Tinkering Ink Sneak Peeks!

Yay. It's that time of year again. Winter CHA. I love this time of year when manufactures produce fresh-new lines. New inspiration. New ideas! Love that!

I especially love being able to work with it before anyone else sees it. So fun :)

Today I am sharing 2 new lines from Tinkering Ink and will add more each day. Enjoy!

This line is perfectly called, "Al Fresco" I am in absolute *love* with these colors. Bright, colorful. Perfect for all of your summer or even easter photos.

(this layout actually has a fun cut edge. The white was just to be able to scan the image without seeing a ugly scanner bed..ha)


Yesterday's sneak peek was "Thistle Hill". Quoted from Tinkering Ink's blog: "Inspired by the beautiful landscapes of Scotland, this line will have you hearing bagpipes and pulling that kilt out of the back of your closet. Don't have a kilt in your closet? Okay...well just scrap with this beautiful line then!

A great scrappy week :)

Hello!

Just wanted to pop in to say Hi! I've had a great "scrappy" week and have been quite productive. It has been so cold out that other than the work and gym, I have been staying inside. That means time well spent in my scrap room :) I made 2 mini albums this week and a couple pages.

For quite sometime now I've been eyeing the Bo Bunny word albums at my LSS and finally decided to give one a try. I chose the "LOVE" album because I thought it would be quick and simple. And..... actually it did come together very quickly. I received this colorful kit from CROP ADDICT which included the gorgeous, colorful Scenic Route V-day papers. I knew it was going to be the perfect fit for this book. The only tedious part in working on this book was tracing the letters and cutting them out and gluing them to the album. It honestly took me 2 hours..lol---only because I was watching TV at the same time ;-) But, once that part was finished I got to dig into my stash and embellish like a mad women..lol. As you can see I used plenty of rhinestones and Stickles to cover a house, but it's so pretty in the sunlight. Thinking back now......i'ts funny how I used to cringe at the thought of putting glitter or "puffy" paint on my pages.......and now I absolutely *LOVE* it. Funny how your ideas and likes change over time.

I wasn't able to take any pictures at Christmas this year. I thought I had a fully charged battery, but when I arrived and tried to start taking pics....the camera was dead :( My mom let me borrow the card from her camera so I could upload her pics.....so that was good.
To create this fun little book, I cut 2 pieces of 12x12 cardstock in half twice to create a nice 6x6 mini book. I added pages using Hambly transparencies in between each chipboard page...just for fun ;-) I used Scenic Route papers and stickers, along with KI Memories epoxy stickers, rhinestones and buttons and tons of other goodies I had in my stash. This was SUCH a fun little book to create to remember our fun Christmas day.












This layout is using the pics of Steve I took the day he built our giant snow man :) Sadly the bottom part only remains on this snowman, but at least we have the memory captured..right?! To create this page I used last winter KI Memories and some other fun goodies.

The last page I have here I made last night. I invited my mom over to scrap with me. We totally cranked the tunes up and got our groove on while creating. In addition to finishing up the Christmas album, I created this fun page of my sis and I.

Off to watch some movies with my sweetie. I hope everyone has a wonderful night and a great week ahead.

Hugs,

Tessa Ann :-)

New layout and Yay, it's Friday :)

Hello :)
This has been a great week for me. I have continued to go to the gym and get an hour or more of cardio exercise each day and totally eating low-carb. It's actually been pretty easy to stick with so far and I have tons more energy.

Here is a layout I created a couple nights ago. I was inspired by the photo and colors of this photo. It totally makes me crave the warm summer sunshine again. I know I have always said how much I love the winter, but this year we have had so much snow...which melts during the day and turns to ice at night...so the roads are very slippery and dangerous. So....warmer weather is welcomed by me and I can't wait to spend weekends hanging out at the river with Steve and BBQ's at my parents house. Ahh...good times :)




Have a wonderful weekend!
Tessa

Hey everyone!
I hope you are all having a nice week so far. Here in Bend, Oregon we have had a big winter storm come through that perfectly blanketed our town in a lovely white snow. Steve measured the amount of snow yesterday on our deck area and it was around 8 inches. Yesterday, Steve went outside to see if he could build a snow man and boy did he! I think it was at least 6 feet.

Here are some pics of his creation!


