... just Laura

photo swap layout

last week on the making memories blog, wendy bretz and i did a photo swap challenge. you can read that post HERE. i figured today was a good day to share it. since it's dark and dreary here today, and i could use something bright and fun to look at.

this is wendy's daughter hannah. isn't she cute! and she's funny too. i've actually talked to her on the phone. about mario cart, and how badly i stink at it. and she seemed truely baffled by the fact that i come in last, every time i play. lol! anyways. wendy and i have totally different styles from each other. but i know that we also appreciate and admire each other's style at the same time. i love how wendy uses minimal amounts of product on her layouts, and how she embraces the white space on a layout. but i tend to go the other direction. so i knew i wanted to see hannah's photo, on a totally girly layout. with lots of products and embellishments.

we both used the MM flutter collection and the slice for our layouts. the ladybug was cut from the big kids design card. i should tell you the disaster that this little ladybug caused me. lets just say that it started out looking just like you see here. and then i thought it needed something. so i added something, and then that smeared stuff onto another part, and then i tried to clean it up and made something else worse. it got really ugly, really fast. so i managed to salvage the ladybug, and just re-did my cardstock circles and left it at that.

the title word "silly" was cut from the just chillin design card. i cut it once from blue cardstock, and once from white cardstock. and then i adhered them, just slightly overlapping each other.

you can see what wendy did with one of my photos over on the making memories blog post from last week, right HERE.

more slice projects

i have a huge post started about my CHA experience, with lots of photos of the fun people i got to meet. but it's long and it's not done yet. so i think i'm going to save that for tomorrow or monday. in the meantime, i wanted to share a few more of my making memories projects that i saw up in the booth.

this card was made using the new sock hop font design card, the pen tips, and the just chillin collection. i sliced the letters from brown pattern paper, using the "normal" setting. and then i used the pen tips to draw the letters on white cardstock, using the "shadow" setting. i cut the pen drawn letters out my hand, and then layered the brown letters on top.

for the card itself, i adhered a piece of lined pattern paper first, and then a piece of yellow vellum on top of it to soften it up a little. i then sliced a large circle from the orange star pattern paper, using the basic shapes design card. i pop dotted that entire piece of orange paper to my card, for extra dimension. then just added some ribbon, brads, and a button to finish it off.  

this little mini album cover was done with the summer design card. the album is one of MM older albums, from the cheeky collection. along the edge, i simply adhered some paper flowers, felt flowers, and buttons from the great escape collection.

i then sliced a fun sun shape from yellow cardstock, using the "normal" setting. i heat embossed it with yellow embossing powder for a shiny look. i then used the embossing tips in the slice, to emboss the same sun shape onto orange pattern paper. i sanded down the raised areas from the embossing, and cut out the shape by hand. then i added the yellow embossed sun on top using mini pop dots. i sliced the word "fun" from brown cardstock, and pop dotted that to the middle of the sun.

i love the ice cream shapes on the summer design card, which is what i used for this card. i sliced the cone from brown pattern paper, and then sliced a bunch of scoops of ice cream from different pattern papers. all papers from the just chillin collection.

i layered the scoops together, using some pop dots on some of the scoops. i started off using pop dots on all the scoops, but realized that it was getting way too bulky of an ice cream cone. lol! so i only used the pop dots on a few layers. under that pink scoop on the top, i had to use 3 pop dots layered together to meet up with the paper. then i just added little dots of glitter stickles to the scoops.

making memories pitter patter and the slice

thought i'd share some of my samples with making memories new pitter patter collection (which i don't see up on the site yet, but it should be up soon). their baby collections are always super adorable. these gorgeous photos were all taken by jenny weston, my go-to boss at MM. she's amazing with the camera.

i also used the slice on all these layouts. i actually use the slice on every one of my MM projects, so always assume there's something sliced on each one of them. lol! i used the baby design card for these, which is shown below. there are 12 new design cards coming out. i've gotten to work with 6 of them already. and they now include a free inspirations project card inside, some of which might have been designed by your's truely ;) there are also tons of other fun stuff for the slice now. new pen tips, glue tips (along with glitter), fusible webbing and fabric, foam sheets, etc.

and watch this video to learn all about the new hands free system for the slice. this is such a cool thing they have designed. i havn't actually had a chance to work with it on my own yet. but i got to hear all about it, when i was at the MM offices a few months ago. and i have seen it in action. love that the new mat has the 12x12 embossing mat on the backside. and that both sides are magnetic. such a small investment (i believe $40), that will make your slice machine just that much better. i cannot wait to get my hands on one of these :)

a few making memories projects from CHA

i'm back from CHA. 4 days that were amazing and so much fun. i'm not even sure i can put it into words. ok, ok. i CAN put it into words. just not today. lol! got home super late last night, and was up super early today. so it's going to take me a few days to catch up. figured i'd share a few projects that were in the making memories booth at CHA.

more to come. projects, photos, and stories :)

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.

thankful album page peek

managed to put together a few pages from my thankful album to share with you. just to give you an idea where i'm going with this. and in case you like the idea and want to make one for your own family. i know, i'm a little late on this idea. since thanksgiving is tomorrow. lol! but that's sort of how i roll, very last minute most of the time.

my album of choice is 9x9 in size. an older making memories album, that is brown leather with a scalloped edge and a ribbon to tie it shut. it's one i had laying around, and i loved the chocolate brown color for this project. and i do love my 9x9 layouts. but this could be done in any size album in all honesty. even a 6x6 would be cute. i'm starting with white cardstock for the bases of all my pages. i really have a hard time cutting that many full sheets of my textured white cardstock into 9x9, only to cover most of it up with my pattern paper and photos. so i use just your basic white cardstock. i get a pack of 25 sheets at michaels for just a few bucks when it's on sale.

each family member will have their own page in the album. i'm using everyday photos for my own family, since i have those handy and have choices. for the rest of the family, i will have to pin them down at thanksgiving tomorrow and snap a photo of them. which will actually be fun, so that i can give them all a current headshot. everyone needs a current headshot on file, right? lol! maybe i should call it a portrait instead. then i will give each person a journaling notebook page to write down what they're thankful for. i don't have a link for the exact ones i'm using, but they look just like THESE. there are a ton of sheets in there, i think 30 of them. so i'll have extras in case anyone messes up too. lol! then i'll take that journaling page, and will print off their photo (all in black and white to keep it cohesive), and then assemble the pages.

i'm using papers and embellishments from the autumn splendor collection from making memories. sorry, i cannot find a link for it. but it was available through michaels. not sure if it's still out there or not. and i'm trying to use my slice to die cut most of the names. doesn't my sister's page look better than mine, where her name is? i realized i didn't have that much room left on my page for my name. so i went with some chipboard letters. just figuring it out as i go along. i might add a few simple embellishments here and there, not totally sure. and i'll have a title page. will share more when i get that part done.

in other news. my back feels so much better today. which is good, since this is day five of my back issues. i'm not totally back to normal, but definately feeling a lot better. thanks to all of you for your well wishes. and thanks for laughing along with me at my last post. i want everyone to know that there is definately some seriousness to what i say. but it's mostly said in funnyness (yes, that's a word!), and being able to laugh about the odd things that happen around me. if you could hear me say my famous "seriously?!?!", you would hear my sense of humor in my voice. lol!

a thankful layout

each wednesday this month, the making memories blog is sharing layouts by the design team about something we're thankful for. this week is my turn. here's a peek. but you have to click HERE to see the entire layout and see what i'm thankful for :)

 

a preview of my next post

i have a huge post that i'm almost ready to share, about something cool i got to do about two months ago. figured i'd post this project, which has something to do with my next post. hopefully tomorrow. i have a few other friends that were in on this, so we're getting coordinated to post at the same time :)

this was a part of the slice inspirations box project, that i worked on a full year ago. this is a framed shadowbox project that i did. it's pretty big. the inside part is 12x12, so the fame is about 14x14 and heavy. i picked it up at some random store a few years ago, so i couldn't tell you where to get it. i used a cork paper for the base of my project and then mounted a 5x7 photo of alyssa and sarah in the middle using thick pop dots. then i started cutting out different style tags from all different types of papers, using my slice and the basic shapes 1 design card. i just tucked them under the edges of the photo, adhereing some with pop dots here and there. added some ribbon and chipboard letters. and  then stamped some flowers, heat embossed, and added rhinestone brads to the centers. i make it sound so easy now. but it took me forever ;)

this frame made another appearance somewhere recently. a really cool spot that i'd have never guessed. i'll tell you all about it tomorrow ;)

october guest designer for scrapmuse

i got an email a while back asking me if i wanted to be a guest designer for scrapmuse kit club. i'm always up for things like that and am always flattered to be asked. i got the october kit, which was called flight school. tons of fun stuff in it, and here is what i used it for.  

there was some claudine hellmuth sticky back canvas in the kit, and i wasn't actually sure what to do with it. i had visions of painting it somehow. but i was too scared to try and figured i would mess it up. so i just tore a strip off. i like how the edges look all worn when you tear it. so i went with the look, and even crumbled up my strip of pattern paper to distress it a little. can't remember the last time i've done that sort of thing. that lined chipboard journaling block is the packaging from the sassafras lass flowers. it was too cute to throw away, so i figured i'd use it on here.

these yellow handmade flowers were so pretty, and i thought they matched this photo of sarah perfectly. i took this photo one day while she was browsing around my scrap stuff. she's just like me with crafty type stuff. takes out way more than she needs, makes a huge mess, and starts too many projects at once. the only difference is that she never picks anything up, and i clean everything up. lol! this page is fairly simple, and i like that about it. and that stitching? that's not real, just me drawing the stitches on with a pen ;)

i was digging around for photos to match the papers, and found this oldie of the girls from 3 years ago. it was the last day of school, and i took this photo at the school as they were saying goodbye to their friends. alyssa had just finished 4th grade, and sarah has finished 1st grade. i cut the "TTYL" with my making memories slice, using the just chillin card. i thought it was kind of cute, like saying "talk to you later" to all their friends, as they walked off the school grounds. although we were year-round schooling at the time. so they really only had two weeks off, before they were back at school and with their friends again. lol!

i'm sort of torn on this last layout. i'm thinking i should have added something else to the title. maybe i'll go back and do that later. lol! i know i did a layout already with one of these photos, and i think the title was "10 years old". but i wanted to use more of the pics i took, and her fingers showing her age. the tickets are from tim holtz, and there were a ton of them in the kit. those brads are from chatterbox, and they're like little wood pieces that are engraved. and those buttons are the new glitter buttons from american crafts. fun stuff.

thanks to scrapmuse for inviting me to play along this month!

wedding candle and favors

a few more wedding projects that i did for making memories earlier this year, using their wedding collection.

for this candle, i started by cutting a sheet of the slice acetate paper and wrapping it around the candle. i used a few mini glue dots to hold it all in place, along with some larger glue dots around the center since i knew i was covering it with more paper and that they wouldn't show. i cut a strip of pattern paper and wrapped that around the center of the candle. then i added some green ribbon, and tied some string around it a few times. 

i choose one of the dimensional stickers, and then found the same shape on the slice basic shapes 1 design card. i then used my slice, to cut that shape out from acetate papers, metallic papers (which i embossed with my cuttlebug), and cardstock. i just varied the sizes up 1/2 inch with each paper. then i layered them all together, using a lot of pop dots. to finish it off, i added a few deco pins. 

this isn't a great photo, but i thought this was really cute. it's a little favor box, made from the packaging of some making memories embellishments. i know you can download templates for pillowboxes, to make your own from cardstock. but i had this one handy, and thought it would be great to recycle it into something cute. i undid the two ends, and laid it on top of some paper to trace the shape. i cut two of those pieces out of the acetate paper. after putting a tiny glue dot in each corner, i slipped the piece into the box, and then pushed it against the inside to stick it down. did that make sense? moments like these, it would be nice to have pics of the process, wouldn't it? lol!

just like the candle, i wrapped a strip of pattern paper around the box, and added some ribbon. then i used my slice to cut a flower from another pattern paper. and then i layered that with a felt flower, and some wedding blossoms, and secured them together with a pearl brad with a little tag attached. and the best part? i filled it with mints :)

these were another favor idea. sorry for the bad photo. and the fact that i apparently didn't have mints at the time to fill these up with. lol! i used some embellishment jars for these. my cousin, rachael, got married this past january. and she was nice enough to share her engagement photo with me for these projects. i printed them in a size that would fit the front of the jars, cut them out, and adhered them to the jar. added a small circle of pattern paper to the lid of the jar. i added the metal ribbon slide to the lid using a large pop dot. then i threaded the ribbon through and around the jars, securing the ends on either side with pearl brads.

and one last favor idea. which gives away when i actually made these projects, since you see the christmas garland in this photo. lol! yep, made these last december. making memories used to have these cubes in two different sizes. i want to say this is about 3 inches square, although i'm not totally sure on that. i adhered pattern paper to each side of the cube, and then wrapped my favorite black and white gingham ribbon around the cube and tied it in a bow. i added a photo to one side, using large pop dots. and then i embellished the other 3 sides and the top of the cube. great way to use up all sorts of embellishments. 

a wedding album

i know this may seem like a odd transition from last week. to go from halloween to weddings does seem a bit funny. lol! but i sort of enjoyed doing the themed week last week. it made blogging a little easier, and sometimes i need that. life gets busy, so i welcome an easy approach to things from time to time. and i just happen to have quite a few wedding projects that i've never shared.

this was one of my making memories projects i created for CHA last january. i had a ton of assignments using the wedding collection. i will admit, that i'm not a huge black and white scrapper. so i was very relieved when i could toss one extra color in these projects. lol! i really like how this altered album came out. i started with the shaped noteworthy 8x8 album. i traced the album cover onto the wedding words pattern paper, cut it out, and then mod podged it onto the album. i also covered the back of the album in this same paper. i then used my finger to brush some black acrylic paint on the edges.

then i used my slice die cut machine, along with the basic shapes design card, to cut out all the flowers and also the scalloped frame. there is a wedding design card for the slice, but i didn't have it at the time i did these projects. i used a lot of papers from the wedding 6x6 paper pad (the patterns are on a smaller scale, which i like), and also some metallic paper and some glitter paper. i crumbled up the cut flowers for a fun look, and then flattened them back out some. then i started layering. there are a ton of pop dots on this, a ton. i also layered in some wedding blossoms. after layering them all together, i added some deco pins to the flowers, some pearl accents to the scalloped frame, and a dimensional sticker to finish it off. 

i dug out some older making memories ribbons to tie along the left side of the album, and added a wedding metal ribbon slide along the green ribbon. i added a pop dot underneath it, to make sure it stayed where i wanted it.

a few more vintage findings projects

found a few more little projects to share. i created these two projects for a making memories advertisement, that appeared in some of the magazines.a few months ago. i used lots of products from the vintage findings collection for these.

their photos made them look so much better than my photos. lol! i can't remember what my deal was that day, but i know i had a real hard time getting decent photos of these. the colors in the ad are true to life. trust me. 

this was a flat metal tin, about the size of a cd. i was using the slice fonts design card for this. this cursive font is so pretty.  

 

this was a small mini album, that i think was from rusty pickle. it was about 4x4 in size. i was using the slice studio essentials design card for this project. i cut the tabs from pattern paper, and layered them along the inside pages. and the little flower clip was also diecut from pattern paper.

sorry so short and to the point. this weekend has been crazy, and i'm just trying to catch up still. but i'm getting back on track, so i should be a better blogger this week. promise :)

halloween is coming

i'm going to totally switch gears for today. i think it's absolutely crazy that halloween is almost here. to be honest, i havn't thought much about it yet. we have a certain someone's birthday this weekend (wink*alyssa*wink). so it's not fair to think about halloween until after her big day. but i do have some halloween projects that i never did share. for anyone that actually plans ahead (certainly NOT me) and needs some ideas.

i made these projects last year for making memories. they were originally made to be demo's on a local utah morning talk show. cool, right? they put a lot of their video segments on their website. sadly, this one was never added. so i never got to see my projects on the air. then they decided to also include them in the slice inspirations box, which was cool. 

these were all made using last year's halloween collection. but could easily be done with this years spook alley collection too. i made the invitation using a kit that included the tag shaped invite, the overlay, and the envelope. then i cut the pumpkin and the tree using my slice. then just added some simple embellishments.

i love these little clear paint cans. i die cut the label, the circles on top, and the pumpkin using my slice. layered everything together with lots of pop dots and added some ribbons and puffy alphabet letters. oh yeah, and i filled it with candy!

these were so adorable, if i do say so myself. they're super tiny little buckets, about 2 inches tall. i found them in the dollar spot at target. but keep in mind, that was last year. lol! i had some small styrofoam balls, and i just cut them in half and shoved them down in the bottom of these buckets. then i stuck the tootsie pops in the styrofoam. the pumpkins were die cut using my slice, and layered with some glitter foam pumpkin stickers. a little ribbon and a tag finished them off.

making memories at CHA

i'm still awaiting the official go-ahead to post these. just a disclaimer, in case they disappear later and you'll know i'm in trouble. lol! but i've been dying to share these. i've been watching the photos and projects being shared on the making memories blog for the past few days. i was surprised and very happy when i saw these 3 layouts of mine show up in THIS post, highlighting projects that use the slice. they're 3 of my favorite ever layouts that i've created for making memories.

  

i actually created these layouts months ago, for a special assignment. it was the first time i got to play with the slice embossing tips. they also sent me the new vellum papers and metallic papers to use, which are perfect for using the embossing tips on.

 

photo curtousy of megan cristello. love that she lets me scrap her gorgeous kids from time to time! this is her daughter sayler, isn't she adorable!

 

how cute are the embossed butterflies! i just tied some coordinating embroidery thread around them, attatched coordinating stick pins, and adhered them using 3-d glue dots. the only thing that could have made this better, was if i had purple stick pins ;) and you can see on the actual layout, i added the metallic silver "flirty" behind this green metallic one. that was a last minute addition, so it's not in this detail shot. 

 

for this layout, i was using the new shadow option on the slice. yes, they have added this new feature to the new design cards called "MS+". it's a mirroring, shadowing, plus speed upgrade. it's on the new design cards, but it will also automatically install this feature onto your slice the first time you use one of these new cards. and it stays installed, so it will give you a ton more option with the design cards you already have. technology sure is amazing, isn't it? you can read more about it HERE, and also see a ton of the new design cards. 

 

i am in love with the fact that you can cut shadow shapes now. especially for titles. i always want the extra dimensional look to my titles, and this has such a cool look.

make sure and spend some time over on the making memories blog, checking out everything they've posted the last few days. lots of new stuff going on. halloween product, christmas product, design shop embellishments, vintage findings product, new slice product, and more. and tons of giveaways too. hope you've been trying for those too :)