Scrapbook & Cards Today Blog: Design Team Wednesday with Laura Vegas!

Hey everyone, it's Laura Vegas here. Last time I was here to share a layout with you, I had borrowed photos that my girls took of themselves. Well, this time is no different. I'm dealing with sassy teen girls, and the last thing they're up for is mom pointing her camera at them. It's a good thing I can rely on their photos from time to time.

Supplies: Cardstock: American Crafts; Patterned paper: Studio Calico (pink dotted, gold glittered, woodgrain); Specialty paper: Dear Lizzy; Chipboard alphas: Target; Alpha stickers: Basic Grey; Buttons: October Afternoon; Brads: Making Memories; Silver accents: Hero Arts; Die cut machine: Silhouette; Die cut designs: Kerri Bradford Studio ("perfect"), Silhouette Store

My youngest daughter, Sarah, just turned 16 years old this past weekend. She is truly an expert at taking selfies, and has been for years. I just love this photo that she took of herself while we were driving in the car last month. It's a gorgeous photo of my gorgeous girl. So I asked her to send it to me so I could scrap it.

I have never been one to work from kits, or subscribe to kits, but I did recently pick up a few kits during a big sale at Studio Calico. It has been sitting on the floor since I got it, and I'm glad I ended up looking through it when I started this layout. I found three patterned papers in there that worked so well with what I had in mind. The pink dotted pattered paper matched the colors in my photo perfectly. I always love a good brown woodgrain patterned paper, and it went well with the pinks and Sarah's brown hair. And the gold glittered patterned paper added a touch of glam to the page, tying in nicely with the brown woodgrain paper.

I started out with a die cut title, from the gold glittered patterned paper, but it wasn't standing out as much as I would have liked. I also felt like I needed some silver added in, since Sarah's sunglasses had silver rims. I remembered these silver chipboard alphas that I had bought from the dollar section at Target last year (in full disclosure, I may have bought about 10 packs of them!). I love a good chunky font mixed with a cursive or script font for my titles, so pairing the chipboard alphas with a die cut word ended up working perfectly.

One product that immediately came to mind after printing my photo was the ruffled paper from an older Dear Lizzy collection. I have a few sheets of it, and have never gotten around to using it. I always feel oddly accomplished when I finally use a product that I love, but that I've been hoarding for years. I trimmed off the lighter pink rows of ruffles, which also matched the photo perfectly. I printed my journaling and matted them with the gold glittered patterned paper, to bring in another touch of the gold on the page, and adhered the strips to the page using silver brads. And while it may not appear that my buttons all match, in real life, they're all the same shade of pink (and a few off white) and match the pinks on the page really well.

The next time you need a jump start for your creativity, try looking around for those products you just had to have ... but just haven't gotten around to using yet. For me, it was a kit that I hadn't even dug into since purchasing it months ago and the fun ruffled paper that I've been hoarding for years. If you're lucky, they will end up being just what you needed to complete a quick and fun project!

~ Laura Vegas

Comments

love all the border layering :)

Posted by: gisele | June 24, 2015 at 10:13 AM

gorgeous page, laura!!!

Posted by: kat | June 24, 2015 at 11:10 AM

Love this page. I've been in a crafting funk lately, and this is just the right inspiration to get me going. I'm pretty sure I have the Dear Lizzy ruffle paper, so I'm off to scraplift Laura's wonderful page. Thanks, Laura!

Posted by: SandraA | June 24, 2015 at 12:35 PM