... just Laura

Coolin' Down - A Bella Blvd Layout

I'm coming off a very busy weekend, and am having a hard time catching up on everything. I spend three fabulous days teaching at CKU (more on that later), attended a family wedding, and spend hours pouring over submissions for Bella Blvd's design team call. The craziness never seems to end. Over the weekend, I also had a layout go up on the Bella Blvd blog for our Saturday Sketch feature.

{Sketch by Becky Fleck}

I decided to turn the sketch on it's side for my layout, since I had vertical photos that I wanted to use. I dug out these super old photos of Sarah and a few of the daycare kids playing in the backyard on a hot summer day. I love finding everyday photos that I havn't scrapped yet, when digging around on my external hard drive.

I ended up skipping the circle element on the sketch, and just placed my title in that same general area. I used a mix of pink chipboard alphas and yellow alpha stickers.

I'm sure you have figured out by now that I love using this graph pattern paper on so many of my layouts. It's just a really nice neutral paper to use, in place of white cardstock. And it makes lining things up super easy, with all those lines to use as guides. 

Supplies Used:

creating keepsakes may/june 2012 *GIVEAWAY*

have you gotten your hands on the new creating keepsakes may/june 2012 issue yet?

it's got a gorgeous layout by stacy cohen on the cover. you can also find some additional online extras HERE, such as contests, downloads (you must download the sketches!), and additional techniques that are found in this issue.

As seen in the May/June 2012 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

speaking of wedding layouts and sketches, i have a wedding layout in this issue. and it was created for the sketch column, which you can find on page 27. i scrapped some gorgeous wedding photos of my cousin rachael and her new husband ryan, taken by heidi-o-photo.

all of the papers i used, including the lace paper, are from basic grey. i loved the rich colors of the burgundy and green's that they used in their wedding decor. so pretty together. then i added in some silver and pearls, to help give the layout an elegant look.

i wanted another silver flower on the second page, to match the netted one on the first page. so i took some satiny trim, by pink paislee, and created my own little flower. just a little trick i picked up teaching some flowers classes at CKC 2 years ago ;)

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we're giving you even more chances to win a copy of the may/june issue with a little blog hop today! below, you will find three names of fellow blog hop participants, who are also each doing giveaways. head over to each of the following blogs, check out what inspiration they're sharing, and then leave a comment to be entered in their drawings. on each of our blogs, you will find new names to visit as well. and those blogs will lead you to even more blogs. have fun with it!

Joey Manwarren

Piradee Talvanna

Adele Beck

and for a chance to win a copy of this new issue here on my blog, just leave me a comment. i will randomly draw a winner and announce it on friday. good luck!

pool time - a bella blvd layout

this past saturday, we had our first sketch for april up on the bella blvd blog. we are really excited to have the one and only becky fleck designing exclusive sketches for us! i got to work with this sketch:

i knew i wanted to use a few horizontal photos, so i decided to flip the sketch counter-clockwise, one turn. when i was teaching at the CKC's the last two years, i taught a lot of the sketch classes. i always reminded everyone to rotate their sketches. you get so many more options out of a sketch, by simply turning them around and around.

i used some of the simply simona chipboard alphas for my title. i LOVE these letters! i added a few threaded buttons to the centers of the O's, and a chipboard accent to the center of the P.

i didn't really have any specific journaling for this layout. i have TONS of photos every year of the girls in the pool. we don't have a pool, by my parents and my brother have pools. there's only so much i can say, year after year, about them swimming and having fun. lol! so i decided to use the "summer checklist" sticker in place of my journaling. I used mini brads to "check" off the things that applied to these photos.

the sketch had a fun little banner on the top of the layout. since i had flipped the sketch for my layout, i didn't want to add a sideways banner. so i created a fun little banner to add to the opposite side of the page. I used a banner punch from fiskars, stapled the top of each piece, threaded some string through the pieces, and then adhered them using pop dots.

