... just Laura

three time champions

a full 5 months ago, the new soccer season started up. we knew from the start that sarah's team was great. they had a great coach, who knew that he had a ton of talented girls. and he gave everything he had (along with a great assistant coach) to make these girls even better, and to mesh them into an excellent team. they were the under-12 arsenal's.

they had a great season. they won all but one game. tournament weekend, they played 4 games and won them all. took the first place championship for under-12 girls. they all got huge trophies, that are a good 2.5 feet tall. a week later, they played in the inter-city tournament with a neighboring city. the top 2 teams from each city played, and we won all 3 games. took the inter-city championship. they all got metals, and their coach got a huge trophy.

next up was the founders cup tournament. their coach knew he had a great team, that had a good shot at this tournament. so he had signed them up at the start of the season. for the past 2 weekends, we have been all about soccer. including an hour and a half drive there and back, and a 2 night stay in a hotel. 2 full days last weekend, playing 3 games and winning all 3 of them in shut-outs. moved on to this weekend, where it was single game eliminations. won the first game yesterday, with a shut-out. the second game was a tough one, and probably the most intense game i had watched at that point. ended up tied, and went to overtime, where we won. then came today for the championship of all championships.

getting all checked out by the referee's.

the last two teams standing, taking the field. i thought this was really cool. to see the referee's, with the game balls, leading the teams onto the field and over to stand before us. just a really cool moment. 

getting their pep talk from coach charlie and coach carlos, before starting the game. and just an FYI. our team color is black. black jerseys, with the red flames on the sleeves. but the other team was a dark blue/black color, and it was too close of a match. so our team had to wear the orange penny's. wish it hadn't been like that, so they could show their team colors with pride and to see their jersey numbers. but it's all good.

only took a few photos of sarah playing. i was just too busy watching the game. it was intense and nerve wracking to watch. you just can't really watch it through a lens ;)

the other team scored first, even though we were definately dominating the field. it got our girls reved up though. and it wasn't long before we scored. one of the girls scored off a header. was such an awesome goal! later, in the second half, we scored our second goal off a penalty kick. a girl from the other team had a hand ball right in their box. never good. we were up 2-1, and the girls did such a great job holding on for the rest of the game. the other team put up a good fight, and had a few scary breakaways at the very end of the game. our fans were going crazy, because the clock was up, but the referee's just kept going a few extra minutes. it was so nerve wracking on all of us to watch.

and this was taken just seconds after they won the game! 

i love this shot of them all linking arms, and running out to us to take their bow :)

they were so happy and so proud. and rightfully so.

sarah with her two soccer BFF's. emily and emily.

this was after receiving their metals, and the huge trophy that their coach gets to keep.

each of the girls took a photo with the trophy and the game ball.

and a last shot in the net, on the turf. where they made the magic happen. our city hasn't won this tournament in 10 years, in any age group (boys or girls). so this was a big moment. and they're the youngest team from our city to ever win. they represented well! i know we're all so proud of them, and all the hard work they put in for the last 5 months together. it paid off. city champions, inter-city champions, and now state champions! congratulations team arsenal!!!

the finished collage

yesterday i showed you the basic sketch i was using for my framed photo collages, and today i'm sharing one of the finished ones with you. and i'm sort of crossing my fingers that haley's mom doesn't see this on my blog. i know she reads it, but i'm not sure how often. it's all for the sake of the blog readers ;) lol!

 

i love how this turned out (click on it to see it a little bigger). i went through all the photos i've taken of haley over the last 3 years, and choose some of my favorites. i love that it shows her over the years, starting when she was just about 3 months old. shows how much she's changed, and yet how much she's stayed the same. i'm so grateful that we've been a part of it all :)

now, for how i got this result. 

the first thing i did was create my canvas at 10.5 x 13.5 inches. this is everything that will show in the opening of my frame. and then when i was totally done, i placed this on an 11x14 canvas to have printed. if you're going to try this, make sure and double check your frame opening. just in case it's different then mine. then i simply pulled up 16 of my favorite photos. a few of these were horizontal, but i was able to crop what i wanted just fine. but most of them were vertical shots. i cropped each one to 2.1 x 2.7 inches, and then copy and pasted them onto my blank canvas. i used the "move" tool to move them around, into a pattern i liked. those four extra spots are going to be for pattern paper, but could easily be filled with more photos. or you could add in some vertical photos that are 4.2 x 2.7 inches (taking up two spots). HERE is a post i did about making photo collages in photoshop.

i knew i wanted to do the photos in black and white. i love color photos, and i'm totally ok with all the color going on in the above collage. but i wanted to keep this simple and clean, since it's going to be hanging on a wall. i could have changed each photo to black and white individually, but i'm all about taking short cuts when i can. i've learned that i can arrange all the photos, flatten the layers, and then turn the entire collage to black and white in one step. genious, i know! i use an action in photoshop cs2 that i got ages ago for all my black and white photos. so i really can't explain how to do that. i simply press my one action button and it's magically done for me. sorry, that was sort of like sticking my tonque out at you, wasn't it? lol!

this shows the digital papers and brush that i added. the black line around the edge is just there to make it stand out on the blog, so that doesn't actually print on the actual photo. keep in mind, i'm not a digital scrapper. so this is super basic. and i'm ok with that. the papers are from jen allyson (who is the digital spotlight artist right now and her stuff is 25% off), the digikit - urban chic boutique solid papers. i'm not very knowledgable about digital products or digital scrapbooking. i think i just happen to see this paper kit on a 2peas newsletter or something. it caught my eye, so i got it. the "looking through the lens" is from the photography hand drawn brushes from ali edwards.

that is the final collage. i flattened all my layers and saved it. then i copied and pasted it onto an 11x14 canvas, placing it right in the middle. i uploaded that to costco to order, and picked it up an hour later.

then i took that printed collage, and added a few real life embellishments to it.

a few flowers (making memories and hero arts). a few rhinestones and pearl accents (michaels, and hero arts). a foam letter sticker (american crafts). a sticker (making memories). some ribbon (adornit). wasn't thought out, but just whatever caught my eye first.

and now that i've made this one for haley, i better get to work on one for nikolas ;)

photo collage sketch

i've mentioned to a few friends, that i was planning on making some framed photo collages this year, for christmas gifts. i have one all put together and finished for some of my family. but i don't want to share that one just yet. don't want to ruin the surprise. i created a new one today, that i can share. first though, i want to show you the basic plan.

here's the sketch that i came up with for this project. this is an 11x14 framed project. i thought 8x10 was just too small for this. and i wanted to fit a lot of photos. 11x14 was the next choice, and you can get frames that size fairly cheap (about $10-12 on sale at michaels). i came up with the 4 rows, of 5 photos each. but then decided to take out 3-4 spots to add some pattern paper and embellishing. so i have 16-17 photos, depending on who i'm doing this for. but it could easily hold 20 photos. or more, if you wanted.

now the actual collage is 10.5 x 13.5 inches. when i took out my 11x14 frames, i realized that the opening for the actual photo is 10.5 x 13.5 inches. it cuts off a little on each side, to hold the photo in the frame. so i created the collage as 10.5 x 13.5, and once i was done, i simply copied and pasted that onto an 11x14 canvas. seemed like the easiest way to do it for me. i did the math, and came up with 2.1 x 2.7 inches for each photo. i wanted enough room at the bottom to add a title of some sort.

the spots on the sketch that have a flower? that's a spot for embellishing. i always put a flower when i sketch things. just my symbol for "embellishment". lol! but it could be anything. you could do this digitally. just like adding a digital pattern paper. or print the photo collage, and then add "real" pattern paper and embellishments on top of the collage. like hybrid scrapbooking. i used both real stuff and digital stuff, depending on the collage.

here are some of my frames all waiting to be filled up. i'm going with oak frames, black frames, and white frames. i choose each, based around how that person decorates their home and what i think they'd like. i'm having my new collage printed, and will pick it up later tonight. so i'll show you the finished collage and the finished framed project tomorrow :)  

chance to win some of my favorite products

the making memories blog is giving away some of the designer's favorite products this month. today, you can check out my favorite products HERE. make sure and leave a comment over there (not here, but there), for your chance to win some for yourself. they will draw the winner on friday.

this is a really old layout. but it does have my two favorite products on there. actually, it has a lot of my favorites. but i'm thinking of two in particular. lol! this was a photo i had taken of nikolas's sister, vanesa. wanted to use these making memories papers, and it matched :)

how i print my photos

i'm blogging this morning from a hotel room. we've been here for 2 nights and 2 days, for sarah's soccer tournament. played her 2 games yesterday in the pouring rain. and this mornings games have all been pushed back, because the fields are flooded. so we're just sitting around, waiting. figured i could use a few minutes to update this blog with something of interest. how about how i print my photos? i get asked about that a lot. and sorry about the blurry pics (remember, i'm in a hotel room ;)).

 

when i print at home, i use my HP photo printer. i got this printer about 3 years ago, and i LOVE it. it prints the most awesome photos, and the colors are exactly what i see on my computer screen when i edit. i have never had any issues with my printer. and the ink is pretty good. it's one of those printers with 6 different color ink cartridges. so you just replace the color that you need. they're about $10 for each ink cartridge. but i recycle my empty cartridges at staples, and i get $3 back. so they work out to $7 each. the printer in this photo is the HP photosmart D7560 printer. i actually have an older version, the HP photosmart D7360. but this one looks like it's the newer version of what i have. has the same look and same features. so i guess i can't really, honestly vouch for this model. but if it's anything like mine, it should be a good one.  

HP premium plus photo paper, soft gloss (8.5x11, 50 sheets). i love this paper. i prefer the matte finish on my photos. and this soft gloss paper is the exact same thing, but better. it's super thick paper. i will tell you that it has a textured backing to it. so i find that i actually have to use glue dots to get my photos to stick to my layouts. a lot of the regular adhesives don't hold with the texture. and just an FYI, amazon has some great deals on HP photo papers right now. through january 2nd, they're buy one get one free. i made sure to stock up :) 

i love to print at home for a lot of my projects. i can choose my sizes, and arrange them all onto one sheet to print. i love doing the 2x3's and 3x4's, so that is easiest to do at home. but sometimes, i need a lot of photos or want a lot of 4x6 prints. that's when i order copies. 

 

costco is my place of choice to order my photos. our store is about 2 miles away, so it's super convienent. i order everything online, and then just run down there an hour or two later and they're ready. i've been very happy with the quality. i get the lustre finish, which is like the matte finish. once i upload my photos into my account, i can then go in and pick the prints i want. and i even do my cropping right there. if i wanted a 4x6, a 5x7, and an 8x10 of the same exact photo, i can crop for each size right in one spot. now i will admit that on occasion, my photos seems a little dark. not a lot, but slightly darker than what i see on my screen. but usually, that's on the regular, everyday, indoor photos that aren't great to begin with. whenever i have the great shots, that really are perfect-to-me shots, they turn out awesome. the colors are dead on to what i see on my computer. their poster prints are great too. i've ordered a few of those. i think it also helps to get to know the photo people behind the counter. my photo girls know me, they know my name, they know my orders, they know my pictures. 

so, there you go. those are the 2 ways i print my photos. and what i use to print them. any questions, just ask :)

a christmas card

so, the rumor going around is that it's christmas time. here it is the 10th of december, and i've barely thought about christmas yet. the one thing i had done right away, was my christmas cards. although that was accidental. i was at costco, picking up some photos. and they mentioned that if i ordered my photo cards by the next day, i'd get $5 off. it wasn't even something i had been planning on, but the $5 made me do it. lol! just happen to have a decent family photo from thanksgiving, and used that for our card. easy peasy. although, back in the day, i would have actually made my own cards.

