... just Laura

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Love And Marriage

I've had a very slow start to this week. The stomach flu found me for the second time in a month and a half, and it's had me down for the count for the last few days. So not cool. I'm one that so rarely gets sick, so I'm a little annnoyed to have so much sickness around me and all the little ones lately. Anyways. I had my May project sheet layout go up on the Bella Blvd blog on Mother's Day.

I was asked to create a Mother's Day layout, using the Love and Marriage collection and crochet hearts. Easy to do. Bella's collections are always full of super versitle patterns and designs, so they're not limited to the actual theme of the collection. The wedding collection worked perfectly for this Mother's Day layout.

You can download and print our project sheet, complete with a supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

Bella Blvd: Words With Friends

I'm a little late sharing this layout I created for the Bella Blvd blog, as part of our National Scrapbook Day celebration. There was just too much to share over the weekend, and this got pushed to the side. Might have had something to do with the 12 posts I put together on the Bella blog, just for Saturday.

If you missed it, you should check out the Bella blog posts from Saturday. I challenged all of the designers to create "All About Me" themed layouts and answer a few scrapping questions. I had this idea to do a layout about Words With Friends, the game I'm addicted to playing on my iPod Touch.

When I first started playing, forever ago, I was terrible. I lost every single game. Badly. Eventually, I started actually paying attention to the board, watching the triple/double letters/points tiles, and trying to be smarter about my moves. Don't get me wrong ... most of the time, I'm still just an average player. I lose. A lot. I have plenty of times where I make plays quickly, and without much thinking. But I also get in there and make some smart moves.

And what do I do when I make a great play? I'm a total dork and I take a screenshot of it. At first, I did it just so that I could prove to the girls that I wasn't terrible. They're not easily impressed by their mom, and believe me, these screenshots never seemed to impress them either. But it did make them laugh a little. Most likely at the fact that I felt the need to screenshot it.

When I realized how many screenshots I had started to collect, I knew I wanted to do something with them. I printed out a handful of them to use on this layout, all in a 2x3" size. I went through my stash of Bella papers and dug out some in blue, yellow, and grey, to match the photos of the game board. I even pulled in a bit of green, with the chipboard accents and the green patterned paper and vellum I used for the large circle.

I have created quite a few "All About Me" layouts in the past, but I've gotten away from doing them over the last year or so. This is a good reminder to get myself in the scrapbook albums more, even if it's about something as simple and silly as playing a favorite game.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: National Scrapbook Day

I'm getting a late start to posting a few projects that I created for National Scrapbook Day! Turns out, I never do any scrapping on NSD. I'm too busy blogging about it! First up, there's been a ton of good stuff happening over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog.

For my contribution to the NSD activities, I created a layout for the Old & New Challenge.

This is a great opportunity to dig into your stash and pull out some of those older products that you've been hanging onto for years. I think we all have good intentions of using these products, but they sometimes end up forgotten as we collect all the latest and greatest products and enjoy using those items while they're fresh and new.

 

For my "old" product, I decided to pull out some very old Making Memories chipboard alphas that I have always loved. I pulled out one of each letter of the alphabet and arranged them around the outside edges of my page. I had good intentions of painting them all to match my background paper, but when I came across this older sheet of embossed cardstock from Core'dinations, I liked how the raw chipboard alphas created a tone-on-tone effect with the cardstock and decided to leave them plain.

I did want to spiffy up the chipboard alphas a bit, so I used a new-to-me embossing folder, along with my trusty Cuttlebug die cut machine, to emboss each letter with fun polka dots. It gives a nice, subtle effect to the letters.

For my "new" products, I pulled out some of the newest embellishments from Bella Blvd. A few feathers (in white, pink, and navy blue to match), a few crochet hearts (in white and grey to match), and a few fun little stick pin flags. I clustered all of these embellishments together, to go beside the adorable photo of one of my daycare kiddos.

Bella Blvd is the sponsor for my hour, and they are giving away an assortment of feathers, crochet hearts, and maybe even some flags, to one lucky winner. For this particular giveaway, you can leave a comment HERE.

However, you'll want to check out all of the posts from today on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog (there's a lot of them!), because there some fabulous giveaways on each and every post. All of the giveaways are open until 6:00pm, EST, on Sunday, May 11th, so you have lots of time to get your comments in for a chance to win!

Everyday Storyteller 2: Available NOW

It's here! Everyday Storyteller 2 has arrived and is available to purchase.

I am still so honored to have been asked to contribute to this new book, along with so many amazing designers. I've had a chance to browse through the pages, check out the topics and ideas, and see some gorgeous projects along the way. There's something in there for everyone. Want to know what my topic was about? I wrote about scraplifting your own work, and not feeling like you have to re-invent the wheel every time you sit down to create. You'll have to get yourself a copy of the book to hear more ;)

The Everyday Storyteller idea books help scrapbookers bring their stories to life with simple ideas for memory keeping. With advice for paper, digital and hybrid scrapbooking, each volume includes more than 100 behind-the-scenes tips, tricks and techniques for capturing moments, telling stories and creating memories.

Each Everyday Storyteller idea book contains 80+ pages of tips from scrapbookers like you. You will find incredibly useful approaches straight from the minds of our contributors, techniques they use every day to be productive and happy scrapbookers. Organized according to the phases of memory keeping, the books offer simple ways to improve your entire scrapbooking process.

Everyday Storyteller 2 can be purchased as an eBook, a print-quality, full color PDF instant digital download, for $14.99. Or you can purchase the eBook + Print Book pre-order, adding the 8.5x11 full color soft bound print version, for $24.99 (plus shipping). The print books are expected to begin shipping by May 20, 2013.

Right now, you can bundle both the original Everyday Storyteller and the Everyday Storyteller 2 books together and save. You can purchase both eBooks for only $24.99, or purchase the eBooks + Print Books pre-order for $44.99 (plus shipping).

Click HERE to purchase, or simply click either of the images above to take you straight to the site. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Kitchen DIY Project

I have a fun new project up at Kerri Bradford Studio today. Usually, I'm all about the layouts and cards. Maybe an occasional altered project, if I'm feeling daring. I decided to branch out for this next one. I chose to turn my kitchen into my next Silhouette project!

A little backstory first. I am a huge Rachael Ray fan, and I record her talk show every day. They did a segment way back last summer (seen HERE) about "quick fixes" around the house, for those types of things that would normally cost a fortune and require major work. One of those ideas was how to do a quick fix on kitchen or bathroom tiles. The idea shown involved these vinyl squares that you could just stick over the tiles you already had. I looked up the site they recommended and there were about three designs to chose from, and they weren't cute. Soooooo. Why not create my own vinyl squares?

{Please ignore the obviously-not-staged look of my kitchen in this three year old photo. Especially the two remaining tator tots on the baking sheet.}

You see, I can't stand my tile backsplash in the kitchen. We bought this house before it had even started being built. And one of the very first questions, on the day we signed papers to get our name on the lot, was if we wanted a tile backsplash. Right along with the questions of whether we wanted the upstairs loft addition (yes), the studio addition over the garage (no), and where we wanted additional outlets and ceiling fan hook-ups. A tile backsplash? We had no clue to be honest, so we said "yes". I'm sure if it was different tile then the counter tiles (which I can't stand either), maybe I wouldn't detest them so much. Everything in our kitchen blends together too much, and the backsplash was just super boring to me.

But now? I don't think it's boring at all! In fact, I think it's a bit bold and I think it has a certain "wow" factor. I've had a few people see it already and they've all said "what IS that?", and they were a little shocked to learn that I had basically "stickered" my backsplash with a whole new look.

I love circles, so it was an easy decision to use the circle background from Kerri's More Background Basics kit. I knew my tiles were 6" square in size, so I just sized my squares to about 5.8" square in size.

In making them a bit smaller than the 6", I could easily fit four squares on a sheet of vinyl. Speaking of the vinyl. I actually used Making Memories vinyl sheets for this entire project. I had a ton of them on hand, from when I designed for them, and they worked perfectly in my Cameo. The Making Memories vinyl came in 12"x12" sheets, and there were 10-12 sheets in a pack (I'm drawing a blank on whether it was 10 or 12).

These sheets came in white and black, so black was the obvious choice. Silhouette carries vinyl in a ton of colors (seen HERE), and it can be purchased in the 12" width rolls as well as the 9" width rolls. So you could easily cut those rolls down into 12"x12" sheets.

Once I had a few sheets cut, I just started peeling and sticking them on. I definitely questioned myself along the way, if I'm being totally honest. It was hard to imagine the final look, with only certain tiles covered here and there.

