The Twinery and Epiphany Crafts - Blog Hop!

I was thrilled when I heard that Epiphany Crafts was teaming up with The Twinery for a week of crafty goodness. Afterall, I love twine and The Twinery's is fabulous! The fun started Monday, so if you haven't been following along, be sure to backtrack and catch what you missed (start HERE). If you've been hopping along all week so far, great! And welcome to my blog :).

I LOVE to make yarn wreaths. I made this particular one as decor for our Memorial Day celebration this past weekend. The denim-colored twine from The Twinery was a perfect accent to the yarn. To match the twine, I made a denim flower and topped it with an Epiphany Crafts round charm.

Would you like to make your own wreath? Here's a little tutorial for a basic yarn and twine wreath.

1. Gather your supplies: a wreath base, yarn, twine, scissors and embellishments.

2. Begin by wrapping the yarn around the wreath once, then tying a knot in the back. Continue wrapping the yarn around and around. You'll want to "layer" the yarn at least twice. Try patterns and different colors. Make sure your knots are secure.

3. Add twine to the wreath. Because the yarn is so much thicker than the twine, I suggest wrapping the twine over the yarn - otherwise you will need to use A LOT of twine.

4. Embellish your wreath with flowers, Epiphany Crafts charms or brads, and little twine bows.

You know what would look really cute draped across these wreaths? Little banners! And I know just the products to make them:

What do you know? These very same goodies are up for grabs! In order to win, you need to comment on all five hop stops every day this week. Your next stop on the hop is the lovely Tifany DeGough. And here's today's line-up, just in case you got lost :).

The Twinery
Epiphany Crafts
Nina Ostermann
Natalie Clause
* Me * Tessa Buys
Tifany DeGough
Jennifer Priest 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day! Tessa

Designer Friday - Ruffle Blossoms

Happy Friday! Since releasing the latest batch of Ruffle Blossoms, hundreds of these pretty fabric flowers have gone out to hair bow makers, scrapbookers, and wedding planners the world over. I've got a new callous on my sewing hand :). But I am thrilled to see these flowers be so well-received and I am even more thrilled to see what my design team is doing with them. Suzy was sent the Grapefruit Floral Ruffle Blossoms and she created this beautiful altered frame:

The recipe for this project is simple: paint a wooden frame, add a title, add a Ruffle Blossom with a special center and finish with bling. Easy-peasy and so pretty!

The Ruffle Blossoms come without centers so that you can add your own embellishment. Suzy found her flower center at Hobby Lobby here. Isn't it gorgeous?

And speaking of Ruffle Blossoms, I have a layout in the June issue of Scrap365 magazine (a UK publication) that features two Ruffle Blossoms:

You can find the teal and red pindot Ruffle Blossoms in the shop now :). And thanks to Katy at Scrap365 magazine for including me! This issue is absolutely gorgeous. It makes me want to close up shop, ignore my household chores and skip the dance studio today just to scrapbook - but I will wait ;).

For those of you celebrating the Memorial Day holiday this weekend, have a fun and safe time! The boys will be participating in a special flag ceremony with the cub scouts and we are planning on some fairly quiet family time. Whatever you are doing, enjoy your weekend! Tessa

Mmmmm... Strawberries!

I LOVE strawberries and am coming home with a basket every time I go to the grocery store. I snapped a few photos of my strawberries a little while ago and decided to scrap them with help from the Country Charm line by GCD Studios:

You can find a tutorial for the watercolor technique that I used to create my title at the GCD Studios' blog here. I love my Twinkling H20's :).

The Country Charm line is perfect for summery, fresh layouts. I love the combo of pinks and reds, turquoises and greens. It's a really fun collection :).

Thank you for stopping by today! I appreciate it :). Have a good one! Tessa

Buttons and Flair

Hello! I hope all is well with you :). Things are good here on the Buys' homefront, but boy are they busy! I'm gearing up for a summer of Farmer's Markets with Precocious Paper, which means I am creating inventory on top of filling the usual orders. Between school events, planning summer events, and keeping up with the status quo, it seems as though blogging is taking a backseat. However, I just had to make the time to blog today to share some buttons and flair :).

I have a new project up on the Epiphany Crafts blog today! I turned plain jane paper bags into sweet gift bags with the help of Epiphany Craft's flower button tool.

I used papers from several different manufacturers (loved attacking that scrap drawer!) and Felt Roses and Leaves and Sweet Spots from my Sunday Best line. I love the combination of pink, navy and kelly green right now and I thought it would be a fun one for these gifts.

You can find the Sunday Best line in my shop here. And now for some flair!

I'm excited to share that I have been asked to join the A Flair for Buttons design team! This darling Etsy shop is run by the sweet Shelley Haganman and is filled with oodles of fabulous flair. You've seen me lately designing with a couple of different sets here and here, and I can't wait to do more :). You can find the A Flair for Buttons shop here and the blog here.

Well, that's it for today :). I'm off to keep filling orders, including one for a kit club that I am excited to share more about soon ;). Enjoy your day! Tessa

Designer Friday: Cassandra Cyr

Happy Friday! I am so excited to share with you more projects from the talented Cassandra Cyr. I sent Cassie Sweet Spots and Buttercup Yellow Felt Roses from the Peachy Keen line, and boy did she create some beautiful things. First up, this fabulous layout:

I love the instax photos, the thread, and the strips of patterned paper. I especially love how she matted the Sweet Spots with die-cuts for even more dimension and color. Those little accents are definitely versatile!

When Cassie needed a Mother's Day card, a felt rose was the perfect accent. Isn't this card beautiful?

I just love that whole embellishment cluster!

If you would like to get your hands on the Peachy Keen line, you can find it here. Through this weekend, use code PEACHYKEEN during checkout and you will receive 10% off of your entire order (Peachy Keen line or otherwise!).

And an extra little shout out.... Have you seen the June issue of Create: Mini Albums yet? Cassie has a beautiful family-themed mini in there (and it even features a few Precocious Paper pieces!). Thank you for your fabulous work, Cassie! Have a great day, everyone! Tessa

Lily Bee meets EC

Epiphany Crafts is teaming up with Lily Bee this week and I had the wonderful opportunity to work with the Buttercup collection. Yellow, grey and aqua blue? Yes, please!

This is actually the first layout I've created for EC as a design team member. I've been so busy with jewelry and altered projects that I haven't scrapped with their fabulous product in awhile. I was craving a good 12x12, especially when I saw the Lily Bee sketch we were provided with:

I used the pennant tool for my layout, but not in the traditional banner way. I snipped the corners off of the flat part of the pennant and created chevron-like arrows to match the sketch. Now I know I can do arrows and pennants with this tool - love that!

This layout is all about my new toy, my Mother's Day present - a FujiFilm Instax 7S! I'm having fun working out the kinks and looking forward to scrapping more mini polaroids :).

Be sure to stop by the Epiphany Crafts blog to see what the talented team is up to. There are always goodies being given away, so it's really worth the click :). Have a great day! Tessa

Teachers and Moms

Like many of you, I got crafty for my sons' teachers and for special moms in my life this past week. I copied myself and remade my Teacher Tubes from last year for Teacher Appreciation gifts:

This time around, I went with a slightly vintage flair. I added the ruler washi tape to the SRM Stickers tubes and used a striped ribbon instead of a gingham one.

I used those cute little chalkboards again, as well as my white SRM thanks stickers. The apple embellishments were still easy to find this year, too (Jolee's brand at Michaels).

Carson has had a long-term substitute for the past few months because his teacher had a baby. We've loved having Mrs. Addison here and are sad that today is her last day with the kids. Carson really, really liked her :(. I always make paper bag albums for the boys' teachers at the end of the school year, but since this was Mrs. Addison's last day, we were sure to bring hers in today:

Sorry for the fuzzy photo! I finished it last night as the sun was going down and didn't have time to retake photos this morning.

I used the Off to School line by Fancy Pants (my most favorite school line EVER!), SRM Stickers, and lots of flowers and Sweet Spots from my shop. Oh! And those Studio Calico wooden people - love those!

You can find many more photos in my flickr photostream. Now on to the moms!

I have a tutorial for this bracelet up on the GCD Studios blog. I made this for my sister for Mother's Day (sorry to ruin the surprise, Nae!) out of paper that I turned into beads. It was super easy and fast, so if you need a last-minute gift, give this one a try :).

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoy your weekend. Tessa

Pinewood Derby

Hello! I have been so busy creating this week that I haven't done any blogging! Between the shop, magazine submissions and gifts for teachers and moms, I just haven't had the time to sit down and write a post. However, I just had to share my crafty contribution to our Pinewood Derby that took place last night.

