Bloom - Bella Blvd.

I'm sharing a new layout on the Bella Blvd. blog today. The theme this week is Spring and Easter. My absolute favorite part of Spring is flowers. The California poppies that grow along side the roads, the daffodils, the blossoms on the trees. I love it all! So, I had to create a layout just full of pretty blossoms featuring a photo of my little girl last year:

You can read about my mixed-media approach on the Bella Blvd. blog here.

These layered circle flowers are a bit of a throw-back in the scrapbooking world, but I had a ton of fun making them and adding them to this page.

The Bella Blvd. Make Your Mark collection was perfect for this layout. So bright, paint-y and fun! Soon I'll be sharing projects made with their new lines. Can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

20 Minute Layout - Bella Blvd.

Hello, friends! I was a little ambitious with my most recent project for Bella Blvd.

I know this doesn't look very ambitious, but can you believe it took 1/5 the time I usually spend on a layout? We were challenged to create a project in 20 minutes and I decided to go for a 12x12 layout. Crazy? Pretty much, considering I usually take at least an hour. Not counting sketching and gathering materials, I made it with less than a second to spare.

See the post at Bella Blvd. here.

See my process on my YouTube channel here.

Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Brave - Bella Blvd.

Hello, hello! I'm sharing this colorful layout on the Bella Blvd. blog today and thought it would be nice to share the story behind it here.

A few months ago Addie went to her first professional audition. Four years old and she was auditioning for a part in a Broadway show! This would be the first time she would go into a studio without her mama as the teacher. I was so nervous for her!

We did a little photo shoot so that we had a decent headshot. There was no time to book a photographer for a professional headshot, and really, this isn't something we do often (like, not at all) and I hoped my photography skills would be good enough. I got some amazing pictures -- this girl is a hoot to photograph! So many looks! The one on this layout is one of my favorites.

I remember wondering what she was thinking. Was she nervous about the audition? Scared? As it turns out, yes, but she was also BRAVE! I was so proud of my little girl! She was the fourth one to go in, and parents were not allowed. She went into the next room, did her thing, then came back grinning. I was so proud of her!

She didn't end up getting the part, and that was quite the life lesson to learn at four years old, but now I have an experience to remind her of when she's having a hard time. I can say, "Remember that audition? You were so brave! You can do hard things!"

For all the scrapbooking details, see the Bella Blvd. blog here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! Tessa

So Fly - Bella Blvd.

Hello! Did you know that on August 23rd it's National Ride the Wind Day? I had no idea what this was, so I did a little research. It commemorates the anniversary of the first human-powered flight to win the Kremer prize. Pretty cool.

At Bella Blvd. we're creating projects based on all these random national days, so in the spirit of Ride the Wind Day and human-powered flight, here's my layout featuring a kite.

 

You can read more about the elements of this page at the Bella Blvd. blog here. I love horizontal strips of pattern and color - it's a design I recycle all the time. The Island Escape collection has some lovely B-sides and florals and this was a great way to get all my favorites on the page.

Thinking of kites made me think of last year's One Little Word - RISE.

I'm finding this sentiment very comforting right now. Maybe it can be of value to you, too.

Here's to rising with adversity instead of succumbing to it! Tessa

Happy National Sisters Day! - Bella Blvd.

Hello and Happy National Sisters Day! Ok, the official day was Sunday, but today on the Bella Blvd. blog I am sharing a really fun page celebrating one of my sisters :).

The Addison collection by Bella Blvd. couldn't have been more perfect to scrap this photo from a girls' trip to San Diego a few years ago. I made a beachy mini album of the trip, but I didn't do a lot of layouts, so it was fun to go back and match up the bright, fun colors of Addison with a photo from dinner.

I used the 6x8 paper pad to punch out dozens of 1.25 inch circles that I then folded and glued together to make flowers. The centers are fun buttons from my stash, stitched with embroidery floss.

A few hand-cut leaves in a contrasting yellow made them pop against my paint-scraped background. I just adore the Illustrated Faith paints!

See more at the Bella Blvd. blog here.

Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Technique Tuesday + Giveaway

Hello, friends! I recently had the wonderful opportunity to work with some fabulous stamps and dies from Technique Tuesday:

If it's not alphas or phrases, I'm not much of a stamper when it comes to layouts. But, these dragonflies were so fun to play with - and they stamped like a dream! My little girl, pictured here, recently learned about dragonflies and thinks they are pretty amazing, so she was extra excited to see me scrapbooking the two of us together with these stamps and dies.

I started by stamping the different dragonflies onto heavy cardstock with StazOn ink. Next, I used watercolors to paint the dragonflies in an ombre-inspired pattern from light pink to mustard yellow. Once dry, I used the die to cut out my dragonflies (so much faster and easier than fussy cutting!).

After watercoloring the background, I adhered the dragonflies to my page just at the body - the wings are free to bend and curl away from the page to give the feeling of flight.

I also used one of the sentiment stamps as a sub-title on my page. I love those fonts together!

Are you a stamper? How would you like to win some scrapbooking stamps and supplies from Technique Tuesday? Here's how:

1) Check out Scrapbooking Stamps & Scrapbook Supplies at Technique Tuesday.

2) Choose your favorite set.

3) Go to this Technique Tuesday blog post HERE.

4) Leave a comment below about your favorite stamp set - I'd love to know what you choose!

5) Technique Tuesday will pick a winner on August 1st!

Thank you to Technique Tuesday for the opportunity to play with such quality products. It was really fun to get messy with ink, paint and stamps for a layout!

Thank YOU for stopping by and good luck! Tessa

Elle's Studio October Reveal

Hello, hello! If we aren't connected on Instagram or Facebook, you may just now be realizing that I kinda dropped off the face of the internet. At least, in terms of blogging. My last post was written right before the dreaded morning sickness began. I'm now 25 weeks along with my baby girl, and just getting back into the scrappy swing of things, including designing with fantastic Elle's Studio product again!