There was nothing hard about this. I cleaned off the tiles and wiped them super clean. I let the Cameo do all the cutting while I went about other things around the house. I would cut one sheet, then come back and cut another, and then another. I would randomly peel them off and stick them on, as I was doing other things. 

There were times when I couldn't stop. You cover a few, and it makes you want to cover a few more, and then a few more. I would avoid the tiles that involved a little trimming, or removing outlet plates. I'd do all the easy ones first.

I loved that the vinyl was so easy to work with. In doing all of these tiles, peeling of square after square, I didn't have any of them tear on me. They were super easy to line up and stick down. I rarely encountered any bubble-age either. They went on really smoothly.

I have this little angled section of the counter, with a small "shelf" of tiles. I had six tiles that weren't quite 6" square, so I did have to resize a few squares to make them a little smaller.

When I came to some of the edges (by the window, for example), I just made it work. I eyeballed where they needed to be cut, and used my trimmer to cut them down BEFORE peeling them off the sheet.

I did make one more change during this project. We have 2" wood blinds all through our house. The kitchen and family room had the wood colored blinds, and the rest of the house had white blinds. Eleven years ago, I was all about "oak wood", so the wood colored blinds made sense. I'm NOT a fan of so much oak anymore (much to my mother's dismay). I thought it was the perfect time to switch the kitchen and family room blinds over to the white wood ones. It was much cheaper than I thought, and I'm so glad we did it. It's so much lighter in here now.

My mom saw this and said it would take some getting used too, and my brother saw a few photos and said he wouldn't pick something that bold. But I think it really works with the decor in our house. Over the years, I've added in lots of black, whether through furniture, frames, black canvas prints (lots of those!), and decor pieces.

My goal is to take away some of the oak and light wood, and to at least break up some of the neutral wood/floors/counters/walls that seem to blend together.

Confession time. I still have three little tiles behind this frame that I didn't put the vinyl on yet. I didn't want to shock anyone be actually finishing this project 100%, would I? Lol. The only reason that I haven't covered these yet, is because it involves removing a few outlet covers, including the phone jack and the internet stuff. And heaven forbid I unplug that stuff. With my luck, the internet would never come back on. But I will get to it soon, because I hate seeing the bare tiles peeking out from either side of the frame.

All in all, I cut 124 squares of vinyl, using 31 of my 12"x12" vinyl sheets. I already owned the vinyl, so this project didn't cost me a thing. BUT. If I did have to buy the vinyl, and I bought it from the Silhouette store (since the MM sheets would be hard to find these days), I would have only needed 5-6 rolls of the vinyl. So this project would have cost me only $60 or so, which isn't bad at all for a DIY home improvement project.

I still have more sheets leftover, which will come in handy if I need to replace any. I'm thinking the ones behind/above the stove might need to be replaced at some point, since they're bound to get a little dirtier from cooking. I'm actually keeping that area a lot cleaner now, since I'm always checking to see if anything splattered up there. Lol. And the great thing is that if I change my mind at some point, or if I get sick of the look, I just have to peel them all off.

And here's the fun part. I now have over 3,000 black vinyl circles that I can use for something.These are the negative pieces, after peeling off the squares. Each square gave me 25 circles, times 124, is 3,100 circles. I saved them all, even though I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet. I keep saying that I'm going to polka-dot the heck out of something ;)

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Kerri has all kinds of great stuff over on her blog today, starting with this freebie shape! It's only free for today, so make sure and grab it while you can.

And then there's this awesome sale to get ready for National Scrapbook Day (happening tomorrow!!!). Backgrounds and titles, two of my favorite things, are 20% off thru Saturday.

And to top it off, she has a new kit up as well. Sliders is a fabulous kit full some new and fun frames.

So head over to the Kerri Bradford Studio blog and check it all out! I will also be having another post late tonight, and a few posts tomorrow. Lots and lots of things happening this weekend!

Three Years Later

I've been making a few changes around the house lately. Simple things. Easy things. One of them I'll be sharing tomorrow, in fact. I thought I would share a little peek into something I started a few years ago, and show you how far I have come since.

A few years ago, 3 to be exact, I re-painted my kitchen, with the same green paint that I have in a few other areas of the house. At that same time, I got rid of all of the fake plants that I had above the kitchen cabinets that were covered in about 2 inches of dust. I purchased a variety of frames in different colors and sizes at Michaels (all during a fabulous sale), and displayed them above the cabinets. I added in a few other odds and ends that I had laying around the house for extra decor. 

