Meet June 2015 Guest Designer – Stateless

featuring products from Amy Tangerine and Bella Blvd

First name: Valerie

Favorite Color: purple, which is sadly underrepresented in the scrapbook world

My craft supply 'must have': Thickers. Lots and lots of Thickers

I mostly create: layouts and an occasional home decor project

Guilty pleasure: chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate (But maybe that doesn’t count since I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it!)

BIO: I live in Pittsburgh, PA with my husband of six years, my 10-month-old son, and our furry friend Space Cat. Besides scrapping and various paper crafts, I also enjoy traveling, word and number puzzles, and animals of all kinds.

My first foray into paper crafts was in 2009. I wanted something different for the decor at my wedding and ended up making all of the flowers from paper. I then got into scrapbooking following my honeymoon – I returned with tons of memorabilia and wanted to do something with it besides letting it sit in a box. After that I was hooked! I am a notoriously slow scrapper – I have just three “finished” scrapbooks! Some are ongoing works in progress and others need just a few more pages… one day I’ll get there! Most of my layouts tend to feature Disney trips, animals, and now, my son.

Thanks to ACOT for the opportunity to be Guest Designer this month – I’m really looking forward to hosting challenges and having fun!

Layout: 'Smile'

By the time I was able to get a photo of my son’s first tooth, he had two! It’s not a perfect picture (it’s a little blurry, and there are yogurt remnants around his mouth) but definitely worth scrapping to commemorate this milestone. I’m obsessed with fussy cutting these days, so I couldn’t resist cutting some stars from one of the sheets. The one that says ‘smile’ was perfect!

Layout: 'First Dance'

My husband and I hate to dance – this was in fact our first dance together ever, not just as husband and wife. (It was also our last one – we haven’t danced since!) We almost ditched the first dance tradition, but we caved so people wouldn’t be disappointed. It resulted in these great photos and, now, a pretty page for the wedding scrapbook! The Rise and Shine collection has a lot of bright, fun colors, but I like the blues and grays for a softer, more romantic look.

Layout: 'Quack'

When I learned that a four story rubber duck was going to visit Pittsburgh, I had to see it in person! I love how the bold colors in the Bella Blvd's Color Chaos collection complement the giant quacker. I also liked adding some accents with the Clear Cuts transparency overlays. I don’t often use transparencies so this was something new and interesting. Now I want more!

Look for Valerie's inspirational projects in her A Cherry On Top Gallery and check out her Challenges during June on the Message Board!