Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Golden Birthday Bash

A Golden Birthday is celebrated when you turn the same age as the numerical date of your birthday. So, if you were born on the 2nd, like my hubby, then your Golden Birthday occurs when you turn 2. I am one of those people who has to wait the absolute longest. My birthday falls on August 31st, and because I am turning 31 this year, I finally get to celebrate my Golden Birthday!


I thought it would be fun to celebrate with you :). Here's what I have planned:

My shop is on sale for 31% off during the whole month of August! Use code GOLDEN31.

I'll be sharing my 31 favorite flowers from the shop on Facebook, one each day. Place an order and you will find the flower of the day in your package for free :).



I know it's my birthday, but I have a present for one of you! How would you like a box filled with 31of my favorite scrappy things? Simply comment on this post with the following that applies to you:

♥ follow the blog
♥ be a Facebook fan
♥ pin a Precocious Paper project on Pinterest - label with Precocious Paper
♥ tweet or Facebook about my Golden Birthday Bash
♥ post a Precocious Paper project to the Facebook wall

Good luck and thanks for celebrating with me! Tessa

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Smash Sunday - Girls' Camp and Flair



Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend a church camp for girls. I was asked to go as a crafts expert and work in the "Craft Shack". I knew I might have a little bit of extra time while I was there, so I packed myself a SMASHing kit, including several pieces of flair from the {a flair for buttons} shop.
This is my title page, featuring one of the flair from the Girl Flair set. The silhouette of a girl and the woodgrain were the perfect match for the theme of this book.

used another piece from the same set for this page. I loved this view of a small stream near the campsite and the woodgrain heart flair was the perfect embellishment.


I also brought along the Linen Chevron flair. It made the perfect accent for my glassine "pocket" bag.


Shelley also has several specifically camp-themed flair sets in the shop if you're interested in tents and campers and the like. Thanks for stopping by and checking out another ongoing SMASH project of mine :). Have a great day! Tessa
You can read my original post about these pages on the {a flair for buttons} blog here.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Birthdays and Ruffles

This is my calendar for August:


Red tape indicates holidays (yes, school starting is a holiday in my book!); the stripe is for my husband's work schedule; aqua chevron is for birthdays and anniversaries. See how many aqua chevron days there are? And there are even more that you can't see in the photo! August is definitely a big birthday month in our family, including both my husband's and mine (with our anniversary in between), and three generations of women on my mom's side (me, my mom and my grandma). I decided that I needed to get a jump on birthday cards before back-to-school prep set in, and the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World was just the inspiration I needed:


How sweet is this? Inspired by the ruffled frosting, doily, and banner, this is the card I created:


I used crepe paper streamers to create my ruffled background. The doily became the base for my pennant/sentiment. I love the fancy birthday stickers by SRM Stickers!


Thanks to Cath for the push to get this card made. Someone special is going to love it come August! If you want to play along, here are all the details. And speaking of birthdays, here is one more card, made for GCD Studios:


You can find this invitation on the GCD Studios blog here, as well as in this month's issue of The Paper Cut magazine.

Thanks for taking the time to visit! Tessa

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Epiphany Crafts and Tombow

Hello blogging world! I decided that the rest of the summer is going to seem kind of boring and I am absolutely okay with that! I just got back from San Diego Friday night, then spent a long weekend getting in quality time with my own little family. With very few plans - all of which being minor - left for the summer, I am looking forward to a slower pace. And more blogging! I've got some catching up to do with project sharing, but today I wanted to point you in the direction of the Epiphany Crafts blog. We've teamed up with Tombow this week and my layout is up today:


Besides using their great tape runners to adhere my paper pieces, the vellum tape runner was a fabulous tool for adding strips of glitter to my page, as well as adding my metal Epiphany Crafts embellishment. I never thought a tape runner could do that!


The papers, bag and tag on this layout are from Scrapbook Circle's August kit - sneak peek, people! The different rhinestones are by Jolee's. The journaling....


For a short and sweet tutorial for using glitter with a tape runner (as well as two other fabulous projects from the DT), you can check out the EC blog here. I'm off to fill orders for the shop today, but I'll be back soon with more projects and happy news. Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Freckled Fawn and Precocious Paper

Freckled Fawn, one of my favorite sources for washi tape, recently launched a line of monthly kits called ohDEERme. These embellishment kits include several indie handmade shops, as well as Freckled Fawn tapes and embellies. The July kit happens to feature one of my etsy shop's best sellers, the Turquoise Dot Ruffle Blossom:


The kits are available here now. I have to also point out the A Flair for Buttons flair - see those canning jar buttons? I have that set already and can attest to how cute it is!