this card is actually in the december issue of cards magazine. pretty simple card using the mistletoe collection from making memories. if i'm making cards to mail out, i keep the embellishing to a minimum. i've learned to keep them pretty flat, since the postage can get crazy if your card is too bulky. lol

a family adornit layout and some SNOW

i recently received a few of the new collections from adornit, and got a chance to play with them. they are doing an online product release, so check out the adornit blog for more inspiration. here is what i created with the family heritage collection.

love the colors of these papers. i knew i wanted to us our recent family photos on here. so i changed it to black and white, so that i didn't have to worry about any colors clashing.

i really like their cardstock stickers. i usually like to adhere them to white cardstock, cut them out, and adhere them with pop dots. and that ribbon? it's embossed. super cute!

also had to get this down on the blog, so that i don't forget. our weather here has been super cold this week. we actually had snow on monday. yes, you read that right. i'm not even making that up. the last time i can remember snow out our way, was back when i was 5 years old. do the math, and that was 34 years ago. it just doesn't happen out in this part of california. but monday morning, it snowed. a little off and on in the earlier morning. and then for about a half hour straight, around 7:00. none of it stuck to the ground. but it was snow! that was super cool for the girls to see. this is my really lame attempt at getting a photo of the snow. taken out my front window, at 7:00 in the morning. when i was barely even awake. see, nothing sticking the ground. but i was pretty impressed with the amount of snow coming down. although, being that we don't have snow here, i guess i'm easily impressed ;)

the outside actually looked more like snow on tuesday morning. all the lawns and the rooftops were white. but it was just the frost from the extremely cold temperatures we had the night before. i think it was 27 degrees when we woke up. i can't say without a doubt that these temps aren't normal for us. because honestly, i'm not sure what is average for this time of year. but that does seem super low for us. it was unbelievably cold out there.

our puddles of water out on the patio in the backyard were frozen. our birds that usually hang out there weren't happy about that when they stopped by. lol! 

jillibean soup christmas layouts

have had some projects up on the jillibean soup blog last week, that i didn't get around to sharing. i decided to stick with all christmas projects for my projects this month. since it's christmas time and all ;)

i have saved all the christmas cards that we receive from family and friends for the last few years. always wanted to do something cool with them, ever since seeing nichol turn her's into layouts for her albums (she just posted her newest one, and you might see my girls on there!). i decided to use one of these 12x12 file folders that came in a KOTM from last year (sorry, it's not available anymore). on the front of the file folder, i scrapped our christmas card from last year. it's a 5x7 photo card that i had created myself. i remember being so frustrated, because i had no clue how to change the color of the tree from black to a pretty color. lol! kept this fairly simple.

this is the inside of the file folder, when you open it up. some of these were photos that were just inside the christmas cards. most of them were photo cards. so i trimmed the photos straight from the photo cards, and just kept trimming until they fit into a decent collage. added a few pieces of pattern paper, just to fill the empty spaces. i still want to go back and make notes of who all these kids are, and who they belong too. i know now, but i might forget down the road. lol! sorry, that sounded all wrong. like i'd forget about my friends. but i'm sure you know what i meant. lol! anyways, will probably put that info along the top, or down in that bottom corner.

and a christmas layout. i'll be honest. i'm not a huge christmas scrapper. no idea why not. i have so much fun christmas product that i really want to use. i think it's because there are always SO many photos. or maybe i'm just lazy. lol! i knew these papers would go with our christmas morning photos from last year, since the girls had some pink going on in their jammies. i can't remember how big these photos are (and am too lazy to go dig it out of the album to check), but i think they're 3x3 in size. i printed them all out, and then arranged them on a sheet of white cardstock to make my collage. i cut some circles from different papers, and added two of them to some metal rimmed glitter tags. i keep feeling like i should journal this. but it's pretty self explanitory. christmas morning and gifts :)

two giveaway winners

thanks to all of you who played along with the giveaways. i wish i could send you all something. but since i can only pick one of you for each giveaway, i went to the random number generator thing-a-ma-giger to be as fair as i could.

first up, the giveaway for elizabeth's "52 more challenges" idea book.

