Bloom - Bella Blvd.

I'm sharing a new layout on the Bella Blvd. blog today. The theme this week is Spring and Easter. My absolute favorite part of Spring is flowers. The California poppies that grow along side the roads, the daffodils, the blossoms on the trees. I love it all! So, I had to create a layout just full of pretty blossoms featuring a photo of my little girl last year:

You can read about my mixed-media approach on the Bella Blvd. blog here.

These layered circle flowers are a bit of a throw-back in the scrapbooking world, but I had a ton of fun making them and adding them to this page.

The Bella Blvd. Make Your Mark collection was perfect for this layout. So bright, paint-y and fun! Soon I'll be sharing projects made with their new lines. Can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

20 Minute Layout - Bella Blvd.

Hello, friends! I was a little ambitious with my most recent project for Bella Blvd.

I know this doesn't look very ambitious, but can you believe it took 1/5 the time I usually spend on a layout? We were challenged to create a project in 20 minutes and I decided to go for a 12x12 layout. Crazy? Pretty much, considering I usually take at least an hour. Not counting sketching and gathering materials, I made it with less than a second to spare.

See the post at Bella Blvd. here.

See my process on my YouTube channel here.

Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Brave - Bella Blvd.

Hello, hello! I'm sharing this colorful layout on the Bella Blvd. blog today and thought it would be nice to share the story behind it here.

A few months ago Addie went to her first professional audition. Four years old and she was auditioning for a part in a Broadway show! This would be the first time she would go into a studio without her mama as the teacher. I was so nervous for her!

We did a little photo shoot so that we had a decent headshot. There was no time to book a photographer for a professional headshot, and really, this isn't something we do often (like, not at all) and I hoped my photography skills would be good enough. I got some amazing pictures -- this girl is a hoot to photograph! So many looks! The one on this layout is one of my favorites.

I remember wondering what she was thinking. Was she nervous about the audition? Scared? As it turns out, yes, but she was also BRAVE! I was so proud of my little girl! She was the fourth one to go in, and parents were not allowed. She went into the next room, did her thing, then came back grinning. I was so proud of her!

She didn't end up getting the part, and that was quite the life lesson to learn at four years old, but now I have an experience to remind her of when she's having a hard time. I can say, "Remember that audition? You were so brave! You can do hard things!"

For all the scrapbooking details, see the Bella Blvd. blog here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! Tessa

Owlsome Stamp Set - Technique Tuesday WCMD Blog Hop

Hello and happy World Card Making Day! I had the chance to get creative with the punny and adorable Owlsome stamp set by Technique Tuesday in honor of today, and if you're here for the hop, great! If not, I suggest starting here.

One of my favorite things lately is to create with my four-year old daughter, Addie. Most recently it has been watercolors and washi tape at the kitchen table. Inspired by those precious moments and with those materials already at hand, I made this card for her.

Red, pink and yellow are so cheerful, fun, and oh-so-Addie. I watercolored one of the owls from the stamp set and while that was drying, I painted a background on my card. When dry, I added strips of washi tape, a chopped up sentiment, and the stamped images that I had colored and fussy-cut. A few scattered sequins had to make their home somewhere - Addie loves bling!

As always, I love working with Technique Tuesday stamps. The quality is fantastic and the designs are whimsical fun! Win your own Technique Tuesday stamps by commenting along this blog hop. Comments will be eligible if posted by October 8th. The winner will be announced on the Technique Tuesday blog on October 10th.

In the meantime, be sure to take a shopping break on this busy, crafty day and get this adorable stamp set for free! Here's how: 1) Select $30 in products in the Technique Tuesday store. 2) Add the stamp set to your cart. 3) Enter code WCMD18 at checkout and the stamp is yours free!

There's only a few more stops on the hop. You'll love what your next destination - Kymona Tracey - has done. Enjoy celebrating WCMD and happy stamping! Tessa

Technique Tuesday

Amy Kolling

Sandy Allnock

Daniela Dobson

Lisa Spangler

Heather Hoffman

Dana Kirby

Dana Joy

Mary-Ann Maldonado  

Emily Leiphart

Jill Dewey Hawkins

Tessa Buys

Kymona Tracey - NEXT STOP

Ana Anderson

Teri Anderson

Latisha Yoast

So Fly - Bella Blvd.