The woodgrain patterns and tags are all so darling.


Thanks to Freckled Fawn for including me in this month's collaboration! Stay tuned, because Precocious Paper is also in two kits next month and I'll pass on all the details very soon.

Have a great weekend! Tessa

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Summer Bucket List

Hello, all! I'm off to a planning meeting of the sisters for our San Diego trip next week, but I wanted to let you all know that there is still a week left to play along with our current challenge at Scrapbook Circle. The theme is Summer Bucket List, and here is my list, created with the July kit:


I know I've already scrapped this photo before, but it just so happened to fit in with my list perfectly and I had to use it. Besides, the strawberries from the farmers' market are my absolute favorite, so I should have several pages devoted to them, right?!



I loved the pattern of the pink/red paper, so I used a Pink Paislee mask to repeat that design in mist behind my photo/patterned paper cluster.



I layered several tags from the kit (I love how many tag options come in SBC kits!) and fussy cut a bit of chevron patterned paper for the right edge. I love the light, summery colors of this kit :). So happy and carefree!


If you'd like to play along with the challenge, you can find all of the details here. There is a shop credit up for grabs :). I just picked up some Mister Huey's and a 6x6 paper pad from the SBC shop yesterday. A credit would go a long way with that purchase ;). Oh, and I also picked up the August add-on (only available to the DT at the moment). You're going to LOVE it! Anyway, gotta go. San Diego itineraries beckon! Have a great day :). Tessa

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Bored? Try a Board Game!

Here's one of my latest GCD Studios projects - a homemade board game :).

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My boys love board games, but they tend to get tired of them quickly. I decided to make a board game of my own, one where they could be in control of how the game was played, and one that they would be entertained by for quite some time.


Introducing, "I Dare You". I created a simple board layout by adhering 12x12 cardstock to a chipboard base. Next, I created spaces by adding patterned paper triangles. The patterns you see here all come from the Oh Happy Day line. Next, I made cardstock cards for three categories: Eat It, Do It, Make It. I had my boys write dares on the cards. For example, in the "Do It" category, one wrote: "Drop an ice cube down your shirt and keep it there for 20 seconds." In the "Make It" category, one wrote: "Make a spaceship out of Legos in 45 seconds." I'll spare you examples from the "Eat It" category - they got a little gross :).


To play, the boys take turns rolling a die and traveling around the board. If they land on a yellow triangle, they play a yellow card, and the same for orange and green. If they complete the dare, they stay on that triangle. If they don't complete the dare, they move back the number of triangles they had advanced. The first one back home wins.


Every time the boys play, they like to mix in new cards and new crazy dares. I like to throw in some dares, too, like, "Make your bed in under a minute." Ha, I know, not crazy, but a mom has to get creative sometimes, right?


If you are looking for an afternoon of fun, give a homemade board game a try. And don't forget to pull out those GCD Studios papers to make it happen.

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I hope you're having a great day :). Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Oval Love

One of my favorite shapes in the Epiphany Crafts collection is the oval, so I was really excited to have the assignment to create a page featuring the oval tool.


First, I chose a photo of my son's last chorus performance. I knew I wanted the page to have movement because they did quite a bit of dancing while they sang. To create that, I placed paper-pieced circles across the page, added arrows, and put the ovals to work.


By starting with one oval in a horizontal position...


...then tipping the next to vertical...


...and returning the third to horizontal, your eye tumbles across the page. I love the effect :). You can win an oval tool for yourself at the Epiphany Crafts blog now :).

I just got back from a week in the mountains with the young women of my church. It was awesome! I was one of the crafts leaders and had a great time creating with over 200 people.


I started a SMASH book while I was there to document the week and had it laying out on the counter in the craft shack. One of the nurses walked in, saw my SMASH book, and I discovered she was a scrapbooker, too! We got to talking paper and glue when she noticed an instax photo in my book. I took along my instax camera, but realized when I got there that I didn't bring any extra film and only had two exposures left. When I told this to Nurse Wendy she offered to bring me some when she came back on Thursday (she was going down the hill for the 4th of July). I told her it wasn't necessary (because that's expensive film!), but she showed up on Thursday with the film and wouldn't even let me repay her. I used my free time that day to make her a thank you card (which I neglected to photograph), but I did get this photo of the two of us :).


I love connecting with other paper crafters! It's a special bond, don't you think? It really was a great week filled with many, many blessings. I'll share my SMASH book soon, and I'll catch up with all of my other projects as the week goes on. I hope your week was fabulous and that this one is, too! Tessa