Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks Day 1

It's time for new stamp sets from Taylored Expressions and we have so much to share this month that we're starting sneak peeks a day early!!! Everything will be available for purchase at Taylored Expressions from Friday, September 3rd at 8am PST. 

Let me introduce you to today's sneak peeks: Make a Wish, Bubbles Big Background, and Borderlicious stamp sets, all illustrated by the super talented Nancy McKinney, along with the Make a Wish Project Pantry and balloon and borders Taylored Dies.

Make a Wish is the newest addition to the TE Giving Tree charitable stamp sets that help support various charities. For the months of September, October and November when you purchase this set Taylored Expressions will donate $7 from the sale of each Make a Wish set to a national children's charity that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Could there be any better way to support a very special foundation while still getting new stamps?!?

Make a Wish is going to become your new go-to set for for birthdays, both masculine and feminine. There are so many fun elements in this set along with coordinating Balloon Taylored Dies so you get perfectly cut out balloons every time. Combine everything with the Make a Wish Project Pantry and you'll make someone's birthday wish come true with every project!!! I just want to remind you that the Giving Tree Charitable Sets come as one full sheet of deeply etched rubber so you'll need to give the images a quick trim before inking them up.

I stamped the sentiment and outline balloon with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White from the Make a Wish Project Pantry (the ribbon and twine are also from the project pantry) and coloured them with copics. I stamped the other balloon with Colorbox Warm Red ink then cut out both balloons with the coordinating Balloon Taylored Dies. I also used the new Border Taylored Die on the strip of orange then pleated some ribbon for a little texture. I coated the sentiment with clear glaze pen so it's super shiny in real life. A little sewing and lots of foam tape help add even more dimension. Even with the scallop border, I think this makes a great masculine card!

The rest of the Baker's Dozen has plenty more eye candy for you so get hopping!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Jackie Pedro
• Jami Sibley
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melissa Sauls
• Nancy McKinney
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild

See you tomorrow for another fabulous sneak peek!
Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday-a Beautiful Day

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC83. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

This week's sketch is compliments of Nancy McKinney, so you'll see that she's playing along too. I can't remember how the topic of sketches came about, but during CHA in Chicago we were all together sitting at the bar laughing and having a fabulous time, then Nancy started sketching layouts on the back of napkins. I know there's more to the story than that, but the wine from that evening seems to have clouded my memory. ;)

I knew when I saw this sketch that I wanted to focus on a sentiment in the circular panel, and when I saw the MFT guest designer challenge (to focus on a sentiment) I figured I'd use my Framed Greetings set with the coordinating Die-namics, and throw my name in the hat for the contest. I used a couple other Die-namics too, the jumbo scallop border with a piece of denim, and the flower and leaf trio with patterned paper from October Afternoon. The background circle is cut from a cork sheet and I used some pink felt with my Sizzix 3D flowers die for the pink flower. I adore how this turned out, with the bits of stitching and the pleated ribbon along with all the neutral colours.

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now let's go see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers have created.
Jen Tapler
Joanne Basile
Lynn Put
Nancy McKinney
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

A Little Christmas Joy

Welcome to the third Blast From The Past blog hop with Taylored Expressions. I love these monthly hops. It's so much fun to see how everyone uses their much loved TE stamps!!!

I decided to use Wings of Joy for my card today because I've been a huge slacker with my Christmas-card-a-week. So I actually made four of these cards, which means I'm all caught up and back on schedule! I used the blast from the past sketch  for my layout.

The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Buttercream and I paired it with my new Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather mini deck. I love the unconventional purple hues in this holiday paper! The image is coloured with copics and I added a little sparkle with my red Spica glitter pen. I used my open scallop border punch on the patterned paper and added some Tiny Twinkles between each scallop for a little sparkle. I kept my embellishments to a minimum (thinking ahead to postage for mailing these cards) and simply wrapped some cherry twine and tied a bow.

Now I know there's plenty more eye candy along the hop so get going!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Well Wishes

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC82. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

I needed a masculine get well card for a friend of ours and this sweet Pure Innocence girl, Better Get Better, from MFT was calling out to get inky.

I used my new Cosmo Cricket Wanted mini deck for a masculine feel, plus the woodgrain paper is perfect for our friend because he's a contractor. The image is coloured entirely with copics and I added a smidge of sparkle with a Spica glitter pen. It took all my willpower not to add rhinestones between the scallops on the open scallop border...gotta try and keep it masculine, after all! Oooh, I should have used cork for the open scallop...doh...why can't I think of these things while I'm working on the project, not once it's all finished? I figured a little sewing was ok though, along with some twill ribbon, tied in a knot. I love how the buttons add a nice accent but they blend into the background paper so nicely too...it really makes the sweet PI girl the star of the show!

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's Blog. Now let's hop over and see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers have created.
Jen Tapler
Joanne Basile
Laura Fredrickson
Lynn Put
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

A Cheery Thank You

I love all the circle elements in this week's Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge, TESC125, so I just had to play along. This morning the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and it's a gorgeous day outside so I decided to reflect that in my card today using the utterly cheerful Cosmo Cricket Delovely mini deck. Seriously, you can't help but be happy when you look at this colourful paper!!!!!

I pulled out my Garden Party Critters from Taylored Expressions because I thought the sign post would work nicely in the square element. The center of the sign post is paper pieced and I cut out the image with square Nestabilities. The sweet little ladybug was a leftover from another project a long time ago and I'm happy I saved her. I coloured the dots on her body and antennas with my black glaze pen for dimension and shine, then I coloured her black body with my pitch black Spica glitter pen for just a hint of shimmer.

I used various sizes of circle Nestabilities to cut out the patterned circle then I embossed them and stitched them onto the blue background (it's Frosted Teal and it looks just like the sky outside my window this morning!). I added more sparkle with a Zva crystal swirl and finished the bottom with layers of grass that I punched with my grass punch. I'm so happy with how this card turned out...and hopefully it'll brighten someone's day in the future.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Geek Guy Hits the Books-Electronic Style

I can't believe it...I woke up this morning finally wanting to head to my stamp room and create something. I haven't been feeling crafty at all lately and I was happy to have that feeling back. To make sure I didn't get stumped along the way and loose my mojo I decided to play in a couple of challenges.

The layout for this card is SC294 from Splitcoast and the theme is this week's MFT Wednesday Stamp Club challenge...Hitting the Books. I know my geek guy doesn't have a book in his hands but seriously, in this day and age is it even possible to hit the books without including a computer in the list of necessities? Maybe in kindergarten, maybe...but that's about it. Even I don't read paper books anymore since I got my Kindle last year, and now I can read on my computer and iPhone too! Ok, wait a second...I'm starting to wonder who the real geek is in this equation! LOL!!!

My hubby's always on his computer...he'll finish with his work laptop then pick up his personal laptop for "fun" surfing, as he calls it, so when I saw Who's That Geek Guy? from MFT stamps I knew it was the perfect set for him. The image is mostly paper pieced with patterns from Cosmo Cricket's The Boyfriend 6x6 mini deck and I coloured a little of it with copics. I always find it difficult to incorporate accessories into guy cards so I stuck with a black button and some grey Divine Twine. None of the sentiments were what I was looking for so I decided to leave it blank...now I can use it for just about anything.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Taylored Expressions August Key Ingredients and my Sweet Sunday Balloon

Welcome back! It's always a fun time of the month at Taylored Expressions when the new Key Ingredients Subscriptions get mailed out to subscribers and Taylor challenges the Baker's Dozen to create something wonderful.

This time the challenge was to incorporate some sort of "fancy flight" into our project. Immediately I thought of the hot air balloon from The Places You'll Go, so I ran with that idea. I used today's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC81, for my layout.