Hello! Did you know that on August 23rd it's National Ride the Wind Day? I had no idea what this was, so I did a little research. It commemorates the anniversary of the first human-powered flight to win the Kremer prize. Pretty cool.

At Bella Blvd. we're creating projects based on all these random national days, so in the spirit of Ride the Wind Day and human-powered flight, here's my layout featuring a kite.

 

You can read more about the elements of this page at the Bella Blvd. blog here. I love horizontal strips of pattern and color - it's a design I recycle all the time. The Island Escape collection has some lovely B-sides and florals and this was a great way to get all my favorites on the page.

Thinking of kites made me think of last year's One Little Word - RISE.

I'm finding this sentiment very comforting right now. Maybe it can be of value to you, too.

Here's to rising with adversity instead of succumbing to it! Tessa

Happy National Sisters Day! - Bella Blvd.

Hello and Happy National Sisters Day! Ok, the official day was Sunday, but today on the Bella Blvd. blog I am sharing a really fun page celebrating one of my sisters :).

The Addison collection by Bella Blvd. couldn't have been more perfect to scrap this photo from a girls' trip to San Diego a few years ago. I made a beachy mini album of the trip, but I didn't do a lot of layouts, so it was fun to go back and match up the bright, fun colors of Addison with a photo from dinner.

I used the 6x8 paper pad to punch out dozens of 1.25 inch circles that I then folded and glued together to make flowers. The centers are fun buttons from my stash, stitched with embroidery floss.

A few hand-cut leaves in a contrasting yellow made them pop against my paint-scraped background. I just adore the Illustrated Faith paints!

See more at the Bella Blvd. blog here.

Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Technique Tuesday + Giveaway

Hello, friends! I recently had the wonderful opportunity to work with some fabulous stamps and dies from Technique Tuesday:

If it's not alphas or phrases, I'm not much of a stamper when it comes to layouts. But, these dragonflies were so fun to play with - and they stamped like a dream! My little girl, pictured here, recently learned about dragonflies and thinks they are pretty amazing, so she was extra excited to see me scrapbooking the two of us together with these stamps and dies.

I started by stamping the different dragonflies onto heavy cardstock with StazOn ink. Next, I used watercolors to paint the dragonflies in an ombre-inspired pattern from light pink to mustard yellow. Once dry, I used the die to cut out my dragonflies (so much faster and easier than fussy cutting!).

After watercoloring the background, I adhered the dragonflies to my page just at the body - the wings are free to bend and curl away from the page to give the feeling of flight.

I also used one of the sentiment stamps as a sub-title on my page. I love those fonts together!

Are you a stamper? How would you like to win some scrapbooking stamps and supplies from Technique Tuesday? Here's how:

1) Check out Scrapbooking Stamps & Scrapbook Supplies at Technique Tuesday.

2) Choose your favorite set.

3) Go to this Technique Tuesday blog post HERE.

4) Leave a comment below about your favorite stamp set - I'd love to know what you choose!

5) Technique Tuesday will pick a winner on August 1st!

Thank you to Technique Tuesday for the opportunity to play with such quality products. It was really fun to get messy with ink, paint and stamps for a layout!

Thank YOU for stopping by and good luck! Tessa

One Little Word 2018 - Ali Edwards

Hello, friends! And hello 2018!

I just finished breakfast while watching the January video presentation for Ali Edwards' One Little Word workshop. Last year's word - RISE - helped me survive, so I am counting on this year's word - WALK - to help me do just that and more.

I'll share more about my word as I share my approach to the workshop prompts. I believe sharing on my blog is going to keep me accountable for following through every month.

Another way that I have made myself more accountable is by creating a local group to work through the prompts with. I gifted the class to each of my sisters and my mom, then created a Facebook group for just us to share how we're doing. We have a wide variety of words and I'm the only scrapbooker (although each of my sisters and my mom are crazy creative in their own way), so our approaches will vary, too. While I love the workshop's Facebook group and message boards for sharing with everyone taking the class, I think having this small, more personal group will add a whole new layer to the experience.

