A is for Apricot

For some reason, I pronounce the word "apricot" incorrectly. Instead of the long "a" sound, if I don't think about it, I say the short "a" sound. I must not have ever been corrected as a child and it just stuck. One of my favorite jams is the apricot jam my mother-in-law makes, and my husband has caught me quite a few times asking him if he wanted "aaahpricot" jam instead of "aypricot" jam on his pb&j. It's weird, I know. And now you know one of my many quirks. 

Anyway, the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World is all about the lovely apricot:

I needed to make a white elephant gift for a party, so I pulled the orange and teal tones from the inspiration image to decorate a tag:

I clipped the doily to the bag so that whoever ends up with my gift can reuse the tag. The gift is an act of service rather than an object, so on the inside is a simple card with my gift and contact information. 

The wrapping is a simple brown paper bag, folded in half. The bag is easily reused, too :).

If you'd like to play along with the Moxie Fab World this week, here are the details. Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Winter Blossoms

Happy Friday, all! I am getting ready to ship off all of my CHA assignments, but wanted to say hello first. While I was working on my layouts for the GCD Studios booth, I decided to take a little mental break and make something completely unrelated. I had just read the Winter Blossoms challenge at MoxieFab World earlier that day and thought that a card was the perfect mini project to rejuvenate my creativity. This is the inspiration:

And this is my take:

I was inspired by shape, color, and the festive feel. I made my round flowers by die-cutting layers of vintage book paper. I then colored each flower with Twinkling H2O's (watercolors with shimmer) and secured the centers with pearl brads.

If you look closely in the photo, you can see a circle garland between the pom poms, so I mimicked that look with some gold, circle confetti. A few drops of gray mist helped add to the confetti look and brought out the text in the flowers.

I made the sentiment with an SRM Sticker, using only the words "to you" so that I can use this card for just about anything one day in the future. I believe the entire sentiment is really "Happy Birthday to you" :).

You can find the Winter Blossoms challenge here. Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

I card I hope I won't need...

Today's challenge at The Paper Variety is to create something with a "Get Well Soon" theme. 

I pulled out the new faith-based, inspirational stickers from SRM and decided on the sentiment "Sending Prayers".  If there is only one thing I am learning in life, it is that prayer is needed all. the. time.  Every situation warrants prayer, whether it be to ask for blessings or to give thanks.  I figured that a card that says "Sending Prayers" is a good one to have on hand for all kinds of hurts, physical and otherwise.

Play along at The Paper Variety this week and you could win this gorgeous Sophia Kit from Close to My Heart demonstrator, Dana:

I hope you'll join us!  Have a great day! Tessa

P.S. - I've got a bounce in my step today because of this.  So excited :).

Playing with tape...

I love tape! Inspired by the Get Daring with Decorative Tape Challenge at Moxie Fab World, I thought I'd play with a set of tapes I picked up recently.

Tape wrapped around pearl head pins makes cute flags, especially when they are perched on dimensional hills.

I created this banner by sticking tape to itself over a piece of embroidery thread.  I trimmed the pieces into triangles and secured the banner with mini staples.

For this card, I laid down several pieces of tape and added my sentiments directly to the tape.  I love my SRM Stickers!

Here they all are :).  Each one will have a new home soon.  A few girls at church have birthdays this week and off in the mail these taped up cards are going :). 

Thanks for stopping by today!  If you missed my post from earlier today, you can find it here :).  Tessa

Trigger Happy with Sketchy Thursdays

When I saw the new sketch at Sketchy Thursdays, I knew exactly which photos I wanted to scrap - shots of the barn and Jaxon at the pumpkin patch.  I LOVE fall and I LOVE creating with fall colors, but I was hoping to do something a little different with this one.  Then I saw it - the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World - all bright and beautiful blue!  Blue is not a color I typically think of for fall, but since Jaxon was wearing a blue hoodie, I decided to make it work.  Paired with mustard yellow, I love the result!

The layout:

The sketch:

The Tuesday Trigger:

It's day four of my Attitude of Gratitude challenge and I am SO happy to see everyone playing along!  I'm having a hard time finding just one thing to express each day.  Just this morning I'm grateful for cuddling in the covers with my boys, their blue eyes, and wet wipes :).  But officially for day four I'm grateful for music.  I attended a special program last night honoring the young women at church.  The leader of our congregation spoke about how music had touched his life in very sweet ways and the young women sang a beautiful song.  Being a dancer I think I am even more sensitive to the influences of music, and I am so grateful for the musical talents of others that we can so freely enjoy.

What are you grateful for today?  Have a good one! Tessa

A love note

Just a little love note I made for my hubby, inspired by the Moxie Fab World challenge to play with damask prints. 

I thought it would be fun to try to make something masculine with damask, which is a print I more often think of as girlie or pretty.  I love the result!

And yes, that is my favorite color scheme again :).  Have a great weekend! Tessa

Hello Friend

I had the itch to make a card, so inspired by this post at Moxie Fab World, I took some time this evening to create.  I took on the "Fun with Fabric" challenge and came up with this everyday card.

I used two of the handmade yo-yo posies you can find in my Etsy shop, Precocious Paper, here.  I didn't stop there with the fabric, though.

First, I used acid-free spray adhesive to coat a spare piece of cardstock.  Next, I placed a scrap of fabric lightly on the cardstock.  As I pressed the fabric into the adhesive, I pleated, wrinkled and crinkled the fabric.  I let it set for a few minutes then cut the landscape shape with a pair of scissors, trimming it to the size of my card.  I love the dimension the little wrinkles give the background, as well as the texure of the fabric.

Today is the first day of a free online class called "Creativity Bootcamp".  I opted to use an ivory-colored cardstock because the word of the day is "ivory".  At first I reached for kraft, but I'm glad I went with ivory :).  I think my hand-doodling and handwriting pops more that way.  I have no idea what to expect from this course, but I do always enjoy hearing other people's perspective on being creative, and I hope to learn a lot about myself and be inspired in the next two weeks.

I hope your weekend was fabulous!  Tessa