All by my lonesome, but I made a mini album about my fur-babies :)

Hey there!
I'm just sitting here sipping a glass of wine all by my lonesome...lol Don't I sound pathetic? Nah, I am enjoying myself :) I even spent the day scrapbooking! I just finished a mini album and wanted to pop in and share my new goody!

Steve is out of town and I have to admit I am enjoying the house all to my self. I have always been someone who craved time alone and today other than the cats and a few random songs belted out, I don't think I've spoken all day...ha! I do miss having my guy around though, I am ready to chat it up with him by now, but I don't get to see him until Tuesday..wha, wha, whaaaa.

So, today I scrapped. It felt wonderful. I was all caught up (for the moment) on my Etsy orders and thought....I so need to finish "that" album I have been wanting to finish for the last few months. Quite sometime ago, I purchased this "Black Board" album from my LSS and started adding photos and a few things. I lost my mojo somewhere along the way and put it away to finish later. Today I decided that THIS was the day I was going to finish it! Since I don't have any kiddos, yet, my fur babies take that role..lol. So......I created this album using some of my favorite photos I have taken of our kitties over the last few years. Aren't they a d o r a b l e. Yes? I think so :)

This is Annie......sweet face, but O M G this cat is LOUD. She lets us know what she wants and everyone who has stayed at our home would agree that this cat is soooo bitchy :)
So handsome! His "regal" pose..lol.
Mozart always sleeps like this while we are watching TV. It totally cracks me up.lol. His paws twitch as he dreams. So cute.
Design-wise the "drama queen" page sort of sucks, but ah, well...it is what it is and she is JUST THAT :) It's hard to see in black and white, but her color in this pic is leopard print, hot pink with a bow and rhinestones..

Sleeping..yet, again :) That is what he does 22 hours a day, I think..lol.
More lazy cat shots. Good for nothing felines...haha!
The diva cat in action...wearing her pink rhinestone collar. Just one of many.

Mozart sporting his red rhinestone collar....um, yeah, they gotta match!

PRODUCTS USED:

Patterned Papers: Scenic Route, Making Memories, Piggy Tales.

Album: Cosmo Cricket

Ribbon: May Arts, Making Memories

Ribbon tape: Heidi Swapp.

Buttons: Tessa Ann Originals and My Minds Eye

Alphas: American Crafts, Making Memories, Doodlebug, Chatterbox

Other embellishments: Creative Cafe, Making Memories, Heidi Swapp

Pen: Uniball Signo

Well, that's it for today. I hope you all have a great week!!

:) Tessa Ann

Featured!

Good Morning,
Just sitting here sipping on my coffee and thought I'd post a new blog! Two in one week....whoa ;)

It's definitely turned seasons in Bend. I can already see the leaves turning a golden orange and the cool weather has hit. Today we are in for some rain and possibly thunder storms. I *love* these kinds of days :-)

Today I am working on some custom orders for companies in the US and Europe that plan on using my cupcakes and button embellishments for non-scrapbooking related items! So cool :)

For those of you....ehem, Greta and Heidi...that I've promised a goody package in the mail....trust me I have not forgotten. I start to create your goodies and I get yet another custom order that needs to be done STAT and I get pushed back. But, my guilt is hanging right over my head and I'll be getting those out soon! And...you will love them....I hope..haha ;-)

I don't have any photos to share this week, but I was excited to share that my products have been featured on a few sites this week and I was interviewed on another. My flowers and buttons have also been getting in quite a few treasuries at Etsy which has totally been awesome and so fun to see!

Here is where you can find my interview.
http://www.soapdelinews.com/ The sweet gal, Rebecca the owner and creator of Soap Deli interviewed me and I just have to tell ya....She creates the most luxurious soaps.... Be sure to check out the pomegranate soap..yum.

Earlier this week, my lavender and lime green buttons were featured on http://www.diyclay.com/. Scroll down a bit and you will see what I am talking about :-)

FancyPicnic.com featured my Autumn flower embellishment in their Saturday Shopping finds.
Click HERE to see....it's the flower on the bottom left hand corner. WOOT!

Well I better get going on those orders, as I need to get them to the PO to go out Priority Mail today......love going to the post office...totally said sarcastic. ha!

Have a wonderful day!
:) Tessa Ann

Blogging at 3:30 am, Scrapbooking layouts, New Etsy Items and my worries.....

Um, Good Morning?

Hi.

I woke up feeling thirsty a few minutes ago, and couldn't get back to sleep. So here I am. Half awake, but thought I totally needed to make a post :)

Hopefully this post is semi-coherent..ha!

Well, I have really fallen off the wagon with this blogging thing. Since I have not been scrapbooking as much, and I created this blog as a scrapbooking blog I worry that what I *do* have to say these days won't be as interesting. But, I am still here in the world, happy, healthy and plenty to say, so I hope you will still join me often!


Life is good for the most part, I would say life is excellent except my worries of the US economy and all the money we (Steve and I ) have invested in the stock market and the losses we have taken this year, has totally stressed me out. Yesterday was the worst. With the market closing at a record low, it sent Steve and I into panic mode. I am demanding we meet with our Financial Advisor for our best options. It's definitely gut wrenching to think that we could loose everything we worked and struggled SO hard for. I know it could be worse, and we could be losing our home like so many, and we're NOT..... but it still worries me... a lot.



On a positive note I'm still *extremely* busy with my Etsy Shop. Most days my desk looks like this. Laptop open, ready, checking email, printing shipping labels, re-listing product, packaging orders.......stacks of product ready to ship out that day, bubble wrap, tape, scissors, paint bottles from previous creations. What happened to my tidy little space?
But.....really, it has become part of my daily routine and I really love having this little business!



I've been creating a lot of custom orders for customers world-wide, also shipping all over the world. I've recently shipped items to Hong Kong, Bulgaria and Russia. This means a trip to the post office to fill out the necessary custom forms, taking a deep breath as I hand over my neat little carefully packed package to the post office guy......with fingers crossed that it will arrive safe and in a timely manner.


The custom orders I've been receiving have been SO inspiring to create. People request items I would have never thought to create for my shop. It is a challenge and one I am always up for. Here is my most recent custom order from a very nice lady in France. She has ordered my buttons in the past and requested I make mushroom, gingerbread, pineapple and strawberry embellishments for her scrapbooking projects. Here is what I created for her........ Cute, huh?! I'll be heading to the Post office tomorrow with these little goodies to ship all the way to France!

Oooh...I totally forgot!!!!


I do have some pages to share! These pages are from my Guest Designer work at Noel Mignon Kits. Lots of aqua and red....my favorite combination.

In closing I'll post a few of my latest creations in my shop. With Autumn here, I was inspired to create this: Though, I created this handmade felt, fabric, embroidered flower for scrapbooking projects, I have sold it a few times to be used as a brooch. How pretty would that be? I want to make one for myself and pin it to my chocolate brown sweater.

I created these buttons to match!
Lastly...........................here are a sampling of my newest embellishments. Enjoy!

Have a great rest of the week and I'm off to see if I can go back to sleep..lol ;)

---Tessa Ann

Scrapbooking again!

(In a singing voice......) I have been scrapbooking a lot this week and oh, boy it DOES feel GREAT!

I give total credit to the Noel Mignon "Memory Lane" kit I received a couple of weeks ago. About a month ago I was asked by Noel to be the secret September Guest Designer for her kit club. I was excited to be a part of her awesome design team for the month of September and thought this was the perfect chance to get my scrapping going again. Once I had that kit in my hands, I couldn't stop playing! It's been a little over a week since I started and I've already created 5 layouts and have a few more in the works! Ah, it feels good to be "scrappy" again :) I even sat down last night and started a page using some Heather Bailey papers with my new favorite Elles Studio line of embellishments. So, my dear friends.......this blog is getting back to normal again with layouts and projects!



Okay, I'll stop rambling and just show you a couple of the pages I've done so far. I am posting a couple each Monday to the Noel Mignon blog, so I can only share 2 today, but I have a few sneak peeks I'll share ;)

I love these photos of my grandma Ann standing before my grandpa's new cars. When I was going through their photos, I found many pictures of my pretty grandma standing before a shiny new car. These photos were the perfect inspiration for this kit :)



I got a little on the grungy side with creating this next layout. It's been ages since I've used a brown ink pad and distressed my papers. When I first started scrapbooking, this was something I did all the time, but moved to outlining my layers with a pen instead. I was mostly inspired by the lovely poppies in the SEI papers in this kit and had to cut those pretties out! Here is my *dirty* page..ha! :)


Here is a few sneak peeks of the others I've created too!

I also created these this weekend as a special order in my Etsy shop. My customer wanted pink breast cancer awareness ribbons to adhere in the center of Prima flowers. I used my polymer clay in a sweet pink pearl along with tiny little rhinestones to create these........

