Buzz and Bloom

7 years ago.... - by Devorah Koronczyk

Seven years ago today, Buzz and Bloom was born. Mum, my sister Gitta and I had a meeting, decided on the name - Buzz and Bloom. "Devorah" means bumble bee - "BUZZ"! And for the Bloom, well, here's the background... As a child Gitta was very upset that she didn't have a middle name and decided that she ought to. She decided it would be "Flower" - hence, "Bloom".

We made albums on the kitchen table, and we put them in the boot (trunk) of the car and drove around to scrapbook shops to sell our wares!

Soon, we were going to craft shows and people were starting to know us by name! Then we introduced some stamps, unmounted red rubber beauties. Far and away, the most poular stamps we had were our hat ladies. Taken from my Nana's old millinery sketches, these ladies in their hats were in high demand. (In fact if you want any today, you can get them from our ebay store!) 

Today is seven years since we embarked on this adventure and I'm really glad we did. We've done so much, but you know the rest of the story! The last few months have been tough, and it was a very hard call to close. But, when I think about Buzz and Bloom, I think of so much fun, laughter, friendships made, art, inspiration, and so much good.

Dr Suess said " Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened!" I love that quote, and I do, smile when I think of Buzz and Bloom. So today there are loads of blog posts to see, we hope you're inspired, creative and happy when you think about us too. 

xx Devorah

   

Buzz and Bloom is Closing

Since it's beginnings in 2003, Buzz and Bloom has operated as a small part of a family-owned company. Over the years we've seen many 'versions' of the business. We've done many things... starting with albums, moving into unmounted rubber stamps, a retail webstore, introducing chipboard to our range, going wholesale only, taking our range to CHA and winning first prize in the Innovations Showcase for our denim and cord products and so much more...

It's time again for a change. Buzz and Bloom as we know it is currently closed. In the wake of the illness of one of our family members/directors of the company, we are focusing our resources into other areas of the company. So we're closing our manufacturing and wholesale business for now.

We want to thank everyone out there for supporting us. Whether you love our products and scrap with them, or whether you are one of our customers who has our products on your shelves, and anyone else who applied for our dedsign team, reads our blog, follows our tweets and gets involved in any other way. Thank you all so much for all that you have done for Buzz and Bloom.

Our Design Team has been truly amazing. Keep watching this blog for the final submissions from this year's design team and any future news.

If you are interested in getting your hands on any of our remaining (unpackaged) stock, we have opened an eBay store.

Thanks again to each and every one of you for your support.

Devorah and Mark

Color Combo Challenge & Scrapping Process - by Devorah Koronczyk

Hi-ya! The design team girls have been scrapping up a storm with the color combo I challenged them to use! And up next they're going to be sharing with you their scrapbook process - how they create from concept to execution. I thought this was an interesting way to look at how people create, what drives them, how their mojo works... So I've got a layout to share with you using the color combo {red, aqua & lime} and I'll explain my whole process. It'll give you a little insight into how I scrap, how I use products and what tickles my muse!

I was inspired by the "What If..." theme of the Scrapbook Industry Australia trade show earlier this month. A competition was run to find the best interpretation of the theme and a sketch. The sketch can be seen here. It is one of Becky Fleck's Page Maps. There were some amazing entries and I loved the idea of trying out the sketch and the theme. I also really wanted to incorporate the color challenge.

Ok, so where to start? I found some pictures of my friends and I from a trip to Texas in 2004. Then I collected a bunch of papers and embellishments that fit the color combo and started pushing things around. I loved how the green dotti paper looked on the kraft background, and I loved how all the other colors looked with splashes of bold black & white patterns. I was happily pushing papers around for a while, trying to keep up with the sketch. I had four photos instead of three, and well, after I stuck down a couple of the patterned papers, and mounted the pictures on grey card stock well, my mojo got the better of me and won out over the sketch! So I've only really used this sketch as a starting point for my layout.  Sometimes you just gotta roll with it and go where the art takes you, rather than trying to force something.Does it seem like I'm pushing the limit with my color choices, well not really, you see all of my patterned papers are lime, aqua and red, and they've all got some white in them. The kraft background is neutral as are the black & white elements, the grey also works as a nice mount for the pictures because it matches the colors in the photos and well it's just a mix of black & white, so it's not really introducing another color is it?

After adhering the photo block, I started playing with little bits and strips of patterned paper. I used the bold patterns in the papers to draw the eye around the layout and to the important focal points. I added a frame to my favourite picture by simply adhering a MIR Reflections and giving the edge a bit of bling with a line of Rock Candy Stickles.

