Homemakers

August is a special month for me.  My husband's birthday is at the beginning, mine is at the end, and our anniversary is in the middle.  But even more special to me is the fact that four generations of women on my mother's side all share August birthdays.  My great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, and me.  Over Christmas vacation, my parents gave me a stack of photos from when I was very little, and this gorgeous photograph was one of them.

When I opened my Two Chicks Designs April Kit to find "houses" to be a recurring theme, I knew I wanted to create a page with this photo, celebrating four generations of homemakers.  We've all worked outside of the home at some point, but my most fond memories (and daily inspiration) come from these amazing women who were very talented in their own ways of homemaking.

I fussy-cut the houses out from the paper, lifted some with dimensional adhesive, added buttons from the kit to some, and stitches to others.  I misted the background kraft paper with olive vine Glimmer Mist and added just a little bit of the scalloped lace from March's kit to set off the photo.  I love this page and plan to hang it in my scraproom for a long time to come.  As my journaling reads, I feel blessed to have this legacy of wonderful women in my life.

I love these kits because they are so FULL of gorgeous papers!  That's just a peek at some!  I love patterned paper, and when I get my kit in the mail, I feel like all is well in the world (until I see sneaks for the next kit).  I'll be sharing more from this kit in the following days :).  Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Flowers - STP Challenge

Yay, it's April!  Finally!  I've been looking forward to the warmer weather, blossoming flowers, and the potential to wear flip flops.  However, I think Mother Nature is playing a cruel April Fool's joke on those of us in Wyoming.  This is what it looks like from my porch right now:

My poor boys are on Spring Break and this is the weather we have?!  *Sigh*  At least I can scrapbook my flowers, right? 

The new challenge is up at Scrap That Poetry!  It's a beautiful Easter poem, but whether or not you celebrate Easter, there are many pretty images and lines that could inspire your next layout.  I chose to focus on "flowers" since all of my Easter photos from recent years are still stuck on my hard drive :(.

I was inspired by the latest issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine, where I saw these pretty paper-pieced flowers (page 36, "Watch Me Grow" by Robyn Schaub).  I worked for a couple of hours to figure it out, and although these are the result of more trial and error than an exact process, I love how they turned out!  I also was inspired by the recent challenge at Moxie Fab World to use doilies, so I used some paper doilies as my mask for denim blue and peach delight Glimmer Mists.

Congratulations to Heidi, who won the last challenge at STP!  I look forward to sending Heidi some Precocious Paper goodies :).

I'll be back soon with the April Kit reveal for Two Chicks Designs!  I loved this kit :).  Tessa

In Production...

...at Precocious Paper:

The number of fabric flower designs available will double by this weekend!  Happy Wednesday! Tessa

My weakness...

...is Diet Coke with Lime.  When the prompt "My Favorite Drink" came up at These are a Few of My Favorite Things, I knew I would have to scrap my addiction.  I love this soda, but the bondage of waking up and heading to the fridge for one is killing me.  I really want to quit.  And I will.  But until I've summoned enough will power, this is my drink of choice.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!  Tessa

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

Yes, this is my last sketch at Sketchy Thursdays as a design team member :(.  I can't believe how fast 6 months has gone by, but I have loved every minute of it.

Six months ago my son was 6 1/2.  He just turned 7 on Sunday.  Time really flies.  I used this week's sketch to document that when Colten reached the halfway mark, he insisted upon adding the "and a half" whenever someone asked him his age.  Now he can't wait to say seven and a half!  He's growing up too fast!

And here's the sketch:

The prize this time is AMAZING!  You need to head on over to Sketchy Thursdays to check it out!  The new DT takes over next week, so be sure to see what they are all up to - knowing Diana and Heidi it will all be fabulous.  Have a great day! Tessa

Two Chicks April Kit Sneak Peeks

I am having a blast working with the April kit from Two Chicks Designs!  The colors are so happy, the textures are wonderful, and I love the variety of papers.  One thing I love about Christie's kits is that you can coordinate all the pieces, but they stand by themselves really well, too.  Christie has a knack for mixing manufacturers that can satisfy any scrapper's style.

I can't share my layouts quite yet, so here's a little taste:

The kit will go live at Two Chicks on April 1st!  And don't miss their March Madness sale going on right now.  Ten awesome t-shirts are on sale for only $9.99!  I'm getting a couple :). 

Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Button, button, who's got the button?

I loved playing that game as a kid!  Probably because I've been a button addict my whole life :).  When I saw the new challenge at The Studio, I was super excited because it involves buttons - but that's not all!

The challenge: "Buttons and bows! Use either buttons or bows on your page – or both for extra ‘brownie points’!"

I took it a step further.  I have a jar of clear buttons that don't get used as often as they should, so I challenged myself to use those buttons specifically.  Once I found the photos I wanted to scrap, I realized bows wouldn't belong on my page, but I did put my clear buttons to good use!

I thought the clear buttons would make perfect raindrops, and I am really happy with the result!  The photos are from a road trip my kids and I took last weekend.  On the last leg of our journey, it got cloudy and rainy.  The boys were so wound-up that I braved the rain, pulled over at this scenic viewpoint, and let them play for a few minutes.  They were good the rest of the way home :).

My favorite thing about this layout is that my boys really liked it.  Like, went-back-a-couple-of-times-to-look-at-it liked it.  The DT did amazing work on this challenge, so please head over to The Studio to check out their layouts.  There is a paper bow you MUST see!  And thank you to everyone who hopped over to The Studio last Friday to check out my tutorial.  Your sweet words made my day!

Happy Scrapping! Tessa