Supplies Used:

they r just so cool - my mind's eye guest designer

i have two more projects to share from my october guest designer gig, for my mind's eye. these were both created for the MME november newsletter.

i was given this sketch, by MME designer jana eubank, and was asked to create a two page layout from it. i use sketches quite often, but this was the first time i have turned a one page sketch into a two page sketch. turns out, it's pretty easy to do.

do these photos look familiar? i think only one of these photos appeared on my layout from yesterday. but they were all taken at the same time. do the colors of my papers look familiar? a bit different from my layout i shared yesterday, and yet the layouts have the same feel to me.

when i sat down with the sketch, and my big stack of MME papers, i had the idea to scrap these photos. the other layout had photos of all four of the girls. but i wanted to do a layout, with just my girls. i had TONS of pics from that day, and i wanted to get more of them in the scrapbook. once i printed my pics, and went to pick out papers, i kept finding myself drawn to certain papers. the ones that i used on the layout from yesterday. lol! it was hard to get that layout out of my head, i guess, and imagine the photos with other papers. 

i started my two page layout, by stretching the outside border across the two pages. that way, i had the brown woodgrain paper going around the outside edge of both pages. i also added the verticle strip of pink glitter paper to the first page, and layered a strip of aqua paper that i punched using a large scalloped border punch.

want to know a quick way to add a border around your layout? while a lot of my layouts look like i have matted a large paper to the center of my background paper, i have a few ways to get this look, while saving paper. for this layout, i simply cut six 1x12 inch strips of the brown woodgrain paper. i snipped off the ends of some of the strips, at an angle, to give it a mitered look. then i just adhered all the strips against the outside edge of my background cardstock. i basically "framed" my entire spread.

i have my large pattern paper circle, just like the sketch. except i adhered my circle, so that it goes onto both pages of the spread. i added my title to the circle, which i had machine stitched before adhering to my layout.

the sketch called for two photos, along with a block of journaling. i decided to move my journaling, and shifted the photos down a bit. to stretch the sketch across two pages, i just kept going with the photos. i managed to get six photos across my layout.

i love white cardstock. one problem i have had in the past, is that if i have too much white space on white cardstock (confusing?!?!), then i don't love it. it feels empty. this is one reason i'm loving using the mists. i simply spritzed on some green mist. obviously, this takes a little planning ahead. knowing what area you want to mist, and where your photos and embellisments are going to go. i did mist the white cardstock, before i adhered down the brown strips of pattern paper.

i had a few of these die cut journaling tags, that had the little flag ends on them. they're larger tags, that had some text at the top. i cut them both down a bit, so that they would fit well on my layout. some simple hand journaling, and brads to embellish, and i was finished.

i was also asked to create a card, off this sketch.

i created a mini version of the sketch, on this tiny 4x4 inch card. same idea, with the brown strips of pattern paper, added to the edges of the white cardstock card base. then i added a small square of pink pattern paper to the center, and machine stitched around the edges.

i have the verticle aqua strip of pattern paper, along with a small scalloped edged piece of cardstock. i figured if i kept the basic design and paper placement like the sketch, i could take some liberties with the rest of the sketch. like my sentiment.

check out the MME november newsletter, where you can find full detailed instructions, on how to create both the layout and the card.

old fashion rivalry - a creating keepsakes layout

today, i'm finally able to share this fun layout that was in the september issue of creating keepsakes. i cut it super close on the deadline to submit this, and apparently only took one photo of it. and i never took more pics, before i mailed it in. then it got held up coming back to me. it finally found it's way home last week, and i was able to get more photos of it.

 

here's the september 2011 sketch. i love working with sketches, and figured i would give it a try. i think i've said this before, but i tend to follow sketches, exactly as they're shown. recently, i have tried to mix it up and alter sketches, just slightly. but this is one i worked on AGES ago (beauty of the magazine world. lol!), and i think you'll see that i used this sketch as-is.

 
as seen in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

since this sketch had lots of 4x6 photos, i knew i had to find something to scrap about, that had lots of pics to choose from. i remembered this photos of joe and alyssa, that i had taken a while back. joe is a die hard LA dodger fan, and alyssa is a huge SF giants fan. actually, i'll let my journaling tell you what the photos are about :)

 

 

the sketch had this fun scalloped border across the bottom of the pages. i decided to use my silhouette to cut these, from some blue tone-on-tone pattern paper. even though i had had my silhouette for about four months, i still hadn't used it. working on this layout, was the first time that i actually took it out of the box and tried it out. i also cut those sketchy stars, from the same blue pattern paper.

 

back on the original sketch, months ago, there weren't any sizes on the photos. so i really did some quess work, trimming a bit here and there, and layering the photos all together. i kept going, until it all fit together nicely, and looked like the sketch.

 

i love these skinny fabric thickers, from american crafts. and on my buttons, i added mini brads to two of the buttons holes. i love doing that, instead of threading them all the time.