I took that photo three years ago. April of 2010. I didn't realize it had been that long ago that I stuck all of those frames up there. And yes, I totally put them up there with the cardboard and plastic packing on them. You can see that some of the frames came with those fake "photos" in them (the lighthouse, the flowers, the bride and groom), which I left in there, and some of those frames are even upside down. Classic, right ;)

I did add that photo of Sarah to the black 12x12 frame about 6 months after putting the frames up there. I had taken her out for a little photo shoot, loved that shot of her, and thought it would be perfect for the square sized photo. Sooooo. Six months later, I did add a photo to ONE frame.

This is how that section looks today. The photo of Sarah is in the same exact spot as it was before. I did add one of my Kerri Bradford Studio projects to the white frame (THIS project). You can see that the black frame is out of it's cardboard packaging, and the photo of the bride and groom is gone. I had actually used that frame for a design team project and had to get a new one to replace it. So it's there empty.

This is to the left of the photo of Sarah. The frames are a bit different. I switched a blue frame for the red frame and I believe that's the same black frame, just turned on it's side. It might seem weird to have a pencil drawn photo of Joe from high school displayed in the kitchen. Maybe it's not weird to some of you. This photo was laying around, backed with a heavy mat board, and I finally got smart and put it in a frame. The frame came from above the cabinets, so it only seemed right to put it back up there. Otherwise, I'd have a gap. So that's honestly the main reason it's there. Plus, it's kind of a cool photo. I have better shots of it that I'll have to share.

Three years ago, this is what the left side of the kitchen (above the cabinets) looked like. I got the lighthouse frame right side up, but the black one was upside down. Cardboard and plastic still on the frames.

And here's what it looks like today, three years later. Here's the red frame that I had switched out for the blue in the previous photos. And what's in that black frame? There's that bride and groom again. Lol. At least I took the cardboard and plastic off the frames, even if I still haven't put anything IN them.

This is what the right side of the kitchen (above the cabinets) looked like three years ago. That lighthouse photo sure is popular, isn't it? And will someone please remind me to switch out that ugly light with the gold trim. Ugh. Such a simple fix that will look 17 times better, I'm sure of it.

And here's what that section looks like today, three years later. The small photo of Sarah is gone. BTW. Alyssa totally comments on how there's a photo of Sarah and Joe up there, but not of her. I need to take care of that. I did fill one of the frames, with a digital word art image that I had printed out. In my last photo order from Costco over the weekend (because my photo printer is having some issues), I did have another digital print done to add to that white frame. It's sitting on my kitchen counter. We'll see how long it takes me to climb up there and add it in.

This gives you a pretty good idea about how I do a lot of things in life. Halfway. I don't set out to only do half, and it's not my intention to forget to go back and finish things. I mean, I have been up there at the top of the cabinets a few times over the past three years. I go up there, take everything down, and give it all a good scrubbing. And then I try and remember how to put it all back the same way. But it happens. Life gets busy, there's 57 other projects and things to do and worry about, so I do often get sidetracked and forget.

It's still a bit pathetic. I mean, come on. THREE years, and I've only filled four of the ten frames. I really need to make it a point to finish these and get something up there. I will make that one of my summer goals and will hopefully come and report back with all my fabulous filled frames of goodness!

Everyday Storyteller 2: Blog Hop

Welcome to the Everyday Storyteller 2 blog hop! Everyday Storyteller 2 is a brand new idea book offering more than 100 tips, tricks and techniques for scrapbooking. Go behind the scenes with 33 of your favorite memory keepers to see how they capture moments, tell stories and document their best memories. Sign up for the VIP list to be the first to know when the book is released and receive an exclusive discount.

Each book contributor participating in the blog hop is giving away an eBook copy of Everyday Storyteller 2. Use this entry link to complete your entry form. You must enter by 11:59pm PDT on April 30, 2013 to be eligible. You may enter from each stop. Winners will be contacted directly as well as posted at everydaystoryteller.com on May 1, 2013.

Keep hopping along to the rest of the book contributors for even more chances to win a copy of your own!

