Follow Karen on her Facebook Group.
Follow Cyndi on her Facebook Fan Page and her Facebook Group.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Saturday October 24th, 2026
Follow Karen on her Facebook Group.
Follow Cyndi on her Facebook Fan Page and her Facebook Group.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Friday October 23rd, 2026
Follow Karen on her Facebook Group.
Follow Cyndi on her Facebook Fan Page and her Facebook Group.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Thursday October 22nd, 2026
Happy Friday, scrappy friends! We have a fresh batch of fabulous new goodies hitting the shop today, and I can’t wait for you to see what our amazing designers have created this week! There’s nothing quite like a little Fresh Baked inspiration to get those creative ideas rolling!
But wait, there’s more! Our $1.50 Bake Sale is officially underway, running from the 15th through the 20th, and you know what that means… it’s time to stock up on some seriously sweet deals!
With brand-new releases to explore and bargain-priced goodies waiting in the Bake Sale, your weekend scrapping plans are practically making themselves.
Happy shopping and happy scrapping!
Remember if you spend $10 in the store, you’ll get this great collab free.
Ready to see this week’s Fresh Baked?!
Buzzbee Scraps!
I owe Karen (aka Buzzbee Scraps) a HUGE apology. When I posted Part 1 for October’s Designer Spotlight, I’d indicated that Karen hadn’t been in touch to chat with me. Little did I know she’d been trying to contact me via email for a couple of weeks already at that point, and for some reason, I wasn’t getting her emails. Ginger was acting as our go-between and finally sorted it all out for us so we FINALLY had our visit. I feel just awful that she’s missed HALF of her Spotlight month. I hope we can make up for that…
J: Karen, I can’t explain what happened with my email. Ginger shot me a test this morning and she was able to get one through. Oof. Sorry!! Let’s not waste another minute!! I think I know the answer to this but can you share with us how you arrived at your Designer name?
K: It’s really simple actually. My surname is Busby and I absolutely love bees lol. So I sort of combined the two.
J: I figured it was something like that. I adore bees. Well, all the pollinators… living in an orchard city as I do, they’re a vital part of our economy. So of course I love the logo you created. 😉 What other kinds of things inspire your creativity for new collections?
K: Colours are a big inspiration. I will see a colour combo while out and about (often in nature. I am so inspired my the natural world. Which is why a lot of my kits feature cute, critters)! and that will start my brain working on themes that would work with the colours. Other times it might be a life event that I have recently experienced, such as weddings, birthdays, being with my family, days out and walks in the countryside. Just everyday experiences that I think would need documenting.
J: [Note to readers: Karen puts “u”s in words like Jan does. 😀 ] Well, that’s a lovely segué into asking the favourite-child question… do you have a favourite kit or collection?
K: I think probably my Photographer kit <hyperlinked>. The colours are not what I would normally choose. But I saw them together on a birthday card and loved the combo. The theme came easily as I have always wanted to make a photography kit. Photography is a big hobby of mine and so it was really fun to make. Customers loved it too and that really warmed my heart.
J: LOL! Remember these comments, folks. I actually kinda like this colour palette. I’m not usually a big yellow lover, but right now all the trees are sporting almost that exact shade. The kit is fabulous!! So what does a typical workday look like for you?
K: I get up around 7.30. Have my tea and toast then go for an hour long walk with my rescue dog, Tilly. Then it’s back home to feed and clean out my 4 rescue guinea pigs. After that it’s kettle and computer on for design work until lunch time. After lunch, I will do any errands that are needed and visit my mum. She has early stage Alzheimer’s and I pop in to see her most days. Then I will be back at my PC until 5 ish. Then I walk Tilly again, feed her, sort out the guineas and get dinner started. Dinner is usually around 7.00. On Thursday & Friday I also dog sit little Maggie. So I fit that in too!. Sometimes I will work a bit more on my designs after dinner depending on energy levels. My design work has to fit around everything else. So I often do some over the weekend too. I love it though and I feel so fortunate to be living the life that I do.
J: I’m so not a morning person. Having to be at work by 7 am for day shifts was such a struggle for me. I envy people who can be productive before 10 am! I’m sorry to hear about your mum. Mine is nearly 91 and still as sharp as ever. My sister and brother live with her, so I don’t worry about her (much). Is there anything about your design process that would surprise me?