For the title, I used CB Shelby Alphabet - Lower Case glitzed up with a layer of turquoise Kindy Glitz and CB Vette Alphabet - Upper Case covered in Rock Candy Stickles. I added journalling on a tag, and cut off just the edge to write the date and tuck into the layout.

At this point I felt the layout needed something around the edges - they looked too neat, tidy and too blank. So I placed one of my favorite products - a CB Retro Vine down the side, sprayed with glimmer mist, then repeated along the bottom edge. I just adore using chipboard pieces like this - it gave this layout a really cool subtle look, and now I have a pretty misted vine border to use on another layout! I did use one leaf covered in red ink and glitter perfectly placed in it's correct position, well just because I thought that part of the page needed a little more red!

Then I used embellishments to support the eye's path through the layout. Adding bits and pieces to cover a seam between two patterned papers, or a flower to add punch in a corner...  I loved layering up these paper flowers, but thought they were all a bit monochromatic, and I wanted them to blend the colors together a bit. So I mixed and matched flowers to the color combo, and then took a DEN Blame It On The Sunshine flower and bleached the heck out of it. You see the indigo denim is gorgeous, but didn't match the layout and well, there are enough colors on this sucker already! So after soaking it in bleach and removing most of the colour I quickly set it dry with a heat gun and then gave it a few coats of twinkling H2Os in aqua and lime. You could totally use glimmer mist for this, but I think it'd be harder to get the variation in color from the middle to the edges.

I also used a fabric red heart which I cut from the 'i' from DEN Love & Kisses Alphabet in Blush. Again, because it was cute, and i thought that part of the page needed some red for balance. Finally, I used glitter and tape to give the page borders, line and really help to ground and frame the design.

If you've had a go at creating with this color combo, post a picture in our Flickr pool to share with us! We'd love to see your Buzz and Bloom layouts!

The design team will be sharing their scrapping process here, so make sure you stick around for that!

Till next time,

xxx Devorah

April Project - Techniques

Hi!

Aren't you just loving the projects the 2010 design team has been posting? We're so glad to have these fabulous girls showing their talent here on our blog! They've done a magnificent job of showcasing our new products, and just wait till you see what they've got for you next... I bet you'll be itching to get scrapping!

Many of the posts here on the Buzz and Bloom blog are projects based on showing off our products. We already know this year's DT does this beautifully, so for something a bit different, I've asked the Design Team to show you their favourite technique. That's right, get ready to learn a whole bunch of great techniques. As scrapbookers, our tools include not only products, but techniques that help us alter those products to make them our own. So we're giving you a whole bunch of ideas!

Stay tuned!!!

:) Div

New Release Products!

We're proud to present to you, the latest additions to our product range! We've added twelve new products in Chipboard. There are borders, buttons, butterflies & more. 

Go to the New Products section to see them all together, or have a look through the Chipboard category to see them in and amongst the rest of the range. 

XX Div & Mark

Tabbed Book Kit Competition Winner!

So, we ran a competition to see who could create the best project with our ever-popular Tabbed Book Kits. We asked you to post your entries on our Flickr page. The winner of this $250rrp stash of Buzz and Bloom swag is flickr user sindywong. Congratulations! We love what you've done with the Tabbed Book Kit - Hearts!!

If that's you, please email me at blog @ buzzandbloom dot com with your address, because I've got a box of goodies with your name on it! 

xx Div

We're back!!

Happy New Year!

Well it's been quiet here on the blog for a while now, we've been busy with the silly season and CHA in Anaheim, you see. But now we're back into the swing of things and ready to rock in 2010! As well as being super busy at CHA, we've also launched our new website!

Have you seen it yet? It went live just days before CHA and we've been getting some wonderful comments already! Have a look and tell us what you think.

Are you a fan of Buzz and Bloom on facebook? Do you follow our Twitter feed? Have you seen our YouTube Channel? During the show, I was on-line and connecting with people. Get into the social media - I'm always posting photos, videos and our favorite links.

OK, so what about all the lovely layouts you come here to see? What about the talented new Design Team, when will they be showing us some Buzz and Bloom goodness? Coming right up this weekend, the girls will be posting their gorgeous pages. Their assignment for February was to introduce us to their gorgeous selves, as well as to their style of creating. They'll each be posting a few projects throughout the month and believe me, it'll be awesome!