When I first opened my August Key Ingredients the little packet of butterflies fell out onto my stamp table and I knew they'd be the perfect accent for the sketch. I didn't do much colouring on this since I paper pieced the balloon with one of the patterned papers from the kit and I popped that part on foam tape for dimension. I added some white liquid appliquee for puffy clouds and sprinkled them with glitter. Do you see the circles under each of the butterflies? Those are just punched out from one of the patterned papers...love how it all coordinates so perfectly! I couldn't resist giving the butterflies some sparkle with the smallest size of Crystal Twinkles. The letter stickers I used for the sentiment are also part of the August Key Ingredients and there are a few colours to choose from too.

Are you already a Key Ingredients subscriber? If so, then you know all about the wonderful benefits in addition to receiving a perfectly coordinated kit each month. If you're new to the Key Ingredients you'll definitely want to read about all the benefits in this post.

Also, to ensure you have plenty of inspiration for each kit you can check out the creations in the Key Ingredients Gallery...they're divided by month so it's easy to check back a few months down the road when you need a fresh idea.

Hopefully you're ready to jump in with both feet and become a Key Ingredients Subscriber, now that you know all the fabulous benefits, so be sure to pop over to this page in the TE Store to subscribe. I still marvel at how much mileage I get from each Key Ingredients kit and I have yet to use one up completely!!!

Hop on over to some of the other Baker's Dozen blogs for even more ideas using the August Key Ingredients kit.
Alex Maldonado
Carolina Butching
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Sankari Wegman
and Taylor VanBruggen

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Balloon...in a few hours

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC81. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog, The Sweetest Thing.

My card is all done for today and I can't wait to share it with you, but I have to keep you in suspense for just a few more hours. I've combined my card with the August Key Ingredients from Taylored Expressions so my post will go live at 11am Eastern today. I hope you'll hop back over to see what I created with today's fun sketch.  :)

In the meantime, I'm sure the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers have plenty of eye candy to share!
Jen Tapler
Joanne Basile
Laura Fredrickson
Lynn Put
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

A Little Flower Power

I can't believe it's already Wednesday! Seriously, where has this week gone? I guess the bright side is that the weekend is only 2 days away! LOL!!

For my card today I had flower power on the brain so I pulled out my Feelin' Groovy set from Taylored Expressions, along with my Summertime Project Pantry kit. The layout is Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge, MTSC86.

I had visions of flowers all over the car so I paper pieced it with one of the patterned papers from the Summertime Project Pantry and added a little solid colour with my copic markers. I gave the wheels some sparkle with an orange Spica glitter pen then gave the windows a glassy look with my clear Glaze pen. I used my grass border punch on another patterned paper then paper pieced five more flowers. There are Crystal Twinkles in the center of each flower for a little sparkle. The alphabet stickers included in the Summertime Project Pantry were perfect for a quick custom sentiment. The car and grass are popped on foam tape for dimension, along with the entire focal panel.

Wishing you a flower power Wednesday!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Fred in Flight

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC80. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

I'm accumulating a healthy collection of new, still uninked, stamps, so I thought I'd dig into that pile for today's card. Fred the Bear in Flight from MFT was calling out to me. I wanted to make a card for my flight instructor because he's been such a great instructor and has gotten me to the point that I did my very first solo flight this past Friday! It was so awesome!!!!! Thanks Paul!

So I gave Paul the card on Friday after my flight (which was successful, by the way, since I'm here typing this! LOL!!!). He's so funny...he still marvels at the dvd tin I decorated a while back, so I knew he'd appreciate a hand-made card...and his reaction did not disappoint! I stamped Fred with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White and coloured him with copics. I added a light coating of white liquid appliquee to the fur trim and gave his goggles a shiny coating of clear Glaze pen. The patterned papers are an eclectic mix...the plaid is from Farm Fresh, the map is from Thrift Shop, and the airplane paper is a digi paper from the Flight of Fancy kit from The Digi Chick. I was thrilled to see that all the colours worked perfectly together!! I added some white felt clouds that I cut out with my Cloud Trio Die-namics then finished the card with a couple of SU corduroy brads.

Here I am beside the plane, grinning from ear to ear, after my solo flight.   :)

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's Blog. Now let's go see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers created.
Jen Tapler
Joanne Basile
Laura Fredrickson
Lynn Put
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen