... just Laura

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 thriller spectacular

for the past few years, 2 of the 5th grade teachers have put on a "thriller spectacular" right before halloween. they work with their two classes and teach them a dance routine set to a medley of michael jackson songs. sarah's teachers is one of those teachers, so she got to participate in it this year. be forewarned. these are your typical, not-so-great school gym photos. i did the best i could. edited to add: for some reason, i feel the need to clarify this. only because i read this post again, and thought that last comment wasn't even true. i did NOT try my best with these photos. lol! i literally just took out my camera and snapped a few photos. didn't even check settings or use my external flash. that might have helped. just sayin ;)

they practiced this routine for 6 weeks together. sarah would come home from school and be dancing around the house, practicing. never to music though. i kept telling her to find the music. but she would just do it all in her head. for their preformance, they all wore black jeans, white tshirts, and their teachers had one black glove for each of them. they performed this quite a few times that day. they did the lower grades in the morning. sarah said that they were doing them first, so that if they messed up, no one would really notice. lol!

the parents came for the last performance of the day. we were in there with the junior high kids, so it was really crazy in there. the kids did such a great job, and the crowd loved it. times like these when i wish i had a video camera. but we're able to get DVD copies from the school, so i'm doing that.

sarah and her two BFF's, natalia and tawny. on another note, the 5th graders went to science camp last week. sarah opted to stay here and not go. i was kind of bummed, because i know how much alyssa LOVED science camp. but i also know my girl. and she's not one to leave mom and dad quite as easily as some kids. if it had been a night or two, i might have pushed her more. but it was 4 nights and 5 days. and i knew my girl couldn't handle that. so she stayed, and still went to school. and she missed her two BFF's more than anything. i felt so bad for her. it was the longest week not having them at school with her. so i know she was so excited to go to school yesterday, and see them again!

giveaway winners

the winners from the making memories giveaways were announced HERE. congrats to amanda h, who was the random winner choose from my blog!

hope to be back blogging later tonight, or maybe tomorrow. we had a very busy weekend here. end of season tournament for soccer. we spend 9 hours straight on the fields on saturday, and 7 hours straight on sunday. 8 games total, 4 for alyssa and 4 for sarah. so we're all dead tired and trying desperately to catch up on life right now. more later :)

just chillin giveaway

making memories is such an awesome manufacturer to work for. and i think it's so cool that three of their designers were chosen for the 2010 creating keepsakes dream team (maggie, wendy, and i). i'm so excited that we all get to experience these two great adventures together. making memories is generously donating each of our favorite collections to give away to one of our lucky blog readers. of course i had to pick the just chillin collection for my favorite. and i figured this layout goes perfectly with this giveaway.

copyright creating keepsakes. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i've been wanting to share this layout for a while. it was featured in the october 2009 issue of creating keepsakes, in the becky higgins sketch column. when i saw her sketch posted, i knew that it would be perfect for this layout idea. the sketch had room for 16 photos. so i was able to include 15 of my most recent daycare kids, along with a photo of myself. although as soon as my girls saw this, they asked "where is so-and-so" for a bunch of the other kids that have been here over the past 8 years. i told them i could only do the kids that were here during my digital years. lol!

now if you saw this layout in the october issue, you might have noticed a different photo of me on there. i did change that out before sending it out (but forgot to take a picture), since this photo of me has been previously used for something in the magazine. i admit, i like this photo better. and i did change it back when i got the layout back. lol! then i found my favorite photos of 15 kids. took me a while to dig around the external hard drive, since these were all taken over the last 4-5 years or so. i've had some cute kids, haven't i ;)

i went with the mix of color photos and black and white photos for one main reason. all the boys photos looked great in color. but i had a little too much color going on. i loved all the colors in the girls photos, and knew that i wanted to use the just chillin girls collection on this. so i made the boys all black and white. i think it actually looks pretty cool. all the photos are 3x4 in size. such a great way to get a ton of photos on there.

so, what do you need to do? just leave me a comment. i know a lot of you already congratulated me on my other post, so don't feel like you have to do it all over again. lol! just a simple comment is all that's required, to get your name in there. then make sure to go over to maggie's blog and wendy's blog, and leave them some congrats too. we're each doing separate drawings for different collections. then monday, we'll randomly pick the winners, who will be announced on the making memories blog :) 

comments now closed. look for the winner to be announced on the making memories blog later this morning.

a "me today" layout

i did one of these types of layouts earlier this year. and i thought it would be fun to do another one. a "me today" layout. no photos needed. just some random things that were going on during one particular day in my life. this went up on the jillibean soup blog today, along with some other great layouts from the other designers.