In case you're new to this neck of the woods, I'm Devorah and I'm the tour guide for this blog! Seriously, I'm one of the owners of Buzz and Bloom, I do most of our product designs, manage this blog and often post my own art here as well. I love to play with color, mediums and non-traditional materials and techniques. I love pushing the boundaries with our products and my artwork. I truly believe that there are no mistakes and that you should be free and play, and go where the art takes you. Don't be afraid to be messy - if you're normally neat and tidy in your designs, or vice versa, try new things, and have fun.

Here are some of my recent favorite pages:

Go on, get your scrap on, and join us! Grab your favorite Buzz and Bloom products, your muse's favorite colors and some good time photos! Now go, go go! Oh, and then post them in our Flickr Pool for us to see!

Stay tuned, we're in for a wild ride this year with our new Design Team girls! 

xx Div

December Project - Sewing

Here we are! This is the last design team project for 2009!

The design team was challeneged to make a project with our fabulous denim and cord products. The catch was it had to put together with stiches! This challenge really got the girls thinking and we love the results!

If you're in need of some last minute gift ideas, be sure to keep an eye on us in the next 24 hours! With these great ideas, we'll have your last minute gift and stocking stuffers wrapped up just in time! Phew!

December Project - Lists

Hi!

So you're back again hey? Looking for some more inspiration from the design team? Looking for project ideas, or some new way to use a favorite product? Good, because we've got some great projects for you this time round!

I've challenged the girls to make a layout incorporating a LIST!

I'm a list person, I have lists for everything, and often find scraps of lists at the bottom of my handbag, in the center console in the car, on my desk... I like lists... get it?! So I told the girls to get arty and use a list as the basis for their pages. Lists of favorites, to-do lists, shopping lists, class lists, you get the picture right?

I kinda sorta followed the challenge and made some little gift cards for the top people on my gift list this year...

 

 

These cards were all done in a quickie 20 minute scrap session while I waited for rice to boil on the stove! I love taking my scrap bin and a few little embellishments and making some quick cards to fill up my basket. This way, when I have a gift I just grab a card that's ready made and as well as writing a message inside, I usually take a minute to add a bit more embellishment to personalize it for the recipient or for the occasion. 

To make the first card, I folded a strip of cardstock in half, added three strips of patterned paper and an ACR Party Time present in lacquer white. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

The second card was even simpler - I stuck down a piece of printed transparency and a DEN Blame It On The Sunshine flower in blush.

The third card was folded in half, a small square of patterned paper was adhered, outlined with a gel pen, and then I layered another DEN Blame It On The Sunshine flower in blush on top of one of the larger COR Blame It On The Sunshine flower in chocolate. 

The fourth and fifth cards involved a little more work, but not much! I started with a piece of heavy transparency and folded it in half. Then I added small pieces of wrapping paper inside and out - to create a place to write a message and to have the part of the design of the card front, actually behind on the inside of the card. Huh? I know that seems hard to follow, but seriously - try a clear card and you'll see how fun and easy it is to layer the pieces for a really cool look! I used wrapping paper instead of pattered paper, because I intend to give this card with a wedding gift, so I co-ordinated the card with the gift wrap! Oh, oops I almost forgot! That cute little embellishment is MIR Love and Kisses - XOX

The fifth card, well it's more of a tag isn't it... this little cutie was made with a little scrap of cardstock, edged with border stickers. I then tore a strip from a scrap of paper, stuck it down, added a couple of dymo label words, and then added a tiny flower from the tiniest piece in the pack of CB Up The Garden Path - MultiPack. I painted it using twinkling H2Os, but you could use inks, acrylic paints, stickles, markers... well you get the idea! I then punched a hole for a ribbon, and bob's your uncle... as they say!

So even though my project doesn't exactly seem as list-y as the projects you'll see in the next week, it really is, becauise it facilitated the crossing off of several items from my to-do list! Hah!

Card for wedding gift - check!

Gift tags for end of year for gardener etc - check!

AND... look at that - Typepad post - check!

Love my lists!

Happy December everyone! I hope your lists are long, and you get to cross many things off them!

xx Div

October Project: Interactive Elements

I love to get up close and personal with a scrapbook. So often, the elements just call out to be touched. Usually, you just want to fondle the pretty paper or an embellishment that is just too cute. But I love it when a page needs to be touched and handled in order to get the whole story. Maybe the journalling is hidden, or there are extra photos if you open the flap. As a kid I loved pop-up books, well truth be told I still do, so this month I challenged the DT to create an interactive element on their layout.

Give it a try sometime - create interactive elements for your scrapbook pages and watch as people enjoy them even more!

xx Div