Tara Chaussee's Blog Posts

12.02.18

Hi everyone! It’s Tara from Secretbees Studio! Now that Thanksgiving is over the Christmas countdown has begun! For little children (and probably most adults) the season is full of magic and excitement and a Christmas Countdown Calendar is a fun and easy way to way to build suspense and anticipation until the big day!

The Simple Stories 'Merry & Bright' paper collection is full of bright traditional reds and greens along with the most adorably festive holiday icons and beautiful floral images! People young and old alike will love flipping the sections of this cheerful and jolly Christmas Countdown Calendar!

The idea for this countdown calendar was inspired by the 'Number Pocket Pieces' that are a part of this collection! They are in coordinating colors and designs and in varying sizes so they add a lot of interesting dimension to the pages! The other designs are the charming 3x4 and 4x6 journaling cards along with patterned papers cut to 1/4 inch larger. 

I wanted to really showcase all of the gorgeous papers, so I used two of each for the numbered pages and then one pattern for all of the journal cards. Decorating and embellishing was so easy with the huge selection of festive stickers and chipboard along with a few pearls, gems and glitter! Once I had all of my sections complete, I attached them to the base with metal rings 1/2 inch from the top so there would be plenty of room to flip.

This calendar was made with a base of chipboard that I cut to 11 3/4 inches by 7 inches. This left plenty of room for all of the journaling cards that I used as the pages of the calendar, plus it worked well with the 12x12 sheets of lovely patterned paper. I attached two triangular 'legs' to the back to hold it up and give it good stability. 

The first section has two journal card pages and then numbers from one to three. You could add more if you want to start your countdown super early! The second section also has two decorative journal card pages and numbers from zero to nine so there are tons of number combinations to be made! I included the decorative pages for when the days are in the single digits. My very talented daughter wrote 'days until' on a strip of the woodgrain paper that is part of the collection as well!

Pull out those beautiful Christmas paper collections and make a countdown calendar of your own! There is still plenty of time to get in on the holiday spirit! Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas! For a closer look at this wonderful calendar, be sure and check out my video on YouTube!

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10.15.18

Hi everyone! Tara here with Secretbees Studio  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to decorate and craft for. I love the rich color combos, the spookiness and the fact that everyone young and old love this festive day! The treats aren't too bad either!

For this project I wanted to combine my love of treats into a decoration and this hanging banner definitely fits the bill!  The 'Simple Vintage Halloween' paper collection from Simple Stories is full of traditional blacks and oranges in amazing designs and the chipboard, ephemera and stickers are cute, quirky and super fun! 

Using the amazing patterned papers as the base of my banner, I cut three different backgrounds for my banner flags. I then created pockets for each flag from card stock and topped those with more fun patterned paper or a 4x6 journal card. The pockets themselves are large enough to hold a good amount of holiday treats and a small decoration!

            

A big variety of the Bits & Pieces, chipboard stickers and word stickers were layered over the top of the pockets adding lots of fabulous visual details! To accent each pocket a bit more, I used strips of the matching washi tapes too!

To hang this jolly banner I used a dowel rod that was cut to size and covered in more washi tape with a strip of ribbon adhered to both ends. I then embellished the banner with  lots of paper curls and more stickers for a jolly look! 

Supplies
09.23.18

Hi everyone! Tara with Secretbees Studio  Summer may be drawing to a close (say it isn't so!) but you can preserve all of those wonderful Summer memories in a fun and happy mini scrapbook that is jam-packed with pages, pockets and pull-outs!

For this adorable mini scrapbook, I used the Simple Stories 'Hello Summer' paper collection with it's amazing mix of sunny colors and bold, playful patterns. There are plenty of fruits, florals and flamingos for every page along with lots of charming summer-inspired sentiments! This collection is all about summer vibes and will document your summer story in the brightest way!

The front and back covers were cut from chipboard to 4.5" x 5.5" using a paper trimmer before being covered with the colorful patterned papers. I used an assortment of stickers, chipboard and bits & pieces layered with the cute word stickers to embellish the front and even added a few to the back cover for fun!

For the inside, I had a mixture of Simple Stories pocket pages that I cut to the desired size- some 3x4, some 4x4 and even one with four 2x2 squares! Some had patterned paper added to them along with delightful ephemera and some were just accented with a sticker or two! There are even a couple of interactive pull-out pages as well

Check out my video on youTube to get a great view of the entire mini scrapbook and don't forget to preserve those Summer memories!

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