 

except this isn't really me TODAY. it was me on october 24th, a sunday. but wait, you're telling me that sunday was actually the 25th of october? i know this now. but that sunday, i really did think it was the 24th. i was living the wrong dates for an entire week and didn't even realize it. came SO close to turning in some assignments late because of it. lol! i know all this backstory talk isn't even important in the grand scheme of this layout. but i had to share it anyways :)

i started with just simple squares of pattern paper (all 2.75x2.75), and arranged them on my white cardstock background. originally, this layout was going to be something entirely different, and was going to have small photo squares too. but i liked how all those squares looked filling up the page, so i decided to do this layout instead. i took two squares out, so that i could add my title. loving those corrugated alphas!

then i just added some journaling strips for my random thoughts. i layered some journaling sprouts, with some paper flowers and brads, and adhered them with pop dots. then some clear buttons to finish it off.

supplies:
olive sugar soup staples paper by jillibean soup
orange sugar soup staples paper by jillibean soup
chives grandma's christmas soup paper by jillibean soup
orange/white circle journaling sprouts by jillibean soup
corrugated alphas by jillibean soup
clear buttons by autumn leaves
paper flowers by making memories
brads by bazzill

also wanted to say a huge "thanks" for all your comments on my news yesterday. i loved reading them all, and truely do appreciate each and every one of them. i'm so excited about this opportunity, and it's nice knowing that others are too.

and i also wanted to point you in the direction of a few other fun scrapbooking things, for some good friends of mine.

you have to check wendy sue anderson's blog for her amazing new project that is finally out. i know how much work she put into this, and am so excited for her!

you also should check out erin terrell clarkson's blog, for a super fun mini album she's been working on. she's planning ahead, and making this birthday album for her daughter now. so that she can simply add photos and stuff after the big day. loving seeing her process, and how the pages are coming together. just check her posts from over the week or two.

my new friend, cindy liebel (that i met at the slice infomercial taping), is the guest designer for the month on the making memories blog. she's got some adorable cards up today, and you can see them HERE.

wilna furstenberg and kayla aimee terrell have put together a fun new online workshop, called a DIY holiday. looks like a lot of fun, and they always seem to create such fun projects. so check out all their info on their blogs and the site.  

2010 CK Dream Team

today is the day. the the 2010 Creating Keepsakes Magazine Dream Team has been announced! check out this list of the new team members:

Cindy Tobey
Deena Wuest
Jen Jockisch
Kim Watson
Laura Vegas
Maggie Holmes
Sara Winnick
Susan Weinroth
Suzy Plantamura
Wendy Sue Anderson

did you see the 5th name on that list? that's me! i'm still in total shock that i got asked to join this amazing team. when i got the email a few months ago, i actually forced myself not to respond too quickly. lol! it took a while for it to sink in. and then it was really hard to keep it a secret. one of the hardest secrets i've had to keep. although that 10th name on the list is one of my best friends. and in some round about way, we figured out each other's secret. without coming out and ever saying what exactly it was. i am so honored to be included with this group of talented designers, and am looking forward to getting to know them all better. which you can do a little bit now, by checking out our little Q&A's HERE. i am also looking forward to working with the amazing people behind creating keepsakes magazine. it's going to be a fun year :)

CK sent each of the Dream Team members a welcome gift provided by these wonderful sponsors:

