Sunday, August 31, 2014

True Love Always - The Studio

Josh and I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. To celebrate, we went out to dinner and a movie. The next day, after church, we took some couple selfies to commemorate a dozen years of marriage :).


I love this photo and decided it would be perfect for the latest challenge at The Studio. It's a tic-tac-toe challenge, and I used the stars/paint splatters/3 alphas column.


The three alphas from top to bottom: Crate Paper, American Crafts, Fancy Pants Designs.


The floral patterned paper is by Teresa Collins (love her stuff!). The star vellum is from a new 6x6 stack by DCWV. The stack is filled with basic designs (dots, stripes, etc.) and printed in black as well as gold foiled. It's gorgeous! The butterfly and star brad are My Mind's Eye.


I used the new changeable stamp from Heidi Swapp to stamp the stars. It's kind of a fun gadget! I do wish it came with some sort of storage solution for the little stamps, though. I'm on my second package of these Studio Calico wood stars. It's going to be a sad day when I run out.


If you'd like to play along with the challenge, we'd love to have you! Be sure to stop by The Studio Challenges blog today for the tic-tac-toe board and details, as well as to see what the rest of the team made. I promise, you won't regret it. Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Friday, August 29, 2014

Chickaniddy Crafts


Hello! I have happy news to share :). I was invited to join the Chickaniddy Crafts team for the next year! I was lucky to have the chance to design with Heidi's debut lines for Winter CHA 2014 and I am excited to be designing with her new lines now!


I'll be sharing Chickaniddy Crafts projects in the next couple of weeks. Be sure to check out the design team announcement here, and like Chickaniddy Crafts on Facebook here.Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Monday, August 25, 2014

Fabric Tape Mason Jars - Love My Tapes

Hello, hello! I LOVE Mondays. They make me feel extra productive. On Monday, I've got a blank slate for the week and I can make the improvements and adjustments that are needed. After a relaxing Sabbath Day, I am recharged and ready. Mondays just feel good :).


On this happy Monday, I am sharing a washi tape project that I made for my mom on her birthday a couple weeks ago.


I found small Mason-type jars at the dollar store in town. I picked up several and inspired by all the cute washi tape jar projects on Pinterest, I decided to give my own jars a go.


I used three Love My Tapes fabric tapes around the jars. I overlapped each one just slightly to create a solid band around the jars.


To top the flower vase jar, I replaced the solid lid with a flower frog lid. I found a package of these at Michaels; 4 pieces for $5.00, I think. To top the candy jar, I punched a 2.5 inch circle from a piece of cardstock. I applied the washi tape in strips over the cardstock, then used sharp scissors to cut off the excess. Then, I just added the cardstock piece over the lid and beneath the ring.


I made this card to go along with the jars. I would have used the same tapes, but my craft space is not the most organized and I couldn't find it when I was pulling out supplies for the card. At least I color coordinated, right? The sticker sentiment is by SRM Stickers.

I'm sure I'll play with tape and more jars soon. I love that I can easily customize and coordinate gifts with different styles and colors of tape. You can check out my jars on the Love My Tapes blog today.

Thanks for visiting, and happy Monday! Tessa

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Thursday Thoughts

Hello! It's funny how my recently quiet blog isn't reflecting real life at the moment. Real life is anything but quiet with school starting this week.


This year is quite the year for our little family. Colten started junior high, Carson is on his last year of elementary school, and Jaxon started kindergarten. Lots of firsts and lasts this year. I'm adjusting to two schools and three different schedules, which will change as Colten starts school sports soon.


Adlyn is adjusting to having only Mom home during the day to entertain her. Mom is adjusting to her constant cries for attention. ;)


But in all the craziness, I've been impressed to do my very best to take it all in. The time I have left with Colten and Carson at home is shorter than the time I've had with them so far. The school years will go by faster, the summers will seem more brief, and soon, they'll be leaving the nest. A feeling of near panic sets in inside my chest from time to time when I think of how little direct, at-home influence I have left over their precious lives. It makes me want to be a better mom, better person.

And better wife. Josh and I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary over the weekend. A dozen years done and an eternity to go :).

