Taylored Expressions Release Day-Celebrate Life

It's release day at Taylored Expressions so that means you can go shopping and fill your cart with all the fabulous items the Baker's Dozen have been showcasing the past couple of days. But before you head over to the TE Store we have one more stamp set to share, Celebrate Life. This beautiful set has soooo much potential. The images and sentiments are appropriate for so many occasions and events throughout the year.

For my card today I paired Celebrate Life with the September 20th Key Ingredients and used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge, MTSC46, for the layout. This card came together quite quickly because I chose to work with some of the bold image stamps in this set. I started by stamping the swirly stem with Memento Rich Cocoa onto Choice Buttercream then stamped the flower with really rust. The image is cut out with oval Nestabilities and layered onto a scallop oval of Prism Suede Brown Dark. I added some Multicolour Twinkles to the flower for a little sparkle.

The Buttercream card base is 5.25 inches square. I layered the light blue patterned paper (it's the reverse side of the strip of patterned paper) with Prism Desert Coral Dark and stitched it to a square of Suede Brown Dark. See those little dot circles around the buttons? Well that's another stamp from the set...the buttons are hiding the middle of the stamp but I really like how it creates a frame around the buttons. I added a bit of sparkle to the sentiment too by dotting the "i" with a Multicolour Twinkle. I really love the simplicity of this card.

Taylor is offering a fabulous Super Size It Bundle with super size savings for those who want it all!

I'm excited to see what the rest of the Baker's Dozen have created with Celebrate Life.

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Denise Marzec

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Laura Fredrickson

Laurie Schmidlin

Sankari Wegman

Sharon Harnist

Taylor VanBruggen

and Jami Sibley is playing along today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek Day 2-Sweet Indulgence

Today the Baker's Dozen is sharing projects created with Sweet Indulgence, the adorable new Cuppie set that will be available at Taylored Expressions on Thursday, November 5th from 8am PST. Think of girly things you like to indulge in and that's what Cuppie's up to this month! I used the new Spa Key Ingredients on my project...love these cheery colours and patterns!

As soon as I saw this set and the sentiment 'time for the bubbly' I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Of course I paired the sentiment with Cuppie in the tub but then I took my bubbles in a completely different direction! I'm calling this a "Mom's Time Out" kit. I'm pretty sure that all moms would love a relaxing, candlelight bubble bath while sipping champagne and nibbling on chocolate at the end of a long day. :)

I started by decorating a mini champagne bottle with cardstock and ribbon from the Spa Key Ingredients. Next I wrapped some delish Ghirardelli chocolates with patterned paper and added three flowers from the Spa Key Ingredients. I added a Zva crystal to the center of each flower for a little bling.

Then I paired two images from Sweet Indulgence for the decoration on the bottle neck. The images are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black then coloured with copics. I added a little clear Glaze pen to the compact to look like a mirror.

For the card, I started with this week's Mojo sketch, MOJO111.

The image is coloured with copics and I added Stardust Stickles to the bubbles. I inked just the words from the sentiment and created a banner. Do you see that fun lipstick brad? Isn't it adorable??? It's included in the Spa Key Ingredients along with some hair dryers.

I'm ready to see what fabulous creations the rest of the Baker's Dozen came up with using Sweet Indulgence. Come hop with me!

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Denise Marzec

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Laura Fredrickson

Laurie Schmidlin

Sankari Wegman

Sharon Harnist

and Taylor VanBruggen

I'll have another new set to show you tomorrow, on release day, so be sure to pop back then.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek-Day 1-Luxurious Labels

Today the Baker's Dozen is sharing sneak peek samples using the wonderful new set Luxurious Labels, which will be available for purchase at Taylored Expressions on Thursday, November 5th from 8am PST.

For my project I created a card and filled a spa bottle (these are the same as the potion bottles from Halloween) with relaxing bath salts.

For my card I used Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge, TESC89, for the layout. All the papers, ribbon and flower are from the Spa Key Ingredients. The vanilla brad is SU. I stamped the flowers with versamark onto one of the patterned papers at embossed it with vanilla powder. It's cut out with rectangle Nestabilities and layered onto two scallop rectangles. I added some Crystal Stickles to the flowers for a little sparkle.

Next I'd like to show you the Spa Bottle. I'm so happy with how it turned out!!! I stamped the bubble oval onto Choice Buttercream (from the Spa Key Ingredients) then placed the bath tub and words inside the oval. I stamped the tub again so I could cut it out and pop it for dimension. Everything is coloured with copics then I added a layer of clear Glaze pen to all the bubbles. Once that dried I added touches of Crystal Stickles to the bubbles for a little sparkle. Luxurious Labels also includes images sized perfectly to fit on the corks.

I know my mom is going to just love these bath salts. I think I'll add them to her stocking at Christmas.

Taylor is offering a fabulous Sweet Spa Bundle packed with wonderful items at a great price. It'll be in the TE Store on Thursday, November 5th from 8am PST.

Let's see what the rest of the Baker's Dozen has created with Luxurious Labels.

Charmaine Ikach

Denise Marzec

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Laura Fredrickson

Laurie Schmidlin

Sankari Wegman

Sharon Harnist

and Taylor VanBruggen

I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peek of the new Cuppie set! See you then!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Pretty Purple Tatiana

Happy Monday!!! I'm posting later than usual today because life got in the way this morning. We were away this weekend and Shadow (our mini schnauzer) was staying at his usual place...well he came home a little under the weather so we spent the morning at the vet. Turns out he picked up kennel cough at the groomers last week (not where he stayed on the weekend) but now I feel awful that he was staying at my friend's house with her seven dogs. Yikes!!! I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that they don't all get sick because of my little guy!!

But you came here for a card, right? I stamped this one this morning while waiting to go to our vet appointment. I decided to use the Weekend Sketch Challenge, WSC104, for the layout and as I was reading Beate's post I realized the Ways To Use It challenge on Splitcoast, WT242, is to use purple, so I combined the sketch and the purple challenge.

I think I'm one of the few people who likes using purple. I can't say it's my favourite colour, but I really like how the purple copics blend and I love how vibrant they can be. So for my card I pulled out my favourite paper with purple in it, My Mind's Eye Penny Lane. I stamped Tatiana Ketto from Stamping Bella with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured her with copics. Nothing fancy here, but I did add a lemonade Bauble to the center of the flower. The image is cut out with circle Nestabilities and layered onto a scallop circle of Eggplant.

I started with a standard size white card base then I layered some Prism Frosted Kiwi and some Prism Intense Teal, which I ran through my D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder. The rest is just three strips of paper and I tucked a scalloped strip of Eggplant near the right edge. There's a little sparkle from two medium lilac Glitter Dots.

Don't forget about this week's Bellarific Challenge...it's a Christmas/Winter theme. Email your entries to Em by Thursday, November 5th to be included in her Bellarific Friday post on November 6th and you might just win a $20 gift certificate to Stamping Bella! Click here for all the details.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Sweet Sunday Snowfall

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC42. You'll find the sketch on Karen's blog, The Sweetest Thing.

For this card I reached for another snowman from my collection. This little guy's been waiting since spring for some ink and as I was searching for just the perfect image for this sketch he jumped out at me! He's looking up so I knew it would be cute to have it snowing above him. What do you think?

I started by stamping the Stampendous snowman with Memento Tuxedo Black onto the Pebbles Inc. patterned paper and cut it out with Labels Nestabilities. Then I stamped him again onto Choice Snow White and coloured him with copics. I cut out the snowman and adhered him directly over the image on the patterned paper. I layered the image panel onto some white and stitched around the edges for interest.

The finished size of this card is 6.5 inches tall by 3.25 inches wide. The base is white, then I layered some Not Quite Navy. I jazzed up the bottom with my EK border punch then added all the snow with dots of white liquid applique. The scalloped border is actually a piece of blue ric rac ribbon that I tucked under the white panel. The sentiment is from Unity's Jolly Little Winter set and it's embossed with white.

I'm excited to see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers did with this fun sketch! I hope you'll play along too this week.

Jen Tapler

Laura Fredrickson

Lynn Put

Nancy Riley

Sarah-Jane Kale'

Vicki Burdick

and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

It's a Bella Blog Hop!!!

Welcome to the Stamping Bella blog hop featuring images from the Chichiboulie line of Fairies and Bittyblooms. You can start the hop at Bloggabella so you don't miss a thing! In case there's a break in the chain just click on the master list of hoppers to find your place.

I had such a tough time deciding what image to use...they're all SO adorable! But I landed on Poppy Bittybloom...I adore her expression! I used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #45 for the layout.