Adornit – Carolee’s Creations, Advantus, American Art Clay Company, American Crafts, Anna Griffin, BasicGrey, Bazzill Basics Paper, Bella Blvd, Bisous, Bo-Bunny Press, Buttons Galore, C.R. Gibson, Clearsnap, Close To My Heart, Colorbök, Core’dinations, Cornish Heritage Farms, Cosmo Cricket, The Crafter’s Workshop, Creative Memories, Die Cuts With a View, Dimensions, Doodlebug Design, Dyno Merchandise, EK Success, Elmer’s, Eyelet Outlet, Fancy Pants Designs, Fiskars Americas, GlueArts, Glue Dots International, Graphic 45, Hambly Screen Prints, Helmar Adhesives, Hero Arts, iLoveToCreate, a Duncan Enterprises Company, Imaginisce, Inkadinkado , It Takes Two, Jenni Bowlin Studio, Jillibean Soup, K&Company, Karen Foster Design, Krylon, Little Yellow Bicycle, Maya Road, McGill, Mimi Collections, Pebbles Inc., Piggy Tales, Pink Paislee, Prima, QuicKutz, River City Rubber Works, Sakura, Sandylion, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L, ScrapGirls, Scrapper’s Guide, SEI, Singer, Sounds Easy, Spellbinders, Stampendous!, Stampin’ Up!, Technique Tuesday, Therm O Web, Unibind, We R Memory Keepers, Zva Creative

all these manufacturers were so generous. i happen to get all my boxes on the same day, and i'm sure the neighbors were curious as to who was moving in. a lot of huge boxes. so much great product. i'm actually still working on going through it all, and they came a few weeks ago.

 

 

a huge congrats to the other team members. and a huge "thank you" to CK for giving me this great opportunity :)

halloween 2009

hope everyone had a great halloween! we had a few soccer games on saturday. so after finishing up there, rushed around to get the girls dressed up and ready for trick or treating. although they knew that the halloween photo shoot comes first. i haven't had time to go through all my photos yet, since i took about 118 that night. lol! but these few grabbed my eye right away.

aren't they so adorable! the last 2 years, we really didn't buy costumes. alyssa went as a soccer player for 2 years in a row. so this year i promised them that they could pick out a costume. free reign. well, sort of. and while i didn't really think these matched, i think they look awesome together seeing these photos.

we have alyssa, the "dark angel". just pretend her whole halo is up there. i cut some of it off in most of my photos.

and sarah, our "gargoyle fairy". imagine her wearing brown and white striped tights too. that didn't make the shot. it did make a few shots. just not this one. lol!

i didn't ask them to pose for this shot. they were just arguing about who's wings were bigger. lol! this photo is hilarious. you can see them both making faces at each other, arguing their point. and sorry sarah. but alyssa's wings were bigger ;)

have to share a shot of the girls with amanda. she looked adorable too. i know she wasn't feeling all that great, but you'd never know by how she looked.

by the time sarah's friends, natalia and tawny, got to the house, we had lost our light for outside photos. so had to resort to an inside, flash photo. they looked like a great bunch though! alyssa went off trick or treating with her friend kassidy for a while. so i took the rest of the girls out around the neighborhood, along with tawny's mom (and natalia's mom and dad joined us for a bit). the girls had a blast, running from house to house. and screaming their girlie screams at all the haunted houses and scary stuff. lol! they pulled in quite a loot of candy, and after 2 hours we called it quits. after sarah's friends went home, we picked up alyssa and headed over to my brother and sister-in-law's house to visit for a bit. joe missed out on most of the activities, although he did take sarah and amanda down a few streets earlier in the evening. he had to work, so he wasn't here to hand out candy either. sorry to anyone that tried to come by to see us. lol! i heard that both haley and nikolas came to see us, but found nothing more than a dark house.

and now the costumes are laying upstairs. the wings are all downstairs. there is candy all over the house. half of which the girls don't like and decided to give to joe and i. so now i've been eating all the candy, because it's sitting here and eaiser than making something healthy. and the empty candy bowl is still sitting by the front door, from passing out the one bag of candy that we had and that lasted all of 20 minutes. it was a good halloween though :)

scrapbook bakery november kit

the scrapbook bakery monthly kit is back this month. heather has put together a super fun kit for november, called best friends forever. in case you missed it, heather has invited 4 designers to be a part of her dream team. so i'll be working with some kits over the next year, along with the talented wendy sue anderson, erin terrell clarkson, and jenn biederman. i was first up this month, and here's what i came up with using the kit.

i paniced a little when i saw all the purple. lol! i have always said that purple is my least favorite color to scrap. i love to wear it, and actually can be seen in it at least 2-3 times a week. just not scrap with it. but these papers are such a gorgeous shade of purple. and paired with the green, i actually really like it! and turns out, i have photos to go with purple. first up, were these photos of alyssa on the first day of school.