Tangie Baxter Kerri Bradford Joscelyne Cutchens Catherine Davis Patty Debowski Lisa Dickinson Karla Dudley Leah Farquharson Karen Grunberg Jenni Hufford Donna Jannuzzi Amanda Jones Mandy Koeppen Riikka Kovasin Kami Leonard Amy Mallory Amy Martin Ann-Marie Morris Celine Navarro Lynnette Penacho Kelly Purkey Krista Sahlin Linda Sattgast Cindy Schneider Wendy Smedley Elisha Snow Amy Sorensen Neisha Sykes Jill Sprott Laura Vegas Allison Waken Crystal Wilkerson Jennifer Wilson

Kerri Bradford Studio: Framed Collage Project

Happy Monday everyone! I had such a productive weekend, and got a TON of scrapping work done. More than I even thought I would, and what's even more surprising is that most of it isn't even due for another week. Anyone that knows me, knows that I never work ahead. Lol.

In case you haven't heard yet, there is a brand new photo template kit up over at Kerri Bradford Studio today! I know how much I love working with Kerri's storyboard templates. I love a good photo collage when it comes to scrapping lots and lots of photos. 

I had been kicking this idea around in my head for a few months now. Well, not this exact idea. The photos I had in mind were of Alyssa's band friends that she's collected this past school year. She did send me copies of all of her photos so that I could try my idea out, but there's a lot more photos to work with (100+), so I thought I would start smaller and go from there.

So I decided to use photos of my daycare kids. Not just the ones that are here now, but a photo of every single child that I have watched over the years. I have created a few layouts that contain a good amount of these kids in one place, but I thought it would be nice to create something that could be displayed out in the open for everyone to see. I think that would help convince any prospective parents to bring their children to me, right ;)

When I first saw Kerri's Storyboard: Instagram Style kit, I knew it would be perfect for this type of project. I chose the template that held 16 photos. I then did a quick count of how many kids I have watched over the years. This was actually fairly easy, since I'm required to keep a "roster" of sorts for the state, which I have been filling out and adding to for the last eleven years. I counted out 35 kids. Which seems like a lot, and yet at the same time, I thought would be a higher number.

Then came the hardest part. Finding a photo for each child. For some of these kids, it wasn't so much finding a photo, but picking just ONE photo. Some of these kids were with me for one year, two years, three+ years. How do you chose just one photo, and from what age to you chose it. What about the ones that came as newborns? Did I chose a baby photo, or one from when they were older?

Then there were the kids from the very beginning. I took tons of photos of them too, but that was before the digital days. I have all of my negatives organized and can easily find what I need. But that's still a lot of digging around, taking the negatives to Costo for reprints, and then they're still not an actual digital file to work with. My scanner only works when it wants to work, so I didn't want to mess with that. Some of those earlier kids I was able to find photos of when they were older, since I've taken family photos for some of them. So even though they might not be the same young faces that I took care of at the time, I'm ok with using a slightly older version of them for this project.

There are three photos on here (the first collage I showed) where I actually took a photo of a photo, from one of my layouts. It didn't work perfectly, but it will do. And sadly, I had four kids that I just couldn't find photos of. I feel bad leaving them out.

I had picked up a poster sized frame that was 12"x36", so my plan was to create three 12"x12" photo collages to fill the frame. Since I ended up with 31 photos, I decided to fill the first template completely, and fill the top two rows of the second template, and the bottom two rows of the third template. I was bummed that I had that one empty square the bottom. And about a week after I finished this project, I got a new little daycare baby. I'll have to add her in there at some point.

    

Just to give you an idea of what my plan was, I created a 12"x36" canvas in Photoshop and copied each of the collages over, one on top of the other. Because I only used the top part of the second template and the bottom part of the third template, once I stacked them up, that left me a 12"x12" section to fill. My plan was to just create something to lay on top of those using cardstock and patterned paper. Keep in mind, I had each template printed seperately. But if you found a spot that would print something 12"x36", you could print something just like this all on one large photo.

This is a terrible photo of the completed project, but it's honestly the best I could get. I even took out the plexiglass, thinking that would help. But I was still getting lot of glare anywhere I went in the house. Hanging it on the wall didn't help. So you'll just have to trust me that it really looks good in person.

I adhered all three of the printed photo collages to the paper that actually came in the frame, just to hold everything in place. I had my collages printed at Costco, and each were $2.99, so $10 for all three of them.

I wanted to keep the paper area of this project pretty simple, since this is going to hang in the playroom (which is really our living room/dining room, so it's right when you walk in the door). I added a sheet of white cardstock that I very lightly misted with pink spray mist. I chose the "If you're happy and you know it ... clap your hands" phrase from Kerri's Happy kit. I wanted something fairly large and I think it kind of ties in with the whole daycare/kids thing. It's a song that plays on about 38% of these toys too, so I find myself singing it quite a bit!