K: Usually that I don’t use a lot of AI. A few elements may be made with AI. But I try to avoid it. I prefer things to be my own work. All of my patterned papers are made my me. I don’t use AI to generate patterns , make tags or wordart etc. Hopefully, that keeps my designs unique to me. But who knows. Maybe that means that I will get left behind. I’ll take the chance lol.
J: AI isn’t at all intelligent! I do historical research and the amount of garbage being produced by AI when documents are transcribed is ridiculous. I waste a lot of time having to locate and read/transcribe things for myself. It’s kinda funny about Ukraine taking out all the Russian bot farms though. Do you have any specific goals you’ve set for the next year when thinking of your design work?
K: I would really love to be producing more designs. I have so many ideas and not enough time to get it all done. Maybe I will get better at managing my time lol. I just want to keep on creating things that people want to use in their memory keeping. I came to designing late when the market was already flooded with amazing designers. So carving out my little spot is taking time. I am so happy with the feedback that I get from my sweet, customers. It really does spur me on. Hopefully, over the next year, I can get more kits made. So I guess the thing that I would like to accomplish is just “more”!
J: I think you’re doing pretty well, ma’am! If you couldn’t be a Designer, how would you feed your creative needs?
K: As I came to designing later in life. I already had a career in early years childcare. My favourite part of that was being a children’s nanny, where I could use my creativity a lot. I really enjoyed encouraging children to explore their own creativity too. I started my working life as a horse riding instructor though and worked training horses and riders for many years. If I wasn’t designing now, I probably would be a nanny still. Although I have often toyed with going back into the horse world – though not too much creativity there!
J: Kids are great for keeping one on one’s toes. My entire nursing career was in pediatrics… no stinky adults for me! One of my former patients was on our unit for a long time, long enough to make us a chain of origami cranes to brighten up our nursing station. I loved that child so much! Every day was a (virtual) K-Pop dance party in that room. What tune really gets you bopping along?
K: This one is easy. Mr Brightside by The Killers. Here in the UK, it is usually played at any sort of gathering with music. People usually get up and dance to it while screaming the words. love it!
J: I’ll have to YouTube that one. It’s not familiar, but it must be a lot like Sweet Caroline or the Chicken Dance in the reaction it evokes. I really should track down that Hugh Jackman movie about the Neil Diamond impersonator, if only just for the music. Is there a movie you can watch over and over and still love it?
K: This one takes some thought. There are three. Can I have three? They are – In Pursuit Of Happiness, The Lion King (original cartoon) and The Greatest Showman. It depends what sort of mood I’m in. But if you are forcing me to pick one. It has to be In Pursuit of Happiness. it’s so uplifting and a reminder that things can get better. I always cry happy tears at the end lol.
J: I love all three of those… speaking of Hugh Jackman. 😀 Of course you can choose three! But for this last question, you cannot have three. Just one. What one food could you happily eat every day for the rest of your life?
K: Well. I absolutely could not live without chips. So I’ll say that. I mean the french fry kind. I think crisps are called chips in other countries? I mean the ones that you get in fish & chip shops in the UK. (not the small, crunchy things in packets) But I love pub chips, oven chips and homemade chips. So my answer would definitely be chips!
J: YUMMMM! In eastern Canada we have chippers – food trucks that make absolutely sublime chips. With malt vinegar and lots of salt. <stomach rumbles, entering the chat> When I was quite small, for a treat, we got authentic fish and chips – wrapped in newspaper and smelling incredible – for our supper on Friday nights. I judge ALL fish and chips against that memory. <stomach becoming a problem…> I know it’s quite late on your side of the pond, so I’ll wrap this up. As usual, Karen is providing us with a fantastic Daily Download as part of her Spotlight, AND she has a coupon!
As for Challenges, Karen hosts the monthly Photography Challenge 😉 and is co-hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge for this month.
Make sure you check out her Store! Buzzbee Scraps
Follow Karen on her Facebook Group.
Follow Cyndi on her Facebook Fan Page and her Facebook Group.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Wednesday October 21st, 2026
Follow Karen on her Facebook Group.
