Pineapple Slush - The Studio & Pink Paislee

Hello! Are you a fan of Sonic? If you aren't familiar, Sonic is a fast food place famous for their drinks. One hot afternoon last week, we decided to try it out for the first time. I ordered a pineapple slush, which is basically pineapple, pineapple juice, and slushy ice. It isn't their most exciting offering, but I really loved it!

I don't normally scrapbook the things I eat or drink, but I was prompted this time by the latest challenge at The Studio Challenges - food. You can find all the challenge details here.

The Citrus Bliss collection by Pink Paislee was perfect for this page! I used the gold foil pineapple vellum as a main element. I loved mixing fonts and colors with these Thickers for my title. My favorite part has to be the wood veneer pineapple and the chipboard pineapple. So cute!

Do you have pineapple photos to scrap? Get a look at the Citrus Bliss collection here. If you have food photos of any kind to scrapbook, be sure to play along here at The Studio. Thanks for stopping by today! Have a good one! Tessa

I Am - The Studio Challenges, Scrapbook Circle

I'm excited for March! The calendar is full - fun stuff, challenging stuff, projects, events, birthdays, etc. Although we would rather have the rain, the spring-like weather we are enjoying is beautiful! Blossoms in the trees, poppies growing everywhere...I love it!

I also love the new challenge up today at The Studio. The design team suggested items to include on a layout, and the challenge is to include as many of those things as possible. I managed to include every single one:

I wouldn't normally reach for all of these things for the same layout, so this was definitely a challenge. To get it done, I used two strategies: use small amounts of everything, and use the same color for most of it.

One chipboard heart, three tiny brads, two sequins, a bit of thread - all in gold. The mist was easy as I almost always include a little bit of mist anyway (that was my contribution to the challenge), and the vellum was also a simple addition. The stamping was intimidating at first, but after turning to this row of triangles stamp by Scrapbook Circle, I thought the stamping was a great finishing touch.

Speaking of Scrapbook Circle, almost all of my materials for this page came from the March kits. The thread, sequins, brads and mist are from my stash, the stamp and chipboard heart are from past kits, but the papers, stickers and die-cuts are all from Here's the Story and the add-ons. Lots of "I Am" by Simple Stories, "On Trend" by My Mind's Eye here. The kit also includes quite a bit of the new papers and embellishments by Pinkfresh Studios (one of my favorite booths at CHA this year!). Be sure to check out the kits here.

You can find the challenge details at The Studio here. Thanks for visiting today! I hope your March is fantastic :). Tessa

Hello Love - The Studio Challenges

Hello! I am really struggling with Adlyn turning one this week. I've been pouring over the last year of photos just dumbfounded at how fast time has passed. To ease the panic I'm feeling of losing my baby girl to toddlerhood, I have been scrapping older photos that haven't made it to layouts yet:

This layout is based on the new challenge at The Studio - to use up what's on your desk. I don't actually have a desk since converting my craft room to Addie's nursery, so I guessed at what would be sitting on my work table if I had one - my January Scrapbook Circle kit and old photos, as well as some party crafting supplies (I am having so much fun DIY-ing her birthday party!).

I absolutely LOVE this kit full of Pink Paislee, Crate Paper, and more. I had a lot of fun pulling the kit pieces together and mixing them with this gold and white striped tissue paper that I am currently making tissue paper tassels from:

Here's the journaling if you'd like to know what my page is about:

You can join us at The Studio Challenges here. I think I need this challenge quarterly. It was so great to use some things I had been dying to use, but hadn't found the time for.

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great week! Tessa

Christmas Catch-up - Holiday Party Selfie - The Studio Challenges

Hello! For day two of my Christmas Catch-up, I'm sharing a layout I created for a December challenge at The Studio Challenges. The assignment was to create a Christmas-themed page in non-traditional colors. I went with black, mint, aqua and red:

I used the Candy Cane Lane stack by DCWV. This stack is full of great holiday papers in black, white and red. Besides trimming strips of patterned paper, I also fussy-cut the red flowers from the stack.

The aqua and mint are washi tapes (as well as the black and white horizontal stripe).

To see more non-traditional color palettes that the design team came up with, visit The Studio Challenges here.

Thanks for coming by today. Tomorrow I'll be sharing a special project that I made as a guest designer for an awesome manufacturer. See you then! Tessa

The Year of the Colorful Pixie - The Studio Challenges

Hello and happy Sunday! There's a new challenge up at The Studio Challenges that I thought was a great way to start off 2015. The challenge is to create a page reflecting back on 2014. While my design team friends took the challenge to heart and highlighted important moments on their beautiful layouts, I didn't take the challenge quite so seriously.

While my stylist - my sister - was coloring my hair a couple of weeks ago, she made the comment that during 2014 I had been every color of the hair rainbow. Nearly black, blond, red and now brunette. I thought selfies of my various, colored pixies would make a great layout, and a fun response to The Studio challenge.

In an effort to work through my stash a bit, I used the Kate and Co. line by My Mind's Eye to create this page. I thought the florals were totally me, and the chipboard was perfect for accenting my little photos.

The little alphas are from the Target dollar spot. I bought three sheets, I love them so much :). The large gold alphas are Pink Paislee.

Don't tell my sister, who wanted me to stay red, but I kind of miss the red. I do love having dark hair again, though, and I really don't think I'll ever do blond again. As for the pixie, I'm growing it out a bit so that I can go longer between hair appointments, but I don't think I'll ever stop wearing my hair short. I wonder what kind of pixies 2015 will bring?

If you're up for the challenge, visit The Studio Challenges here. Thanks for stopping by today! Tomorrow I'll be kicking off a special week of blog posts, complete with videos and giveaways, so I hope you'll visit again soon. Have a good one! 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

Dude! - The Studio

Happy Sunday! There's a new challenge up at The Studio today. It's our monthly sketch challenge, and I'm honored to have had a layout from August be the inspiration for the sketch :). Here's my take:

And here's the sketch alongside the original layout:

I usually have a hard time scraplifting myself, so I went with a photo of my son and a masculine theme so that  it felt "new". I'm pretty happy with the result!

I used a lot of Crate Paper, a little Basic Grey, Pinkfresh Studio, and Studio Calico stars (clear and wood veneer).

If I don't use flowers, stars are my next favorite :). I thought the mix tapes were a great trade-off for the flowers in the original layout, too.

If you'd like to play along, you can find the challenge post at The Studio here. Be sure to check out the design team's layouts, too. It's really fun to see all the different takes on my design ;).

Attitude of Gratitude....

I have a bit of catch-up to do! Let me explain.... Have you ever lost something, or it broke, and you didn't realize how much you depended on that thing until it was gone? Yeah, that was me this past week with my iPhone, which won't be fixed until Monday night. I was tracking all of my Attitude of Gratitude photos and thoughts on my phone, so until I can properly retrieve them and post them, I'm just going to move on.

Attitude of Gratitude Day 8: I am grateful for the service men and women who have proudly and honorably served in the military to secure and protect my freedoms. I am grateful for their families. I am grateful for their sacrifices.

For the past four years we've held a "Veterans Appreciation Night" for Cub Scouts. We invite the veterans from church, our families and our community. We prepare a program for them that includes patriotic songs, skits, and projects the boys have been working on about citizenship. The veterans share stories about their service. We present the veterans with a token of our appreciation. It's a really meaningful and fun pack meeting.

Last night, our gathering activity was "bootcamp" - an obstacle course with jumping jacks, army crawling and target practice. The Webelos incorporated Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance into our flag ceremony. The wolves sang a song and we all sang the Star Spangled Banner together. The bears shared posters about what makes America special and how to be a good citizen. We heard amazing stories about Christmas Eve in a foxhole and being chased by submarines while crossing the Equator. But my favorite moment of the night was when one veteran shared about the cost of service. He wanted the boys to understand that they could help veterans who had returned from war disabled. He talked about physical scars, but more importantly, he talked about mental scars. A lot of adults are squeamish about talking to young people about mental health, but I think, done in an age-appropriate way like this veteran did, it promotes understanding and compassion. He listed different organizations and encouraged the boys to find ways to serve these veterans. I am grateful for his perspective and that he shared those thoughts with the boys.

One of my goals for Attitude of Gratitude this year is to act on my gratitude more frequently. I'm taking that goal to den meeting this week. We will be writing thank you notes to the veterans who attended our pack meeting. We will also be putting together a care box for a young man from church who is currently serving in the Army. I hope the boys make the gratitude-service connection. They're great kids ;).

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up with Attitude of Gratitude on the next couple of days :). Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Wonder - The Studio Challenges

Hello! There's a new challenge up at The Studio Challenges and this one is all about mixed media. The challenge is to use two or more mediums on a scrapbook layout. I love a splatter of mist, but mixing several mediums at once...I'm still learning how to do that and stay true to my simple style. Having said that, this is a challenge after all, so I busted out india ink, whipped spackle, and three colors of mist by Heidi Swapp to create this page:

I first decided where I wanted the photo and all of the patterned paper to go. I fussy-cut the flowers to fit into the corners and then penciled out their shape on my background of watercolor paper.

Next, I used Faber-Castell's whipped spackle and a Heidi Swapp stencil to create all of the dots. I tried to make it look like the whole page had been dotted, but several places were worn away.

The scariest part was adding the color. I poured a bit of mist into a small container and then added a touch of water. I dipped a large brush in the mist and then pooled it onto my page. I did pink first, then orange, then navy. When I was done with the navy puddles, I added some runs.

When that was dry, I splattered black india ink on the page. I wanted the big dots of ink to mimic the dots of the patterned paper.

I LOVE the September Skies line by Heidi Swapp! This floral pattern (and the dots on the B side) is so pretty! I really love the colors.

If you'd like to read the journaling, be sure to visit my flickr gallery for close-ups of the words. I used my title as a prompt and refer to Addie's adorable bedhead curls ;).

If you'd like to play along, you can find the challenge post at The Studio here. 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.

Keep Going - The Studio

There is a new challenge up at The Studio today :). The challenge is to choose a design team member's layout and scraplift it. I enjoy a good scraplift, and I adored a recent layout done by fellow design team member, Leslie, so this was a great challenge. Here's my take, using Basic Grey's Persimmon line and a bit of Studio Calico vellum:

This is Leslie's fabulous layout, created for our tic-tac-toe challenge last month:

I love the diagonal strips of patterned papers that Leslie created. Quilt-inspired patterns are really trendy right now, and I thought this was a great take on that idea. Leslie's arrow embellishments inspired the theme of my page:

I am preparing for the world-wide conference of my church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) that will be held and broadcast this coming weekend. One of the ways I like to get myself ready to receive the messages that will be shared is to go back to previous conferences, as well as talks given in other venues, and review them. In my study I came across this quote and it became the journaling for my layout:

source

These words are from this message by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. If you need some encouragement, I highly recommend that you follow the link and watch the beautiful video, or even read the whole talk.

I loved every bit of Leslie's layout, but my process did take me in a direction of my own in some aspects. Journaling to the left of the photo as well as under my title...

A chipboard title (although I would have loved to use my Silhouette Cameo for a die-cut title - the baby was sleeping, though)...

Patterned paper at the bottom, but not both the bottom and the side...

If you'd like to play along the with us, or even just check out the rest of the design team's scraplifts (such good stuff!), please visit The Studio Challenges blog. I hope you enjoy your day and thank you for stopping by! Tessa