 

these two smaller photos of alyssa look so dramatic, don't they? lol! after all these years, she knows how to turn it on to the camera. but her and joe really were watching the game, through the window, while i took photos of them. when the dodgers happen to score, this was her "reaction" for the camera.

speaking of alyssa, today is her birthday! i can't believe that she's turning FIFTEEN YEARS OLD today!

august stretch your sketch - guest designer

about a month ago, the talented jen gallacher asked me if i'd be interested in guest designing for her august stretch your sketch class over on two peas in a bucket. i love working off sketches, so i jumped at the chance.

      

here is the sketch that jen provided for us this month. the great thing about her class, is that she doesn't just show you how to use the sketch "as-is". she encouraged us to make it our own. i decided to flip the sketch upside down for my layout, flip flop the title and the journaling piece, and then swap out the journaling piece and the photo. and here's what i ended up with:

 

i actually had no clue what i was going to do my layout about, until last weekend. one of alyssa's friends came over, to work on a school project. and i happen to hear them talking about books. turns out, her friend saw a list of books that alyssa has hanging in her room, and asked about it.

when she was in the 7th grade, they had to keep track of all their reading for the school year. listing books, authors, and number of pages they read. in the 10 months they were in school, alyssa read 57 books. and not just little books. big ones, like the twilight series. i had always commented, on how that would make a great layout. to list them all, so that we could look back on it. she's had the list hanging in her room for 2 years, and i finally did what i said i wanted to do.

 

i used a mix of crate paper and my mind's eye pattern papers, for this page. i cut my main title words, "fifty seven", from pattern paper, using my silhouette. and then i used two different kinds of bella blvd letter stickers, to complete my title.

 

i also cut the circle grid piece with the silhouette, from pattern paper.  i had a background shape, that was 5 circles high and 5 circles side to side. since the sketch was only 4 circles wide, i just deleted a row of circles before i cut the piece out.

 

instead of actually journaling about this story, i decided to simply type up all the books off her list. these are in the order she read them, right off her list. and i think there might be one or two duplicates in there, since she occasionally loves a book so much, that she'll read it a second time. the row of books stamp is from a studio calico kit, from the beginning of the year.

 

then it was time to embellish my circles. this was the fun part. i knew that i just wanted to add random, fun embellishments to each circle. although, it could have been fun to add in some little photos of some of alyssa's favorite books. didn't think of that until i was typing this. lol! i just dug around in my stash, looking for things i could add, in coordinating colors. reds, aquas, greens, browns, and a bit of yellow. i  have a mix of buttons, brads, flowers, chipboard pieces, 3D flower stickers, and even a plastic clock piece.

you can check out jen's layout, download an instructional PDF, watch her video, and see the other two guest designers HERE. thanks jen, and 2peas, for letting me play along this month!

in awe - a pebbles layout

i wanted to share a layout i had up on the pebbles blog yesterday.

 

we were given this sketch from becky fleck, and asked to create a layout from it. i've mentioned before how much i enjoy working from sketches. i created this layout right after getting back from CHA. i was a little drained, creatively, from all the projects i did leading up to CHA. so having a sketch to work from, was perfect timing. the page design was all done for me. it was just a matter of plugging in all the photos and products.

 

i was digging around for photos to use with the sketch, and came across these pictures of alyssa from a few years ago. i have scrapped a few of her photos from that day. probably even the ones that are on here. but i wanted to scrap them again, because i love them so much. i pulled my pattern papers from a few of pebbles older collections.

i really wanted to use that darker grey dot paper as my background, but i only had half a sheet of it. not a problem. i simple cut four strips, about 1.5 inches wide. i trimmed the edges at an angle, so that i could butt them up against each other. i adhered them all along the edges of a white piece of cardstock. then i trimmed down the yellow pattern paper, and adhered it in the center. it totally looks like the grey paper is my background paper, even though i only had a few strips of it.

 

i really kept to the sketch for most of my layout. the background, the papers, the photos, the circle with the title. i even used a punch along the edge of the green cardstock, to mimic the border in the sketch. i did mix up the embellishments a bit. a few chipboard hearts, and some candy dots.

 

i printed out my journaling on a piece of vellum, and adhered it over a piece of blueish cardstock. you can't really tell in the picture, but it's the same blue that's in some of the flowers on the floral pattern paper. i just use mini glue dots to adhere my vellum, so you can see the glue dots on the top. i'm sure there's better adhesive for that, and i'm sure i even  have some. but i don't stress over those things.

make sure and check out the pebbles blog to see two more takes on this sketch from other pebbles designers.

inspired blueprints: guest designer

i got an email a few weeks ago, asking me to be a guest designer over at inspired blueprints. i always enjoy a good sketch to get me going. and i was asked to use sketch #62, for a christmas layout. which i was more than happy to do, since i rarely scrap my holiday photos.

 

and here is my take on the sketch.

 

i followed the sketch pretty closely. i usually do. although it can be fun to turn pages around, or flip flop pages, i usually go with what's in front of me and make it work. and this sketch ended up working perfectly for my christmas photos from 2007. i didn't have a ton of photos from the holiday with my family. but i had some great group shots, and couples shots, that managed to get every family member on the page. i did change all the photos to black and white, because there was a ton of color going on. too much to keep a clean page, and to use the products that i had in mind.

 

i dug into a few boxes of christmas product for this layout. it's mostly making memories, fancy pants, and little yellow bicycle products.

 

for the large circle, i layered a printed snowflake transparency on top of some white cardstock. i had to use the lid of one of my huge glass ribbon jars to get a circle this big. i traced it onto the cardstock, and cut that out. and then adhered my transparency to the cardstock, and then trimmed around the edges. i added the rub-on christmas tree directly to the transparency.

 

i choose not to add any journaling. just the facts. the what, the who, and then when. some journaling might have been nice. but most of our christmas's are pretty much the same. not in a bad way, at all. but we follow a lot of the same traditions, in how we celebrate. so i was really just getting the photos from that year, into the albums.

 

instead of using three horizontal photos going down the side of this page, i choose to tweak it a bit to fit five photos. i simply added two 3x4 photos, to two of the spaces that would have held 4x6's.

 

on this second page of the layout, i used white cardstock for my background page. where, on the first page, i used kraft cardstock. to tone the whiteness down a bit, i adhered the printed snowflake transparency to cover the white cardstock. it mimics the large circle from the first page.

i want to thank inspired blueprints for having me a guest designer this month. make sure and check out their blog, to see what their own team of talented designers created with this sketch. and then browse their site, and check out all the past sketches for even extra ideas.

pencil lines - guest designer

i was asked a few weeks ago if i would be interested in guest designing for pencil lines, an international sketch challenge blog. 

 

anna asked if i wanted to provide a sketch of my own, for this week's challenge. so this is the sketch i came up with. i drew it out by hand with pencil and paper, and they turned it into this nice and pretty one. i really enjoy working off of a sketch. it gives you a starting point, for your page design, so you're not so overwhelmed. if you have a plan for the photo sizes and placement, and the papers, it makes starting a page so much less work. and then you just add all the fun stuff as you go.

 

and here is my take on my sketch. i took these photos of sarah a few months ago. we were all downstairs, watching tv, and i had taken over the remote at one point. sarah disappeared upstairs for a while. and when she came back down, she was dressed up in joe's clothes. she had on his work pants, one of his shirts, his dodger hat, and she had some of my big clunky boots on. she actually does this sort of thing ALL the time. the clothes were huge on her, it was the funniest thing. she had made herself a paper badge, that said "cool police" on it, and pinned it to her shirt. then she pulled out a pad of paper, and wrote me a ticket. for stealing the remote. lol! i tell you, she's funny :)

 

i was actually stumped on my title for a few days. i was trying to think of something funny, and was just drawing a blank on it. i'm so glad i noticed the "cool police" badge, since it made the perfect title. and see that black paper with the numbers on it? i cut that off a tag. sort of an inside joke around  here. having to do with "the plate". like when you get arrested and you have to have your mugshot taken, and you hold up a plate with a number on it. there's a whole story behind why that became a joke to us. but when i saw that number strip, i had to use it.

 

a closer look at the journaling. i pulled out these really old dyed tags, and adhered them down so that they overlapped a little bit. part of me wanted to handwrite my journaling. but i never really like the look of it. so i typed up my journaling on the computer, and just adhered the strips over the tags.