The completed snow women! Isn't she purrdy ;)


Later that evening, a neighbor stopped by to "Thank" us for making the snow man. He said that it made him smile everytime he drove by. How sweet :)




Aside from enjoying the winter splendor. I have been doing awesome at my work out routine! I am proud that everyday I have put in at least 1 hour of cardio exercise. It feels SO wonderful. I have also put a huge control on my diet and am eating really healthy and that feels awesome too. Taking charge! I hope to have dropped some of this weight before I hit CHA with Tinkering Ink next month. eek. The pressure..lol! Cuz...I don't want to be reading about how overweight I am on that smack blog (it has already happened once and OUCH...even though it was true, it did sting a lot)

Anyhoo..... I have a new page to share, that I will add next post.

I think that's it for today!
Enjoy your day!
Hugs, Tessa Ann

Happy Weekend everyone ;)

Is it just me? It feels odd that today is already Friday. I think that with 2 holidays in a row at the beginning of each week that I have lost track of what day it is.
Well obviously, Friday is always a good thing. Steve is always so busy during his work week and so worn out when he arrives home, that having the weekends to hang with him is always a good thing :)

I have been hitting the gym really hard this week and doing tons of cardio. It really feels good to have a routine again with my fitness. Although, I can bearly straighten my arms out from doing my upper body weights, it feels great to actually have sore muscles to complain about again. I've been cooking at home almost every night. I have totally impressed Steve with my cooking abilities. Hey, I didn't know I could cook a good meal either. I must have some of my beloved Grandma's cooking gene's after all.ha! I've been using www.allrecipes.com to get a lot of my recipes. It has been fun to try different variations of things I wouldn't normally even think of. It's nice that I can control what goes into our food, making it much healthier for the both of us....not to mention the $$ we save by not eating out so often.

I've been eyeing some papers and embellishments at my LSS by Prima and finally broke down and bought them. Last night I played and this is what I created :) The photo is of my sister and I just a few weekends ago. Heidi is totally my motivation to get this weight off. She has never been a big girl, but she recently lost a TON of weight by doing Weight Watchers. Just seeing her shrink to a nice size 4 I am totally inspired....oh, yeah that and the New Years day marathon of "The Biggest Loser" totally gave me the kick in the rear I so desperately needed/wanted. Uh, can I say...WISH ME LUCK---lots of it!



Wishing you and yours a wonderful weekend!!!
Hugs, Tessa Ann Watte`

My renovated scrap room and a new layout :)

Happy Wednesday (but, feels like Monday) everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful time on New Years Eve! The party I hosted for my family turned out fantastic. We had SO much fun, drank too much champagne and played guitar hero and a bit of karaoke. Those 2 games are guaranteed many laughs and boy did I have some great laughs that night! Dinner turned out wonderful and I was so proud to receive rave reviews. Overall.... it was a great night! I hope your eve was as well :)

As I mentioned in my last post I am extremely happy about *finally* re-doing my scrap room. I just love the color we painted it and how vibrant and inspiring it is. I still have lot of decorating to do, meaning the walls--as you can see they are a bit on the bare side..ha! I finally took some pics this afternoon (as the sun was setting, so not the best light for this gorgeous color) and would like to introduce you to my new little room of joy!

You may be wondering....uh, where's all of her stuff?! I have utilized the closet in this room to store and organize all of my stamps, chipboard, alphas, brads, paints, threads and on and on.....but, I just couldn't bring myself to taking pics of the closet area. While it is clean, neat and organized, I am using those hideous plastic drawer systems. Totally an eye sore and would ruin the pretty pics I took. Right?!? Ha!

In my last post I said that I had been going through a bit of "rut" creatively. I should have known that simply playing with some fresh-new products would solve this problem. My LSS got in the new Making Memories "Love Struck" line of papers and products and I just had to get some and play. Here is what I created using this oh-so-lovely line of papers and embellishments. I just *had* to add in my beloved aqua blue....as I totally love aqua with red and pink---- of course all of that combined with black and white polka dots.

I sat down last night with a glass of wine, my new Ipod cranked-up to some awesome tunes and started cutting paper until this is what I was satisfied with :)




Happy New Year!
Hugs,
Tessa Ann Watte`

Happy New Years!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families! Steve and I had a wonderful Christmas. We spent the day at my parents house enjoying Christmas day with them. My mom bought my dad a PS2 for Christmas, so I bought him Guitar Hero to go along with it and oh, wow.....what a hit that was. We all took turns playing the guitar and had a blast. His PS2 also came with "Sing Star" and that was a pretty big hit as well. It was so funny how the game would tell you if you were good or awful as you were singing. I am a trained singer and I got quite a few "BAD" reviews....totally fun though :) The only bummer point that day was realizing my camera's battery was not charged and so I didn't get any photos :( Ah, man...I would have had some hilarious photos too. Ah shucks!