The October kit (and my scrappy hiatus) inspired me to get inky and painty on a page. The fall vibe of the kit led me to these photos from last autumn, and the leaves in the photos inspired me to use two add-ons: this stamp set and these wood veneer leaves.

I began by stamping leaves with versamark ink onto vellum. I embossed the leaves with white embossing powder. I think next time I will use clear, but I like how this turned out. Next, I watercolored the leaves in shades of yellow, gold and orange. When they dried, they crumpled up like real fallen leaves.

This stamp set inspired by title: "Every Day I Fall for You". I stamped the days of the week down the page, scattered my stamped leaves and included the wood veneer leaves. Some thread and paint splatters give it that windswept and boot-crinkled feel.

For this page, I was inspired by the gorgeous green in the kit. Even though this photo isn't the greatest, my little girl loves it and has been wanting me to scrapbook it for weeks. I printed it extra large and used patterned paper from the Family Fun collection to make the left border.

I clustered bits and pieces from the kit and add-ons on the right side of the page and added my journaling.

I hand-cut my title out of more Family Fun paper and used alpha stickers to complete the phrase. A little tab from the kit brings more green to the left side.

You may still be able to grab this kit and the fantastic extras at shopellesstudio.com.

Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Everyday Adventures Travelers Notebook - Elle's Studio

I'm excited to share my latest TN with you today on the Elle's Studio blog. Elle's Studio has just released a mini album class called "Everyday Adventures", complete with a kit filled with fabulous product for making your own mini album. Inspired by the class, I was asked to put that kit to use on a mini album of my own and I chose to fill my jade Webster's Pages TN:

Every Mother's Day I try to get the kids together for a decent picture. The group photo doesn't usually turn out well, but I do manage to get pretty good selfies with each kiddo. I made the theme of my TN "Everyday Adventures in being Mom". The pages feature anecdotes of daily life, things I love about my kids, and quotes about motherhood. Each child has a few pages, and even though I have four, I didn't fill up a whole TN insert. I'm planning to save the other half for next year's Mother's Day selfies.

The kit is made up mostly of the new Live, Laugh, Love collection. 6x6 papers (great size for a TN), enamel dots, puffy stickers, wood veneer, bits and pieces (die-cuts), etc. The "Everyday Adventures" stamp set is probably my most favorite Elle's Studio stamp set to date!

There are also printable elements. I don't have a color printer at the moment, so I went to my local Staples and printed two copies of each sheet. I printed on nice copy paper so that the elements would stay as thin as possible. However, I didn't shy away from using the cardstock-weight labels and cut apart journaling spots.

I learned a good lesson as I was putting this together over several sittings. Because of all the small pieces, I was "losing" things under others and forgetting what I had to work with. So, I piled like items together in an arc around my desk space and was really disciplined about returning items back to their pile if I didn't use them. My productivity skyrocketed at that point ;).

Would you like to see more? I'm still finishing up several pages and plan to do a video flip-through very soon. I'll share more photos and a link here. In the meantime, I cannot recommend the "Everyday Adventures" class enough! Sign up here, and pick up the class kit here. You'll be so glad you did.

Happy creating and thanks for stopping by :). Tessa

Elle's Studio February Kit Reveal

Hello, friends! Today is the day! The February Elle's Studio kit is available now and I finally get to share in full two projects that I made for the gallery.

"Love these Crazy Kids" - The first layout I made is this super colorful one. The mix of colors in this month's kit inspired me to get out my watercolors, which then inspired me to pull out my embroidery floss :). Using my Silhouette Cameo, I cut the word love repeatedly in a font with a very circular "o". I knew I wanted to fit one of the acrylic heart pieces inside and just my luck, my first attempt was the perfect size!

I loved the black and white 4x6 card (kit) featuring the word "love" in all these different fonts. It just called for watercolors! I tucked other 3x4 cards (kit) around my photos, too. I love a good set of alpha stickers, and these black ones were perfect for finishing my title.

I told you I am not much of a stamper, but I really enjoy using the little stamps Elle's Studio has to offer. The "What Happened" set was so easy to add to nooks and crannies of this layout for an extra special touch. I stamped in the tag up at the top as well as near my journaling on this page. And that speech bubble sticker? Love!

"XO Dance" - This layout is all about how much I love my job. Teaching dance really is the best :). I took a very different approach to color with this page and focused on gray, black and white elements from the kit with a pop of red.

For my background, I used the Jonah stamp to stamp "joy" in several places. I guess I'm on a kick of filling letter o's, because I used red embroidery floss to then stitch little hearts in each "o". I love the texture and bright pop of color!

The large "XO" acrylic pieces combined with the gray alpha stickers make up my title. I hope the acrylic trend sticks around for quite some time - I love how flat and yet dimensional it is on a layout. I added a die cut heart from the kit to the acrylic "o" for more color and some fun detail.

Speaking of little details, I stapled tags to the white space area in my photo, and popped one up on foam adhesive in another open space. Whenever I need a "little something", I know Elle's Studio can help me out.

I punched the gray striped hearts from patterned paper in the Little Moments collection, and I mounted my layout on another paper from that same collection.

If you aren't already a subscriber, I encourage you to check it out. I love this little box of happy that arrives every month! If you're trying to be smart about how you spend your paper crafting dollars, this is a great deal. The pieces are easy to mix and match with your other supplies (and the add-ons), and you get a lot of really useful pieces for just $9.99 (today only or with subscription - price goes to $11.99 tomorrow). You also get free (in the US) or reduced (international) shipping on any extras you add to your box.


Find all the details here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! Tessa