Holiday Ornaments!

Wow, today really feels like Monday. Steve had a nice 4 day weekend scheduled off from work, and even though I did work quite a bit, having him home was super distracting ;) All in a good way though! It made me want to get out. I wanted to go out and play and find fun things to do around town. And we did just that! There is always plenty of fun things to do around here with town events, great pubs and music, lovely places to walk and site see. Window shopping is so inspiring down town. I just love getting a hot cup of coffee and walking hand in hand with my guy downtown and peeking into the store fronts.... seeing all of the creativity put into the window dressings. There is a lot of great style down town Bend. It really is inspiring.
One of the evenings we did just chill at home. I decided to put an idea I've had, for some time, to use! I've been thinking of these ornaments for quite some time. These ornaments were my first try. I will likely list a few more, as I have a few other ideas brewing for making these cute super sized buttons (almost 2.5 inches!) even more fun and creative.

Winter was obviously my inspiration for my new designs this weekend :) I love shades of soft blue, cranberry, silver, pearl, white combined together for winter. My ornament "Winter Cabin" was inspired by the beautiful cabin we stay at during Christmas. I also pulled designs from some of my button designs to re-create them for ornaments. I will be creating several of these custom for my tree! The white buttons were an experiment with new textures that turned out GORGEOUS, the color is so soft and has a light pearl sheen.

Simple and lovely, perfect for a little cardigan sweater or even a beautiful accent on a scrapbook layout or card :)

:D As I type this, I just received notification from Etsy and most of these just sold :) Off to re-list a few of them. How funny :) Love that!

Have a great afternoon! Do any of you have snow where you are yet? DO tell!
Tessa Ann*

Brrr...

My face and toes are still slightly numb from my walk this morning. The ground was covered in a thin glaze of ice and I could see my breath as I walked. There is nothing like freezing cold air to wake you up out of the morning fog.


I am looking forward to the snow arriving here in Bend. Yes, after 5 years I still love the snow. It definitely beats the cold, windy and rainy winters I grew up with.

I've been working like a crazy women to get custom buttons out for my customers who are using them on their own projects for Holiday Bazaars and such. I created a super cute set for one of Steve's coworkers. Apparently her little one is in to "Old MacDonald," so a farm theme was the request.

Oh, this was SO fun. Here is what I created for her. I hope she likes it :)

This was another special custom request. Pinks, blue, raspberry, lime green with lots of flowers and a little felt bird to match.

There is a new challenge at the http://www.cardalicious.blogspot.com/. This week's challenge was to create a card using: Hand stitching, felt and buttons. I used one of my felt tea cup appliques from my shop. Cozy and cute, don't ya think?

Well, I better get focused. I have about 35 sets of buttons to create this week, as well as about 8 large custom design orders. I suspect late nights, early mornings, coffee and good music will be in the works for the remainder of the week!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week. Don't forget to check out our Artist Feature: Kristina Proffitt below, if you have not already :)

If you have not visited my fan page, you don't know, but we have some more great Featured Artists lined up for the rest of the year! I'll make an announcement in the next blog post!

Stay tuned, friends :)
Have a great week!

This is going to be a long one (Layouts, cards, pictures oh, my!)

What a busy couple of weeks it has been. I've been out of town for the last couple weekends with only a couple days at home before I had to take off again. 2 weekends ago, my parents treated us to a fun weekend in Portland.

My parents are a hoot. And they know how to have a wonderful time and they definitely showed us a wonderful time. Our hotel caught on fire the 1st night. Yes, seriously. It did. We walked back to our hotel after we all had endulged in a few too many drinks only to come up on a building surrounded with fire trucks and loud alarms. So instead of crashing in our comfy tempurpedic beds upstairs we were all corralled in the lobby.

It was hilarious.

It was around 1 am and *most* hotel guests (ehem, not us) were already in bed...so the lobby was filled with grey haired men and women in black robes----and with some, they had nothing under their robs. I could only imagine their panic. Sound asleep and rudely awakened by the sound of ear peircing alarms and a voice coming on the speakers and telling you to leave your room. Imagine the scramble. Oy. That was a fun night :)

The following night we were treated to the most lovely, to-die-for room at "The Nines" My mom is the queen of getting great deals on super fancy hotels. This one was SO me. Ah, so pretty.

The Nines is a lovely boutique hotel that conveniently sits on the 8th floor above Macy's down town Portland. This hotel is posh, stylish and my beloved color everwhere..."Tiffany box blue" The decor was stunning. Did I say how much I loved it here? LOL!

This was our room (photo courtesy of the website, because I forgot the memory card to my camera. I always do this.lol)





Okay, so I am a dork. The 2nd night we decided to all turn in a bit earlier than we had the night before. Steve of course, crashes out at 10:30 and I was still awake. I sat on that little stool in the bathroom and played with my make up. It was silly, yes. But TOTALLY fun :)

I had a great time hanging out in Portland. {Thanks Mom and Dad for showing us a great time! We needed this.}

The following weekend, I attended a scrapbooking crop with my sister. I packed up my supplies and headed over the mountian to meet up with Heidi. We arrived at the crop in Yahatz, Oregon that evening SO excited! The house was cozy and cute. We had a wonderful time scrapbooking til late in the night and Maggie's amazing food each day. I really had fun playing with my paper and glue again :) If you are ever in the area during one of her crops you should definitely register. I guess they fill up fast. We have had our reservations for over a year. http://www.scrappychicks.net/

This was the house we stayed in. It has a great distant view of the ocean from the cropping room.

Heidi and I had to get out and get some fresh salt water air. The only thing I miss about living on the coast is ocean.

There was TONS of cropping space per guest. We each had our own 6 foot table and they even provided OTT lamps. --> My sis hugging her beloved stash of patterned paper. She created an album that one the "best project" for the retreat :)


This was our room. We had to share with other guests and share beds. Not my favorite part, but it was my sis and I didn't really mind. It just reminded me of being kids again ;)








Here are the layouts and projects I made while I was there. It was so fun to play again!

Well, it's back to the "real world" now and I'm busy catching up on orders and other fun stuff! Have a great weekend!

October Featured Artist: Kristina Proffitt

This month we have, Kristina Proffitt as our October guest designer. Come take a peek at her inspiring scrapbooking layouts, as well as a fun candid interview!

Kristina's clean style and photography are always perfectly balanced within each layout she creates. I couldn't wait to send her my buttons to create with! Kristina was sent a sampling of buttons from the "CandyLand" collection, as well as my "Pumpkin Patch" collections. See how she used my buttons to adorn her pages.

"This is so you" What a sweet layout :)I love the sweet mother-to-daughter journaling and the joyous photo of her beautiful little girl. Kristina used my buttons as a border beneath the photo.

"These are the days" I love the fantastic shots Kristina captured at her local pumpkin patch. She truly captured the essence of the day so well with this festive layout. Bravo, Kristina!

Not only is Kristina a talented scrapbooker, she is also a fun and kind person. In this interview, you get to know a little more about this fun artist!

1.) Tell us a little about YOU and how you are involved in the scrapbooking industry?
I'm a 31-year-old stay-at-home-mama to a sweet little girl who is almost 4.
I've been married to my husband for 7 years TODAY. It's our wedding anniversary. :) I have a little fur baby too, named Maggie Mae.
We live in Nashville, TN area and I'm very OCD when it comes to organizing things. I love Target and Dr. Pepper and most importantly, I love the Lord. :)
Right now I do both traditional and digital design work. I've been on the design team of A Million Little Things (http://www.amillionlittlethings.com/) for over 5 years now. I'm the DT Coordinator. I'm also on the digital design teams for Creative Memories and for Lesley Grainger Designs. I am new to the digital world of scrapbooking (have only been doing it since earlier in the year), but love it! Crystal Wilkerson is another favorite of mine! I've met so many wonderful people through scrapbooking! I just love this hobby so much!

2.) What led you to scrapbooking? Do you remember that *first* time you sat down to create a page?
I got started in scrapbooking back in 2004. I saw a scrapbooking magazine in a store, bought it and saw a cute font inside. I went to my computer, typed in the link to where I could get the font (2peas) and the rest, is history. :) I have always been a crafty type of person. Love hand making things and I love taking photographs and journaling so when I saw that website and read through that scrapbooking magazine, it just clicked. What a cool way to preserve memories AND it combines all of the things I love - journaling, picture taking and craftiness. It was a no-brainer. ;) I actually don't remember the first time I sat down to create a page, but I do know that in the beginning almost every single one of the pages I made were of my dog. LOL. I was newly married and we didn't have any children yet - she was my baby at that time. I love looking back on those older layouts.


3.) When you sit down to create, what are the essential items in your environment that you need to feel in the "mood" to be creative?
I love to create at night. I'm not a night owl, per say, but I do love the quiet. I also love to put on some music in the background, but nothing loud - just soothing and peaceful. I love creating on rainy days, too. :) Sometimes my daughter is scrapbooking next to me and that really makes me feel creative too because I love how sweet it is and she actually has come up with some great ideas for me on layouts! It's cute to watch her create and that makes me love scrapbooking even more. I guess that's why I feel super creative when she's with me creating away. ;)

4.) I feel most creative when........
I have new photographs printed, a new story to tell or new scrapbook goodies.

5.) How do you decide what you are going to journal about... and what is your favorite way to document journaling?
Usually I just want to get a memory down, a funny story or just get to the heart of the matter when it comes to my journaling. I guess it just depends on what photo(s) I'm using and what I want to say. I love the every day moments and love to document the "right now" kind of journaling for my daughter, especially. I just know she's going to look back on those and love them because it shows what she liked and did in those "right now" moments. :) I'm trying to use my handwriting more so that is another thing I'm really working on. I do think it's important to leave my mark in my journaling with my handwriting. ;)

6.) What did you enjoy most about working with my buttons? How were they a good fit for your project?
First of all I am a button addict. I love buttons. :) Your buttons are just SO beautiful and the dimension and detail on them is amazing! I love the sweetness and homemade feel they added to my pages. I'm all about adding a little homemade touch to my layouts and your buttons did just that. Such a sweet embellishment to use on a page and they are so versatile. Really fun to use, too! :)

7.) Share with us your most favorite crafty creation! What are you most proud of creating?
I love making home decor things using crafty products. :) I made a couple of large canvases for my daughter using some scrap fabric, felt, buttons and paint. They turned out so cute and I was able to customize them to match her room perfectly. The best thing is that she loved them and I was able to add a little bit of "homemade from Mama" to her room. It was pretty inexpensive, too! :) I also make smaller canvases and now that I think of it, your buttons would be PERFECT for those sweet little gifts I make my friends. I think I need to place an order. ;)

Thank you for your inspiration and fun insight to your crafty world!

Up early this morning. 3:30 am to be exact. I think that time is my new internal alarm clock. Luckily that's a good benefit of working from home, I can always squeeze in a little nap if needed. Though, it's crazy to get up that early, there is just something about the early morning hours that feels so peaceful. The quietness of the house, the lingering smell from last nights dinner, the streets are quiet and dark, cold and dewy. Brewing that first cup of coffee and tidying the house before I head upstairs to get to work. Growing up, it was a struggle to get out of bed each morning, and now I enjoy my early mornings. Who needs sleep anyway ;) ?


The snow has finally melted and it seems as if Fall is now making it's presence here in Bend, Oregon. The trees around our town were badly damaged from the snow, it was sad :( Due to the leaves still on the trees, the snow simply weighed down the branches and broke their limbs. Driving around town it looked as if a windy-storm had came through. It was so sad.


The day before the snow storm hit, I picked up some pumpkins and decorated outside our door. I am really looking forward to pulling out the Christmas decorations :)

I have really missed being a part of a scrappy-design team lately. I know I don't have tons of time to commit with my busy little button shop, but I truly miss it. When I saw a call for new designers at Card-A-Licious, I knew I had to apply. I LOVE making cards. To me, they are like little mini scrapbooking pages, without the photos! I was very excited when I was accepted to be a part of this fun gig! Every other week, we are given a challenge. For my first round it was: Create a birthday card that uses Red, Blue and Yellow. Here is the card I came up with!

I have not purchased any NEW supplies in a long time so this card was made using goodies from my old stash. The scalloped paper is by October Afternoon, the blue paper is Karen Russell, the polka dot paper is (I think) Jenni Bowlin. The Scalloped tag is by Jenni Bowlin. The yellow flower is by Urban Lily (are they still even around?) and a rub on by Fontwerks. Oh, and of course that is one of my handmade red buttons :)

Monday, is the October guest designer Feature for my button shop! We have the very sweet and talented, Kristina Profitt. She just emailed me her work and I cannot wait to share it with all of you!

Oh, I almost forgot! I've set up a page on Facebook for my Button shop! I will share new designs, as well as give special offers and discounts to fans periodically! Come say hi!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Tessa-Ann-Designs/133681628067?ref=ts

Have a wonderful day, friends!

XOXO Tessa Ann*

A Glimpse Of Winter!

I decorated our home for Fall yesterday, only to awake this morning to SNOW! What? It's only October 4th and we're covered in snow here in Bend, Oregon.

Like little kids, we rushed outside to capture some photos :) We just bought Duffy a winter jacket at Petco yeterday and it couldn't have been more perfect timing..lol.

There is a good 1 1/2 on the fence outside my window, where I am typing this. Steve is off getting us a hot chocolate. I'm going to spend the day creating buttons and filling orders. I have 5 new sets to share, so stay tuned! Have a great day!

XOXO Tessa Ann*

A tour through The Button Shop!

I've had a few requests to see where I create and work. Today, I am excited to share with you the place where all of the fun buttons you see in my shop come alive!

Upstairs in a small corner studio, brightly lit each day with warm sunshine and upbeat tunes. A cup of coffee or tea is always a necessity to keep the creativity flowing throughout my day. I love that I am able to live out my dream and work for myself creating little pieces of artwork; my buttons. I could have never imagined that I would actually be able to work from home and for myself. It really has been a fun, and educational journey so far. I've learned so much about business and customer service. I've learned what it means to work for yourself and put in more time that you ever would have thought about doing with your day job. (and love it) I am learning about the joys (being sarcastic..lol) of taxes as part of being a business owner. I'm enjoying the process of all of it. I only hope to grow and grow as each year passes!

Welcome to The Button Shop!

{disclaimer: I would have loved to have captured a better assortment of photos, but you get the gist!}

The 1st photo is a view of my work table and computer area. I am surrounded by photos and colors of things I adore and love. My sweet grandma Ann (whom I was named after) smiles down upon me throughout the day, as if she is there encouraging me, just like she always did :)

I love the built in crown molding-shelving on the back wall. I have filled this with photos, quotes and other things that have had special meaning to me throughout my life. I found the funky multi-color floor lamp at Home Depot. Yeah, it's a little wacky and crazy, but I just love it! That and my pink lamp's bright happy light is essential during creative times!

My talented, crafty father built this work table for me, inspired by the Pottery Barn craft table. I wanted lots of storage, it to be black versus the white table Pottery Barn, regular desk size, so I didn't' need a stool...andd a beautiful granite counter top. This table is where I spend 85% of my life..lol. It is used greatly and I just LOVE it!!!

This is the view as you walk into my shop. A bulletin board greets you with photos of buttons sand a "Welcome To The Button Shop" sign! I created a cute garland for my window that says, "Inspire." I've tried to take pics of it, as there are SO many details within each garland, but have never been successful.

From this view you also have my cute flower rug. When I found this, it was a must have. It just makes me smile :) I store my adhesives, camera, printer, computer manuals, and other things I use for making buttons in the 7 drawer unit.

The official "Button Shop!" Come in, sit down, sip some tea and start creating!

I use my old, beat up Making Memories jewelry-style box to hold things I use for my button creations. I love my Making Memories carousel. It holds all of my colored pencils, pens and other odd tools. I have used a couple cute vintage sugar canisters to contain my embroidery thread and tulle.

This is my view from my desk. The closet area has become a place to store all of my scrapbooking embellishments. I store all of my embellishments by color. It really helps when I have a project to simply pull out the drawers containing the colors I need! I also store my stamps, glitter, metal accents, and chipboard in these not-so-cute plastic containers--handy, just not cute ;)

The bakers rack was a 1st anniversary present to my mom from my dad almost 30 years ago. I think it's so pretty and it works beautifully for holding my little TV, my ribbon and felt supplies.
And..yes that's a little plate of buttons, set and ready to be shipped out to customers!

This is my view sitting at my desk looking to the right. All of my scrapbooking paper, and best of all my sweet old guy, Duffy. He loves that big fluffy bed, as you can see..hehe! He sleeps/snores. I work. This window, as you can see, gives me A LOT of natural daylight. I usually photograph my buttons next to this window. It works better than my light tent.

In the storage areas of my work table, I have filled baskets with the things I use frequently while working or creating. I love using these tags from Elle's Studio and Jenny Bowlin to handwrite "Thank You" notes to customers. http://www.shopellestudio.com/
This basket is filled with everything I need to pack up my button orders. My packaging toppers, my clear cello bags, tape, scissors, tissue paper, twine and my beloved vintage lace paper.

This is the view from my side of my work table. All of my clay supplies are handy beside me. The top shelf holds my wax paper and all of the opened packages of clay. Since I custom mix most colors for my buttons, this area also holds the clays needed for each collection, all together labeled, so I am sure to get the correct color each time I recreate a set. I even have little recipe cards for my formulas for colors. Top secret!! *wink*

The next shelf holds new packages of clay ready to be used, mixed and created with. This is my stock pile. This is only a 10th of what I usually have. I am waiting for the next sale at Joanne's to stock up!

The last shelf houses my mini-cookie sheets for baking my buttons in the toaster oven.



A grouping using just a couple of my favorite "T's" I have been collecting. We found the yellow "T" at a yard sale last weekend for just a dollar. Thanks DAD!

I keep my most used felt and fabric in this basket. It also contains the patterns I've created for my felt cupcakes, birds, robots, teacups, tiaras, scull and x-bones, leaves and flowers, as well as scraps of felt for those tiny details. I just love pulling this out and playing with all of the color that bursts out of this basket!

My assortment of acrylic paints. I just love all of the colors of paint together, messy with their drips and all. So pretty to look at ;)

A close up of those buttons ready to ship! I see some new ones in there! Can you spot the new designs? They are up in the shop now! I also have created a fan page for my shop. Come say hi! I will do special offers and discounts for fans there. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tessa-Ann-Designs/133681628067?ref=mf

I hope everyone has a fabulous week! I'd love to see your creative spaces too. Link up your blog if you've shared your creative space! I'd love to do a post on this in the future :D

xoxo Tessa Ann*

Car blues and new buttons

Hello! I hope everyone is having a great week :)

Same old, same old here. Creating buttons and working hard at my shop filling orders.

Steve took me out to dinner last night which was so nice to get out and be around people..lol. We went to a local brewery and rooted the Ducks (UofO) along and had a couple Stella Artois brews and a fantastic salmon salad. Yum.

This is the only bad thing about working from home. You tend to get sorta lonely after a while and crave people and their energy. Don't get me wrong, I adore my internet buddies and I love being at home ;) but, It also doesn't help that we are now down to just one car. Steve now works in the next town away, so I'm basically stuck home all day. My beloved 1st car, my beautiful Lexus, "Lexy" (yes, I name my cars..hehe) went to the shop to be fixed a month ago, only to find out the repairs were more than the car was worth. whaaa, whaa! We were able to sell it (her.hehe) for parts, so we're saving up to buy me a new car. I have my eye on a cute baby blue or silver VW convertible bug. My mom keeps encouraging me to just go and finance one, but honestly, I don't ever want to be a slave to car payments again. So our plan is to save, save, save to get me one of these cuties! I'm 1/2 way there! Soon, I pray I will be FREEEE.. I just have to tough it out right now and be a sport ;) Hey, it saves on gas and is more earth friendly to only have 1 car, right? This I keep telling myself..lol!


Enough of that!

I have 9 new button sets to share! I spent the day yesterday focusing on new designs. Here is what I created.


Have a great 3 day weekend! We are heading to a family reunion tomorrow. We are praying for nice weather, not the rain that our weather guy promised. Drive carefully if you are traveling!


XOXO Tessa Ann*

(I am starting to create solid buttons to coordinate with the fancier sets. This will keep the price of the fancier sets down and give an option to add on!)