 

have you ever noticed that when i work on a monthly kit, i tend to handjournal all my layouts? i noticed that last time i did a kit. because at the time i looked at the previous kits i had done, and those had hand journaling too. so i thought it was funny that i handjournaled on all these layouts too. because, i normally hate my handwriting. just a funny thing that i noticed.

next up was haley. i'm not always one to be super matchy matchy. but i do tend to pick out my paper colors, by first going with whatever the person in my photos are wearing. so these ones of her in a purple shirt immediately came to mind. plus, i just love that main photo of her.

i tore out one of the pages from the notebook to use on here. i always love a fun grid pattern. then i just started adding on the die cuts and stickers in layers. added a few of the gems, and a few dots of the pearl accents here and there. and i was so excited when i saw the "happy" sticker, and tossed in on the layout. thought it was the perfect touch for the photo of haley and her "happy" dog. then i realized that that is "katie" she's holding, and not happy. lol! she carries happy around all day, every day. and it looks nothing like this stuffed doggie. no idea how i could get them confused.
 

the other photos that came to mind were these ones of the girls from the summer, playing with their bratz dolls. these photos printed a little darker than what they should be. but just a fun simple layout to remember something they liked to do.

i wasn't totally sure about adding the liquid pearls to the pattern paper. i wanted too. and it seemed like a fun idea, to just trace some of the circles with it. then i finally just went for it. and then i got crooked on a lot of them. and then i couldn't stop and didn't know how to say "when". but i think it adds a fun touch.

i really thought all the "best friends" stickers were so cute. i thought they would be really fun to use on some cards. these are all 3.5x3.5 inch cards, that i rounded the edges of. nice and small. and perfect for the girls to give to their friends, just for fun. and all it took was a few scrap pieces of the pattern papers, and a few stickers. added a little ribbon, some gems, and some staples. i made all 8 of these in about 15 minutes.

 

i still have plans for the super cute notebook that is in the kit. it would make a great sketch idea book, to jot down layout ides and sketches. the papers are lined on one side, and have the graph design on the other side of the paper. and those glitter letter stickers in the kit are going with it. so i'll share that in a few days. 

the pumpkin patch

the last time we made it to the pumpkin patch was 3 years ago. which is kind of sad, since i LOVE pumpkin patch photos. we don't get much "fall" stuff around here. and i love fall colors. so the pumpkin patch is usually my one chance to get my fix. and yet the past few years, october just gets so busy. and somehow, we just don't make it out there. this past monday was our chance. after the daycare kids left, we headed out. with about an hour of daylight left.

  

this pumpkin patch is HUGE. part of the reason that we went on a weeknight. this place is packed solid on the weekend. hundreds and hundreds of cars. it's crazy busy.

you gotta take pics at all these things, right ;)

alyssa knew what to do. she went around in the pumpkins and everytime i would turn her way, she's pose for me.

sarah decided to bring her camera. so she was too busy taking her own pics, to pose for me. but i love that she's a mini-me!

joe knew what to do too. had to show off the pipes. lol!

still taking pics. i need to remember to pull them off her camera and see how she did.

finally got her to pose.

had to stop at the baby pumpkins.

this is alyssa's typical pose. i had about 10 photos of her giving me the "peace" sign. lol!

this bouncy thing was the big hit for the girls. they really didn't want to do the huge corn maze (and at $10 each, i wasn't going to complain. lol!). they didn't want to do the haunted house. said "no" to the pony rides, the pumpkin blasters, the petting zoo, and the trains. they might have gone for the zipline, but the line was huge and moving super slow. but they loved the bouncy thing. i'm not sure what it is exactly. but they have 2 huge bouncy "hills", just like the bouncy houses at birthday parties.

they had so much fun on there. sometimes, it's the simple things that bring the biggest smiles.

no idea what joe's look is about ... but i'm posting it anways. lol!

the one photo that i'm in, and it's blurry. figures. for the record, it was getting quite dark and i have no clue what my camera settings were on at this point.

oh wait, i forgot i was in this photo too ;)

it was really nice out when we got there. and then it got really cold and windy. the amount of dirt flying around the place was crazy. they look happy in this photo, but they were really freezing. so we headed home. pumpkinless. because even though it looks like we picked out pumpkins in those first photos, we really didn't. no idea why actually. the girls didn't ask, and we didn't offer. maybe because we have some pumpkins at the house from grammie. but we had fun on our little trip out. and i got some good pics and some "ok" pics. so we're all happy :) 

preschool graduation layout

i feel like this blog has been short on scrapbooking shares. there have been a few projects sprinkled in here and there. but i've been scrapping non-stop, so i feel like i should have more to show you for it. lol! i checked my files tonight, because sticking some numbers out there always makes me feel more accomplished. in the last 2 months, i have created 31 layouts, 16 cards/projects, and 1 mini album. i didn't even realize it was that many. those numbers surprised me. and makes me feel sort of tired, to be honest. lol! here is a layout i can share with you today :)

this went up on the jillibean soup blog today. a while ago, they were asking on their blog what readers wanted to see more of. and something that caught my eye, was that people wanted more double page layouts. so i figured i would toss one in there. i was really wanting to use the alphabet soup collection, so i dug around in old school photos of the girls. 

these photos from sarah's preschool graduation caught my eye. i had scrapped the one close up shot of her on a layout forever ago, but had never done anything with the other photos. i started by doing what i do on all my layouts that involve a lot of photos. i trimmed a little off this photo, and a little of that photo, and then a little off the other photo. i just trim away, until they all fit together the way i want them too. love the collaged layouts like this. once the photos are on there, i just build around them with my patteren papers and stuff to fill it up.

look how cute and tiny sarah was! this was over 5 years ago. just graduating from preschool. she only went for a year, and it was just 2 mornings a week. she loved it. she was so quiet of course. i always think it's funny that sarah's teachers think she never talks and is so quiet and calm. becuase she's actually the exact opposite. although, i've been told i was the same way as a kid. lol! 
 
supplies:
ground round alphabet soup paper by jillibean soup
beef bouillon alphabet soup paper by jillibean soup
vegetable juice alphabet soup paper by jillibean soup
olive sugar soup staples paper by jillibean soup
black sugar soup staples paper by jillibean soup
white/red circle journaling sprouts by jillibean soup
corrugated kraft alphabets by jillibean soup
black alphabean stickers by jillibean soup
5 color polka ribbon by jillibean soup
corduroy brads by bazzill basics
scallop punch by stampin up

a little thing i did 2 months ago

settle in with a cup of coffee, this is a long post. and read it all, because it took me over 2 hours to write this up. and then go read the other girl's posts (linked at the end), because it took them just about as long to write theirs. lol! so two months ago, i took a little trip down south to san juan capistrano. had something to do with this.

and something to do with this group of people (plus a few other girls that didn't make it in the picture).

so what was this for? we all were there for part of the filming of a slice infomercial, for making memories.

this was one of those opportunities that just doesn't come along everyday. so i had to go for it. wasn't sure i'd be great at it. but didn't want to not try, and then later regret it. so i tossed my name in the hat and got lucky enough to get asked. one of my friends, carla was contacted and interviewed for this. so we were really excited when she got asked too. we've become good friends over the last 2 years or so, but had never met or even talked on the phone. and then i found out that cindy liebel was going. i knew of cindy and who she was, but it wasn't until this came up that we really got to know each other better.

when we got the email asking us to participate, we had all of about 2 weeks to get ready. i think i was more nervous about finding the right clothes in the right colors, and jewelry to match. i live in capri jeans, tshirts, no jewelry, and flip flops. i didn't have to pack any projects to take, since making memories had all my work there already. then 2 days before, we got our flight info. you'd think i was some sort of expert travelor, the way i walked right into that airport and through security without blinking an eye. guess that utah trip last december taught me something. lol! i requested a later flight out on friday afternoon, so that i didn't have to take a day off work. so i didn't arrive in san juan capistrano until about 6:00pm. i felt sort of bad later, since cindy and carla had both flown for hours and hours and were there at noon. and just waiting for me. i didn't even have time to be nervous about meeting the girls on the ride to the hotel. turns out my driver that picked me up from the airport? he was a teacher at my high school 21 years ago. i'm not sure which is scarier. that i stumbled across one of my teachers, miles and miles from where we went to school. or the fact that i graduated high school 21 years ago. lol! anyways, we chatted the entire ride about the old school and who we still were in touch with.