To finish it off, I simply dug out a really old piece of heart patterned paper, a few aqua cardstock border strips, and a piece of brown polka dot ribbon. Easy and not too busy looking. When I get new kids here, and am ready to add a few more to the frame, I can add them right into the templates, since I saved them all as working files. All of the kids are in the order of which they started coming to me, so I would most likely just shift everyone up to make room at the bottom for the new ones. I can always make that paper area smaller as well. 

Next on my list is to find a spot to hang this. I had a spot in mind, and when I hung it up there, it just looked too small, oddly enough. So for now, it's propped in my scraproom. And with the school year coming to an end soon, I need to get working on one for Alyssa with all of her band photos from the year.

Bella Blvd: She's So Twirly

I have another layout to share from the Paper Crafters Library feature I did for Bella Blvd.

This layout wasn't planned in any way, shape, or form. All I knew was that I had borrowed these adorably cute photos from my friend Krista, of her oldest daughter, and I wanted to create a fun little layout with them.

I had something totally different in mind when I printed the photos, which is why I printed them as 2x3's. I still went ahead and used them, but I kind of wish I had printed them a bit larger, since they were so cute.

I framed my page with a few border strips of patterned paper, and some black chevron designer tape. All of the patterned papers and then stickers for this layout are from the Engaged At Last collection. Which is NOT just for engagement photos ;)

I wanted to try a little something different for adding the feathers to this layout. I decided to cut some circles out of the page, layer the entire page onto another sheet of cardstock, and adhere the feathers inbetween the layers and under the circles.

When it comes to circles, I still use my trusty circle cutter from Creative Memories, which I have had for years and years. It's great for cutting circles out of places where a punch just won't reach. I cut three circles from my white cardstock, and then adhered just the left side of the page to a scrap piece of cardstock.This allowed me to lift up the right side of the white cardstock, and arrange the feathers exactly where I wanted them. I stapled the feathers in place, and then once they were all secured, I finished adhering my white cardstock all the way down.

I decided to cut a few thin circle outlines from black cardstock, to add to the bottom two circles. I would have cut one for the top circle as well, but I wasn't able to cut one that size with the circle cutter, and I wasn't about to try and do it by hand. I cannot cut a circle freehand if my life depended on it.

I managed to type this post up fairly quickly. It's amazing how long it takes sometimes to type up something so simple. Now maybe I can get to bed at a decent time. I have a very full house of kiddos tomorrow, and I just know it's going to be a rough day. Wish me luck!

I'm Headed to CKU This Year

I vaguely remember back to when I traveled 6 times in one year for scrapping related opportunities. This past year, I traveled all of two times, and one was only an hour drive from my house. So I'm really excited to be heading back out this year to do some teaching at CKU: Creating Keepsakes University.

 

Bella Blvd has been asked to sponsor one of the Core Classes, and I will be traveling to all four shows to teach on Bella's behalf. I have never attended CKU as a student before, but last year I did get to fill in at one of the shows and teach an album track class.   

This time I'll be headed out to teach a Bella Blvd sponsored class that I designed myself. Which is kind of exciting, since I've only taught classes designed by others over the years. Want to know more about the class?

{Click image to view larger}

Washi tapes are all the rage these days, and Bella Blvd has an extensive assortment of Designer Tapes in bright and fun colors and patterns that coordinate perfectly with all of our paper collections. We love to collect and hoard our tapes, but are we using them to their fullest potential? This class will focus on teaching you new and creative ways to use tapes on your projects, including creating your own "patterned paper", flowers, pennants, and other embellishments. In this class, we will be creating two 2-page layouts using a variety of our Designer Tapes and a mixture of our newest collections and embellishments.

Here are the locations and dates of the shows for the year:
CKU San Diego, CA: June 6-8th, 2013
CKU Louisville, KY: August 8-10th, 2013
CKU Stamford, CT: September 5-7th, 2013
CKU Dallas/Ft Worth, TX: October 10-12th, 2013

For more info on the events, to read the class descriptions and meet the instructors, check out the CKU website for all the details.

