Feeling lucky? - SRM Stickers

I am this year! I haven't always done a lot of crafting for St. Patrick's Day, but this year, I've got several projects to share. First up, these SRM tubes that I made for my boys:

I was in the checkout line at JoAnn's when I looked over at those bins they fill with seasonal things and little kid craft supplies. I saw a package of glittered leprechaun hats and instantly thought, "Those would look great on top of tubes!"

The day finally came when I was putting them together. It was after school one afternoon, before cub scouts. We bring home an extra cub scout with us to help get him to our den meetings. While the boys were working on their homework, I was working on these tubes. I was staring at the tubes with the hats on, thinking that they needed something else, when this precocious cub scout says, "You know what you should do? Add beards!" Genius! He also suggested googly eyes and pipe cleaner arms, but I didn't go quite that far :).

I cut the beards on my Silhouette Cameo, then added the "Lucky" sentiments from SRM's quick cards sticker sets. A little green bling and mint M&M's finished them off. Now my boys can't wait for St. Patrick's Day.

You can read the post about these tubes over at the SRM Stickers blog today. Have a great Tuesday! Tessa

Teachers and Moms

Like many of you, I got crafty for my sons' teachers and for special moms in my life this past week. I copied myself and remade my Teacher Tubes from last year for Teacher Appreciation gifts:

This time around, I went with a slightly vintage flair. I added the ruler washi tape to the SRM Stickers tubes and used a striped ribbon instead of a gingham one.

I used those cute little chalkboards again, as well as my white SRM thanks stickers. The apple embellishments were still easy to find this year, too (Jolee's brand at Michaels).

Carson has had a long-term substitute for the past few months because his teacher had a baby. We've loved having Mrs. Addison here and are sad that today is her last day with the kids. Carson really, really liked her :(. I always make paper bag albums for the boys' teachers at the end of the school year, but since this was Mrs. Addison's last day, we were sure to bring hers in today:

Sorry for the fuzzy photo! I finished it last night as the sun was going down and didn't have time to retake photos this morning.

I used the Off to School line by Fancy Pants (my most favorite school line EVER!), SRM Stickers, and lots of flowers and Sweet Spots from my shop. Oh! And those Studio Calico wooden people - love those!

You can find many more photos in my flickr photostream. Now on to the moms!

I have a tutorial for this bracelet up on the GCD Studios blog. I made this for my sister for Mother's Day (sorry to ruin the surprise, Nae!) out of paper that I turned into beads. It was super easy and fast, so if you need a last-minute gift, give this one a try :).

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoy your weekend. Tessa

Pinewood Derby

Hello! I have been so busy creating this week that I haven't done any blogging! Between the shop, magazine submissions and gifts for teachers and moms, I just haven't had the time to sit down and write a post. However, I just had to share my crafty contribution to our Pinewood Derby that took place last night.

I am one of the wolf den leaders, my husband is the assistant cub master, Colten is a bear and Carson is a wolf.   It's truly a family affair :). This was both of the boys' first derby and they had so much fun putting together their cars with Dad. In fact, they had so much fun that I was feeling a little left out. Until they needed to do make racing stripes on their cars, that is. Mom to the rescue with none other than washi tape! Ha! See, my washi tape collection comes in handy all the time :).

I volunteered to make the awards and knew that I would be putting my SRM Stickers stash to good use:

For overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd, I made trophy tubes. Filled with stoplight-colored candies, I simply added a prize ribbon to the top. To make the ribbons, I layered cardstock circles and added an extra-large SRM number sticker. The embellishment flags were easy to make, too. I cut a two inch length of ribbon and hot glued it to a lollipop stick.

For the fastest boys in each of their dens, I made ribbons with star accents. I used SRM numbers here, too, just the smaller ones.

Using a whole bunch of different congratulations-themed stickers, I also made "participation" ribbons. I left just enough space for each boy's name to be filled in.

Carson ended up winning 3rd place in his den and Colten got 2nd place in his den. They didn't place overall, but they've already analyzed what went wrong and have started designing next year's cars :).

I'll be back tomorrow with another SRM Stickers project! Have a great day! Tessa

Boom!

Hello! Happy Tuesday. I have a Valentine's Day project up on the SRM Stickers blog today :).

You can read about how I made it here. I hope you are having a dynamite day :). Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Music...

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the music, so one of my favorite events of December is the music concert at school. As a gift to the boys' music teacher, I made this:

I filled a tube by SRM Stickers with jingle bells (it had to make music, too!) and chocolates, then added a snowflake and more jingle bells to the top. The sentiment is also by SRM Stickers.

The finishing touch was wrapping the tube in Tim Holtz' sheet music tissue tape. I think that's my new favorite technique with these wands and tubes :). You can see the post about this tube at the SRM blog here.

How was your Christmas? Other than being in pain from dental surgery, I really enjoyed it. We are lucky to have our families close, so there was a lot of family and fun. And it isn't done yet! We still have plans for the rest of the week, although Josh did have to go back to work today. I hope your holiday was everything you wanted it to be and more. Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Pink Paislee Nantucket

If you've been following the SRM Stickers blog over the past several weeks, you are probably familiar with the Paper of the Week feature. Each Monday, a designer is sharing projects created with SRM products and a partner manufacturer. Today is my day, and the collection I was sent to play with was Pink Paislee's Nantucket :).