Tonight I am hosting a New Years Eve party at my house for my family. I will serve dinner, appetizers and of course drinks ;) I have requested that Dad bring the guitar hero game....so as you can imagine, good times will be had tonight! Oh, and there will definitely be photos!!

I have been taking a bit of a break scrapping. Sometimes we need do that for a bit right? Although I can't stay completely away from my scrapping-addiction, so this last week I totally re-vamped my scrap room. On Thursday, Steve and I spent the afternoon finally putting some color on my walls. I chose my favorite color..... "Tiffany-box" aqua-blue. I am making fun canvases to hang on the walls using some of my stamps and other mediums....lots of black and white and polka dots to go with it. I have also gone through EVERYTHING I have and ended up purging a lot of my stuff. I have a lot set aside to possibly sell on Ebay, but am not sure if that would be the right direction. Any ideas? Anyway....it feels really great to have my room totally organized and colorful. Just the way I like it. I'll be sure to take some pics to share. It's so pretty :)

Oh, and something else I am pretty excited about right now.... Steve and I both joined the gym. Since my whole training fiasco, I've not been working out as much. Um, and it shows. Not pretty. Anyway. Steve said he would be my partner at the gym and help motivate me. I really appreciate how sweet he is by going with me, doing cardio right next to me and encouraging me. For some reason I need that right now. I am just soooo not happy about the weight I've put on, so I am really going to do something about it. I only wish I wouldn't have let myself get this heavy. Ah, well... I am doing something to change that! Here's to a new body for Tessa!

In closing this ramble-session of a post, I am sharing my latest layout. This layout was created for the StylesTheWord blog. Our inspiration for December was Pam Callaghan. Pam has been one of my favorite scrappers since I started scrapbooking 3 years ago. I have had the opportunity to get to know her somewhat personally through a few phone calls and our design team positions together. I adore her style and it was awesome to give her "style" a whirl. January's inspiration is me. They are calling my style "Excellent and Eclectic." Pretty fitting don't you think? LOL!


And....here is my sketch for Crop Addict's January Manufacture Challenge where Piggy Tales is the featured manufacture. Please feel free to use this sketch if you wish :)




Here's wishing everyone a wonderful New Year. I wish for you a wonderful, heathly, prosporus year.

I'm sick (yuck) but we have snow (YAY!!!)

Uh, yes I do realize that is a weird title for this post. Just keeping things in perspective at the moment. ha! Well, I've got to remember what's good today as I lay here feeling like um.... *you know what*. I'm totally not trying to create a whine fest here or anything, but geesh, I got Steve's cold earlier this month which luckily only lasted about a week and just Monday night I started feeling nauseous and was sick all that night (like that ugly sick that luckily you only get a couple times in your life) and all the next day. I even called in sick for work today which I don't ever like doing. I am feeling better stomach wise, but man-o-man my body aches and I feel weak. Whah, whah, whaaa.. I know..lol!

So, I thought I would put some of this down time to use and share with you what I woke up to on Monday morning. I just love how pretty the snow is. Here is another fun collage (love these things lately..ha) of our neighborhood and home the morning after a bit of snow fell.

Scrappy wise:

Here's a layout that should make you laugh....Um, or cry..ha, ha!
Though the hair cut I was sporting at the time totally makes me cringe, it just had to be scrapped about. The photo was taken almost 8 years ago during my 21st birthday party. Good times that night..lol!




Here is one I did about a month ago using all of the fun new KI memories stuff---LOVE this lace paper.



I've been in the mood for creating cards (and a tag) lately and here are a few of my favorites :)
I just love the colors of Tinkering Ink's Botanical Bliss line of papers and embellishments. I used some Stickles to add some sparkle to bird. Gotta have a wee-bit of glitter, right?!?



I used a template from Mirkwood designs to create this card, along with Tinkering Ink's "Haberdasher" line of papers and rubons and some fun May Arts ribbon.


Another card using a template from Mirkwood designs along with Tinkering Ink papers, KI memories lace paper and some Junkitz jewels. I had to alter the template a bit as the wings of the butterfly are suppose to intertwine, but I couldn't get mine to do that w/o ripping, so this is what I came up with. :) "Make it work!" Right?!?! :)


This one is just fun and colorful. A "Just because" type card. I love getting those. To create this card I hand cut the flowers from Piggy Tales new line called, "Ba, Ba black sheep" and combined it with some KI Memories paper (Did I say I loved that stuff...lol) and some ribbon and jewels.....oh, yeah and my beloved Doodlebug alphas that I am using on everything lately.



Steve and I had a great time at my parents Christmas party this weekend and my sis took a couple pics of us together. It's always nice to have new pics.

So, we wish you ALL a very wonderful holiday season!

Happy Holidays!

I am really enjoying the holidays this year. The music, the decorating, the cooking and especially family festivities. I'm really loving it all. I hope you are enjoying getting ready for your holiday with your family and making traditions new and old come alive!

Today I took pictures around the house. Since moving into our new home, a "real house" Steve and I have been so excited for the holidays... to be able to decorate and share good times with family and friends. I have to admit that I got started on my holiday decor just a wee-bit on the early side....um, like a week before Thanksgiving. In between now and then I have placed the final holiday touches on our home and it couldn't be any more lovely in my eyes. I love to wake up in the morning and come home from work at night and plug in the lights. It's truly like magic this time of year. I love everything about it :) I've been cooking so much lately. It's been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed using recipes from http://www.allrecipes.com/. I love how you can read the comments on the dish before you prepare it and take the suggestions into consideration. Steve and I laugh at the people who give 5 stars, yet the changed the entire recipe. I swear, those comments crack us both up. A lot of times they give really great ideas for making the dish even better. Last night I made a stuffed chicken with apples, cheese, cinnamon, onions, a wee-bit of brown sugar and some chicken flavored stuffing. You pound the chicken breast thin and role the mix into the center of the chicken and cook in a skillet with white wine and a bit of garlic. It was so delicious. I have been really proud to finally have something great to serve at dinner lately. Yes, Steve and I have been married 8 years, but during that time I've only cooked for him a handful of times. I feel bad about that, and for some reason lately I am really loving creating beautiful, heathly meals for the both of us. That makes me feel really good. Oh, yeah and the house smells SO good every evening :) That it's self is worth all of the effort!

Aside from the suzy-home maker duties (haha----just had to say that..lol) I've been working a lot at my LSS. It's been fun assisting customers who are picking out Christmas gifts for others and those who are making mini-books and cards for family members. Class sign ups have been really slow this month sadly. I've created 2 classes for the store this month, but both were cancelled due to the small sign ups. So, I think I'll hold off on creating anything until things pick up again. It's all good though....that's just the way it goes sometimes :)

In my scrappy-world, I received the beautiful new Tinkering Ink releases for Winter CHA and made several layouts and a mini album for them. I can't wait to be able to share the sneak peeks with you. Just when I think the lines can't get any better, they do. All I will hint is: Can we say.... color??!? I also have a new sketch up at Crop Addict for their manufacture challenge using Tinkering Ink's Beloved line. Here is the sketch if you would like to play along. (You don't have to use the beloved line, you can use any Tinkering Ink paper you have, it just has to be primarily Tinkering Ink) So, to play along...simply post your layout to Crop Addict's gallery using 70% of Tinkering Ink products to get a chance to win some great products from Tinkering Ink. My new position this year at Crop Addict is to create a sketch each month for a manufacture challenge. Crop Addict will have a new manufacture each month for this challenge. I will continue to post these sketches for you to use on my blog each month! I hope you like this :) Enjoy!

Well, I hope you all enjoy your time with your families this weekend. Here's creative vibes to get all of those holiday gifts finished, created and wrapped this weekend :) Um, am I a wee-bit ambitious??---You bet!

Much love,

Tessa Ann

tessaannwatte@gmail.com

Joy of the season online class

Boy time has just gone by so quickly this past week. I've been busily putting the finishing touches on my new album class. "Joy of the season."
This is going to be a bit different than teaching a class in person, as it will be an online class. Right at Home Scrapbooking is a wonderful scrapbooking store located in Attleboro, Massachusettes. I've been creating pages for Lisa for the last couple of years and recently we decided to give this online class a try. I'm excited and proud to give a bit of a sneak. If you are interested in taking the class, follow the link above to get more information.

