... just Laura

adventure - a kerri bradford studio layout

today, i have a kerri bradford studio layout to share. we're finishing out the "happy" theme for the month. creating layouts about things that make us happy.

i have never been a big traveler, and our family has never taken a real vacation. so it's been a big change for me, as i've been doing quite a bit of traveling over the last two years, all for scrapbooking related work. i'll be totally honest with you. i'm NOT a big fan of traveling. i think i have been on about 22 airplanes, over the past two years. i find that just getting to and from the events, completely wears me out and it takes me days to recover.

 

BUT. the reason i put up with the traveling, is that once i get to where i'm going, i have so much fun. i love being able to teach other's about scrapbooking and to be surrounded with scrapbookers that share that same passion as i do for paper and glue. so while the actual traveling doesn't make me very happy, what i am traveling too makes me very happy. and to be totally honest again. seeing as i work at home, taking care of infants and toddlers ... every now and then, it's good for me to get out and be surrounded by big people, that can hold big people conversations with me ;)  

 

this map pattern paper from little yellow bicycle is what started this entire layout. i found it in my stash a few months ago, and pulled it out, with the intention of doing a layout about the places that i have gone. once i started working, and pulling out more products (all from little yellow bicycle), and deciding on which of kerri's going places shapes i wanted to add, the second page just sort of happened.

 

the green brad marks where all my trips have started. from home. i guess i could have put the brad up by "sacramento", since that's where the airport is. but i put it where i live, which is an hour away. the brown brads mark the places i have gone too. and i did add a few orange brads, to some common layover cities that i seem to end up in.

 

i thought it would be fun to map out all my flights, including the layovers. but i realized the strings would all get criss-crossed, and wouldn't make much sense. plus, i had a few cities that i've traveled too, but that i also had layovers in. and two of these locations (utah and los angeles), i have flown to a few times each, for different things.

 

i used my silhouette to cut the "take a look" piece, from two pattern papers and some cardstock. i love that i can cut the entire piece from one paper (here, i used brown). and then when i cut the individual pieces, from other papers, i can layer them directly over the top of the original cut piece. makes it really easy to get everything lined up perfectly.

 

once i decided to go to a two page layout, i figured i'd have lots of room to journal. because i did have a lot to say. since i tend to leave my journaling for last, there's times where i simply run out of room. or i find that i don't have a good enough spot to add it. so, i thought it was pretty funny when i ended up with this little journaling block, on a two page layout, with NO photos. lol!

 

i wanted to cut out the title and airplane fairly large. which is one of the reasons i added the second page. i was going to include my journaling on the bottom of this page. but i thought the boarding pass card would be nice to include, and then i pulled out another journaling block. these just kind of landed on the bottom of this layout, and i lost my journaling spot.

 

i used my silhouette to cut the airplane, from green pattern paper and from brown cardstock. i offset the green plane just slightly, and adhered it using pop dots. the "adventure" was cut from brown cardstock and orange pattern paper. i also punched some clouds from coordinating pattern papers, and pop dotted a few of them. i know there's always lots of clouds up there, when i'm in the planes.

 

so, there you have it. my first two page, no photo layout. it turned out NOTHING like i planned, when i sat down to create it. i think part of it was the fact that i hadn't scrapped a single thing in weeks. i was out of my zone, and just started tossing stuff on the pages. lol! i might even add some more journaling on the back of the layout, or add a smaller page protector in between the pages that can include more journaling and maybe some memoriabilia. we'll see. truth be told, i'll probably just toss it in my album, and call it done ;)

precious cutie little one - little yellow bicycle guest designer layout

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!

the letter "Z": a little yellow bicycle project

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.

look at me, i'm crawling - a little yellow bicycle layout

bonus post today! this is my second layout share of the day. so if you missed the first one, scroll down to see it. as the may guest designer, i have my next project up on the little yellow bicycle blog today, along with part three of my Q&A session. it's a layout, using their new baby saurus collection.

 

this collection was perfect to scrap some photos of little zachary from last year. when i saw the chipboard sticker slider embellishment, i knew i wanted to scrap these photos of zachary from the first time he crawled.

the base of the layout came together very quickly. i choose 2 of the pattern papers, added in the little dino border strip i cut from another pattern paper, and picked out the blue and orange canvas border sticker. i arranged them all from top to bottom, and added my photos, and the "bones" of the layout was complete.

 

then i added the chipboard sticker slider piece, in between my photos. you can move the slider up and down, so that it points to whatever you're scrapping about. i could have done quite a few of those, but these photos of him crawling matched the collection so well.

i had some empty room up in that top corner, so i used my circle cutters on a few pattern papers. that cute little dino chipboard sticker looked like he had something to say. so i added the little word bubble sticker, and added "zachary" with tiny alpha stickers, so that it says "zachary says rawwwr!".

 

it seems so long ago that he was just learning to crawl. although he waited until he was 9 months old to finally do it. seemed like forever, until he moved around on his own. now, he's 17 months old, and i love to chase the little dude all over the house. it's a game we play. i scream like a crazy person and chase him, and he giggles his head off and runs from me. we do it over and over, until i make him take a break to catch his breath. he's lots of fun :)

keep your eye on the little yellow bicycle blog, as i have two more projects coming up before the end of the month.

guest designer for little yellow bicycle

i was asked to be the may guest designer for little yellow bicycle. of course, i jumped at the chance! i have always been a big fan of their products, and have used them quite a bit on my own projects. i received the baby saurus and tiny princess collections to work with, and they are adorable.

 

yesterday, they had my intro and the first part of my Q&A on the blog. you can read that HERE. and today, my first project is up. it's a set of 5 cards, and you can read all about them HERE. i'm still working on more projects, so keep your eye out for those soon :)

all smiles - three takes on one layout

i wanted to share one of my recent assignments with you. the following three layouts were featured in the october issue of creating keepsakes magazine. the challenge issued to me, was to create a 10 minute layout. and then to step it up, to a 15 minute layout. and then again, to a 20 minute layout.

 
as seen in the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

you might think a 10 minute layout is impossible. but it's not. granted, i may have put more than 10 minutes into creating this layout, given that i was creating it for publication and wanted it to be just right. the truth is, my layouts and my process DO take me more time to come up with and put together. but at the same time, i think my layouts come off very do-able. i've been told that by numerous people, and i know exactly what they're saying. i'm not an overly complicated scrapper. sure, i have my moments where i like to do some techniques or use a bunch of goodies on one page. but i think my layouts are easy enough to duplicate, with your own photos and supplies that you have on hand.

you can totally create this layout in 10 minutes.  don't believe me? try it and see. take out 2 4x6 photos, a piece of cardstock, 2 strips of pattern paper or die cut paper, a journaling page, a piece of ribbon, 2 stickers, and a pen. what's that? you want instructions? no problem, they're right HERE. throw it all down, and it just might end up looking like my layout above. and then high-tail it back here, and show it to me ;)

 
as seen in the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

maybe you have more than 10 minutes. if you do, i'm extremely jealous. lol! maybe you have 15 minutes, and want to step up the layout a little bit. in addition to what i listed above, you also need one more sheet of cardstock, a few jewels, another sticker, and a stapler. instructions? sure, they're right HERE.

 
as seen in the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

say you're just all full of time, and have 20 whole minutes, and want to step it up even more than the last version. then simply add a full strand of jewels, an epoxy sticker, and some letter stickers. instructions are HERE.

if you do try out this little challenge, and find that it takes you a bit longer than 10, 15, or 20 minutes, then please don't hold it against me. lol! i really do believe that layouts can be quick and simple. and still look really cute. and i honestly believe these can be done in that amount of time. and if designers can do a little bit of the thinking part for you, use it to your advantage. take a layout, or an idea, or an element. and use it to create your own layout, with whatever you have on hand, and personalize it however you want :)

supplies: free spirit sunshine/purple peace dots pattern paper by little yellow bicycle, free spirit lace cut cardstock by little yellow bicycle ,free spirit journal tablet by little yellow bicycle, free spirit fabric favorite embellishments by little yellow bicycle, free spirit alpha & numbers cardstock stickers, free spirit fresh verse cardstock stickers, free spirit epoxy stickers by little yellow bicycle, 5 color polka ribbon by jillibean soup, pink crystals by zva creative

my utah trip scrapped

i finally got around to scrapping my trip to utah, from two years ago. this was a trip that my friend deneen and i won, from the golden ticket contest that creating keepsakes put on, back in 2008. we won a 2 night, 3 day trip to utah (which we turned into a 4 day, 3 night trip). we got to visit the CK offices, meet the staff, have a personal tour of the offices and have lunch with lisa bearnson (the founder of the magazine). we also worked in a visit to the making memories offices, lunch with a bunch of great internet friends, and some awesome warehouse sales. i blogged every detail of this trip, which can be seen HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

since i was so great about blogging the trip as it happened, and including all the photos in my posts, we thought for sure that we would have this trip scrapped right when we got back home. we even had a plan of sorts. we had some papers and embellishments picked out to use. we had plans of doing mini albums. i actually do think that deneen started her's. i remember her showing me something not too long ago. but i never did get around to it. but as of this past weekend, i can say that it's done. different from what i had originally planned. but i'm happy with how it turned out. this is how my stack of stuff looks in my album. love the varying sizes of page protectors going on.  

i decided to use the pack your bags collection, from little yellow bicycle. i loved the bright colors, and their collections always have so many embellishments to chose from, that make putting layouts together so effortless. since the majority of our photos had a lot of dark colors, i chose to chance them all to black and white. i know black and white can still be dark. but it opens up all sorts of color choices, when choosing products.

since i had a lot of photos, i printed the majority of them in the 2x3 inch size. i love that size photo. and then i chose two of my main photos to print as regular 4x6 prints. i lined up two rows of the 2x3 photos, going across both pages of the layout. so i was able to fit 16 photos on here, in addition to the two 4x6 photos. so 18 photos total.

once i adhered down the photos, i started building the page around them. adding some strips of pattern paper below the 2x3 photos, and also above them. adding a larger piece of pattern paper to the top half of the layout. i carried all the papers from one page to the other, so that it all tied together.

i added a fun journaling page to the top corner of the first page, where i knew i was going to add my title. i picked out two fun chipboard titles, and combined them along with some letter stickers, for my title. on the "escape" piece, it had two notches at the top. so i added some blue twill through them, along with a few mini brass brads. makes it look like it's hanging from the top of the layout. then added a fun arrow sticker, a chipboard car sticker, and a clear airplane piece.

if i ever too the time to plan ahead, i could easily have put four 2x3's on a 4x6 canvas, and print as one 4x6 photo. then i would have just adhered four 4x6 photos, going across the page. which would still give you those same 16 photos. but i wasn't that prepared. so i printed these all as 4x6's (with 4 smaller pics on each), and then cut them all apart, arranged them on the layout how i wanted them, and then adhered them down.

i adhered a fun journaling page, and hand journaled my top 10 memories from the trip. i know i have "lunch" on there twice. but we had a great lunch with lisa bearnson, and then a great lunch with our friends. also added some cute chipboard suitcases. i didn't feel the need to journal too much on my layout. i already had a plan for getting the story in the album.

supplies:
LYB pack your bags blue woodgrain paper, LYB pack your bags compass paper, LYB pack your bags orange hexagon paper, LYB pack your bags 6x6 decorative edged paper, LYB pack your bags chipboard embellishment stickers, LYB pack your bags favorite pieces cardstock stickers, LYB pack your bags clear cut shapes, LYB pack your bags epoxy stickers, LYB pack your bags journal tablet, LYB pack your bags word chipboard stickers

i'm so glad that i took the time to blog about every single part of this trip, as it happened. not sure about you all, but i forget most of the things that happen in my life. lol! i love that almost two years later, all the details were there on my blog to look back on. i simply copy and pasted all my journaling from those four blog posts, into a word document.

i wanted to use ali edwards, the story of today 8.5x11 overlays, to go with my journaling. i found it easiest to print the overlay onto white cardstock first. i then set up my journaling to fit the empty space on the overlay, by holding up the paper to the screen and doing some eyeballing and measuring. yes, i eyeball and measure all at once. i'm talented like that. lol! once it was set up, i printed my journaling right onto the cardstock page with the overlay on it. and i did use the correct days overlay, to go with what day of the trip it was.

for example, the journaling here is from friday, december 5th, 2008. it prints the day in bold print, and then i simply circled in with a pen. i hand wrote the date on the bottom. then i added a strip of coordinating pattern paper (from the layout) to the empty space above the date. i ended up with 5 pages of journaling, all taken from my blog, word for word. i added those to the album, in 8.5x11 page protectors.

even though i got most of our photos onto the two page layout, i still wanted to include the original photos in the album. that may seem redundant, to have them in there twice. but this was a very special trip, and i wanted them in there. plus, i might scrap a few of these photos again. i have always had the intention of scrapping about winning the contest, or getting those two golden tickets, or meeting lisa. or doing a layout about some of the great friends that i've made online, and about meeting them in real life. so the photos are here, and when i'm ready to scrap addition pages, i know exactly where to find things. and if i don't get around to extra layouts, everything will still be here, in one spot.

had to include my golden ticket, signed my lisa herself.

we totally missed out on having lisa bearnson sign anything for us, after meeting her and hanging out at lunch with her. so we later emailed and asked if she could possible sign something for us. she wrote us little notes on 4x6 pieces of white cardstock, and mailed them to each of us. and see that "loved seeing your published work"? i'm curious if she looked me up at some point, after meeting. i remember mentioning it at our lunch, about how i had submitted for years and entered every hall of fame contest, without any luck at all. guess my luck turned around months and months down the road, when i finally caught someone's eye at CK :)

 

i used the 12x12 divided page protectors, by we r memory keepers, to hold all the photos.

such great friends, that i was so happy to meet in real life for the first time. loved spending time with industry friends that "get" what it's all about, and the craziness of what we do.

and last, but not least, were the odds and ends that i still had from the trip. my plane ticket, a utah road map, my luggage tag, the hotel room key, the envelope that the golden ticket came in, and a few 5x7 photos that i had already printed. i wanted to keep this all together, so i stuck everything inside of a 6x12 page protector, by american crafts.

i think that about does it. that was a whopper of a post. lol! and stay tuned, because i have another post planned for tomorrow. it's a big one. school album related. and it might even include a video ;)