I've been sketching ideas for Christmas embellishments to add to my shop in the upcoming weeks and am going to start designing and creating them today. So be sure to check out my shop in the upcoming weeks for Christmas themed buttons, frames and felties!

Aside from creating, this weekend was my Grandpa's 86th Birthday Celebration. He was so surprised that so many of our relatives came to celebrate HIM! He was choked up with tears in his eyes the entire weekend. He gave out lots of hugs and kept expressing how thankful he was that we were all there. He is so sweet and I adore him. Here are some pics I took that day :)

My dad, my grandpa and my aunt Sherry.
Grandpa and Heidi...awwwwwww....
Grandpa and his cake and him getting choked up...he is such a tender heart :)

Well, I should get going for the day...but, want to say to all of those around the hurricane areas....STAY SAFE and know that I am thinking of you in this most nerve racking time. Many hugs your way.

Enjoy your labor day and say hi. I've missed hearing from so many of you!

:) Tessa Ann

Up to my elbows in buttons......

Where-oh-where has Tessa gone..... lol.

I am still here, creating like a mad women and enjoying it each day more and more. Though, it's sad, I STILL have *nothing* to share as far as scrapbooking pages go. I sit down and go through photos and I've seriously scrapped almost every photo I have. I've mentioned this problem of mine to a few others and I get a blank stare, almost like they don't believe me. Yes, maam, I have 16 books filled with pages of my family, pets, me, and Steve and I pages. I've done it all. Time for new memories, I guess!

Aside from that, I am happy to report that my Etsy shop has been keeping me so busy with filling orders and creating custom orders and designs. I've been having a blast making buttons, felted flowers and frames each day....re-thinking designs and coming up with new ones. It has been such a fun journey.

Steve has been a big help with packing up orders for me when I have several in one day. It's quite the process and he is so sweet to be there to lend a hand if needed. He's definitely a keeper!

Aside from creating and packing up orders, Steve and I have been enjoying the warm summer weather here in Bend. We rented a River Lodge at Sunriver a few weekends ago and had a relaxing, enjoyable time watching the summer concert series in the village and sitting on the back deck of our lodge suite....me sipping wine and Steve beer of course soaking in the fresh air and gorgeous view! Oh, that's right I have some pics...here they are!

The suite was gorgeous and we had access to a private spa, that was large like a pool. Because it was already hot outside I only lasted a few minutes in there..lol

All in all, it was really nice to get away for the weekend. I guess I should stop complaining about no pics to scrap and put these to use! DUH ;)


Oh, yes we can't go anywhere without the laptop in tow. Steve checking weather and stocks and me, email and other things I can totally live a weekend without, but never do. Ah, cold and refreshing. It was so hot that weekend!






I almost forgot! The following weekend Steve and I got pretty ambitious and decided to change the color scheme of our home. If you remember previously we had a lot of red accents. I was SO tired of that and wanted fresher, more inspiring colors...something more soft. Here was my inspiration. These fabrics are by Heather Bailey. I fell in love with the lime green, white and aqua colors here and decided to base my downstairs living room and kitchen around this color scheme. We even painted our previously hickory (fugly in my opinion) table white and distressed the edges to give a cool-beachy feel. While Steve repainted the table and lamp bases, I sewed new pillows. I still need to make some more using these Heather Bailey fabrics. I want to load the sofas up with lush pillows with gorgeous fabrics and textures! We bought new lamp shades and new paintings. I have always loved the Van Gogh "Starry Night" painting and I found a nice print of it at Michael's. It was perfect! Oh, and we recovered the chairs with a new black and white flourish-like fabric that matched the lamps shades perfectly.



Here are some pics of what we have done so far......lots more decor to add and create!
As you can see, we changed out the drapes from a heavy red drapery to these white linen drapes. Ahh...I love it so much. It allows so much light and makes me feel like I am staying at the beach!



Here is some of the pillows I made all piled up on our love seat. Don't' worry I'm not keeping them all there..ha!

It is still a work in progress, but so much better than the heavy red we used to don. It will be great to break out again at Christmas time, but for now....breezy aqua and greens.



One last pic of my fav's I've created for my Etsy shop. A lot of them shown in the photos have sold, but I still love them!
Well, I better wrap this long-over due post up. Steve is introducing me to his co-workers tonight at the new bank where is now working. Gosh, I'm really nervous for some odd reason. Better go get dolled up!

Have a great week!
Tessa Ann

Layouts using my Tessa Ann Originals Line YAY!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! One more day and it's Friday! I'm having to work full time at my office job filling in for the manager until the 22nd and I am so not used to these hours..lol. Plus. It's really boring. Grrr... Suzie....I miss ya! I'll be running back to work on the 23rd.

I am still working hard in my Etsy shop creating tons and tons of fun embellishments. Recently, I've had a few layouts shared with me using my product. It has been so neat to see my product in action. I thought it would be fun to share them here!

The first one I present to you is by the very talented Leslie Ashe. First off....look at all of that texture, Can we say GORGEOUS!?!! Leslie used my red/white polka dot buttons to adorn the center of her stars. You can see more of Leslie's work here on her amazing blog http://www.leslieashe.blogspot.com/ Thank you for sharing this, Leslie!

The next 2 layouts I present to you are by the sweetest, most creative, talented gal, Stephanie Garbett. Click on link to see more of her awe-inspiring work.

Stephanie used my frame and button embellishments perfectly in these most fabulous layouts of her adorable daughters:

I love the way Stephanie used the buttons in her title "Cool" what a fun idea!
Adorable photos, Stephanie and thank you so much for sharing your wonderful creations with me!

Well, I am running late this morning and need to get ready for work.



I hope you enjoyed these layouts by Stephanie and Leslie! If you have used my product and would like to share it here, please email me at tessaannwatte@gmail.com and I would LOVE to feature them!!!



Enjoy your day!

Tessa Ann

Creating so many things, but in a different way :)

Hello :)

Sorry I have been so scarce with my posts and they have been totally lack luster in pictures and inspiration. Gotta fix that, huh?!

I have been creating very few layouts lately, because I have been doing so many fun things for my Etsy shop...........which surprisingly is really taking off. When I started this fun little journey I had NO idea people would actually like what I made.

My LSS, where I work part time, Scrapbooking Outside The Box's owner Suzie Webb has kindly allowed me to merchandise my products at her store. They are resting adorabley next to the KI Memories new line Bloom. It's really fun that they whimsy frames, handmade buttons and flowers actually SELL! So cool :) The buttons and frames have been the most popular, as you can see I need to replace some of the flowers......um, those orange ones...no so popular...haha ;)

I worked all day at my LSS last Monday, so I thought I would take advantage of the down time between customers and create a few more goodies for both the sotre and my shop. Steve came by and thought he *needed* to take some pics of me creating my goodies ;)

(( disclaimer: Yes, this is not my best weight, but ah, well. We are all a work in progress, right?! I am what I am :) ))

Oh, yeah and I totally looks like I am getting ready to say something...haha :)

Here are some of my favorite goodies I make :) I love, love these fun, whimsy frames. They are the perfect size for framing a photo and perfectly dressing up a page in a funky way :) I handcut them and paint them and dot them by hand. I even added one of my handmade polymer clay buttons to the center of the flower.

These little yummy cupcakes were inspired by a custom order. I made a few extra and wanted to share them with you! Aren't they sweet!

These aqua/red/white jeweled buttons ARE by far my FAVORITE ones to date. I was totally just playing around with my clay and came up with these little gems. I have them up for sale in my shop right now, but I've got to tell ya.......these will be hard to part with. I just adore them :)

OKAY--->BACK TO SCRAPBOOKING, BECAUSE THIS *IS* A SCRAPBOOKING BLOG.... Don't worry I didn't forget..haha.

I have had the opportunity of being asked to be the guest designer for the fun new blog called, The Design Experiment. Last week Leah Fung was their guest designer......so as you can imagine this was quite an honor for me!

The challenge this week was about song lyrics. The prompt to be used as a Title and Subtitle was by the Supersonics called, Closing time. The lyric was: "Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End." At first was like.............uh, what do I scrap about?!? Then I remembered I had a pic of me leaving on a plane to go on my honeymoon with Steve and thought that would be perfect for those lyrics.

Here is that page- (Yes, you totally need sunglasses to view this one *wink*)

My new HP photosmart scanner isn't working out so well. Because my layouts tend to be so thick, I can't get clear scans............so for this page I had to take a picture, and as you can see there was a glare. No matter what I tried, I just couldn't get it right.

If anyone has any ideas on how to take nice pictures of layouts, I would so appreciate the suggestions!

Well, I better wrap up this post.

I hope you have a wonderful week and are able to find time to create beautiful things!

Hugs,

Tessa Ann

I'm chatting tonight at 10pm EST at Creative-Scrappers. Come and say hi if you are up!

Steve and I just came home from camping this weekend. We had such a great time. We rented a yurt at Tumalo State Park. My goodness...it was so adorable. We had bunk beds, a futon, coffee table and table and chairs. Though it was hot, it was quaint and perfect. Steve and I are not big on roughing it...so this was a perfect solution. We drank wine around the fire and visited with my family who was also camping (the real way..haha) in a near-by spot.

I will be sure to create a page..or two of the photos I got from our trip.

On a side note, I am the guest designer at Creative-Scrappers this week and I will be chatting live with the gals at Creative-Scrappers in just a few minutes. I totally should have thought about posting this earlier, but silly me here I am just about 15 minutes before letting you all know. If you are around and want to chat, stop by! I'd love to chat with you live :)

In closing here are a couple of my latest layouts. My Epson printer died a week ago *WHAAA* and so I had to go and get a new one. I purchased the HP Photosmart C5280 All-in-One photo printer and have yet to figure out how to make it scan nice like my Epson did. So sorry for the bad pics and scan jobs.

The first layout is for a blog I am going to be a part of bi-monthly.... "I Inspire Me" (I have a link to the right that takes you right to this challenge blog) challenge blog.

Our first challenge was to find something around our home that inspired us and use it as inspiration for a layout. I love my decorative pieces in my studio and the colors and textures....so that inspired this layout. Here is also a picture of my inspiration.

Well, that's it for today. I promise to come back with more layouts and pics in the next day or two.....Off to go and chat!

Tessa

WOW! So nice to see all of you here! I decided to up the winners to 5 instead of 2. Come check it out :)

*Sorry for the delay here are the winners*
It was amazing each day to see more and more of you pop in to say hi. I really enjoyed reading each and every comment. Big hugs to all of you!

I didn't expect so many comments, so I've decided it would be better to pick 5 winners instead of just 2. I randomly chose the comments below! If it was you that won a set of flowers, please email me at: tessaannwatte@gmail.com and I'll get your funky flowers out right away! I really look forward to seeing them on your layouts or projects. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did creating them for YOU!

Here YOU are!

• Amy
• De`
• the real-roxanne-
• Virginia
• Jessica

Some new layouts and a card Steve made for me for my birthday last week!

I have been really enjoying spending some time at a new site called, Creative-Scrappers. I love that it's small and you can really get to know the other board members......not getting lost. I do love my 2 peas and scrapbook.com, but this is nice and homey and I love that!

Each week they post sketch challenges...really fun ones too! I gave one of them a go and here is what I came up with. As you know, I love circles so this was a perfect one to try out!

TITLE: "Good Dogs"- I captured this shot of my my parents adorable Golden Retrievers this past November. Steve and I volunteered to babysit them while my parents were in Vegas for their 25th wedding anniversary. We really had fun taking them to the park and learned that dogs are just not our style, though quite adorable and SO lovable, they are stinky and extremely high maintenance. But...again, I love them :)



TITLE: Summer Time- This layout was an assignment for Scrapbooking & Beyond Magazine's recent Summer 08 issue. This particular layout was based on Liz Qualman's sketch article. Again, using her gorgeous sketch I created this layout of Steve and I enjoying a day on the Oregon Coast.

TITLE: *Always*- I was asked by Basic Grey to create a layout for their June 2008 Newsletter using a sketch (you see a pattern here..lol) that is featured in the newsletter along with the Pheobe line of papers. I was so honored to be asked to create this layout. It was a fun 6x12 sketch and I thought a DAD layout would be perfect in lieu of Father's Day.
My sweetie handmade me a birthday card...awww.

I celebrated my 29th birthday (eek!) last Wednesday. I had a wonderful day. Steve planned a spa day for me at a local lovely spa where I had my hair cut into a really cute short*er* style. It's kind of like a layered bob that's a bit shorter in the back. I totally love it. I then got a manicure and pedicure all the while sipping on mimosas. It was so relaxing and refreshing. I loved every minute of it. When Steve picked me up after my day there, resting on my car seat was his very own handmade card. Aww...he's so sweet. He broke out my supplies and made this sweet card just for me. And.........he even cleaned up..lol. I just had to share!

Well, I want to wish everyone a WONDERFUL weekend ahead. I plan on doing more giveaways in the near future so stay tuned!!

XOXOXO

Tessa Ann