As for the crafty stuff you probably visit here for, I've been busy there, too! I just don't have much to share at the moment. September will be absolutely full of projects, though, so the blog drought won't be long ;).

Thanks for stopping by and letting me speak from my mama heart today. Have a good one! Tessa

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Mood Board - The Studio Challenges

Hello! I am really excited about today's challenge at The Studio. I had the opportunity of creating a mood board to inspire the design team, and hopefully you!


I was inspired by summer, the beach, relaxing and my favorite color palette (blue, red, yellow). I thought that this photo of Addie on the 4th of July would be perfect:


The flowers are Sassafras Lass (yes, I am still hoarding quite a bit from that beloved company), as well as the chipboard "4".


Adlyn's first Independence Day was a long day, so it was really fun to capture such a goofy, happy smile at about 8:30 pm while waiting for the fireworks to start. Just a week later she got her first tooth, so this is one of the last photos I have of her toothless grin ;).


I used my Silhouette Cameo to make the July part of the title. I wrote it out, scanned it, then cleaned it up using the software before cutting. If you'd like the file, let me know. I'm thinking about offering freebies like this here on the blog.


If you'd like to play along with the mood board challenge, you can find the challenge and the design team's takes post at The Studio here.


Have a great day! Tessa

Friday, August 15, 2014

Teacher Treats - SRM Stickers Challenge

Tonight is the night. The class lists get posted at school and my boys can't wait to find out who their teachers are. I'm in the middle of making first day teacher treats for whoever they may be. I'm re-making these chalkboard tubes using SRM Stickers and containers:


It was fun to see these pop up in the search results on Pinterest when I was looking for teacher appreciation ideas this past year :).


I re-made them the following year:


I think I like these even more - I love that washi tape!




I'll share when this year's set is done. Back to school is one of the themes for the SRM Stickers challenge blog this month. If you'd like to play along, check out the challenge details at the SRM challenge blog here. Thanks for visiting today! Tessa

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Quotes Portfolio - SMASH Sunday

Hello! I started a new portfolio. I bought another pink Pretty Style portfolio and have made it my quotes book. I collect favorite quotes in notebooks, art prints for my home, and on my Words board on Pinterest. I decided it was time to house them in a SMASH book, too. So, last night after Addie went to bed, I made a few pages:



First up, this colorful page. I just reorganized my SMASH book cart (the raskog IKEA cart), and I realized just how many die-cuts I have. I decided to use up some by creating a grid of die cuts at the top of this page. The die-cuts are by Basic Grey and DCWV. DCWV needs to put out a package of just typewriter die-cuts. I think I'm all out now :(.


Some of my favorite parts of this page are 1) the paint chip, 2) the polka dot bag, 3) the orangey-red woodgrain washi tape with hearts (Freckled Fawn).


My next page is this mosaic quote page made with Love My Tapes washi, fabric and lace tapes (plus a couple of other washi tapes I had in my stash):



You can read more about this page on the Love My Tapes blog today.


The third page I made is one of the bird pages in the book. I instantly thought of one of my favorite quotes about flying, which led to a quote about challenges and the sticker quote about dreams. I left spaces for more quotes to be added later, as I find the right ones.



The birds on a wire are cut from a piece of a Hambly transparency. I am hoarding the last bit of that sheet, as well as some others. I'm so sad they aren't in business anymore. I saved the gold floral die-cut from a project I did several weeks ago. I punched birds from the same gold foil paper (Chickaniddy Crafts) and placed them in the glassine bag. On the opposite page, I used the negative from punches.



You can see more photos of these pages in my flickr photostream. Thanks for visiting for SMASH Sunday! Tessa

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Melon Twist Gets Sketchy - DCWV

Hello! If you're familiar with DCWV, then you probably know that every month they host a Stack-a-holic sketch challenge. The design team shares their takes on a layout sketch and a card sketch, and you have the month to play along. The top twelve entries are featured on the blog. Well...today I have the honor of setting the August challenge!


Sketchy Thursdays has always been my favorite source of sketches, thanks to the talents of my friend, Diana Fisher. I just had to share one of her fabulous layout sketches with my DCWV friends.


The design team loved the triangles, so I designed a card sketch to match. Yes, I tried my hand at designing a sketch! How'd I do?



This is my take on the layout sketch. Yes, I know, I just used a couple of those photos on another layout. I couldn't help it. The Melon Twist stack by DCWV was just too perfect - it matched her outfit like I had planned it, and the photos were of her getting ready to chow down on cantaloupe. It was meant to be :).


Yeah, I realize I spelled cantaloupe wrong. Ugh, I hate typos like that! Oh well, it just speaks to my humanness, right? ;) Instead of the triangles, I fussy-cut fruit slices from one of the patterned papers. You can't really tell, but they are debossed. Several of the papers in the stack are beautifully debossed (the opposite of embossed, more like letterpress). It's my favorite detail and I hope to see more stacks like that from DCWV in the future.


I also used a piece of vellum with gold polka dots from DCWV's new vellum 6x6. I need this stack in 12x12, and I need about a dozen of them! The designs are fabulous and it comes with gold foil and black foil. So cool.


To follow my card sketch, I used scraps from my layout. Easy-peasy :).



I hope you'll check out the challenge post for more from the design team, and I hope you'll join in! Thanks for stopping by today :). Tessa

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Stick Figures - Love My Tapes

My new favorite ladies give new meaning to the term "stick figures":


I was perusing Pinterest the other day for washi tape project ideas, and this darling project popped up in the search results:


I fell in love with the idea of using tongue depressors as puppets and washi tape as clothes, so I settled in with my washi stash and got to work.


First, I chose washi tapes that I thought would be fun to mix together - one for each top and one for each skirt. Love My Tapes has a great selection of designs that work perfectly for a project like this.


I applied the washi tapes and then used a white galaxy marker by American Crafts to draw collars, skirt hems, belts and corsages. I used a fine tip Sharpie to sketch out the edges. I drew legs, shoes, and colored on tights or socks. For the faces, I used a pencil first and designed hair and added eyes and smiles. I used colored Sharpies and more white marker to color it all in.



I'm going to wrap these ladies up and gift them to my little niece. I hope she'll enjoy playing with them, maybe during quiet time at church. For more washi tape ideas, be sure to visit the Love My Tapes blog, and be sure to visit the original creator of these puppets for her tutorial, here.

Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Monday, August 4, 2014

Music Altered Book - SRM Stickers

With the new month comes a new challenge from the SRM Stickers challenge blog...


...and this is my take:


I've been waiting to share this teacher gift for several weeks now because when my laptop died, all of my photos of this project went with it. Luckily, the lovely teacher I made it for was happy to let me borrow it to re-shoot the photos.



The boys have had this wonderful music teacher at their school for the past several years. She goes above and beyond in her job, everyday, so I decided to do something for her that was a little bit above and beyond the typical teacher gift. Using all the music-themed stickers SRM Stickers has to offer, I created an altered book filled with memories of the boys through the years.


I started with an old book that had been damaged by kids, time, and storage in the garage. The spine was pink, which was a perfect match for the papers I chose. The cover was purple, which wasn't such a great match, so I spray painted it gold. I let as much of the pink spine show through as I could. The cover was also embossed, so that made for a beautiful detail once painted.


I ripped out most of the pages, leaving enough to glue together to created pages for the amount of photos I had. I came up with a pattern for some of the page spreads, and others are completely random.



To keep the look of each page uniform throughout the book, I stuck with a set of supplies: patterned papers, chipboard and buttons from My Mind's Eye, hexagon epoxies from Epiphany Crafts, white die-cuts made with my Silhouette Cameo, gold glitter dots, washi tape, shipping tags, gold crepe paper, ribbon, gold paper clips, thread, and stickers and doilies by SRM Stickers.


The glassine bags inside each hold a letter to the teacher from one of us (the boys and me).


It took several hours to complete, but I love the end result and so did our music teacher :). I am so glad that SRM Stickers has such an extensive line of music stickers because otherwise, it wouldn't be as special. Many thanks to SRM and Susan for the fabulous stickers!

If you'd like to see all of the pages and more of the cover, please see my flickr gallery here. You can find SRM's music stickers here. If you'd like to check out the challenge at SRM Challenges, see this post. I hope you'll play along! Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa