3 To Inspire With Theresa

Hello Lovelies, Theresa here with a fun 3-To-Inspire for you! In this series we create a layout and give you three product challenges to inspire you to get creative with your kits! These are my three challenges for you today:

1. Use a cut file! I have used one of the Subscriber Exclusives called Own Your Magic.
2. Use mixed media and stamps to highlight your cut file! I have used both the Around Here stamp set and the Traveler's Notebook stamp set.
3. Incorporate a bold title! I have used the black foam word stickers from the Around Here kit.

Let's have a look at how I used these items in my layout!

1. Use a cut file!

I was inspired by the Own Your Magic cut file which is part of the Subscriber Exclusives. This one has some interesting angles plus a butterfly, which our daughter loves so I thought it would be perfect to document this photo. My photo is of Emberlynn at the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston Salem, NC, in fall of 2017, smashing it up in the bumper cars.

2. Use mixed media and stamps to highlight your cut file!

My layout began with a very simple and easy-going mixed media background. I used a few of my Dr. Ph Martin India Inks to add a bit of color to watercolor paper. I just lay down a bit of color, spray with a bit of water, and then lift some of the pigment back up with a paper towel or another sheet of watercolor paper.

Once the background was dry I adhered my cut file where I wanted it and then I added the stamped sentiment inside the angles of the cut file. I also added a few enamel dots inside and outside the cut file to add a bit more color and fun. 

3. Incorporate a bold title!

My layout needed a bit of pop! at this point, so I used the foam word stickers in the kit to add my title. I also added a few black hearts around the page. I have a go-to design tip about color, and that is that you can probably add just about any color to a layout as long as you repeat it in another place on your layout! The black is also repeated in the stamping and journaling.

Just a few other design notes: I used some punched hexagons to repeat the hexagon motif on the layout. Those were punched from the 3x8 card included in the kit, I simply punched from around that page. My goal was, again, contrast, and to give the embellishment clusters a sort of home base on my page. Speaking of clusters, there are three around the page that form the visual triangle. Each one is anchored by the orange hexagons, mint floral and butterfly from the cut file, and a bit of black.

This was such a fun layout to create and I am so happy to share it with you! I hope you are inspired to pick up your Around Here kit and get creative. We would love to see what you create, so be sure to share online and tag us! See you again soon!

Lovely Camillia | Life Crafted With Theresa

Hello Lovelies! Theresa here with a super fun and easy layout in my Life Crafted album. I am loving the size and simplicity of this album so much and love how easily layouts come together. I am using the June Around Here kit along with the This Is Life Routine stamp set. Let's have a look!

I was inspired by this photo of our camillia which bloomed for the first time this year, and that beautiful turquoise floral pattern in the kit! That was my starting point for this layout, so I tore a few strips from the papers and adhered them to a neutral paper for my background.

I stamped the hearts and the Home Sweet Home sentiments onto the background paper, above and below the photo. My title was so easy to create: I used the white alphabet stickers at the bottom of the photo and then added a few word strips below that. 

For the left side of my layout I had the back of my pocket page to fill, so I pulled a bit of the pink and turquoise from the right side and used that to help me decide on the pocket cards. The Love card is the 3x8 page included in the kit and I have simply cut it down to incorporate the part I wanted here.

I added the Love stamp and a few heart enamel dots for fun! For my journaling I used this grid card. I always love having lines for straighter hand writing and that was all this card needed. 

That is my layout for today! Thank you so much for stopping by. Have you been playing with your Around Here kit? Please share online and tag us so we can see! See you again soon!

Sunday Sketch With Theresa | Getaway

Hello Lovelies! Theresa here today with a Sunday Sketch layout for you! Have you seen the wonderful sketches and layouts the design team has been creating with them this month? This is my sketch I will be working with today, along with the Life Crafted Excursions kit for May and the Excursions stamp set.

This sketch is so versatile and I was immediately drawn to the triangles above the photo. What a great way to use my triangle punches! I pulled out the lovely patterned papers in the May Excursions kit and got busy.

Here is my layout I created.