In other news, baby girl is going to be early! She isn't due for a little over a month, but she needs to make her debut in two weeks if I want to avoid a C-section. I appreciate any prayers/good thoughts/good energy you could send my way.

Also, my Big Pictures Classes class - Decking Out Your Memorydex - is available today. Please head on over and enjoy the class. I would love to know what you think!

Happy 2108 to you! Thanks for stopping by :). Tessa

Announcing Decking Out Your Memorydex - Big Picture Classes

Hello, friends! I am excited to announce that I am a new teacher at Big Picture Classes! My first class, Decking Out Your Memorydex, goes live on January 1, 2018 and I can't wait for you to check it out.

If you're unfamiliar with what a Memorydex is, think of the old fashioned Rolodex, re-imagined for memory keeping by the amazing Heidi Swapp. It's like a mini album, but instead of pages between a book cover or in an album, the pages spin around on a rotating spinner or flip back and forth in a tray. It's a really cool format for displaying and opens up a lot of possibilities for creating original pages and embellishing in unique ways.

I've shared several Memorydex projects over the past couple of years, but the project that I teach in this class is especially near and dear to my heart. I call it "Here and Now" and it's a collection of memories, photos and journaling from the past several months. I have a section for each of my children, including our little girl who is going to make her debut any time now. In fact, in some of the videos you'll see my baby bump intruding on my work table ;). My daughter, Addie, gets up at my desk any chance she can to flip through it - pointing out all her photos and laughing at her silly brothers' photos.

My class is composed of six lessons complete with six videos detailing how to create dozens of cards for your Memorydex. Technique-based, you can apply all the tutorials to any paper collection or theme you would like. So, if "Here and Now" isn't your speed, you can easily create within any other theme you can imagine while still applying all the techniques I teach you. Learn how to make unique card bases, be inspired to try materials other than cardstock, make your own embellishments, get tips for journaling (you know I'm big on words!), learn how to layer to create dimension, and discover things other than cards that can attach to your spinner or tray. There is SO MUCH content!

While we wait for the class to launch, I have an amazing giveaway happening on my Instagram account. Friends, I am so grateful to Heidi Swapp, her team, and American Crafts. They sponsored almost all of the product for my class and have generously donated two HUGE prizes! If you win, you and a friend would have almost all the product you need to complete the class project just as I do in the videos. Just look at all this great Memorydex and Magnolia Jane! Thank you so much, AC and Heidi!

• Black Memorydex Spinner
• 12 x 12 Magnolia Jane Paper Pad
• Memorydex Recipe Cards Set (110 tabbed and lined cards)
• Magnolia Jane Washi Tape Set (8 rolls)
• Memorydex Clear Tabbed Cards
• Memorydex Tin Tabbed Cards
• Memorydex Cards (18 lined, graph and ledger)
• Heidi Swapp Acetate Words
• Magnolia Jane Ephmera Pack
• Magnolia Jane Clear Stickers
• Heidi Swapp Stamps (12, mostly words)
• Heidi Swapp Stamps (14, words and florals)
• Magnolia Jane Binder Clips in a Floral Tin

Head over to Instagram and comment on my giveaway post by tagging a friend. Tag as many friends in new comments as you would like by December 31st, midnight Pacific time. I will draw and post the winner on January 1st. Because the giveaway is so generous (translate = a bit on the heavy side), I will need some help with postage to winners outside of the US. US winners, I've got you covered. Instagram is in no way sponsoring or involved with the giveaway.

Please head over to Big Picture Classes to read more about my class here. If you are new to Big Picture, you can start a trial membership here. After that, it's less than $10 a month for all the amazing content on their site. There are so many talented teachers and inspiring classes - I can't believe I'm included in such good company!

I'll see you at BPC! Tessa

Guest Designing for Pebbles

Hello, friends! I'm excited to be on the Pebbles blog today, sharing Valentine's Day decor and cards with the new collection Forever Always.

First, I have to say how much I love that name. Forever Always. That's the best kind of love, isn't it? So of course I made Valentines for my kids, whom I will love forever and always no matter what.

