Today we are excited to welcome Anabelle O’Malley to the Elle’s Studio blog as our first April guest designer! We love how Anabelle incorporated the April exclusive kit into her planner spread to create a colorful, fun week of lists and memory-keeping! Let’s take a look:

Hi. It’s Anabelle and I am so happy to be here with you on the Elle’s Studio blog! Today, I am sharing a planner spread that I created using the April exclusive kit. There were so many elements from the kit that worked perfectly for my week, which just happened to be our spring break week in Nags Head in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Since I didn’t have a lot of work or personal commitments, I was able to use the second part of the week to collect memories.  Here is a view of the full spread:

I loved using the small tags from the kit to add spaces for writing and highlight some of my favorite events from the week.

One thing that I like to do in my planner is to create a master to-do list. I picked a 4” x 6” journaling card from the kit, trimmed it down a bit, and hole punched the edge to match my planner binder clips, allowing me to flip it to use both sides. Then I simply adhered the ‘to-do’ list 3” x 4” tag to the striped tag and added a puffy ‘today’ sticker from the Good Stuff puffy stickers to the top. Easy and functional!

I also love making clips that coordinate with my spreads. To make this one, I punched a circle of paper and adhered a gold clip to the ‘real life’ puffy sticker using hot glue. The paper covers the glue and finishes it off nicely.

This month’s exclusive Perfect Weekend stamp set is so fun! The ‘perfect weekend’ stamp was just what I needed to add to this week’s spread. I also used puffy sticker stars to add a decorative touch. The ‘Dreaming of Sunshine’ card was added so I could jot more notes on the back and to serve as a reminder of how much I love the beach.

Finally, I like to layer in other pretty items to make my page look bright and fun. It makes me happy to open up a planner that is appealing and this makes writing my ‘to do’ lists so much easier! I used a small page protector that has four 2” x 2” pockets to add some more of the smaller tags and embellishments. Sometimes, I even put in small family photos. The ‘love this place’ wood veneer from the April wood veneer labels is exactly how I feel about the Outer Banks.

Hi! I’m Anabelle O’Malley!  I live in Delaware with my husband and our thirteen year old son, Ryan along with our orange tabby, Pulu. I work at the University of Delaware at the laboratory preschool teaching pre- kindergarten and kindergarten children, as well as the university students.

I’ve been paper crafting for the past ten years and have loved every minute of it. It truly is my creative outlet. The best part has been working with and meeting so many wonderful people who are as passionate about paper crafting as I am. As a child, I would spend hours drawing and making cards for people, so this is just a natural extension of my love for all things paper. Along with creating layouts, I still love card making and trying out new techniques. My creations contain lots of texture and details, layering and clustering. Most recently, I have jumped head first into the planner craze. I love having a beautifully decorated planner! It makes working on my to do lists much easier. I also am enjoying documenting my memories in a traveler’s notebook.

When I’m not teaching or scrapping, I can be found enjoying time with friends and family, cooking, reading, hitting the gym or spending too much time online. I’m so excited to be Guest Designing for Elle’s Studio this month. Thanks for the opportunity to work with such fun products!

You can find more of Anabelle’s work at her blog, Bits and Pieces, or her Instagram feed. Watch out for another post featuring her beautiful work later this month!