I began my layout with plain white card stock and a bit of color splashes using some Tim Holtz Distress Paints in Abandoned Coral and Cracked Pistachio. I pulled colors from the paper triangles, such as the mint greens, pinks, and turquoise. 

Once the paint splashes were dry I added the solid card stock and my paper triangles to the page. These elements on the page instantly lead your eye right to the photo and add such color and texture to the page. I also added sewing machine stitching to these elements.

My photo was taken on a recent trip to the Great Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN. The photo is housed on a stack of patterned papers and I added die cut leaves in between those layers. Those leaves are part of the Free Spirit Digital Stamps, and I brought them into my Silhouette to use them as cut files.

I also added a die cut and one of the cork stickers to this cluster. I then tucked more patterned paper strips into the bottom card stock strip, just to add a bit more color to the bottom of the layout. For the left side of the photo I added more turquoise leaves, plus a label and a puffy sticker where the sketch called for the title.

I added a bit of stamping to my background, using the Life Crafted Excursions stamp set and the kit stamp set as well. This layout came together so easily using the Sunday Sketch!

Thank you so much for joining me today! I hope you are inspired to use this gorgeous sketch along with us! Be sure to share with us and tag us so we can see what you create. See you again soon!

Big Plans | Life Crafted With Theresa

Hello Lovelies! Theresa here with a Life Crafted layout for you using the May Excursions Life Crafted kit. I am absolutely loving the size and format of this fun album! For today's layout I wanted to work with a grid and a bit of stamping, so let's get started!

For the left side of my layout I had the back of a watercolor paper that I simply inserted into the album. This became the springboard for a grid of elements. My photo felt really creamy and pink, so I added the floral cut outs and other pink die cuts to the page.

I love using a grid for the simplicity of it! For this one I placed the center element first, then the three elements above, and mirrored the three elements below. I also left room in between for adding stamped words and sentiments. I have used the Life Crafted stamp set included with the Excursions kit this month.

On the right hand side I began with the black and white patterned paper. This is the perfect background paper and I had so much fun layering photo + die cuts on top.

Look at all these luscious layers and colors. The tags, tickets, labels, and floral die cuts all come together so easily on these pages!

Thank you so much for joining me today! Have you been using your Excursions kit this month? We would love to see, so be sure to share and tag us! See you again soon!

3 To Inspire With Theresa

Hello Lovelies, Theresa here with 3 To Inspire! I have an inspirational layout to share with you today and three simple prompts to inspire you to create! I am using the April Make It A Venti kit today along with the Traveler's Notebook stamp set. In this series we give you three recipe items, or prompts, to use in your layouts. Here are our prompts:

1. Mixed media background inspired by a patterned paper. I love creating quick mixed media backgrounds and using a patterned paper for inspiration is a great way to spark your creativity!

2. Use a cut file in an unexpected or unplanned way. For this layout I intended to use the patterned paper side of the cut file, but once I laid everything out realized I liked it better in white. I love the flexibility cut files give us!

3. Use stamps to help tell your story. I was so inspired by the sentiments of the Traveler's Notebook stamp set this month and created this entire layout just to use them! I think you will enjoy creating a layout that empowers you with these stamps!

 My layout today was inspired by the stamps and I knew I wanted to begin with a mixed media background. I have used the floral patterned paper below to inspire my colors for the background - pink and periwinkle. For my background I used India Inks and water on watercolor paper.

I fell in love with the Floral Screen cut file this month! Originally I planned to use it with the patterned paper side up, but as you can see, the white pops against the background beautifully and allows those gorgeous florals to show so well!

My basic design concept of this layout is very horizontal, with photos and journal cards going across the page. Everything else flows from this horizontal line, including the die cut, ephemera, and stamps. My favorite way to use stamps is with black ink against a mixed media background. They also serve as a home base for each embellishment cluster above and below the journal cards.

I also have an extended process video, if you'd like to see the layout come together:

Thank you so much for joining me today! I hope you are inspired to create and cannot wait to see how you are using your Make It A Venti kits this month! See you again soon!

Pocket Life Challenge With Theresa

Hello Lovelies, it's Theresa here today with a fun Pocket Life Challenge for you! I absolutely love how easy it is to document our family members using pocket pages, and the March Life Crafted kit has everything you need to get those pages completed. Here is my layout I created for the month of October in my 2018 album.

One thing I do to help me get these pages done is to repeat my favorite techniques over and over again, and I thought for today's challenge I would give you a list of those favorite things so you can choose. Feel free to try one, or try all, and see how it helps you as well. My first technique is:

1. Use alphas to create a working title or journaling on a card. The white puffy stickers included in the kit are perfect for this! I used these alphas for the working title with my photo, which works perfectly for journaling as well.

My title card has a working title using the same alphabet to spell October. On that card you can also see my second technique, which is as follows:

2. Use different stamp sets on your layout together and see what sentences or sentiments you can create. The March kit stamp set works beautiful with the This Is Life stamp set this month!

Up next is a technique that helps give a layout consistency:

3. Repeat an element across the page, whether it is an element, a shape, a label, or other. I have repeated the circle chipboard in several places on my layout, which not only adds a bit of dimension to the layout, but it also leads your eye around the page. You also may notice I have used the word stickers in several different places around the layout too.

You can also see another favorite technique which allows you to get more mileage out of your journal cards:

4. Cut up journal cards to create layering elements. I really love the sentiment "bits & pieces (of our day)" but felt like the blue would be a bit overpowering for the color palette on my layout. So I cut out the sentiment itself and layered it onto the strip journal card. Don't forget to look at your journal cards for opportunities to cut them up and create your own embellishments.

Notice how the pop of blue makes a nice contrast on this layout compared to the muted colors of the layout. The key to making this work was to be sure to use your contrasting color somewhere else on the layout, as I did on my filler card. I used a scrap of the blue to layer along with the stamped label and the stars.

One last technique that I have been using in order to uncomplicate my memory keeping process:

5. Leave one photo or journal card (or both!) unembellished. It can be really tempting to want to put all the things on all the pockets, but it can be really freeing to leave something just as it is. Of course, this allows that element, whether it's a photo or a journal card, to stand all on its own, just as it is. In the photo above of my studio, you can see it needed no journaling or embellishment, just the photo itself that captures a moment in time. There is incredible beauty in that!

I hope you are inspired to try some of these techniques in your pocket pages today! If you are interested, you can view my entire process in the video below.




As always, be sure to tag us when you create from this challenge and share online! We would love to see. Thank you for participating, see you again soon!

Life Crafted Album Introduction Page | Theresa Moxley

Hello Lovelies! Theresa here today with an Introduction page in my Life Crafted album. The very first thing I noticed about this beautiful album is how it feels just like it came from the library, with its fabric cover and classic details. You are going to love having this album on your shelf! Here is how I decided to open my album.

My plans for this album are to include stories about my journey right now, some of the important work I am doing personally, and also some of the things I find inspiring. So it seemed important to create an introduction layout about myself and how this is a new chapter for me. The March Life Crafted kit provides so many beautiful opportunities and products for this!

I began my process with watercolors to create a background for stamping. Then I stamped a few labels using the This Is Life stamp set plus the stamp set in the Life Chapters kit. The background makes these stamps pop! One of the labels I have used as a layering piece on my journaling pocket. I also added one to my embellishment row over my photo.

I am loving the vertical format of this album and I decided to play that up with the elements I added to the photo. It started innocently enough with just a few embellishments at the bottom of the photo, but then I discovered the banner at the top and then I couldn't stop! Don't you just love when your products make you want to keep going?

Something else that really inspired me were the bookend stamps in the This Is Life stamp set. I don't normally alter the insides of my albums but I did here and I love how it turned out! I created an embellishment cluster by first stamping an image to ground the cluster to the page, and then added a word strip, a label, my title, and the pencil. I also stamped the bookend swirls in the corners.

One other detail I wanted to share is when you flip the pocket. I added the purple and blue stripes and layered a simple tag from the embellishments for the simplest treatment. 

Here is one last look at this layout.

Thank you so much for joining me today! I hope you are inspired to use your March kit this month! See you again soon!