Just Peeking In

I thought I should probably peek in and say "hi", seeing as it's been a while since my last post. To be completely honest, it never even crossed my mind to blog last week. Usually, I feel guilty if I don't blog so many times a week. Last week wasn't one of those times.

{My little Mateo "peeking" into a photo I was taking}

I find myself going through life at these two totally different speeds these days. Overall, life in this household is busy and hectic. Joe works his night job, umpires high school baseball 3-4 days a week, and umpires for a Cal-Mex baseball league all day on Sundays. I work 11 hours a day taking care of my daycare kids, work a part-time job for Bella Blvd, and work on scrapbook assignments here and there as they come up.

We have two very busy teenagers. Alyssa is finishing up her Junior year of high school, is extremely active in band, is on the varsity soccer team, and does hours of homework a night. Sarah is finishing up her 8th grade year and getting ready to go into high school next year, was on the volleyball team at school, takes band, and is now running track at school. They both play soccer during the fall and winter, with Joe coaching as well.

So we're busy. As are most of you, I'm sure. So I know we're not alone in feeling like we are always running from one thing to another. Trying to catch up with life and squeeze everything in. That's the fast paced side of my life.

But then there are the moments where I feel like I'm leading this slow paced life. Those 11 hours a day I spend watching my daycare kids can be crazy and hectic, seeing as I'm now watching two 9 month olds, a 16th month old, an 18th month old, and a 3 year old. Ummmm. Yeah, it's crazy here! I feel like I'm losing my mind half the time. That might have something to do with the fact that most of these kids can't talk to me. They jabber a ton, and they understand me. But they can't converse with me or hold a conversation. I love days when the 3 year old is here, because he gives me all kinds of random conversations. Funny ones, too.

Those 11 hours are filled to the brim with feedings, bottles and sippy cups, diapers galore, picking up the same toys over and over, singing the same songs over and over ... basically, I do everything over and over, day after day. So it gets a little mundane at times. My head is spinning with all of the things I need to do, but for the most part, I sit on the floor and entertain the little ones. I have a very hard time sitting still or only doing one thing at a time. I'm a multi-tasker by nature. So when I'm just hanging out with these kids, it's hard to turn off my brain and not think about those other things that are on the to-do list.

Yet, that list has to get done at some point. Unfortunately, you can only ignore a dirty bathroom for so long, right ;)

I'm not even sure what my point is in writing this. The downside of being so crazed and busy, is that my focusing ability isn't that great right now, so I often forget what I was supposed to be doing. Or in this case, what I wanted to say in this post of mine.

Great. If you've read this far, you might be disappointed to hear that there's absolutely no point to my ramblings. Sorry. Long story made short, I'm going to see about getting back to a regular blog schedule. I have posts started, with projects to share. I just haven't gotten around to finishing any of those posts. I want to make time for that this week.

Bella Blvd: Senior

I'm so glad it's Friday! We've been passing a not-so-lovely stomach bug around our family and daycare familes for the past week and a half. I am so ready for all of to be heathly and happy again. I have a TON of scrapping projects on my plate over the next few weeks and am desperately needing some time to focus on those as well. I am hoping this weekend is a productive one. Anyways. I have another layout to share from the Paper Crafters Library feature I did for Bella Blvd.

This lovely young woman is my neice, on Joe's side of the family. Seems like just yesterday, but it was almost three years ago when I took her Senior pictures for her.

I knew I was focusing on the feathers for this layout, so I picked out my feathers first, using the colors in the photo to make my choices. Then I picked out my patterned papers to match the feathers and the photo.

I started by securing the feathers in place by stapling the bottom ends of each feather directly to my page. Two little staples for each feather does the trick. I adhered a few crochet hearts across the bottom of the feathers, which helps cover up the staples.

Once I had my journaling strips printed out and trimmed (remembering to leave a bit of room on each end for the brads), I laid them over the feathers to make sure I knew where I wanted them to be. I did one strip at a time, piercing holes in both ends of the journaling strip, through the feathers and the layers of papers. I held the strip down and immediately pushed my brads through the layers, so as not to "lose" my place, so to speak.

I find that a lot of the Bella Blvd feathers stay in place perfectly, even if you only secure the ends. And some shift a little, if not secured at the top as well. The feathers on this layout were definitely more fluffier than others, which made them perfect for this little technique.

Paper Crafter's Library: Bella Blvd Spotlight Feature

Bella Blvd is excited to have a special spotlight feature on Paper Crafter's Library today. We have chosen to feature our Feather collection. I have created FOUR brand new layouts, sharing different ways to use feathers on your layouts, how to adhere them, and how much interest they can add to your pages. I thought I would share one of them here today.

This gorgeous photo taken by my good friend Krista Lund, of her neice Ashley, called out to be matched up with a handful of fluffy and colorful feathers!

I usually cluster 2-3 feathers together when I am using them on a layout. But sometimes, a photo or a layout just calls out for more and more feathers! I chose five feathers to use on this layout, matching the colors to Ashley's dress and jacket in the photo.

I've mentioned this before, but I find that the easiest way to adhere feathers to my projects is by stapling them directly to the page. I just plan on covering up those staples with something afterwards. You can see here that I simply laid out my feathers where I wanted them to be. I knew I would be placing a paper strip over the ends, so I didn't worry about leaving a gap between the photo and the feathers.

Then I added two staples to the end of each feather. When I'm stapling further into the page, where my stapler can't reach, I lay my page over one of those cushy mats used for paper piercing. I staple right into that mat, and then gently pull the page off the mat. When the page is flipped over, you'll see the ends of the staples sticking straight up. I just use my finger to bend all of the ends down. Easy to do.

I cut a strip of patterned paper to add between the feathers and the photo, which would cover up all of the staples. I did my machine stitching first and then adhered it to the page. I did add some of my regular adhesive, even though I know it won't be super secure on the feathers. But I also added a few glue dots to the ends of the paper strip, which were being adhered straight to cardstock, and also added a few staples for extra security.

I hand cut one of the large brown zig zag pieces from the chevron patterned paper, traced it onto the yellow patterned paper, and then layered them together.

Head over to the Paper Crafter's Library to check out my other layouts (I will be sharing them here on my blog later on) and to learn more about working with this fun and trendy new embellishment! Bella is also sponsoring a giveaway on their site as well, so make sure to get your name in for a chance to win some of these gorgeous feathers!

Sneak Video Peek at Everyday Storyteller Part Two

We are less than a month away from the launch party, taking place on May 3rd, for the release of Everyday Storyteller 2, which I am very excited to be a part of. Want to see more?

If you'd like to take a peek at what's inside this new book, you can check out this sneak peek trailer video. It features one image from each and every one of the contributors that make up this book.

And if you haven't already, make sure and sign up for the free VIP list so that you can be one of the first to know about all the fun stuff leading up to the launch party and the books release.

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Sand & Surf

Our new monthly project sheet went up on the Bella Blvd blog yesterday.

For my April layout, I focused on the new Sand & Surf collection. Except that instead of using it for a beach or travel layout, I set out to use it for a regular summer layout. These photos were all taken at one of Sarah's birthday parties, a few years back. I wanted to pull out some of the photos of Joe's family from that day for this layout, since the majority of the photos of Sarah, her friends, and the actual party are already scrapped on other layouts.

You might notice that my two O's in "Pooside" are a little on the small side. I decided to use the inside's of the chipboard O's for two reasons. One being that I tend to run out of O's very quickly. I have plenty more packages that I could have opened, but figured I would save those for later. My second reason was that if I had used the actual O's in the package, my title wouldn't have fit. 

I try and do a fun technique of some kind on every project sheet layout that I create, and this month I decided to make a paper pieced sun element for the page. I used my trusty old circle cutter from Creative Memories to cut a large circle in the corner of my yellow patterned paper. Cutting it from the corner left me with two straight edges to line up on the aqua paper.

I also cut several strips of the yellow patterned paper, all about 3/4" wide. I misted all of the yellow pieces with water, scrunched them up into balls, flattened them back out and set them out to dry. This adds a ton of texture to your paper. You can see above that it almost looks like I adhered the large circle with pop dots. But I didn't. That's just how much texture I gained with the spritzing and scrunching.

After adhering the main part of the sun in the corner of the aqua wave patterned paper, I started adhering the sun rays. I tucked one end under the center of the sun, and then trimmed the other end to fit the design.

I had printed out a handful of 2"x3" photos to use on the page, before I really knew what the page was even going to look like. I didn't end up using all of them, but picked out five photos that summed up the afternoon. I adhered them all using pop dots, to add even more dimension to the page.

I sprinkled in a few threaded buttons, and added some stickers and chipboard pieces here and there.

You can download/print the project sheet, which has a complete supply list and full instructions, right HERE.