I had so much fun!!

I just love these people! My Tinkering Ink Family to the right.........>they were SUCH a blast to hang out with and I was so proud to be part of this team. It was so exciting to see the buzz around the show about the products we were showing. I loved talking with everyone, sharing our "latest and greatest" product. At times I felt a bit giddy when the editors of big magazines were hanging out at our booth talking up our wonderful new lines. It was truly nothing I've experienced before. I am trulygrateful for the opportunity they gave me to come and work the show.

It was SO neat to meet other scrappers and designers I've chatted with online in person. It was fun to chat with them and see that they were "actual" walking, talking people..haha. and just as sweet in person too!

I also treasured the part of getting to know the team I work with. I was the last DT member to arrive on Saturday, so I was a bit nervous to meet everyone. But, I shouldn't have been nervous.........they were the most warm and welcoming people I've met. I instantly felt comfortable with them and shared MANY laughs throughout the week.


We attended the Martha reception together on Sunday night and the 2 Peas Ice Cream Social. It was fun to see all of the garden girls in person. The part I enjoyed most was seeing their work in person. Scanned versions of their work just doesn't do them justice. The details and creativity of each layout was mind blowing.....and SO-SO inspiring. They were so down to earth too.


As you can see from the pics we had a lot of
"Silly" moments. But, to me that was fun. It was fun to have these moments to reflect on and
I look forward to seeing them again!


 

Leaving on a jet plane...............

Okay, so I'm a just "little bit" excited..lol Tomorrow is finally here! I have been looking forward for this day :-) I will be leaving on a jet plane around 11:30 am on my way to CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) to accompany Tinkering Ink. I'm really excited to hang with the Tinkering Ink family and help out at the booth all week. I look forward to getting to know these wonderfully creative people that I have had the honor of working with.

I think I'm all ready to go?!? Yikes! Will I forget something? I hope not.

And..... I'm always a last minute ,packer. I can never decide what to bring until the 11th hour..lol.

Well, right now it is Friday night 5:25 pm.
My suit case is sprawled out across my bed, being filled to the brim as I think of something else I am "sure" I "cannot" live without...(haha) Ehem..... It would save a lot of room if I wasn't bring my own pillow and blanket (it's only a small throw..lol). I've gotta have at least some of my home comforts :-) I have a great book for the flight called, "Living What You Love". I've started reading through a few pages and man-o-man it's so inspiring and thought provoking. So that will make some great reading material in route. Of course, I'll have to catch up on my favorite scrapbooking mags too!

All-in-all I am thrilled to hit the sky tomorrow.........and I know I will have lots to post about when I get back.

Have a VERY wonderful week!!!
XXXOOO-Tessa
PS: The layout below is another Tinkering Ink layut featuring the Covenant Garden Line. So pretty :-)
:-)

More new Tinkering Ink products

I'm thrilled to share a couple more of Tinkering Ink's new lines. These lines will be making their debut this month at CHA in Anehiem. Again, with these 2 lines, I love the rich mix of colors and beautiful patterns.


The first layout, "US" was inspired by the photo I captured of my husband and his family during a visit. I loved the way it captured the fun mood of the day.


Curiosity was created using papers from the "Gibson" line. I know it's pretty simple, but with that fun wavy pattern combined with the bright pic and colors, simple was my best option :)





















"Say it's your birthday!" was inspired by my younger days. My parents had friends that were in bands and I remember that was the song they sang to me on my birthday and scared the heck out of me due to the loudness..haha. But, anyway that is what inspired the title. The pic is one I took of my sis-in-law on her 21st birthday. I used the Westminster line for this layout.



Well, CHA is just around the corner, and I am excited to be accompanying Tinkering Ink to help out. I am beyond excited! I can't wait to see all of the fun new products and maybe see some friendly faces.


I also have some sneak peaks up on my Junkitz blog. Sorry, as I'm not sure how to get the link to work directly or I would link you right up....so visit there if ya want ;) I am in love with their new products too. The Extreme Boy line that Teresa Collins has designed is uber cool! I love the hip designs with the sculls and cross bones. Perfect to fit boys these days. Janna Wilson has done it again with creating a elegant line of pretty flowers and gorgeous colors. So, you get the idea. Lots of cool new stuff. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the cool glittery chipboard and felt flowers. Fun stuff.

Enough teasing :) Have a wonderful week!

Tessa

Tinkering Ink is here-whoohoo!

I'm excited to finally share a sneak peek of the gorgeous Tinkering Ink "Perfectly Posh" and "Westminster" lines! The colors are fresh, vibrant and begged to mixed up! Next Tuesday check back to see a sneak peek of 2 more of Tinkering Inks lines!

Enjoy your day!!!


 

Happy New Year!

What a fun and productive last couple of weeks It has been! I have been creating away making all kinds of layouts, cards, altered items, mini books. I think I have pretty much covered the entire spectrum creatively this week..haha :-) Below I am sharing a few of my creations using kits from Crop Addict and Creating Inspirations.
I have also had a great time exploring writing again. A couple months ago, I was given the opportunity by Legacy magazine to write an article about my style and techniques with scrapbooking. I was thrilled to have this opportunity and my mind filled with many possibilities of what I could cover in the article. As a kid, I loved writing. My mom still has notebooks-and-notebooks filled with stories and illustrations. I recently sat down and explored these books and laughed as I read how creative my mind was at such a young age. When I entered high school I continued writing and enjoyed working with our campus magazine. I had to remember why I stopped writing. I remember my sophmore English teacher really giving me a hard time with everything I turned in, so it stopped being fun. So I stopped writing. Sad, huh? So it is really nice to remember how much I love writing and be able to dabble in it again :)

My Christmas recap..... and some new projects!

I really hope that you had a very wonderful and memorable Christmas day!

Steve and I enjoyed our day so much! We arose and drove to my parents house for a Christmas breakfast of mom's yummy scrambled dishes and fresh muffins and fruit :)
Oh, yeah, don't forget the coffee.....yup gotta have the coffee!
After opening gifts from Dad and Mom we then drove to Heidi and Aaron's home for gifts there. Kind of like getting milage out of Christmas morning...haha! Well, it works for us :-) So, you guess it, then everyone came to our home to open the gifts from us. We drank hot chocolate and shared our gifts with Mom, Dad, Heidi and Aaron. I just loved seeing the expression on their faces as they opened their gifts. I think they loved everything :-)

Our family has always been all about tradition. We would always do the same thing each year. This year we decided we would all enjoy a dinner out!

And we did just that :-)



So....... my mom decided to reserve us a table at local favorite restaurant. It was nice to sit around a table together enjoying each other's company, not worring if the rolls were going to burn or if the dogs needed outside. We could *simply* focus on one another and visit. It was so nice.......................................that's until I spilled my glass of red wine in Steve's lap. Yes, I am a total clutz and that was only my 1st glass. So embarrasing. I often say that I receive my lesson in humility each day and I definitely did that day.

But, overall Christmas day was wonderful and I will remember the new traditions we shared together, the coversations we had at dinner and the experience of sharing a day together as a family. I hope we continue this for years to come!

{{{{The first picture is of our sweet family dog......Baily. He is my parents adorable Golden Retriever who is the most patient dog. Steve posed Baily with his very own doggy-santa hat. Then the 3 of us {Heidi, Dad and I} all shot pictures of him at the same time. The funny part is that he just stood stiff in that very position you see in the picture------ for--- forever it seemed...haha. }}}}






Here are a few projects I created today using the January Crop Addict Kit. I really enjoyed how bright and playful papers of the kit were this month!

My inspiration for this layout came from the photos of my sister Heidi and Baily sharing some love on Christmas morning. Too cute, huh?
This is another fun project I created today using product from the January Crop Addict kit. I received this tin as a Christmas gift from my mom. I decided to alter it into a tin to store my handmade cards.
I created tab-like dividers for the inside that display the catagories of cards >ie: Hello, Thank You, Congratulations, Get Well Soon and Happy Birthday.
Steve and I always need a card to give to someone for any occasion, so I thought this would be perfect! I think this would make a cool gift too?!!
The last layout, "LAZY" is one of those "just for fun" type layouts!

I often use my sweet cat Mozart to practice my photography on, so I usually have many photos of him.....most of them are of him sleeping..haha!

So, this layout features my sweet boy doing what he does best.........BEING LAZY!

Have a wonderful week!! Happy NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
XXOO---Tessa Ann Watte` 

A short summary of what I've been up to lately :-)

We celebrated Steve's birthday last weekend. He loves carrot cake, so I cheated (with his blessing..haha) and picked up these wonderful carrot cake cupcakes for his birthday cake. He loved this idea and we decided to dress them up with some cute snowman candles we received in a gift last year. Steve plucked some garnishments from our outside wreath to add into our holiday themed cupcakes :-) Steve received a lot of new goodies for fishing. He has been really wanting to get back into fishing every since we moved to Bend, so he was really spoiled with some wonderful fishing goodies. Oh, his mama made him the most beautiful handmade quilt that is made of the most gorgeous colors that fits our bed. As I type this I realize I should have taken photos of this lovely present and posted them to show you all, but maybe I'll just save it for my next entry :)
Here is a photo I captured of our Christmas tree fully decorated and presents are wrapped. Yeah!!! I wish I could have captured a photo that was more clear, but what-the-hey this is what I got...........and I think it looks pretty :-) I went with a "star" theme this year for my tree. My colors varied in rich reds and sparkly golds and silver accents. The presents sort-of overwhelmed our little tree this year..hehe. But, it was really good to be able have so much to give to those whome we love!
This is a shot I captured of our mantle. Decorating our mantle just as fun as decorating our tree....in my opinion :-) I love adding a collage of ornaments and garnishes to make this fun little area festive, eye-candy when you are standing near-by getting warm and cozy from the blustery winter weather!
Today, Steve mentioned that he wanted to add something personal to the gift bags he had already prepared for his co-workers. Yesterday, I suggested we buy plain white gift bags at Michaels and use up some of my existing Christmas paper to decorate and personalize gift bags to place the items he found for each co-worker. He had covered many wonderful gift ideas......all but the good stuff-----the sweets :-) And...what is better than sweet combined with salty?!? I felt inspired to create these cholate covered pretzles. I sprinked crushed candy canes on some of the pretzel sticks and dripped melted white-chocolate on some of these goodies! We were out and out about today trying to find something to wrap our treats in when Steve came up with the idea of going into a local favorite candy store and ask if they would be willing to sell some plastic wrapping? Well, Steve with this charming nature was able to score us enough to wrap all of our treats. They look so pretty in the clear wrap tied with red Christmas ribbon. Their tasty too :-)

Just a few new layouts to share :-)

I hope everyone is enjoying their week so far! I have been working like a busy bee on the holiday shopping, decor and many scrap related projects! Fun stuff :-) I attempted to make some holiday cookies, but because I am a novis in the kitchen I thought it was okay to bake them on the wax paper. It showed baked cookies on the packaging, so I *thought* it was okay. Oh, boy.....what a mess. Wax cookies... Any one want some? Didn't think so..haha! Well, I hope to give it a try again....Steve is much better in the kitchen than I am, so I'll have him supervise next time. {blushing}
Okay, so I am making one small confession............I cheated this year and didn't handmake my Christmas cards. I feel bad, but ran out of time. Anyone else skip out on the hand made cards this year?

I have a few layouts to share using Crop Addict's December kit. The first layout posted is my bosses daughter. She is so girlish and adorable and I really loved scrapping this pic! Thanks Meg :-)
The other 2 layouts I have here were created using the December Crop Addict Mid-Month kit. I can't believe it has almost been eight years since our wedding day. Yikes. Time really does fly! The sad part is....I have yet to scrap all of my wedding photos..lol. I'm working on it {wink}
One of my favorite scrapbooking subjects is my sis, Heidi. I can never run out of inspiration and things to tell stories about. Just like any sisters, we have LOTS of stories...haha!! I have been wanting to break out our younger-years photos and start telling those stories. That should be a hoot!!

Have a great afternoon!!
XXOO-Tessa 

A few new projects :-)

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! I've had a lot of fun creating several scrap projects over the last few days. I recently commented that I was trying to conquer my mini-album fear.............(lol)

So?? What's the best way to conquer a fear?

Yes, that is right! To *meet* my fear face-to-face!! (haha)

So what I have done??? I've created 3 mini-albums in the last week.{yikes} I have shared 2 of them with you today, but the 3rd album I have created was made using the fun *new* Tinkering Ink papers, so I'll have to wait a bit to share that one :-)

The 1st album pictured is an album I am giving to my husband's grandparents as a Christmas gift. Steve's grandparent's have always been very supportive of my scrapbooking, so it will be neat to present them a little piece of what I have captured of the family over the years. To create this little album, I altered a 7 Gypsies chipboard book with the December Crop Addict kit.
The layout featured above is about the joy I have watching our family open gifts on Christmas day. This feeling goes all the way back to my childhood with the memories I have of my most-loved grandma Cotton. She was always the spirit of Christmas for our family. Each Christmas we would wake up early and open presents at home with Mom and Dad. After we dressed we would drive over to Grandma and Grandpa Cotton's home, for a warm Christmas day filled with joy and happiness.
The last few Christmases, I've missed that very tradition we had shared since I was a child.
I realize it's up to us now up to our family to create new traditons and joys during the holidays, and take along the traditions once we treasured because of grandma Cotton.
I do know one thing............I will always thank Grandma Cotton for the joy I feel during this holiday season. (okay, this just gave me an idea for a layout...haha!) * To create this layout I used the December Creating Inspirations kit
"Christmas Memories" is a mini album I created using products from the December Creating Inspirations Kit.

*I've had these Bazzill chipboard circles for quite some time. I had an idea to make them into a 3 page mini album.
A very small mini-album, actually....(approx. 3x3). This would be the perfect gift during the holidays, or any time, I think :-)
I chose to make mine themed to the favorite moments I captured during our Christmas day last year.
I also think this little album would work great as an extended card or just what I did, pick a few photos that made me smile and remember our Christmas day. I'm not someone who is able to stay interested in making a 6-8 page album, so I kept this album to {3} chipboard circles and {4} 2.5 x 2.5 photos. I love having all of my favorite 2005 Christmas photos in a place that's minimal in size and simply states the wonderful Christmas in 2005 that Steve and I hosted in our new home, in our new town of Bend, Oregon.

Thanks for stopping by :)
Have a great day!
Tessa Ann Watte`

The holidays are in full bloom here at the Watte' home!

On a whim last weekend, Steve and I decided to put up our Christmas tree. We have always waited until Thanksgiving day....at least. Not this year, though! I have really enjoyed having our Christmas decor up. Each morning and evening I am greeted by me a beautiful sparkling tree and the aroma of cinnamon. Ahh....I do love this time of year most!
Of course, I am a bit silly (or cheesy, what ever you want to call it..haha) and had to capture a few pics of us in the middle of our decorating session :)
Thanksgiving was wonderful! My mom cooked the most elaborate and yummy dinner! The photo above is my favorite part of the meal..haha! The table setting.. It's turned out so pretty :-)
I've been working on a lot of fun projects lately, and have decided I love to make mini-albums. I used to be so intimidated to make these little goodies, but this weekend I actually created 2! I created one using super cute papers fromTinkering Ink line of papers and 1 album for a gift using 7 Gypsies papers from the December Crop Addict kit. The layout pictured above, is of my sweet nephew, Nick. I captured this pic of him over a year ago when we were playing at a local park. I was inspired by the shape of the tire he was playing inside of for the design of this layout.
Have a wonderful week ahead!!
XXOO----Tessa Ann Watte`

My new banner :-)

Edited:
Thanks to Lucy http://www.luzinhavip.blogspot.com I now have this super neat banner to make my blog fun! I just adore her funky style and she really captured what I was looking for. She made 3 that I absolutely LOVE. I will be changing the up throughout the week.

Thank you times a million, girlie! You are so talented, Lucy!

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!! I am looking forward to a fun day with my family....which means a lot of fun photo opportunities :-) So check back later for some new fun stuff!

I'm sorry that I don't have any new layouts to post....right now. I have been busily working on projects for Tinkering Ink....Top Secret stuff...hehe. So, that is why I have nothing new here :) I can't wait until the public can see these gorgeous, fun and funky papers. I am just about finished with a fun mini-album that I am making as a Christmas gift for Steve's sweet grandparents :-)

Again....................HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!
XXXOOO----Tess

A heart warming day

The kitten you see held oh-so proudly in my sisters arms is her new baby kitten....Benjamin. Heidi and her husband Aaron called this morning to invite Steve and I out to lunch. My sister has been traveling quite a bit for her job....so it was nice to catch up! During our meal, Heidi and Aaron mentioned they wanted to adopt a second cat to keep their other cat, "Ollie" company while they were away working.
Next thing I know, following our lunch, we were headed out to our local Humane Society to look at kittens. I have to admit, I have never been to a Humane Society before------only, because of my fear of feeling heartbroken for all of the stray animals needing homes. Because of my love of animals, I was certain it would be difficult not to bring at least 10 animals home today.
Well, to my surprise I was incredibly impressed by the facility where these sweet animals waited for their homes. It was *almost* like stepping into a luxurious hotel lobby for animals. It was truly nothing like I had imagined. The cats were in beautiful, lush rooms filled with fun play toys and towers. Some were sleeping peacefully on fluffy wool beds. There were so many people there looking at these beautiful healthy cats. It was cute how the cats seemed to sort-of "work it" when you approached them.I even noticed a young girl around 9 or 10 who's mother was just quietly reading as her daughter took each cat out of their cage and took them into a playroom to play with them. Apparently she did this on a weekly bases.
It was just very sweet to know that these animals were being loved and cared for. I guess it just sort-of warmed my heart.
So.............Today my sister, Heidi and brother-in-law Aaron fell in love with the kitten pictured above.......... and in a matter of minutes this little guy was there's, to love for a lifetime. I captured the picture of Heidi with her sweet kitty cuddling together following the adoption. It was just too cute! I think Heidi was glowing! I am excited to watch this little cutie grow up into a beautiful cat :-)
Here are a couple of my most recent layouts. The first layout was inspired by the cute papers I found at my local scrap shop, "Scrapbooking Outside Of The Box". I just adored the little cups of cocoa. I just knew these papers and embellishments were a perfect fit for these fun pics of our family tradition of snowmobiling on Christmas day!
This layout is of my sister, Heidi being her usual silly self. It couldn't anymore true with this title.....she is defintely MY keeper of secrets. I used the new Piggy Tales "Goldielocks and the 3 bears" line of paper, tags and chipboard alphas for this quick and fun layout :-)

Have a wonderful rest-of-the weekend!!!
XXOO------Tessa