I also made an X's and O's banner that I will stretch across my chalkboard in my livingroom.

I loved being able to use my trusty We R Memory Keepers tools to create this. The Banner Punch Board and the Alphabet Punch Board are the best! You can get all the details for making the cards and the banner at the Pebbles blog.

And you know what else is great? Being way ahead of the game holiday-wise. With baby coming in early February, I know I wouldn't have the time or energy to create for Valentine's Day post-Christmas. Now I'm ready :).

Thanks for stopping by today! Tessa

Elle's Studio October Reveal

Hello, hello! If we aren't connected on Instagram or Facebook, you may just now be realizing that I kinda dropped off the face of the internet. At least, in terms of blogging. My last post was written right before the dreaded morning sickness began. I'm now 25 weeks along with my baby girl, and just getting back into the scrappy swing of things, including designing with fantastic Elle's Studio product again!

The October kit (and my scrappy hiatus) inspired me to get inky and painty on a page. The fall vibe of the kit led me to these photos from last autumn, and the leaves in the photos inspired me to use two add-ons: this stamp set and these wood veneer leaves.

I began by stamping leaves with versamark ink onto vellum. I embossed the leaves with white embossing powder. I think next time I will use clear, but I like how this turned out. Next, I watercolored the leaves in shades of yellow, gold and orange. When they dried, they crumpled up like real fallen leaves.

This stamp set inspired by title: "Every Day I Fall for You". I stamped the days of the week down the page, scattered my stamped leaves and included the wood veneer leaves. Some thread and paint splatters give it that windswept and boot-crinkled feel.

For this page, I was inspired by the gorgeous green in the kit. Even though this photo isn't the greatest, my little girl loves it and has been wanting me to scrapbook it for weeks. I printed it extra large and used patterned paper from the Family Fun collection to make the left border.

I clustered bits and pieces from the kit and add-ons on the right side of the page and added my journaling.

I hand-cut my title out of more Family Fun paper and used alpha stickers to complete the phrase. A little tab from the kit brings more green to the left side.

You may still be able to grab this kit and the fantastic extras at shopellesstudio.com.

Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Everyday Adventures Travelers Notebook - Elle's Studio

I'm excited to share my latest TN with you today on the Elle's Studio blog. Elle's Studio has just released a mini album class called "Everyday Adventures", complete with a kit filled with fabulous product for making your own mini album. Inspired by the class, I was asked to put that kit to use on a mini album of my own and I chose to fill my jade Webster's Pages TN:

Every Mother's Day I try to get the kids together for a decent picture. The group photo doesn't usually turn out well, but I do manage to get pretty good selfies with each kiddo. I made the theme of my TN "Everyday Adventures in being Mom". The pages feature anecdotes of daily life, things I love about my kids, and quotes about motherhood. Each child has a few pages, and even though I have four, I didn't fill up a whole TN insert. I'm planning to save the other half for next year's Mother's Day selfies.

The kit is made up mostly of the new Live, Laugh, Love collection. 6x6 papers (great size for a TN), enamel dots, puffy stickers, wood veneer, bits and pieces (die-cuts), etc. The "Everyday Adventures" stamp set is probably my most favorite Elle's Studio stamp set to date!

There are also printable elements. I don't have a color printer at the moment, so I went to my local Staples and printed two copies of each sheet. I printed on nice copy paper so that the elements would stay as thin as possible. However, I didn't shy away from using the cardstock-weight labels and cut apart journaling spots.

I learned a good lesson as I was putting this together over several sittings. Because of all the small pieces, I was "losing" things under others and forgetting what I had to work with. So, I piled like items together in an arc around my desk space and was really disciplined about returning items back to their pile if I didn't use them. My productivity skyrocketed at that point ;).

Would you like to see more? I'm still finishing up several pages and plan to do a video flip-through very soon. I'll share more photos and a link here. In the meantime, I cannot recommend the "Everyday Adventures" class enough! Sign up here, and pick up the class kit here. You'll be so glad you did.

Happy creating and thanks for stopping by :). Tessa