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

Teacher Treats and SRM

We were all very melancholy on the ride home from school Friday.  I asked the boys if they were excited for school to be over and they both said they were sad to see it end.  Me, too.  I loved their teachers and hope that next year's will be just as awesome.  I put in a lot of work to make sure their teachers knew they were appreciated, and SRM Stickers helped quite a bit.

First, these tubes that are featured on the SRM blog today :).  Each teacher got one at Open House in May.  I found these adorable little chalkboards at the craft store and just knew that the white SRM stickers would be perfect for chalk-like sentiments.

I am also in love with these apples.  They are new cabochon stickers by Jolee's.  I got them at Michaels, but I've also seen them at JoAnn's.

On the last day of school, each boy delivered a gift bag with a handmade tag, a handmade card, and a paper bag scrapbook album filled with photos from during the year.  And I was exhausted ;).  But seriously, these teachers deserved so much more.  Anyway, here are the tags, complete with magnets for memo board use:

The "tag" stickers are SRM.  And here are the cards, complete with SRM sentiments and Precocious Paper flowers:

The albums....

I dressed up mini lunch sacks with SRM stickers.  Both teachers loved the little pockets and hidden tags.  I also used Precocious Paper flowers on the albums.

I think the boys' teachers understood how much we loved them and were grateful to them.  Ugh, it's hard to type this without tearing up.  At least we get to see them around school next year :).  Thanks for stopping by today, and don't forget to head over to the SRM Stickers blog to see even more great teacher tubes.  I've also added more photos of these projects to my flickr photostream and Facebook page.  Have a great day!

Sneak Peek: Miss Art's Class

My class at Miss Art's Paper Crafting School is coming up on June 20th!  If you aren't already a subscriber to this site, I strongly suggest you take a look.  The classes I have taken have inspired me to try all sorts of things, from new techniques to new design strategies.  It's always good to get a fresh take on scrapbooking and Miss Art's does not disappoint :).

I can't reveal much yet, but I will tell you that my class is called "Jazzy Journaling" - insert jazz hands here :).  Sorry, I can't help it being a jazz dance teacher and all :).  Here's a sneak peek:

If you need some inspiration to jazz up the journaling on your pages, this class will offer several ideas to spark your creativity.  I'll be posting more details in the coming weeks and while the class is live, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, be sure to stop by Miss Art's to check out the current line-up of fabulous classes.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! Tessa

Designer Friday - June Sampler

I've been scrapping with my June Sampler, Summertime, and I have a layout to share today :).

The cardboard postage stamp frames and the felt stars are all from the sampler.  The papers are a mix of Jenni Bowlin and My Mind's Eye - Alphabet Soup.

I hope this kiddo's love of reading keeps up over the summer.  He has seriously devoured every Magic Treehouse book he could get his hands on, and the two libraries that serve our city may not be able to keep up with demand.  They carry all the books, it's just that they are so popular.  Hopefully he will find another series to fall in love with.

We are officially kicking off summer in the Buys household today, so to celebrate I'm offering a special this weekend only - purchase the June Sampler and the Sweet Spots will be included for free!  No need to add them to your cart. I will take care of it automatically :).  Offer ends Sunday night.

Now I'm off to wrap up teacher gifts and sign cards without crying (if that's possible!).  I'm going to miss the boys' teachers :(.  Have a wonderful day everyone! Tessa

Seeing Stars

I feel like I am seeing a lot of stars lately :).  And you'll see more from me tomorrow! I just love stars as a masculine embellishment, and when I saw the fabulous sketch for this week's challenge at Sketchy Thursdays, I knew they would be my embellies of choice.

One of the most exciting parts of turning eight years old was starting cub scouts.  Colten could not wait until he was old enough, and now he is just eating it all up!  Twilight Camp is next week (no vampires - just an afternoon/evening day camp for the cub scouts) and he is thrilled to be going! He let me capture this one goofy grin the day of his first den meeting.

The stars I used are the Studio Calico wood veneer ones.  They are so smooth! Doodling on them was a piece of cake.  I colored them with two Mister Huey mists - barnwood and white.  As I went through my stash to find a yellow patterned paper, I realized that all of my yellow papers are really girly.  I was excited to find this sheet from Crate Paper's Toy Box line and then threw in some Pink Paislee scraps.  Colten liked it :).

Here's the sketch:

I hope you'll play along! The prize this week is awesome, so you'll definitely want to check it out (here).  I'm off for yet another end-of-the-year event at the boys' school. One more day - then summer! Enjoy your day! Tessa

GCD Studios - My first project share!

Hello! I am excited to share my first GCD Studios project with you today, along with one of my favorite techniques when using a design that incorporates white space - masking and misting.

I love to use mist on my pages, especially since it gives white space interesting depth.  However, when designing this layout, I was afraid that the mist might overpower my journaling space.  My solution? Mask a portion of the layout so that the journaling space will be mist-free.

First, I penciled in where my page elements would be (so as not to spray mist all over photos and embellishments).  Next, I laid down a circle mask.  I used one by Heidi Swapp, but any circle will do - a plate, a piece of cardstock, anything.  I lightly sprayed my mist around the circle and allowed it to dry.  Finally, I carefully removed my mask and then outlined the shape with hand stitching.  My journaling is easily read in the mist-free portion, and yet the mist through the white space portion is just the effect I wanted.

I hope you've been inspired to break out your mists and masks when designing your next layout.  Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Apples and Oranges...

I'm sitting here trying to think of a title, one that would encompass the various things I wanted to share today, and this one seems fitting :).  First off, I made this card for The Paper Variety:

The challenge is to include a fruit on your paper crafting project. Get it? Apples, oranges, strawberries... :).  I couldn't help but use an upcoming release from my Etsy shop - Sandi Henderson Strawberry Fabric and Felt Flowers.  With the addition of a pair of stick pins, some tape, a felt strawberry, and an SRM Stickers sentiment, I think this card is pretty sweet :).

Speaking of Precocious Paper, you can find a few Precocious Paper goodies in the prize being offered for TPV's challenge.  Artful Delight, a fabulous kit club, is giving away their June kit:

Artful Delight commissioned Sewing Pattern Petals with mother of pearl buttons, Glitter Tulle Flowers in black, and Rolled Satin Flowers in coral.  I have this kit in hand and absolutely love it!  If you aren't a subscriber, you should definitely try your hand at winning this kit through TPV. While you are checking out the challenge, be sure to read all about the design team call!  If you love to play with paper and you find inspiration in a variety of challenges, you will love being on this team.  Abby and Suzanne are wonderful people with a fabulous site, and being a part of this team since September has been fantastic. I hope you'll give it a go!

And after you stop by The Paper Variety, I'd love it if you hopped over to the SRM blog today.  Bazzill sponsored the design team and we have been sharing a variety of projects using their products.  Did you know they did patterned paper and embellishments?! Here's a peek at mine (which have now been requested for CHA-Summer):

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great day :). Tessa