The first project I made was a birthday card for my mom:

All the papers, trim and die-cuts are from the Nantucket collection, and the sentiment is SRM.

Next, I made my mom a mini-album for her birthday. You can see all of the pages in my flickr photostream here.

The pages are 4" by 6" pieces of chipboard, each covered in Pink Paislee papers and trim. I made the flower on the cover out of one of the Pink Paislee Mistable trims by gathering it into a circle and stapling the center. I colored the Mistable alphas by dipping a paintbrush into my Glimmer Mist bottles.

I backed each photo with a large shipping tag to add height to the pages, setting each tag off from the one before to create a staggered look. I misted the Mistables trim to match the papers and simply hot glued them to the edges of the pages. I added pearls to each page, handwritten journaling, and of course - SRM Sticker sentiments! The little glassine envelopes are filled with opalescent sequins. I thought they looked like ocean bubbles :). I also added a few die-cuts from the collection to the envelopes.

Next, I made a little home decor project to add to my livingroom collage wall.

My boys love their bikes, and when I saw the Mistable bicycle in the collection, I knew I had to do something with it. I spray painted the bicycle and the word explore with glossy black paint. I cut free-form hearts from leftover trim and created a little banner with an SRM sentiment. I simply glued it all to a white background and framed it :).

I needed a little thank you gift and the Nantucket collection was perfect for a tube and tag:

The candy is Cookies and Cream Drops (like the candy bar, but in a no-shell, pop in your mouth form - yummy!). The tag is layered with Nantucket die-cuts and trim, as well as SRM sentiments.

Lastly, I made a layout of one of our summer adventures. Yes, I live in California, but we didn't make it to the ocean this year. However, we did enjoy the lake and Nantucket still worked for this page:

I left the Mistable alphas and wood pieces natural because I love the colors of the wood. I clustered die-cuts and used SRM stickers as my title and journaling. I really love the way this one turned out :).

So that was my adventure with Pink Paislee's Nantucket! I loved working with the collection. SRM Stickers couldn't have been a better partner to the products. You can see the Paper of the Week post - and WIN the collection, as well as a package of SRM Stickers - at the SRM blog here. You can see more photos of these projects here. And if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I'll be sure to address them soon. Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Short and Sweet and SRM

Hello! How are you? I have lots to share today :).  It's Thursday, which means I have a Sketchy Thursdays layout to share:

I got the itch to cut my hair and my sister/stylist obliged :).  We took out the blond highlights I added in late Spring and went dark.  I love the color, but I miss the length.  She took off five inches!

I used some bits and pieces from various manufacturers, including a polka dot Cupcake Poppy from my Etsy shop, Precocious Paper.  I just restocked this color, too :).

I chose to do the left side of the double-page sketch, flipped to suit my photos:

I'm definitely going to save this sketch for a future two-pager :).  If you'd like to play along this week, you can find all the details here, along with fantastic samples by the design team.

My dance studio's annual showcase was a couple of weeks ago. In years past I've taught 20-30 classes every week, and making something special for each student wasn't an option.  However, since I only had three classes this year, I took the opportunity to spoil them with treats :).  SRM stickers, tubes and wands were my inspiration and here is what I created:

You can see detailed shots on the SRM blog today, as well as more pictures in my flickr photostream.

Thank you again for all your kind thoughts and prayers for Jaxon.  After we did all we could do, he just wouldn't cooperate at the dentist's yesterday.  We are going to try another pediatric dentist who works more often with really young, stubborn kiddos like Jaxon before we go the oral surgeon route.  He isn't in any pain, so other than a weird smile, he's doing okay.  Your well wishes have been heartwarming and comforting.  Have a fabulous day! 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

Monkeys and Bling

You may recall that a few weeks ago my little man turned two.  We had a monkey-themed birthday party for him:

For favors, I made a jungle of tubes and wands by SRM Stickers.  A little leftover greenery from a floral design project, rosettes with monkey faces, and chocolates that looked trunk-like made these favors a hit :).

The tubes stood by themselves perfectly, but because my wands were a little top heavy, I displayed them in large, glass vases.

A few years ago I won this party kit from Martha Stewart, but the monkey theme was a little too young for my boys at the time.  So I saved it and luckily remembered that I had it when I started preparing for Jaxon's party.  We call him monkey all the time, so it was very fitting :).

You can check out this party on the SRM Stickers blog today, and if you scroll down to Friday's post, you will also see the magic wand I made one of my soloists right before her first competition this year.  The colors match her costume perfectly :).

My favorite part was the bling wrapped around the wand.  I used three or four strips of rhinestones, just lining them up end to end and trying to wrap the wand as evenly as possible.  I loved the effect :).

I have several more of these wands and tubes to share with you soon - they are so fun to play with!  Favors, little gifts, containers, thank yous....  If you don't have a retailer near you that sells SRM products, you should check out their website and pick some up :).  Have a wonderful day everyone! Tessa