In case you hadn't noticed, when I created this card I was in the mood for texture and dimension, and lots of it! I started by stamping Poppy three times with Memento Tuxedo black onto Bella's Bestest Paper. I paper pieced her shirt and hat then coloured the rest with copics. I cut out all around her, and yes, between her legs and arms too. I've seen lots of people in blogland cutting out their images and layering it onto a shape so I thought I'd give it a try. Verdict is...I LOVE THIS LOOK!!!! I used my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder to add a little texture to the white circle before adhering Poppy. I used plenty of pop dots on this card...the flower on her hat is popped once and the flower she's holding is popped twice then I bent up the edges of the petals for even more dimension. I added black Flower Soft to the flower center.

I really wanted to use black ruffled ribbon but I didn't have any, so I created by own by pleating the ribbon and stitching along the top edge. I love the look and it was pretty easy to do!

The rest of the card is simple...some patterned paper from My Mind's Eye Pretty Please line, a white flower border and some layers of Prism blush red dark and blush red medium. I added a little sparkle with some Platinum Glitter Dots.

There's a prize hidden somewhere along the hop so be sure to leave some love for a chance to win! One pre-selected blogger will choose a random winner from the comments on her post, and the winner will receive a $25 gift voucher to Stamping Bella! The winner will be announced on Monday in the Stamping Bella forum on Splitcoast.

Now your off to see Tiffaney's fabulous creation! Happy Hopping!!!!

Thanks for Hopping by!

Karen

Oh, and Happy Halloween too! :)

You Rock!

Happy Bellarific Friday! As if today wasn't already special enough just being Bellarific Friday, but it's also Release Day at Stamping Bella!!! Woo hooo!!!! I can't wait to see all the goodies and get my hands on those new Lollipops!!! Speaking of...did you see the fab tutorial Lindabella did in the Stamping Bella Splitcoast forum on colouring the Lollipop faces? It's AH-mazing...go check it out!

Ok, on to my Bellarific Friday card. The theme this week was All Things Kids. I immediately thought of the new Green Bean Baby line and those adorable kids. I decided to use Jackson the Champion for my card.

When I first saw this image I knew I wanted to do the 'bouncing ball thingy' with the soccer ball. So I stamped Jackson four times with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper. I coloured him with copics then cut him out with square Nestabilities. I used my black Glaze pen on Jackson's eyes and the black parts of the soccer balls and once that dried I covered each ball with a layer of clear Glaze pen.

The white card base has a finished size of 3.25 x 6.5 inches. I layered some Baja blue cardstock then chose the striped pattern from my Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend Mini Deck. I snipped the top edge to look like grass then I stitched a zig-zag along the bottom and around the image. The three soccer balls are popped for dimension and I used my copic Multiliner to draw in the dashed lines. The sentiment seemed perfect for this card. I'm pretty sure this will be going to one of my nephews next summer during soccer season.

Let's pop over to Bloggabella to see all the wonderful submissions for this week's Bellarific challenge AND the new releases!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Karen

Mojo Joy

When I saw this week's Mojo Monday sketch I was a little afraid, but I really wanted to give it a try because all the overlapping panels are so interesting! But I ended up using the mirror image of the sketch because I wanted my bird flying towards the center of the card instead of away from it.

I pulled out my Wings of Joy from Taylored Expressions because I adore all the birds in this set. Then I reached for my Christmas Mint patterned paper and ran with it!

I stamped the bird and ornament with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White then coloured them with copics. I used my stamp-a-majig to position the ornament on the bird's beak. The hat and wing are paper pieced then I added some white liquid applique to the hat and a little glitter to the bird. I couldn't resist adding a black Tiny Twinkle for his eye. The image is cut out with circle Nestabilities and layered onto a scalloped circle of Prism Frosted Pink.

My white card base is 5.25 inches square. I started by running a 5" square of Prism Suede Brown Medium through my swiss dots Cuttlebug folder then layered it onto a mat of Frosted Pink. Then I cut my patterned papers down to size and layered each onto Choice Snow White. I used the reverse side of the Christmas Mint papers...they're a little more whimsical than the gorgeous patterns shown in the TE Store. I always do a 'dry run' with my cards, arranging all the layers before I adhere anything, and I found the layers looked a little flat and boring, so I stitched a straight line around each layer. You wouldn't believe how much that adds to the card, and it's sew quick to do!!!! Pardon the pun!!! LOL!!! I added some white ribbon and tied a green button from my Rhonna Christmas pack to the center.

