loving it, and kept laughing. lol!

mikey.

phunam. i really hope i just spelled her name right. if not, i know she'll forgive me. i give her a ride home after school all the time, and she's so funny.

andres.

after the water boats, they played arcade games, went on the go-karts again, and just had tons of fun. i think we were there for about 5 hours. then we took everyone back to our house, where we BBQ'd some hot dogs, and had cake and ice cream. then the all hung out for a few hours.

and we were left with one very happy 14 year old birthday girl, who said she loved every minute of her party 🙂
kids say the funniest things – a creating keepsakes kit

March 1, 2011

did you know that creating keepsakes has lots of paper kits available in their online store? they each contain everything you'd need to make layouts, cards, or even mini albums.

i was send one of their new kits, called "kids say the funniest things", to design some samples layouts for. it's a really fun and colorful kit, that's just perfect for scrapping about your kids and the goofy things they do. just so happens, that i have lots of pics of my kids being goofy. lol!

these three layouts were created, using only what was in the kit. nothing extra, no special tools. and i have plenty left over, for more projects. and the instructions for all three layouts are included in the kit. you can check it out HERE, to see all the details about what's included in the kit.
U12 girls all star team

February 28, 2011

this weekend was all about these girls. two full days on the soccer field. four hours on the road. and four games played.

every now and then, you land a great team of girls. girls that mesh together on the field and off. and manteca revolution was one of those teams. joe took on coaching the under 12's girls all-star team. and 16 of the best players were chosen to represent our city (15 shown here. one of our girls was sick the day i took this photo). eight of those girls came from sarah's fall team. and quite a few of the other girls had been together on one fall team as well. it was nice to have everyone knowing everyone else, going in.

they've spent the last 3 months together. practicing, playing, and having fun together. as a team, they played so well together in the games. we had our last two games cancelled because of rain. and we played eight games, in four weekend. we only lost two games, and won six games (five in a row).

we went into this tournament weekend with a few tough games. sixteen teams in the under 12 girls, and it's all luck of the draw on what teams you are scheduled to play against. we tied our first game on saturday, 0-0. we knew the tie would hurt us a little, pointwise. it's all about the points in tournaments. we won our second game, 1-0.

we came back sunday, and knew it was a win-or-go-home game. if we lost, the other team would move on to a forth game. if we won, we would move on. our girls played harder then i've ever seen them play. they put their heart and soul into the game. it was a rough one too, against a very physical team. but they're determination payed off for another 1-0 win, with sarah scoring a goal. if any game was won by a total "team effort", it was that one. every single girl was crucial to that win. pointwise, this put us in the running for 5th and 6th place.

came back for the fourth game, and the girls were all so excited and just happy as can be. i was actually a little worried they weren't going to get serious enough when the game started. lol! we ended up having to play the team we played (and won) the day before. we knew we had it. but i was hoping the girls wouldn't ease up, and get too over-confident. they didn't. they went out there and gave it everything they had. once they were up a few goals, the coaches decided to move some girls around to positions they might not have gotten to play much. our awsome goalie even got out of the box, and onto the field. we won our game, 4-0, and we took 5th place. they all got medals and pins in recognition of their work. out of 16 teams, i think 5th place is incredible. what is also pretty incredible, is that we didn't let a single goal get past us the entire weekend.

the coaches and all the parents are so proud of our girls. they're just a great group of girls, that love soccer. and manage to have lots of fun playing it. joe truely enjoyed working with these girls, and being their coach. this was his first run at being the head coach. and to do it on an all-star team holds a bit of pressure. i knew he could do it. he's just got it in him, and is great with the girls. we also had such a great group of parents. always willing to help out at practices, and with setting up and taking down goals. very supportive of every girl on our team.

so, after seven months straight of soccer, soccer, and more soccer. we're done. we get a break. well, kind of. lol! sarah gets a break. she's the one that went 7 months straight. alyssa got to take one month off, after fall league. then she started back up, with conditioning and tryouts for high school soccer. after two months, she officially made the JV girls soccer team at her high school. games just started this past friday. honestly, i don't think soccer ever ends in this house 😉
let’s go bowling

February 26, 2011

sometime last month, the girls had a day off from school. i didn't have any daycare kids that day, and was trying to think of something simple that i could do with the girls. bowling had come to mind. or maybe the movies. then my friend dina called, and said that tawny wanted to see if sarah could go bowling later that afternoon. great minds think alike, right?

so i offered to take the girls bowling. from left to right, we have alyssa, danielle, sarah, and tawny. alyssa and danielle are at the same high school. and sarah and tawny have been BFF's since before kindergarten.

i took my camera along, but had a total brain fart once we got in the bowling alley. our bowling alley is really bright and lit-up. but i kept messing around with settings and modes on the camera, and honestly didn't know what was semi-working and what wasn't working. so, here are a few of my blurry and wonky colored photos.

alyssa

danielle

sarah

tawny

had to get a photo of the shoes. personally, i think bowling shoes are kind of cool. i like the ones with the green.

i forgot to get a picture of the scoreboard from their first game. but did remember to get the second game, before it went off the screen.

and amazingly enough, these photos are all on a two page layout already. not quite finished. but should be ready to share it very soon.
some jillibean soup projects

February 23, 2011

i have a few projects that have been up on the jillibean soup blog recently, and thought i would share them all at once. i keep trying to come back here, and post about my layout, and have just been too busy and distracted to finish typing it up. so making this a quick and simple share, so at least they get shown 🙂

i admit, i'm not actually a huge fan of kraft cardstock or pattern paper. i feel bad saying that. lol! but i was drawn to this floral kraft paper, and had to use it. i think mixing it with other bright and fun colored papers helped.

the girls gave me this frame for christmas, and it was sitting up a shelf unused. decided to just make something simple to put inside.

been working on getting all my tax information together, for my appt tomorrow. joe and i have 3 small business's between us, so it's a lot of tedious paperwork. so glad to almost be done with it all. wish me luck, because i think i'm going to need it.
i love you kiddos – a pebbles layout

February 22, 2011

this week on the pebbles blog, it's all about scraplifting. i took this definition of "scraplifting" from the pebbles blog, since it's so well worded. "Scraplifting is the the act of "lifting" or copying ideas and/or designs from another person’s scrapbook page to use in your own pages. Designs or ideas can be copied in whole or in part. And most importantly be sure to give credit where credit is due. If you do "lift" someone else's idea be sure to mention where the idea originated."

we were asked to choose a layout or project by a fellow design team member to lift. i choose this layout, by eva pizarro. the grid pattern and all the small squares of pattern paper and photos really caught my eye, and i knew it was perfect for my style.

and here is my take on eva's layout. i started, by picking out a few photos of the daycare kiddos. haley hasn't been around as much, since she started preschool. but i had a few from when she came back to visit over the holiday. i pulled the oranges and pinks from molly and haley's shirts. then i added in some greens and yellows. i machine stitched around each of the squares of pattern paper, before adhering them to my white cardstock. i trimmed my white cardstock to 10.5 x 10.5 inches, and adhered it to the center of my green cardstock background. i used a scalloped border punch along some white cardstock scraps, and then slipped them under the edges of the white cardstock.

i loved how eva added a fun assortment of embellishments to each of her pattern paper squares. i choose a handful of different embellishments to fill my squares. some paper flowers, some chipboard pieces, brads and flair, and a sticker. to keep the embellishments easy on the eye, i choose to color coodinate them with the paper. pink chipboard heart, on the pink pattern paper. yellow paper flower and brad, on the yellow pattern paper.

i added a strip of yellow dotted ribbon underneath the photo and paper grid. i combined some letter stickers and a rub on phrase for my title, and added a tree sticker to the side. i didn't feel like this layout really needed any journaling. "i love you kiddos" seemed to sum up my thoughts perfectly 🙂

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