 

awesome - thanks for the chance to win!!

Posted by: cassie| December 03, 2009 at 03:39 PM

second up, is the giveaway for the package of making memories goodies from me.

 
Love your style - never disappoints! You make it look so easy!
Posted by: NancyC | December 04, 2009 at 06:04 PM

congrats girls! email me with your address info, and i'll get those out to you this week :)

scrapbook trends *slice* giveaway

can you take another giveaway? today's is brought to you by scrapbook trends magazine. head over to their BLOG, where you can leave a comment for a change to win a pink slice! and speaking of the slice, i wanted to share this layout i created yesterday.

this was a really quick layout. a smaller one, 9x9 in size. just pulled out a recent 4x6 photo, and built around it with a few products. and i didn't have to dig around for letter stickers or chipboard alphas in the perfect color. i just pulled out my slice and made a simple title. these words and phrases are by far my favorite thing to slice. and this font is my favorite too! 

then, if you happen to have a slice or are getting one soon, you might want to check out my good friend wendy bretz's blog. she's doing a giveaway for the big kids slice design card. i just got this one, and it's super cute!

and since you're in a comment-leaving kind of mood, why not leave one on my blog too. i don't have a slice or a design card to give away. but i will put together a little package of making memories goodies to send to one lucky blog reader. i will randomly draw a winner on sunday afternoon, along with the winner of yesterday's giveaway :)

edited to add: comments now closed. thanks to everyone for playing along.

"52 more scrapbooking challenges" giveaway

have you seen this book yet?

"52 more scrapbooking challenges" is the newest idea book from creating keepsakes. and elizabeth kartchner is the creative genious behind this book. and check out her list of contributors that worked with her challenges. cindy tobey, amanda johnson, keisha campbell, sheri reguly, kelly purkey, sasha farina, mou saha, shelly aldrich, and beth opel. some of my favorites are on that list. elizabeth has put together 52 challenges, one for every week of the year. all the challengs are broken down into chapters like design and color, photo fun, around the house, journaling, techniques, inspired by, take a number, and use your stash. how fun do those sound? i've already picked out the first one that i want to try out. it's #44, getting yourself inked. as soon as i find that bottle of spray mist ink stuff that i've been dying to use. no idea where i put it, but i'll find it. lol!

i have an extra copy of this fun book to give away to one of my lucky blog readers. just leave me a comment. anything, just a "hey you" will work. lol! i will randomly draw a winner on sunday afternoon. and my apologies in advance, but this is only open to US residents (unless you're willing to pay the extra shipping). also make sure and go over to the creating keepsakes blog and leave a comment, for another chance to win. 

and that's not all. for more chances to win a copy of elizabeth’s book, you can also check out the blogs from these dream team members and CK contributing writers:

* Wendy Sue Anderson

* Maggie Holmes

* Elizabeth Kartchner

* Mou Saha

* Cindy Tobey

* Susan Weinroth

* Suzy Plantamura

edited to add: comments now closed. thanks to everyone for playing along!

journal my christmas, take two

i'm going to cheat a little on todays post. so if you're reading this and it sounds or looks a little familiar, you're not having a deja'vu kind of moment. i really did blog this same post exactly one year ago. lol! but figured it was worth sharing again. there are a few new thoughts mixed in there too :)

today is december 1st. not even sure how that happened. lol! but that means that it's the first day of journal your christmas, and i'm totally up for this again this year. 

definately check out this class if you havn't already. i had heard of it before. but it wasn't until two years ago that i actually signed up for it. and i can totally thank nichol for inspiring me to do it. i had watched her album from the previous year ... and loved seeing what she did last year too. she has her albums linked on her blog. and here is some of my album from two years ago. and the nice thing, is that once you take the class, you get it free every year after. so it's something you can do every christmas if you want.

this year, i'm all about making this simple. which was my thought last year, when i put this entire album together. but last year, i just never got around to journaling in this, or taking photos. i had taken my 4 day trip to utah at the beginning of december last year, and just never caught up. lol! and this year i sort of feel the same. just very overwhelmed, with everything going on in life. i knew that if i wanted to keep up with this journal, i would have to keep it simple. so i came up with this idea, using a regular 2-up photo album. these are the papers i picked out. a ton of making memories pattern papers (from about 6 different collections) and background papers from scenic route. i cut them all down to 4x6, and already have them all arranged in the album.

this is basically what each day will look like. this is NOT the prompt for december 12th necessarily. i was just tossing one in there to get a feel for how i was going to do it. this was my planning page, to see how it turned out. but it gives you the idea of what i'm doing. each day will have the 4 spots. one for the date, one for my journaling prompt, one for a photo, and one for the journaling.

i have all the tags in the album, along with the "december". i just have to finish adding the numbers, which i'm creating using the slice with the falala design card. i have all the daily prompts typed up, and printed on transparencies. then i just added kraft cardstock strips with a scalloped punched edge, and tied on some string. super simple.

then i'll add a photo pertaining to that day's prompt. i didn't use a single photo last year in my album. so this year, i want to include the photos too. for this one, i just printed 2 photos (3x4 each) together on a 4x6 size photo. for the journaling, i'm just going to use my own handwriting. it's quick and easy, so i know it won't take much to get it done. each spot also has a half circle cut from cardstock, and i'll add a stamped image, diecut, rubon, or whatever i happen to have on hand.

so i probably won't be sharing these every day, since they're all going to look very similiar. lol! but i'll share them in groups maybe once a week, and will start an album on the sidebar. i have to admit, that it felt good to pull this album out last night. it's 90% done. so it really shouldn't be that hard to snap a photo each day, write a few sentences, and maybe add a few embellishments as i go. we'll see how it goes ;)

black friday is still happening

i'm not one to shop on black friday. i think i did it once, about 10 years ago. i'm not a morning person to begin with. just can't see getting up that early, unless it was a really awesome deal. and since we don't get a newspaper these days, i never even looked at all the ads. i know, i know. how is it even thanksgiving, unless you spend part of your day looking through the mile high stack of ads? lol! but i did want to share these 2 sales that are still going on.

scrapbook bakery. use coupon code blackfriday09 and receive 30% off your entire purchase. heather just extended this sale until monday night :)

making memories slice. a black friday special, that gives you $50 off the slice cordless 3-in-1 digital designer. this is an online special that is not sold in stores, and includes a ton of stuff. check out all the details at buymyslice.com. available until wednesday, december 2nd. 

and this one isn't a black friday thing, or even a sale thing. but i was just typing up a supply list for a layout, and had to research where i got these digital frames that i like to use from time to time on my photos. i know people have asked me about these. well, now i can tell you where i got them. distressed edged fotoframes no.1 brush set.

happy anniversary

he doesn't read my blog (unless i make him), but wanted to wish this guy a happy anniversary today.

11 years. that's a long time of me putting up with him, and him putting up with me. lol! seriously though, it's been a good 11 years. and i'm extremely grateful for what a wonderful husband and father he is to me and the girls. that's all i'm saying on the good ole blog. short, sweet, and to the point :)

happy thanksgiving

hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. i know we did.

just a funny thing i noticed about this photo. both sarah and i are making ourselves appear shorter. because sarah is really just as tall as alyssa. and with my boots on, i'm a teensy bit taller than joe. lol!

spend a great day with family, ate yummy food, had good conversation, and a lot of laughs. and i'm proud to say that i got individual photos of everyone there, for the thankful album. all seventeen of us. and i got everyone to fill out their journaling cards. we did good :)