Here is a little description of the class :)

"Warm scarves and mittens, hot chocolate, snow angels and holiday cheer make winter a memorable time for families world-wide.

Create a beautiful album to display your families winter traditions and memories using Tinkering Ink's "Yuletide" line of papers combined with dazzling jewels, buttons and layers of gorgeous ribbon, lace and rich textures.

Create your album to store your own family traditions or as a gift to give during the upcoming holiday months."

This kit is packed full of scrapbook goodies. You will be working with a 9x9 Bo Bunny Chipboard album, Tinkering Ink's Yuletide paper collection, transparencies, Bazzill cardstock, Heidi Swapp bling, Cosmo Cricket rub-ons, buttons, loads of ribbon, & beautiful lace, rhinestones, Heidi Swapp flowers, Imaginesce Poinsettia flowers and more.

Happy Friday and have a lovely weekend!!

:)---Tessa Ann Watte`

Hi there! I hope you all are having a great week. I just wanted to pop in really quick and post a couple of new layouts.

I am the Nov. guest for www.allabouteve.blogspot.com.
The challenge this round was to scrap what we love about our bodies. At first when I received the challenge, I was stumped. I started thinking about it and decided I would just write about my thoughts about my body.

Journaling reads:
I can’t lie.
I often wish my body was the perfect standard.
But it’s not.
I wish I could walk comfortably in a swim suit.
But I haven’t since I was a child.
I have always been told how pretty I was, but if I lost weight I would be better.
Yes, that hurts.
So through the years I’ve come to appreciate my strong features.
My green eyes, my complexion, my hair color.
What I’ve come to learn is that we all are a work in progress and I am just that.

I know! Enough already of the deep stuff! ---LOL---

I created a layout just to play this week. I scrapped a pic of my sister and I that I love. I bought the Making Memories Noteworthy papers and embellies at my LSS a few weeks back and have had them sitting by my desk patiently waiting for me to do something with them. So Tuesday night, I grabbed a glass of wine and headed up to my scrap room to play. With the music bumping, I happily started cutting, inking and layering my goodies :) It came together rather quickly. I love the soft muted tones. I know I tend to scrap wild, bright colors, but just as much as I love bright colors, I love these soft feminine tones.



Lastly, I would like to share an adorable photo of my parents adorable golden retrievers that I took on Sunday at the Park. (um, who are patiently waiting for me downstairs to take them out for a walk--always---lol) My parents are arriving home tonight, so they go home today. While I've enjoyed them being here, Steve and I realize we are just not "dog people" Man, those boys are like little kids needing constant attention. They even pout. ha! Baily will not eat his food unless you sit down next to him and coax him. P a t h e t i c. My mom has totally spoiled these dogs. But hey, they are adorable and so, so sweet :)

{Left is Baily aka: "Baily Boy" and right is Rocky aka: "Rocket Dog" lol!}



Enjoy the rest of your week!
XOXO---Tessa Ann Watte`

The sketch layouts and a RAK Winner!

How is your week going so far! Are you seeing signs of the season changing? It has been getting windy and cold here in Bend, Oregon. The fireplace has been in action, the winter coats have been brought out. I am just awaiting my favorite tea to be released......Celestial Seasonings "Candy Cane Lane." Then I will be all set for this season.

My parents are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary today. Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom! They flew out last night for a few days in the grand town of Vegas. They l o v e going to Vegas. My mom just loves going through the luxury hotels and seeing the shows. Uh, I think Dad likes all the pretty ladies...lol! Steve and I offered to babysit their 2 golden retrievers, Baily and Rocky while they are gone. I just adore these boys. So far Steve and I have enjoyed hitting the park with them. Yesterday we took some really cute shots of them in the park laying amoungst the golden fall leaves. There was a professional photographer waiting for her client to arrive who came up to us and asked if she could take our picture. Um, sure! So, we got a really cute shot of us all together. More pics to scrap. Yay!

Thank you everyone who played along with this sketch. It was really neat to see everyone's creations. I have created a slide show of all of the layouts linked, as I feel they need to be showcased!

I wrote each name of each entry on a strip of paper and put them into a wine class and pulled out a random name for the winner of the RAK!




And............. Dum, dum......... The winner is :