The sentiment is the first part of a longer sentiment from Wings of Joy. It's so easy to ink just part of an image with the Memento Dew Drop ink pads...they have that nice pointy end which is perfect for getting into small areas.

Well, it's the end of October so you do know what that means, right??? Sneak peeks for Taylored Expressions' November 5th release start next Tuesday!!! Wooo Hoooo!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Sweet Tricksters

I couldn't resist just one more Halloween card before I tuck my spooky stamps away for a few months.

These sweet little trick or treaters, the Mummy, the Witch and the Pirate, from Stamping Bella were calling out to be coloured. I used Jen's Sketch For You To Try from Oct 17th for the layout.

I started by stamping the image three times with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest paper then I coloured it with copics. I know...went a little copic crazy on this one...my apologies...but I just kept thinking I can't use the same shade of brown for all the brown parts! This image is perfect for lots of dimension so I cut out the witch and the cauldron, popped them for dimension, then I cut out the three pumpkins and popped them for even more dimension. I added sparkle to the pumpkins with my orange and yellow Spica glitter pens and I coloured the pirate's sword with my Stardust pen. Then I thought the cauldron should be shiny so I added two layers with my clear Glaze pen.

Here's a shot of the dimension.

Of course I reached for my Basic Grey Eerie paper for this sweet and spooky creation...I just LOVE this paper!!! I used my MS spider web punch on the black patterned strip then added a pop of orange with the polka dot ribbon. I couldn't resist the skull button and I added three black brads to finish the card.

Have you checked out Bloggabella for this week's Bellarific Friday Challenge? Well the theme is All Things Kids and you'll find all the deets on this post along with sneak peeks of the new stamps being released on Friday, October 30th! Aren't they just adorable!!! AND, we have the Chichiboulie blog hop on Saturday, October 31st...read all the details here and sign up too! Phew...what an exciting week in Bellaland!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Happy Birthday Joanne!!!

Yup, that's right...today is my friend Joanne's birthday!!! I'll be on her doorstep later today with a birthday Mocha in hand...see you later GF! Be sure to pop over and wish her a VERY happy day!!!

In honour of Joanne's birthday I decided to use my favourite MFT birthday set, You Take the Cake from the Who's That Girl line. Since this card is for Joanne I decided to incorporate a few "Joanne-ish" things, like pink, paper piecing, and ruffled ribbon. :)

I used Mojo109 for the layout. I started by stamping the image with Memento Tuxedo Black onto the Doodlebug striped paper from the Cupcakes Collection, then I stamped it again onto Choice Snow White. I coloured the girl and the cake with copics then cut her out with scissors and adhered her to the striped panel...voila...instant striped wall paper! I added some Yellow Stickles to the candle flames and some pink glitter to the cake...doesn't it look yummy! I layered the image onto a thin mat of black before adhering it to the scallop square of Prism Razzleberry Medium.

I stitched the polka dot paper from the Cupcakes Collection to a mat of Razzleberry Medium then I added some fun ruffled ribbon and topped it off with the pink loop ribbon. The Moxie Fab blog has a fun ruffles challenge that's ending today, so hurry over and get your ruffled creation linked up! The bottom of the card was looking a little bare so I jazzed it up with my new Bling it On. They're rubons with coordinating bling...sooooo cool and easy to apply!!! I added a fun Doodlebug cupcake brad to the sentiment for just a little more bling! Really, can you ever have too much bling?!?

This card is also my entry for the MFT So You Think You Can Stamp week 3 challenge over on Splitcoast. The theme this week is "Waltz". Huh??? I know what you're thinking...what does a birthday card have to do with the waltz? Well, for starters, the ruffly ribbon and curlicue rubons remind me of the flowing dresses dancers wear when they waltz. But I did a little Google search and discovered that it's a tradition in a few countries for girls to dance the waltz on their 15th birthday, and in one country it's a tradition that she wears a pink dress! Now do you see the connection?!? Here's the link in case you're curious as to what the birthday traditions are in other countries. Oh, and I'm Canadian and I've never had my nose greased on my birthday...don't know who came up with that one but it sounds yucky!!! Wish me luck! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen