Love Always - Scrapbook Circle

I'm sharing on the Scrapbook Circle blog again today, this time a layout featuring some fun stickers by Seven Paper (Studio Calico):

These trendy icon stickers are in the January Fresh Start kit. I saved most of the sheet for my planner (because they are adorable! and gold!), but chose a few favorites for this page.

Besides the main kit, I also used this add-on. I just love the giant Maggie Holmes alphas!

I wanted the colors of the photos to stand out, so I kept the rest of the page neutral: white, gold, black and cork. You can see the theme of my layout - always, every day - in the title and the calendar background paper. I love how a year-at-a-glance calendar makes some great white space.

You can see my post on the Scrapbook Circle blog here and find the Fresh Start kit here. Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Let's Get Together - Scrapbook Circle

Have you seen the July kit - You are My Favorite - at Scrapbook Circle? Oh my goodness, I love it! It's filled with Crate Paper, American Crafts, Pink Paislee.... It's awesome. I had the chance to create a layout for the One Item Wonder feature on the Scrapbook Circle blog all about the exclusive stencil included in the kit:

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Precocious Paper. I do receive financial compensation and products from Scrapbook Circle to develop certain blog posts, but all of the ideas and opinions are my own.

I used the stencil to add some much-needed blue to my page. I simply traced the stencil and filled the space with a waterbrush and Distress Ink. You can read more here.

I used papers from the 6x6 Dear Lizzy Fine and Dandy paper pad. You can find it - and the Maggie Holmes title - in the add-on here. That darling wood veneer bow is Maggie Holmes, too. I need a whole sheet of bows! You can find it in this add-on here.

Visit Scrapbook Circle here, and keep up with them here and here. Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy your day :). Tessa

My Story - The Studio Challenges

When people remark about my kids' blond hair, they are usually surprised when I tell them that I was born blond (my husband, too!). My hair is much darker now, but here's proof that once upon a time, I had blond locks like my kiddos:

Aren't those pigtails adorable? I can't wait until Addie's hair is long enough for pigtails! The latest challenge at The Studio is to create a page about a childhood memory. I recently stumbled upon this photo of myself (3 years old maybe?) and decided to make my layout about my early memories of frilly, pretty dresses.

I used Maggie Holmes' Open Book collection. I thought it was the perfect compliment to my theme. The Open Book bobby pins are adorable, and they even work well in Addie's hair, but they are awfully bulky on a layout. A mini album cover would be fine, but I had to alter this pin for my page. I snapped the back of the pin off and used hot glue to adhere it to the tag. For all you knew, that cute little deer was pinned to that tag, huh?!

I have fond  memories of twirling in dresses and I'm sure those early years are the reason I look for vintage dresses for Adlyn. I wish my mom had saved mine.

If you'd like to play along at The Studio Challenges, you can find the challenge post here. Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

New Art Journal - Love My Tapes

Hello! I'm excited to share with you a new ongoing project - my art journal. When I say "art journal", I mean my baby-steps venturing into art journaling. I'm not a really messy, artsy kind of girl, but I've been itching to play with stamps and watercolors, so I've decided to create this book of quotations. I'm going to play, get my feet wet, but it will be pretty clean and simple. All of the quotes will come from LDS General Conference addresses. The first two I created were chosen because gratitude has been on my mind all month:

For this page, I used pink airmail washi tape from Love My Tapes. You can read more about it at the Love My Tapes blog here, including a tip for using the right ink for washi tape.

I LOVE the Open Book collection by Maggie Holmes, and I am obsessed with these flower and leaf die-cuts. Every single line of scrapbooking supplies should come with a package of die-cut flowers and leaves. In my opinion ;).

I used a $5 set of watercolors from Michaels to paint "grateful". I really like the contrast of the ballet pink and teal.

For this page, I used My Mind's Eye washi tape and more Open Book flowers. I went with yellow and green because I love the way those two work together.

I love how this quote is a gentle reminder to stop complaining ;).

I also love stamping one letter at a time. I could hand write the quotes, but stamping them forces me to take time to ponder the words. By the time I finish, I have a better understanding of what the words mean than when I started.

I'm behind on sharing my Attitude of Gratitude posts here on the blog, but I do intend to catch up this week. If we're Facebook friends or you follow me on Instagram, you know I had a crazy week with much to be grateful for. ;)

Attitude of Gratitude day 17: I'm grateful for my boys' teachers. I say this every year because parent teacher conferences always fall in November, but it's true. Some years I connect with their teachers more than others. Some years the boys connect with their teachers more than others. Most years are relatively smooth and successful. Others are hard. This has been a hard one. So much adjusting, growing up, and learning how to parent three students instead of just two, and all that with a baby. But I'm so grateful for all that my boys' teachers do, and even if I don't care for policies or curriculum, I'm behind them 100% because they are literally raising my kids with me.

Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Love You - The Studio

There's a new challenge up at The Studio Challenges and it's BIG: use a photo larger than 4x6 on a layout. Considering I generally use 3x3 photos, this one was a huge change of pace and so much fun!

This gigantic photo started as an iPhone/instagram photo. Not sure what the quality would be like, I blew it up to an 11x14 and had it printed at Sam's Club. I loved how it turned out!

Funny story.... I was in line to pay for my purchases at Sam's and pulled out the photo to have a good look. I noticed something on her face and realized that she had a big drop of drool on her chin (yes, we were teething). I had never noticed the drool before because the photo had always been too small to see it. I love how blowing up the photo added that detail to my layout's story. :)

I trimmed the photo down to 11x12, then adhered it to a 12x12 piece of cardstock. I covered the remaining inch with tags and die-cuts from Maggie Holmes' Open Book collection.

I am head over heels IN LOVE with this collection. Seriously. If I could decorate my whole house in papers from this line, I would. I bought almost everything and have the rest on the wishlist for my next shopping excursion. I love every single piece.

Another funny story.... When I finished the layout, I showed it to Jaxon (my five year old). He said, "Oh, she's so cute," and preceded to plant a kiss right on her face in the photo! So now there's a lip mark below her eye. I'm not sure how archival that will be in the long run. Might need to replace the photo eventually ;). I'm glad he loves her so much, though!

If you'd like to play along with the big photo challenge at The Studio, you can find the challenge post here. The design team has done an amazing job with this challenge, so even if you don't play, you'll love checking out their layouts.

Happy Little Life - Love My Tapes

Hello! Last week I had the opportunity to share a layout on the Love My Tapes blog:

I started with a photo leftover from my Be Yourself mini album (see yesterday's post). I love the combination of dark blue and kelly green right now, so I chose patterned paper that would compliment that. I used a Project Life card for my title, and embellished with a Maggie Holmes bow:

I shopped my stash and rediscovered these vellum banners by Crate Paper. Love these!

I added some Love My Tapes lace tape to the side of my photo for a little more texture.

To bring in more green, I used Love My Tapes washi tape to create a border on my page. When I put the washi tape down, I placed it over my page and my table so that it stuck my layout to the table. Then I misted my cardstock and let it dry. Because the washi tape was holding the paper down, it stayed nice and flat as it dried.

You can find my post at Love My Tapes here. Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa