Elle's Studio January Kit Reveal

Hello, everyone! The January kit, which I gave you a sneak peek of yesterday, is now available!

Having worked with a few of these kits now, I can honestly say they are an incredible value. I can make several layouts with these little packets of paper goodness, plus have leftovers for cards, my planner, and extra things like gift tags. Here are a couple more projects that I made this month with the kit and some fabulous add-ons:

Supplies: January Kit, Olivia Stamp (title), Sequins (Love Mix), Acrylic Frosted Hearts.

This girl cracks me up. She's such a jazz dancer. Not a ballerina at all. The bright colors in the January kit reminded me of these photos and they were a match made in heaven!

But the kit can definitely do something more monotone and manly, also:

Supplies: January Kit, All My Heart Stamps, Sequins (Love Mix), Large Acrylic Stars.

I pulled the blacks, grays, and yellows from the January kit for this one. I pulled out my typewriter and combined typed journaling with stamped words. I love the way it turned out and will probably use this technique again soon.

I love the large acrylic stars that are new in the shop. Such a great embellishment for guy pages!

If you're interested in picking up the kit, or even subscribing (guaranteed a kit every month for the launch price of $9.99 + free shipping on things you add to your cart on the 10th), go here. There is so much to love that's new in the shop right now. Be sure to check it out :).

What's your favorite part of the reveal today? Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Scrapbook Circle and The Cut Shoppe Blog Hop

Hello! Today I am hopping with Scrapbook Circle and The Cut Shoppe. If you just happened upon this post and would like to start from the beginning, click here. If you just arrived from Diana Fisher's blog, you're in the right place :).

Scrapbook Circle and The Cut Shoppe have partnered to bring you digi-cut inspiration with the June kit. I mixed elements from the main kit and add-ons, and layered them on the Straight as an Arrow background.

I decided to keep the background subtle by cutting it out of vellum. I treated the die-cut vellum like an overlay and attached it to my white cardstock background with staples. Working with The Cut Shoppe file was easy-peasy, and the design is awesome - just the right amount of whimsy.

I love the exclusive flair in the kit this month! This piece was perfect - a touch of red, a great sentiment, an awesome font.

I also love the travel lines from Pink Paislee and My Mind's Eye that are in the June kit. While the two lines each have their own look, the pieces in the kit blend together really well.

Before I send you on to the last stop on the Scrapbook Circle side of this hop, be sure to leave a comment at each blog as you go. Scrapbook Circle is giving away a $20.00 gift certificate to The Cut Shoppe to one lucky commenter. Then, be sure to hop with The Cut Shoppe and leave comments to win the Scrapbook Circle June kit.

Head on over to Lisa Andrew's blog next. I hope you've enjoyed the hop! Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Pink Paislee and PageMaps

The Pink Paislee design team had the fantastic opportunity to contribute to PageMaps this month - happy June, by the way! Using the Atlas collection, we all created layouts in various sizes. You can see the gallery here, and win the Atlas collection for yourself here. This is the sketch I was lucky to work with:

I've had the chance to contribute a few times before, and every time I find PageMaps so easy to work with! Even if a particular PageMap doesn't scream my style, it still works. And that's the sign of a great sketch :). Here's my take:

I started with a white cardstock background, then used the gold foil map overlay on the left and a patterned paper (same design as the overlay) on the right. I used tickets for some of the banner strips, as well as ephemera pieces. The Atlas ephemera is the best. I love every little piece!

I didn't quite place my photos in the same positions as the sketch, but where they fell worked for my pictures. I put my title in the same place, but decided that I didn't want to cover up any more of the overlay with a circular base.

I love the boyish charm Atlas can have, so I knew from the beginning I wanted to work with photos of my boys. When I was planning my page, the two oldest were reading. At that moment I decided to include one of my favorite quotes about books and travel and to take photos of the boys the next time we went to the library.

Thanks to Becky at PageMaps for the opportunity to design with another fabulous sketch! Be sure to check out the gallery and details on winning the Atlas prize! Have a great day! Tessa

Library Pocket - Pretty Little Studio

Hello! Do your kids do AR? Accelerated Reader? It's a program that helps determine the difficulty range of books appropriate for your child. Students take quizzes on the books they read and acquire points. Each child has a point goal set by their teacher, and at our school there are also rewards for the number of words read. My boys have loved this program and it has helped them turn into voracious readers. My 5th grader has a problem, though.

Carson can't keep track of everything he has read. I know, that's not really a "problem", but this is of great concern to him. ;) Teachers try to give kids plenty of opportunities to take the quizzes, but Carson reads so fast that he often has three or four books to test on once his turn comes around. He will sometimes forget which books he has read and still needs to take a quiz for.

For example, he read the Harry Potter series at the beginning of 4th grade. He managed to test on all of them except the first one. He still reached his point goal, but his main reading goal has been the million word club. In 4th grade he made it to the 3 million word club. Only one other student did that (his brother, Colten) and one amazing reader made the 4 million word club. Carson would have made the 4 million word club if he had not forgotten to take that Harry Potter quiz. Bummer, right?!

So, to be more organized this year (his goal is a crazy 5 million words!), we brainstormed ways to keep better track of what he has finished. We started with a whiteboard, but that was boring. Now, we use this cute library pocket :).

You can find instructions and a supply list at the Pretty Little Studio blog. I used the Silly Monkey collection and I can't wait to use more for scrapbook layouts of my boys. It's a really cute line and you can check it out here.

Now Carson has another problem. He needs ideas for books to read! If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments here or on my facebook page. We appreciate it!

Have a good one! Tessa

PS - I have some not-so-spooky Halloween decor up on the Chickaniddy Crafts blog today! Check it out here. :)

Hey! 10 Year Old! - SRM Stickers

Thank you for all the well wishes yesterday! I'm excited to be "home" again in some capacity for SRM Stickers :). Our May challenge is live and the theme is BIRTHDAYS! My son Carson's birthday was just a few days ago and for my take on the challenge, I scrapbooked an instagram photo we took that day:

It was so fun pulling out my SRM stash for this! For the words and phrases mixed in with my journaling, I used Sentiment/Happy Birthday and We've Got Your Border/Birthday.

 

Here you can see the celebration definition sticker. It's from the Say it With Stickers/Birthday sheet. I love these definition stickers! I need a whole dictionary's worth :). For my title, I used a combination of alpha stickers, a die-cut and SRM Sticker numbers from the We've Got Your Number/Extra Large White sheet. I love the white stickers so much.

Did you know that SRM Stickers goes beyond stickers? They have all sorts of containers and gift wrapping supplies, too. I used a small glassine bag to mat my photo. I love the "confetti" sequins and star stickers pouring out!

If you'd like to play along with us, be sure to visit the SRM Challenge blog for all the details (and more inspiration from the fabulous design team).

After you're done checking out all the stickers I linked above, be sure to stop by Scrapbook Circle to check out the May kit, High Five. I used a combination of the kit and add-ons to create this page. You can use code tessa20off to get 20% off of your first order with Scrapbook Circle. I promise, you're welcome ;).

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day! Tessa

DCWV and Therm O Web Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop of the DCWV and Therm O Web Summer Lovin’ blog hop! If you've just arrived from Erin's blog, you are in the right place. If not, feel free to start at the beginning here.

Today, the design teams from DCWV and Therm O Web have brought together all the things we love about summer. The designers have combined paper from DCWV’s Sunday Afternoon and Everlasting Love stacks, together with a variety of adhesives, mists and other fantastic products from Therm O Web. My project features the Sunday Afternoon stack:

Living in Northern California, nothing signals the beginning of summer to me like Mother's Day. Mother's Day usually arrives the same time as hotter weather, and this year was no exception! So when my hubby got cute and called me a "hot mama", he really could have meant it literally.

Yes, I spent part of my roasting hot Mother's Day in the air-conditioned confines of the emergency room! I'll let you read my journaling, printed on vellum and adhered with iCraft adhesive, for the back story:

I didn't want to print my journaling on cardstock, but I knew that if I used vellum, I would have to hide adhesive marks. Then I thought to use the iCraft sheets, and although the vellum lost a little bit of its transparency, it's still see-through and subtle enough. I used a typewriter font 1) because it's my favorite journaling font, and 2) because it matched the typewriter patterned paper from the Sunday Afternoon stack. Besides the patterned papers from the stack (all adhered with my Sticky Tape Runner), I also pulled all the cardstock from my DCWV stash, including the cardstock used to die cut my title on my Silhouette Cameo (Aharoni and Soymilk fonts).

I embellished with buttons and wood veneer, using Zots singles to adhere each one to my page.

My favorite Therm O Web product to play with was the Sticky Lines. I used them to adhere the ribbon "frame" behind my photo. I hate adding ribbon to layouts because it can be such a pain to glue down, but these lines made it easy-peasy.

So there's my ode to the beginning of summer! Many thanks to DCWV and Therm O Web for the chance to play with your fabulous products! If you'd like to get your hands on some of these goodies, be sure to visit all the blogs today, and leave comments for your chance to win! Two lucky readers will win a set of 3 stacks from DCWV, and an additional reader will receive an amazing gift pack from Therm O Web! The more you comment, the more chances you have to win!
Your next stop on the hop is Karen. Thanks for visiting and good luck! Tessa

Triangles

Hello! Wow, it has only been a week since I posted last, but it seems like forever! The past several days have been so full that they could have been spread out over a month and it still would have been a quick pace. Cub camp, dance studio's big annual showcase, Father's Day, getting my baby sister engaged.... Yes! You read that right ;). My sisters and I choreographed a lip dub proposal and it went off without a hitch. As soon as we have all the video edited, I will share - promise! If we're Facebook friends, you can see the rough edits on my page.

As for scrapbooking, I have a layout up on the GCD Studios blog for Triangles Week. I had a lot of fun with this one. Easy-peasy, colorful, and all about the photo.

Carson took this photo on my phone. He's a little photog with an iPhone in hand :). You can see my post at GCD Studios here.

Well, the pace has slowed a bit, but I've got a to-do list I'm anxious to tackle. I'm more determined to check off that list quickly each day so that I can play with my boys as much as I can now that school's out.  Ready, set, go! Have a good one! Tessa

Army Birthday Party Favors

Hello!  I have some more SRM to share with you today :).  Carson's birthday this year was army-themed.  We hung camo netting all over the living room, decorated with green, brown and black balloons, and I made the cupcakes look like camo with green sugar sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, and crushed graham crackers.  The night culminated in a major nerf gun war on the front lawn :).  It was fun!

The favors, on the SRM Stickers blog today, were these candy-filled tubes (by SRM Stickers).  I used the "Toy Box" collection by Crate Paper to create the circles, and simply strung a dog tag necklace around each one.  Each necklace says "Happy Birthday" in SRM Stickers.

I'm working on several other tubes this week that I will be sharing soon.  Think dance recital, entertaining bored kiddos, and the 4th of July.  Fun, fun!  Have a great day everyone :). Tessa

More from Scrap Rat

Happy Tuesday :).  As promised, I have more to share with you today from Scrap Rat's May kit.  Did you know that Scrap Rat sells acrylic stamps in their own original designs?  I finally got my hands on them and they are fabulous!  The quality is outstanding.  I had fun playing with some of the star stamps on this layout:

I used paint to get a fun, messy, opaque look.  This is my son and his acting teacher, Mr. Christopher.  He is a fantastic teacher.  I'm sad that the session is over now, but as soon as Mr. Christopher is back from his summer acting gigs and teaching again, I am signing Colten up.  He loved it!

I also used the bingo token stamps on this layout:

The stamp set comes with the circle image and numbers 0 through 9.  Perfect for customizing.  I only used the circle stamp, but I thought it was the perfect compliment to my circles of patterned paper.

No stamps on this one, but oodles of vintage goodies.  I love how well they mixed with the "For the Record" tags.  The pocket is one of the glassine packaging bags that held embellishments in the kit.

I think there are still a few kits left, and you must see the stamps. You can find Scrap Rat here.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely day! Tessa