Follow Cyndi on her Facebook Fan Page and her Facebook Group.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Tuesday October 20th, 2026
Paper Tears and Curls – Advanced (Part 1)
I hope you had a chance to review the paper tear tutorial I recently updated. Today we’re going to build on that and the end result will be another shadowbox look with lots of texture. There are quite a few screenshots but they’re mostly recapping and expanding. Let’s jump in. Today’s technique will create the appearance of tearing thick, heavy, multi-ply cardstock. When you choose your papers, make sure they have visible texture. [The two kits I’ve pulled from have been retired, but there are lots of others that will work beautifully.]
There are a couple of ways to reveal the background paper; you could just shift the top paper layer to expose the background (which can create problems with shadows later), or you can use the Rectangle Marquee Tool to outline the part you want to remove, then use the Edit>Cut or CTRL/CMD>X command. Then make a Copy – right-click>Duplicate Layer>OK or CTRL/CMD>J of the top layer, which will become the white paper core.
It could be my rapidly-deserting-me vision, or it could be the screenshot – it’s blurry. But what you need to know is that when you’ve used a paper like this one with an irregular surface, just dumping some white paint onto with the Paint Bucket isn’t going to work. Instead, I clicked Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color.
Turn off visibility for the top purple paper layer while you do the next steps. Make sure you’re only adding the solid colour to the piece, not the whole canvas. Check the box for Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask.
Of course, the Fill Layer isn’t firmly attached to the paper layer underneath it until you Merge the two layers. Click>SHIFT>click on the two layers then right-click and choose Merge Layers, or CTRL/CMD>E.
This step is optional. To knock down some of that bright whiteness and add a bit more interest, I’ve added some noise: Filter>Noise>Add Noise
The speckled appearance can be adjusted. Play with the slider until the Preview looks good to you, with Distribution set to Gaussian and tick that box for Monochromatic. (Otherwise, the noise will have some psychedelic qualities. 😉 )
Time to tear it up! Turn on visibility for the top purple paper layer and make sure it’s active. Choose the Eraser Tool and set it to Brush. Go into the Brush Selector by clicking on the tiny triangle to the right of the thumbnail. (And pretend there isn’t a typo in the screenshot. 😀 )
Look near the top of the list that opens for Artistic Brushes. They’re PSE-integrated Brushes, so they will be there. Select the one indicated.
Using a combination of random clicks and some click-dragging, tear a strip off that purple paper. 
I’ve zoomed in so you can see the texture the Artistic Brush and the Noise Filter add to the image.
Then repeat the process on the white core layer. Be messy!
Zoom in on a nice, wide spot in your white core. Add a new blank Layer on top. This is where the delamination of your multi-ply cardstock happens.
Set your foreground colour to whatever colour you prefer for your shadows. I used black here. Go to the Brush Tool, and select the Drop Shadows set. They’re also PSE-integrated Brushes. I chose an 8 pixel square Drop Shadow Brush at 100% Opacity to add a squiggle. Don’t worry if it hangs over onto your coloured paper.
Oops! Another typo! That’s what I get for editing screenshots when there’s a lot of glare. I can’t always see what I’m typing. Anyway… although the Drop Shadow Brushes have softer edges that Basic Brushes do, this is still too harsh, so I added a Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur
I decided a Radius of 1.7 pixels was good, but you might want more, or less. Watch the Preview. You do you!
Adjusting the depth and angle of the shadow is done with the Smudge Tool; I used Size 30 pixels, Strength 46%. I pushed and pulled spots randomly to make a more realistic shadow.
To put a cleaner, sharper edge on the delaminated spot, I used a hard, round Brush, 12 pixels and 100% Opacity with the Eraser Tool. I also cleaned up where the squiggle overlapped the purple paper.
Last thing is to make sure the shadow lets what’s underneath it show through. Change the Blend Mode to Linear Burn. And you have another type of paper tear! You can adjust the Opacity of the squiggle until you’re happy with the look – but zoom out first so you can see the actual change.
Next time I’ll turn some of the white core tears into curls and we’ll shadow up the paper layers. As soon as I figure out an easier way to do that… Pray for overcast skies here so I can see what I’m doing!
Follow Karen on her Facebook Group.
Follow Cyndi on her Facebook Fan Page and her Facebook Group.
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Monday October 19th, 2026
Happy $2 Tuesday, scrappy friends!