 

when i was looking for some journaling tags, i came across some old 7 gypsies tags from years ago. i cut a few pieces from 2 of the tags, just using the parts that i thought went with the layout. i liked the "trouble with a capital "T"" part, and added my name with some tiny alpha stickers.

i want to thank pencil lines for inviting me to play along with them this week, on this challenge. make sure and visit their blog HERE, so that you can see what all their talented designers did with the sketch. and if this sketch inspires you to create something, you can play along with the challenge as well. there's a spot at the end of their post on their blog, where you can link your layout up to participate. and they choose a winner to receive a special RAK , from those that played along :)

supplies:
cardstock - american crafts
embossed cardstock - core'dinations
pattern paper - studio calico
ribbon - maya road, pebbles, making memories
letter stickers - making memories, doodlebug
tags - rusty pickle, 7 gypsies
brad - making memories
punch - fiskars

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 :)  

got sketch #90

i was asked to contribute to another sketch for the got sketch blog this past week. if you're into 2-page sketches, valerie just announced a super fun online class. check the blog for all the details. here is my take on sketch #90. be sure to check out the other contributors and the great layouts they came up with.

 

a pretty simple layout. which i love doing from time to time. although the girls must not get "simple". alyssa kept asking me if i was going to add more stuff. and sarah asked if i was going to finish it. lol! i'm not even sure how i came up with these photos. but these are some that i took of my brother and sister-in-law, and my sister, back at christmas. guess they deserve to be in our scrapbook albums too ;)

supplies -
pattern paper - my mind's eye
transparent tree - my mind's eye
chipboard letters - american crafts
gems - michaels, my mind's eye, creative cafe
ink - colorbox

got sketch #89

i was asked to contribute to the got sketch blog again this week. i have been really loving the idea of the sketches recently. alyssa was just asking me whether i liked working with them. and i said "yes, because it does some of the thinking for me". so true. so here is my take on sketch #89. make sure to check out the blog for more great layouts from the other contributors.

 

first off, recognize this little one? that's our sarah bear, over 9 years ago! i want to squeeze those cheeks. wait a minute, i think i actually did today. lol! i'm not sure what even made me dig through photos from this far back. but i actually pulled out a few sets of photos for this sketch, and started a few different layouts. this one was working the best for me, so i went with it. secondly. if any colors look funky on this, please cut me some slack. i have some major computer issues right now and am doing the best i can. kind of hard when you can't actually see anything on your screen. more on that in my next post. but know that this should be blue, green, and yellow ;)

so i decided to turn the sketch on it's side for once. i know people do this all the time. but i'm usually a pretty straight forward thinker. just take what is given me, and follow it. but most of the photos i wanted to use were all horizontal. the girls thought i was breaking some rules and were convinced i was doing it all wrong. lol!

 

i choose a few jillibean soup papers from the new collections. the title took me forever, although i have no idea why. i was stuck on the embellishments, but found these metal rim tags and grommets that were simple and in the right colors. and i just happen to see these label stickers, and decided to toss them on there for my journaling. this layout just sort of happened. i can't explain it, but it just kind of fell together. guess it's a good thing i had a basic sketch to work off. lol!

supplies -
pattern paper - jillibean soup
foam letter stickers - american crafts
ribbon - making memories
grommets - making memories
metal rim tags - making memories
brads - making memories
label stickers - jenni bowlin

got sketch #87

i was thrilled to be invited back for another got sketch challenge. this is sketch #87, which was designed around 5 photos. i kept thinking about what photos i could use for this, and what i wanted to scrap for it. then really late on saturday night (like 1:00am), i got the idea for this take on the sketch.

 

i decided to NOT use photos. instead, i used those 5 areas to make little collages of embellishments. and to create a layout all about the products that i "need" to scrapbook. a little collage of buttons. a little collage of flowers. one of ribbons. another one of brads. and then one with letters and numbers. a fun take on the sketch, i think.

 

i followed the sketch almost exactly. down to the paper strips and placement, and the journaling spot. i like that i still kept with the "needs" theme through out all the other elements on the layout. the glittered chipboard title, the letter stickers, the embossed cardstock, the metal rim tag, the journaling spot. i think these are all things i turn to when i scrap. they're just what i'm comfortable with and have an easy time using.

 

for the embellishment collages, i created each of them on a piece of white cardstock cut to the appropiate size of what the sketch called for. then i just filled each one up with the chosen embellishment, and squeezed as many as i could on each piece. i chose to go with primary colors. fun, bright colors like red, green, blue, and yellow are my favorites. just another way to get the theme of "scrapbook needs" on the layout. once they were all done, i adhered those pieces of embellished cardstock to my main page.

thanks so much to valerie and lynn for inviting me to play along on this sketch. i had a lot of fun with it. although, for the record, this layout weighs a ton ;) and make sure to go check out all the other fabulous layouts from the other contributing designers HERE.