finally got to the hotel. or is this a motel? either way, it was cute. and right across the street from the ocean.

although i have to admit, i never quite got to see it. wasn't even there for this photo. i didn't even bring my camera. all these photos are from either cindy, carla, or a few of the other girls we met. i came and left so quickly, that i was only gone for 28 hours total (including my drive to and from the airport, the wait at the airport both ways, the flight both ways). anyways. i was still talking to the teacher about how small the world was when we walked up the stairs at the motel. i was greeted by a very excited carla :)

she was so cute. i hope she doesn't mind me saying this, but i could tell she was nervous to meet me. which seemed crazy to me. i'm so beyond normal. some would say that i'm actually NOT normal. but you know what i mean. lol! normally, i'm a pretty quiet person. very shy around people that i don't know or in new situations. but it didn't even cross my mind to be nervous or quiet. maybe because we have chatted so much, that i felt like i knew her. anyways, i didn't skip a beat and just started talking away.

 

carla, me, and cindy.

within about 2 minutes, we were out walking to have dinner. we went to an incredible mexican restaurant, where we sat for about 3 hours and ate and talked. cindy and carla had met another one of the participants, lory, earlier that day and invited her to dinner with us. she was so cool and friendly. we shut the place down at 10:00pm (seemed weird that they shut at 10:00 on a friday night!) and went back to the hotel. i had arranged for carla and i to room together, since i knew i wasn't going to be there all that long. we stayed up until about 2:00am and talked. which i think was about 4:00am for her with the time difference. and i traveled for all of 80 minutes in the air, while she had traveled for like 10 hours that day. lol! but i kept talking and talking, and she kept up with me pretty good :)

me, cindy, lory, and carla

so the next morning we got up and hung around the hotel for a bit. got ready and did our make up and stuff lightly like they asked us too. i packed my bags, since i was being picked up straight from the shoot location and taken back to the airport. i wasn't scheduled to go to the shoot until 2 hours after everyone else. but i didn't want to sit by myself, so i went early with them. we persuaded the driver guy to stop at a starbucks for us on the way. then he took us to this gorgeous mansion where they were shooting. 

 

check out that pool and the view. seriously, do people own houses like these? and how is it that you can get one? lol!
 

right away, we were all whisked away into makeup.

a blurry shot, but still using it. i'm not a big makeup person at all, and i cannot do my eye makeup for nothing. but i was surprised at how little makeup they put on me. not that i don't need makeup, because i do. just thought they would do more for the cameras. they did say that we were supposed to have "light hairspray". i'm not sure what that means, since i have to use a lot of hairspray to even attempt to tame my curls and make them look fairly decent. lol! they mentioned maybe my hair was a little too "wild". guessing curls aren't great. or maybe it's just MY curls. lol!

then we hung out in this room. some of the other participants were there, and we got to meet them and chat and check out their projects that they had brought. it was really neat to meet some other scrappers that loved the slice. these weren't ladies that were into all the message boards and blogs and up on all the greatest and latest. just normal, everyday ladies that love scrapping. and i totally mean that in the nicest way. it's a good thing :) so we were in this room for ages. they would pull someone out and they would film their part. then they'd come back and say how easy it was. right. lol! i think we were in here for about 3 hours before we had our turns. you always hear actors say that they have a lot of downtime on the sets. it's true. lol!

carla, tammy, heather, and cindy. 

do i look so professional or what? lol! just going over some papers with one of the production dudes.  

at one point, i had to go pick out my projects. all the other ladies there had brought their stuff with them. but making memories has all my work from the past few years, and had sent it over to the location. there were piles and piles of all the design team's work. and i went through and found whatever i could that i had created. it was really neat to be able to see some of the other designers work up close. i could go through and pick out who made each project. and it was also neat to see my own projects again. i have some that i have really missed.

i'm pretty sure this is where i filmed my part. i wish someone had gotten pics of me when it was my turn. but we weren't free to watch all this part, since it was so crazy. when i was called in, this was completely filled with cameras, lights, reflectors, backdrops, microphones, a zillion cords, and about a trillion people. it was the most overwhelming thing ever in my life. i might have liked to have been shown around first, and given some practice runs. just to be able to take a few moments and take it all in. but i was basically brought in and plopped in the chair. it was crazy and nervewracking. i won't lie. i had people all around me, adjusting things, brushing my curls (which i NEVER brush my hair), putting more layers of lipgloss on me, moving microphones over my head. the heat from all the lights was making me sweat. then they told everyone to be quiet. and just like that, the trillion people stopped what they were doing and stared at me. no pressure, right? lol! omg, it was the hardest thing ever. i basically just answered questions. which doesn't seem that hard. but it is. i would lose my train of thought halfway into what i was going to say and i'd just stop talking. it was the longest 20 minutes of my life.

a bit later, they moved everything outside to the patio. i love this shot. it only shows a small percentage of what was going on. but i think it shows that this was a huge production.

they were filming the "crop party" out on the patio. they had a table all set up, with all the products and a slice for everyone to act like they were cropping. cindy was lucky enough to get to participate in this part. she did great too. carla and i were the only other people left at this point, so we were hanging out quietly in the backyard watching. which is why we managed to get some pics of cindy's part. lol! it was fun to watch and to listen in as they walked everyone through what they wanted them to be doing.

then carla and i got ahold of cindy's camera and decided to take a few pics of each other. i gave carla a few pointers and set up the camera all to my liking. i even remembered to put all cindy's setting back before i left. lol!

and one of her that i took.

then it was time for me to go. the car came, and i had to grab my stuff and leave. barely got to interrupt the filming long enough to say a quick good-bye to cindy. i wish i could have stayed another night with the girls and had more time to visit. it was such a quick trip. i got picked up in this snazzy car only 23 hours after a not quite so snazzy van dropped me off. but i had the best time and i was so tired once i got to the airport and sat down to wait for my plane. 

so, fast forward a month and a half. we hear that the infomercial is starting to air in select areas. and carla somehow manages to snag a copy from the production company (i'm still trying ;)). she wasn't sure how to tell me this. but neither of us are in the final cut. she was bummed. and i was bummed for her. i was sort of bummed for myself. but i knew that i still had projects that were in the actual infomercial. so i was oddly ok with not making the cut. maybe because i had a feeling that i didn't do that great. lol! i'm still waiting to actually see the final thing. but there is a short video up on this site. so i had to take a few screen shots.  
 

 

those pillows were my creations. i've never worked with fabric in my life, so i think i actually did pretty good considering. there's a shot where the young girls are hugging the pillows. the pillows i slaved over. kind of cool.

i also made those shirts. i'm not sure joe would wear the dad's shirt. but i totally would have worn the mom's shirt.

and i felt better knowing that this framed project of mine got some good air time. i think my girls look better on the screen than me anyways. lol! i know a lot of the making memories design team girls worked really hard on projects for this infomercial. and we had a lot of our previous projects shown here and there too. i know that when i finally do get to see this, i'm going to spend the first few viewings picking out who made what. lol! this was such a fun and crazy experience. even though i didn't end up in the final cut, i would do it all again. and i'm so glad i got to do it with such fun friends :)

you can read carla's blog post about her experience HERE. and you can read cindy's blog post about her experience HERE. 

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 ;)

just chillin cards

doing a really quick post tonight. figured i'd throw something pretty up here for you to look at. i'm starting to run low on projects that i can share. need to make more :)

both very simple. using the making memories just chillin collection (which is still on sale, btw). these were both published in the august issue of cards magazine. which i had totally forgot about, until i got my projects and magazine copies back yesterday. love surprises like that :)

this dinosaur could be me

so, you all know i do daycare. i watch little ones all day, all week. they're hilarious little people. i know some days grate on my nerves and we all have moments. but i will say one thing. i laugh more than ever with these kids. half the time, i'm laughing at my own funny-ness. is that a word? it is now. and i know that i really am funny. because they tell me i am. "wauwra, you're so funny". i hear that a lot. "wauwra, you're so crazy". i hear that a lot too. they say what they hear. and i'm always telling them that they're craaaazzyyyy!

the other half of the time, i'm laughing at them or the crazy things they do. like the things they leave around the house, as they're going thru their day. they pick stuff up, they play, they drop that stuff where ever they happen to be when they spot something better. i find a lot of interesting things in interesting places. play food in the kitchen towel drawer. an entire puzzle dumped in the diaper basket. cars lined up on the kleenex box in the bathroom. books on the floor in the laundry room. dollhouse furniture in the nooks of the couch. crayons under the seat cushions in the kitchen. you get the drift.

so this afternoon, i got haley up from her nap and was snuggling with her on the couch while we waited for nikolas to wake up. the tv was on and we were watching the "wonder pets". you know, the episode where the little doggie has to pee really, really bad. but he can't figure out how to get out of the house. so the wonder pets come to his rescue and brainstorm a way to get him outside. they finally realize that there's a doggie door built into the door, and they convince the doggie to go thru it. so he runs over to a bush and proceeds to pee. and then all the wonder pets follow him, and they proceed to pee also. which i find somewhat disturbing. but i'm not sure why. it's a natural thing. and they did all go over to the faucet afterwards, and wash their hands. lol! then the little boy owner walks out and says "good boy, you used your doggie door all by yourself". and i'm thinking "dude, why didn't you mention this new door to your little doggie in the first place?". lol!

sorry, i totally digressed. but tell me that wasn't hilarious! maybe it's just that this is what my days have become, so only i would find this so hilarious. but maybe some of you can relate, so i share. lol! so i was sitting there watching the show. and i looked at the shelf next to the tv. and what did i see?

this had to be the funniest thing today. in between the photo albums and alyssa's textbooks for school, was this dinosaur. someone, and i'm not naming names (ahem*niko/haley*ahem), had stuck this dinosaur's head in between these books. all i saw was his little dinosaur tush sticking out, with his long tail. it's like he was hiding out. i laughed so hard at this. i mean, i was seriously cracking up. haley didn't quite get it. she thought it was funny, but she didn't understand WHY it was so funny to me.

this dinosaur could be me right now. i sort of want to do what he's doing. stick my head somewhere and pretend that nothing else is going on around me. go to my "happy place" and have some quiet time. i seem to have way too much going on this week. and last week and i'm pretty sure next week too. i'm not ever sure i could tell you what i have going on, because i keep forgetting things that should be on my list. i'm overwhelmed with things to do, and things to take care of. don't get me wrong. it's good stuff. all of it is great stuff. i'll even say it's incredible stuff. but it's still a lot of stuff to do and keep track of. and in some ways, i have been just like this dinosaur. i've had plenty of moments this week where i knew i had stuff to do, but choose to ignore it. then i wake up the next day, and am more frazzled because i then have double the stuff to do. lol! i never learn.

i meant to come on here and post a funny picture that made me laugh a lot today. and somehow, in true "laura style", i've managed to write a novel ;) 

i got to play along for this super cute project

have you heard or seen the tuesday tutorial's over ali edwards blog every week? well, one of my fellow making memories design team girls is lucky enough to be hosting this: 

wilna furstenberg has such an artsy, cute style that has always intriqued me. so when she asked for a few volunteers to do a test run of her tutorial for her, i was totally up for it. i had no clue what it was about until i said "yes". then i saw "starbucks" and was excited. this was a new twist to the starbucks album idea, since she had created another super cute version a while back. go check out all the info and downloads HERE.  

this album was made using a tall starbucks coffee cup. isn't it the cutest thing? this is a great little album to document your love of starbucks and the people you like to enjoy your starbucks with. i usually drink mine alone, at the house, while working. although i do have my starbucks addict friends, that i talk about starbucks and how happy it makes us. lol!

i followed wilna's tutorial for just about every part of this album. there were a few things i didn't do. like the stitching. that would be super cute on there, but i'm not a stitcher. and the binding part. i didn't have the adhesive that she mentioned, so i just sort of winged putting this all together. my spine of the album isn't perfect, but it's all good. i used elastic cording to hold the pages in place, and then tied ribbons along the edge. for my photos, i just used a few shots of myself. and my starbucks. not a lot of deep journaling. just a few fun notes. and i also added a few of my old gift cards in, just because i've been holding onto them forever. and then added some random embellishments here and there. here's the inside pages.

 

it's such an artsy little album, that sits up on the top of my scrap shelf now. just for fun and i love it. wilna put a ton of work into this, and i think she did a fabulous job. so please go check it out and give it a try. all the info is HERE on ali's blog. and then go check out wilna's blog HERE, to see the other designers that she asked to play along, find the link to the flickr gallery to see our projects, and to also leave her a sweet comment to be entered in a drawing for some making memories goodies!