I am one of the wolf den leaders, my husband is the assistant cub master, Colten is a bear and Carson is a wolf.   It's truly a family affair :). This was both of the boys' first derby and they had so much fun putting together their cars with Dad. In fact, they had so much fun that I was feeling a little left out. Until they needed to do make racing stripes on their cars, that is. Mom to the rescue with none other than washi tape! Ha! See, my washi tape collection comes in handy all the time :).

I volunteered to make the awards and knew that I would be putting my SRM Stickers stash to good use:

For overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd, I made trophy tubes. Filled with stoplight-colored candies, I simply added a prize ribbon to the top. To make the ribbons, I layered cardstock circles and added an extra-large SRM number sticker. The embellishment flags were easy to make, too. I cut a two inch length of ribbon and hot glued it to a lollipop stick.

For the fastest boys in each of their dens, I made ribbons with star accents. I used SRM numbers here, too, just the smaller ones.

Using a whole bunch of different congratulations-themed stickers, I also made "participation" ribbons. I left just enough space for each boy's name to be filled in.

Carson ended up winning 3rd place in his den and Colten got 2nd place in his den. They didn't place overall, but they've already analyzed what went wrong and have started designing next year's cars :).

I'll be back tomorrow with another SRM Stickers project! Have a great day! Tessa

Smash Sunday - Week in the Life Part 1

Hello! Today I am sharing the beginnings of my Week in the Life SMASH book. We don't travel much, and when we do, we don't go very far. I loved the images in the yellow international folio, but felt like that one would never coordinate with bits and pieces from my fairly stationary life. Then Crate Paper came out with their Storyteller line, and then other travel-themed lines caught my eye and I began to suffer from wanderlust :). As I was planning my Week in the Life project, the thought occurred to me that each day with my family is like a journey. We travel day in and day out through routines, special occasions, learning experiences and quality time. The theme of travel would be the perfect string to tie our week together! So, I started gathering up those travel-themed supplies that I loved and I made of long list of quotations about travel that could apply to our daily lives. I was fairly diligent in taking photos, although the week I documented was the week that my back injury was fresh. I took notes via instagram and facebook, and all of my photos were taken on my phone (for no-stress ease of use).  I'd love to say that I'm finished assembling my book, or even halfway done, but all I have to share is my title page:

How cute is this chipboard girl from Crate Paper? I love her! And since this album is a Week in the Life from my point of view, I thought she made an adorable representation of me. Although, I never looked this cute this week ;).

Beside travel-themed supplies, I decided to incorporate woodgrain, too. The woodgrain 2012 button is by A Flair for Buttons and comes in a set with the days of the week. Shelley has a great selection of designs (including travel!), so be sure to check out her shop!

I'm also putting to good use my stash of 2012 stickers by SRM Stickers. The '12 sticker was the perfect round accent to mix in with the buttons.

I don't foresee this album coming together too quickly, but I'll be sure to keep you updated as I finish pages. I think I'll do a video of the final project, too :). Have a wonderful day! Tessa

This and That Thursday

Hello! I have a list going of things to mention here today, so let's get to it, shall we?

1. All of the new lines and Ruffle Blossoms are up in my shop! Use coupon code MAYFLOWERS through Sunday to receive 15% off. Happy shopping!

2. The randomly selected winner of the Diana Sampler from Diana's Blog Hop is MEGAN SMITH! Please email me at precociouspaper (at) yahoo (dot) com with your mailing address and I'll get that off to you asap :).

3. GCD Studios has a new issue of The Paper Cut available! It's even bigger and better than last month's incredible issue. One of my Country Charm layouts is featured and a detailed tutorial for my hand-drawn title will be posted soon.

4. There's a new challenge at Scrapbook Circle today! Using the gorgeous May kit, The Story, and the Life Documented add-on, I did a little SMASHing in my red book:

The challenge is to create a layout about Mothers. I SMASHed a few of my favorite motherhood quotations. You can see more and get all the details for playing along here.

Phew! I think that's it for now :). I have more physical therapy to do for my back before I can spend much more time at the computer, so I might be a quiet for a bit longer as I recover from my injury. Thank you for all of your concern :). I'm doing well and strengthening some whimpy muscles is already making a world of difference. Have a wonderful day, everyone! Tessa