Taylored Expressions March Peeks - Day 1

Hi there!! It's that time again--- YES--- another month has flown by and we are ready to be done with the cold and snow.  Everyone at Taylored Expressions is looking forward to a sunny SPRING... so today, we are introducing Spring Wreath (the next in our line to coordinate with the Seasonal Wreath Die), Spring A la Carte and  It's a Banner Day 2 with a coordinating die.

First, let me show you the new "It's a Banner Day 2".  This is the second in our Banner Day series, concepted by Iwona Palamountain.  (Make sure you stop by her blog: Random Acts of Creativity to see what she did with the new set!)  There are three banners and 6 sentiments in this set, which are all made with deeply etched rubber and EZ Mount.  You will find tons of uses for these banners and I paired mine with one of my favorite TE sets from the past "SWEET SPRING" (that bunny is just so sweet!)

I hand drew the grass around the bunny-cake and then colored it with copics while it was still in the die.  I thought a couple of clouds were needed-- so I cut them from felt using the TE Cloud Duo Dies that we introduced last month. The banner was colored with copics and then I used a white gel pen to add some accents to the insides of the ribbon banner... it's such a fun shape and design!

Next, I used the new Spring A la Carte stamp, which is a great focal point for a card or a scrapbook page.  For my project, I decided to make a treat bag of Easter Peanut Butter M&M's... and yes, the M&M's have already been ripped in to and eaten.  The paper is from the new MME line, Stella Rose - Hazel which Taylor has in stock. 

We have lots of fun in store the next few days, and make sure you stop by the rest of the Baker's Dozen to see what they cooked up today!!

Jami Sibley

Charmaine Ikach

Danielle Lounds

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Regina Mangum

Sankari Wegman

(Me) - you are already here

and of course, Taylor Vanbruggen

Hello!

Well I'd LIKE to say that my house was a cozy cottage this weekend, however that unfortunately, wasn't the case.   Our weekend started with Parker, my 7 year old, having a 104 degree temperature on Friday, my husband getting a fever and cough on Saturday, and my daughter getting the flu on Sunday.  Oh the fun!!

I actually made this card several days ago, but forgot about it until I was lying in bed tonight passing my husband a kleenex every few minutes.  I think I want to go stay in this cottage until everyone is feeling better in my house! :)

This stamp set is called COZY COTTAGES from Taylored Expressions.  Cozy Cottages is The Giving Tree set right now, which means that for every purchase made,  $7.00 will be donated to the designated charity.  The charity through April 2011 is the very deserving organization - Habitat for Humanity.

In addition to Cozy Cottages, I also used the Whimsy Tree Die and decided to try something a little different with it.  I punched three 3/4" circles and used a little bit of distress ink to dirty up the edges.  I think it looks cute under the swirly branches and to make everything blend, I went ahead and used the distress ink on the edges of the house after I colored it and cut it out.  I added a couple of the clouds from the cloud duo die and then popped the sentiment up after I airbrushed it with RV42 and a touch of R35 on the edges.

I better go back and attend to the sickies... come back tomorrow for day one of sneak peeks at Taylored Expressions!!
 

Sugarplum Brrr Emma

So what's up with this warm,cold, warm, cold thing-- ugh, I'm sick of winter.  Don't get me wrong, I was thankful for the few days outdoors last week, but brrr... now it feels like January again!  I {NEED} more sun!!  Well since that isn't happenin'--- I had this colored up image sitting on my desk of C.C. Designs -- BRRR Emma Sugarplum from ALL THAT SCRAPS --- which seemed very appropriate for how I felt today. 

The paper is Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paired with Rich Razzleberry cardstock.  I used Desert Sand Memento ink to sponge the sides of my snow hills--- any remaining snow is dirty and gross here... so I thought it needed a little shading to go with the theme!

(Sentiment is from HRDesigns set - Winter Wishes'--- Apron border from TCP and Aqua Divine Twine from TCP).

Thanks for stopping!!

TCPTUES147 - Color Challenge

 

Hi stamp friends!! It's TCP Tuesday at The Cat's Pajama's and our hostess with the mostess this week is Sony.  She is giving us a fun color combo challenge this week using pink, chocolate brown, and teal...and we'd love to see what you can do with that combo!  My wedding happened to have a pink/teal theme... does that age me at all!?!? It was all the rage in the 90's!  

For my card, I decided that I would take advantage of the challenge to make a card for my Grandma.  She came down with pnemonia this past weekend and is in the hospital, so I thought this might brighten her day.  I used the set "A Beary Good Year" again... I know I used it last week, but it fit perfectly with the card I wanted to make, so I had to go with it again

. 

 I am up WAY too late tonight, so I better head to bed and stop playing on Facebook!! Make sure you stop by the Dancing in Pajamas blog to submit your challenge card... and remember that Alma is always looking for a new Swanky Stamper each month from the participants!!

ATS - Bouquet Birgitta

Hello stamp friends!! I hope you're having a great weekend!  We had family here for a baby shower for my upcoming new nephew, plus I got a chance to see my 4 month old niece... babies everywhere! :)  As we were shopping for a baby gift, my 7 year old asked me if I was ever having any more babies--- after telling him that I was happy with the three babies I have... he then (in front of the sales clerk) asks "well how does a baby get in there anyway?!?"... Oh goodness... great timing Parker!  I gave him a hopefully appropriate 7 year old answer and watched the clerk giggle!   I am SO not ready for this!! :) 

I managed to squeeze in a little stamping time tonight and wanted to make another card with C.C. Designs Bouquet Birgitta from All That Scraps.  I got my hands on ALL FOUR of the new Stella Rose MME 6x6 paper pads -- LOVE THEM--- and this one is the Gertie line.  So cute!!

I added some random stitches to the Octagon and also stitched the Amy R Stamps sentiment banner with a few zig zags--- the sentiment is from Amy R Stamps "All About Love" set.

Here are the copic colors I used:
Skin: E11, E00, E000 (cheeks colored with red chalk)
Reds (shoes/flower wrapper) - E37, E35, E32

Hair - Y38, Y35, Y11, Y00
Flowers - y04, y11, r32
Dress/pinks: r22, r32, r30
Greenery - yg63, yg25, yg01
Blues (ribbon/wings) - B72, B23, B11

Thanks for dropping by and if you have any questions-- feel free to use my C-Box in the right column-- I will answer any card questions  or product questions there!

Taylored Expressions - Friendship Blooms

Happy Wednesday friends!! We've had a temperature warm-up in Iowa which resulted in a totally foggy morning today... school was already scheduled for an early out, so the ended up just canceling it.  I spent my day with TEN, yes 10, preschoolers and elementary school kids at the house.  I think I need a glass of wine! :)   Needless to say, I didn't get any stamping done, but I do have this card that I made last night that I wanted to get posted.

I used the "FRIENDSHIP BLOOMS" set from Taylored Expressions along with my favorite paper right now, October Afternoon Modern Homemaker.  I cut the flowers and leafs out with the coordinating Friendship blooms and leafy branch dies. 

I need to go wrangle some kids back into bed... but I hope to have a much more relaxing day tomorrow and maybe even squeeze in some stampin' time!!

(Inks are Memento Lipstick Red, Memento Pear Tart, and Cool Caribbean (Stampin' Up.) 

TCP Tuesday - CANDY BABY!!

Hello all!! It's TCP Tuesday for The Cat's Pajamas today and our hostess with the mostess is Julie Masse!  She was feeling inspired by the sugar high from all of the post-Valentine celebrating and challenged us to make a card incorporating candy somewhere into our card.  Other than a few hidden snickers (which I'm sorry, but even in the interest of card making, I can simply not part with)---- the only remaining crumbs of candy were some conversation hearts around here... so I found a couple of cute ones to use with the EWE COMPLETE ME set.... and I made a card for my "sweetheart". 

For those of you who are not on Facebook with me, my husband had quite the "gift" for me yesterday.... as many know, I do daycare from my home right now and shortly after I sent the preschoolers off to school and laid the little ones down for nap, I heard a knock at the door... I opened it up to find 5 men in tuxes holding a yellow rose and card.  They proceeded into my entry way and I quickly looked for a place to hide.  I had them hold while I ran up to get my 3 year old for embarrassment cover and proceeded to sit while they sang two songs to me.  I so WISH I would have been of sane mind to grab the camera, but I was seriously so many shades of red that I wasn't even thinking.  Too funny... it's just like my husband to do something like that and I made sure he knows that "okay-- once is funny.... now let's not do it again, check that one off your list!!"  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Hello and Happy Heart Day to all of you!! I was busy finishing Valentine's for the boys and daycare kids this weekend, so I didn't get anything posted, but I just have to share these two pictures... we had a clean sweep day on Sunday and asked each of the kids to go work on their EXTREMELY messy bedrooms. 

I knew the boys were going to need some serious direction to get everything done and we sent Gabby into her room (pouting and whimpering the entire way.  She is even worse than the boys when it comes to picking up after herself and will freely come up with every reason in the book to avoid it.  Her "excuse" on Sunday was too cute not to snap a shot of... besides the absolute ridiculous disaster (which got worse after she was in there for 30 minutes... notice anything else strange???) 

.... it's like a Where's Waldo? picture... I know---- Just so you know, her room is currently spotless, but it literally can take 10 minutes to turn it back into this! 

So did you figure out what else was in the picture?

Here is a close up of underneath her table.... 

Apparently she wore herself out with ALL that work she did picking up her room! HA!  She was too cute to move her, so while it taught her nothing... I went ahead and picked up the whole room and she awoke like a magic wand had been waved while she slept.  I wonder if that same approach would work for me with the rest of the house!?!?

Paper Smooches -- To my core...

* Be sure to check out my VALENTINE CHALLENGE for The Stamping Bazaar posted below!!

My new Kim Hughes - Paper Smooches set "Falling for You" came in the mail earlier this week and I had a little time to stamp a quick card with the apple image!  I love the whole set... such adorable images and did you see the card Leigh O'Brien made with the bat?!?  It's featured on the PS blog and it's SOOOO adorable!! 

I used the Spellbinders Fruit Border for the polka dot apple border running through the middle of the card and some apple paper from a few years ago that Stampin' Up sold. The polka dot paper is from Papertrey Ink.  

I can't wait to see what else Kim has coming up!


Thanks for stopping by!!

TSB Challenge 15 - Valentine

Hi Friends!! Today we have a new challenge over at The Stamping Bazaar Blog featuring a card for your favorite Valentine!   There is still plenty of time to pick up the SPECIAL TRIO OFFER digi's for only $10 at TSB featuring all three of the new adorable Valentine images from Marina. 

For my card, I used MARVIN WITH DAISIES... ever seen a pink bat!?!  Well I think he's just as cute as can be in all his pink glory and I used a pop of Ranger White Opal Liquid Pearl in the center of each flower... it really makes them pop off the page! 

FYI - Papers from PTI, the heart die is The Cat's Pajama's Heart Trio and the tag is the Little Tag die from All That Scraps. 

We'd love to see your Valentine creations at the blog, so stop by for more inspiration and get to colorin'!!

Meowy excited...

I've been as excited as a cat with a new scratching post filled with catnip the past couple of weeks, just BURSTING at the whiskers to tell you the news... and today is the day.  You'll see a new baby face over at the swankiest place on the web --- The Cat's Pajama's!! Yep, that's a mini-Tori over there in the left column! :)  I think I was maybe 3??  And wow, do I have to tell you how much fun I had finding a baby picture of me... I quickly realized that my daughter looks a lot more like me than I thought!! 

I am seriously over the moon to be joining The Cat Pack... so when Alma emailed me asking if I'd be interested, I couldn't type up my response fast enough.  I ADORE products from TCP... you've seen me rave about the divine twine, I love all of the retro-cool dies, the stamps just get cuter and cuter and it's an amazing line-up of talent that I feel blessed to be joining--- many friends from past and current teams and some incredible new friends for me as well... so it's a Grand Slam win for me! 

As my first official Cat-Pack TCP TUESDAY card... I thought I'd start with a set that covers any and every occasion you can think of.... A BEARY GOOD YEAR.  This weeks challenge from Jen, our Hipster Hostess with the Mostest, was an inspiration challenge... and it happens to feature cake (LOVE cake), brown and blue (LOVE those colors together --- it happens to be the color of my favorite room in my basement) and also a can of Sprinkles Cupcake mix in the same colors... Um... me and Sprinkles Cupcakes have a love+love relationship--- thankfully for my waist, the nearest one is over 4 hours away!

So here is my layered, button, turquoise and brown inspired card... I absolutely  love this set.  It's not one of the newest one's at TCP, but if you don't have a set from The Cat's Pajama's (and if you don't -- what's wrong with you!?!) :)  --- but if you don't, then this is the one to start with...  not just because PJ is the cutest bear this side of the Mississippi, but it's so versatile and covers every occasion.  One of my favorite things with clear stamps, is that you can align the accessories so easily, no guessing and no cutting... perfect for my lazy days when I just want to have fun and get right to the fun part--- COLORING!!

I used some of the aqua divine twine in the TCP Button Cut-Ups which mimics the dots all over the cake and then I used the apron border die along the top and bottom to add to my layered cake-like background.

Alright groovy peeps--- Thanks for sharing in my swingin' good news today and be sure to pop by the blog announcement and TCP Tuesday Challenge over at Alma's blog - DANCING IN PAJAMAS.

Oh and here are a few favorites from past TCP cards (I can't wait to get my paws on all of the new releases!!) 

Taylored Expressions RELEASE day!!

The whirlwind week is coming to a close-- the kids are back in school for the regular schedule today - YAY!, and no snow or ice is on the agenda (although I did hear we might get some more this weekend) - BOO! :(   The small town I live in was out of internet service for most of yesterday, so I was in computer withdrawal and stayed up WAY too late when it finally came back up late last night. so I'm really hoping the daycare kids are all feeling tired and want to lay down for a movie later this morning! 

Today is the official RELEASE day for Taylored Expressions and we have 4 new stamp sets (2 full-size, 1 mini, 1 Petite), 4 new dies, a Lucky Sampler of papercrafting goodies, and a coloring book for the tiny chefs! There are 6 patterned paper collections on sale for 20% off (which I mentioned yesterday), plus a whole bunch of products on close-out in the What's the Deal Department. New products available include Darcie's Acrylic Frames (in several shapes and sizes) as well as new colors of Stickles and Smooch... all of which can be found in the FRESH OUT OF THE OVEN section at the store. 

I have one more project today to share featuring FASHIONISTA (being the fashion diva that I am these days- HA!) --- if I wear jeans the kids think I'm "dressed up"--- oh the fun of staying home every day!  For my fashionable card,  I used some major girly paper with Echo Park's Be Mine collection... and I've been wanting to make a card with the line up of shoes since I saw this set, so I made my card 6 x 4 1/4 so that it could fit the whole row.  (Wouldn't that shoe line up be cute across the bottom of a scrapbook dress up page!?!) 

I also wanted to remind you to sign up for the BLAST FROM THE PAST FEBRUARY BLOG HOP if you aren't signed up already... it's always fun to see all of the sets from past releases and I love seeing all of the amazing projects from TE fans! 

And finally, before I go... here is the line-up for today -- our amazing guest designer, Lea is back, so make sure you stop by and see what she put together for the release!  

Guest Designer: Lea Lawson

Illustrator: Nancy McKinney

Charmaine Ikach

Danielle Lounds

Donna Baker - (will post later due to some computer issues!)

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Regina Mangum

Sankari Wegman

(Me) - you are already here

and of course, Taylor Vanbruggen

ATS Little Tag Preview meets TCP Tuesday

Welcome back!! Today, All That Scraps is featuring a fun new Tag die and stamp set called "Little Tag".  The die includes a cute cut out flower and a little reinforcement circle (shown in blue on my tag)...LoVE IT!! C.C. Cutters dies are all made out of a high grade metal and they cut very cleanly!

The Little Tag stamp set, which matches this die, includes TWO different stamp borders and I stamped the polka dot border in Razzleberry after I cut out the tag.  The other border included is a solid outline border to add a pop of color to your tag.  This stamp set also includes multiple sentiments and even a "To: From:" label.   

For my card, I decided to use a stamp set that just came in my ATS order last week named HONEY BEAR from The Cat's Pajamas.  (Christine still has a few of these in stock!) I just love this set-- especially the cute little bee and sentiment-- and I wanted to show how useful this new tag will be, even with other stamp company images/sentiments. 

Since I was using a TCP stamp, I figured why not play along in the TCP Tuesday sketch this week and added some purple glass gliitter from TCP to the heart and the bee wings for that extra blingy wow factor. 

Thanks for visiting and make sure you stop by the ATS Blog to enter for a chance to win the LITTLE TAG SET and LITTLE TAG C.C. CUTTERS DIE!!

Taylored Expressions BANNER DAY!

*** Make sure you check out the ATS Day Two post below or click HERE... I also have a fun picture of Gabby on there! ***

 

Welcome back to Taylored Expressions Day Three of peeks!! Today, we have something new to show you-- this is the first in a series of 3 stamp sets featuring banner stamps and sentiments with a coordinating banner die.  The set today is called "It's a Banner Day 1" with the coordinating die and this fun banner concept was brought to us by the amazing Iwona Palamountain (known to most as Chupa).  She'll be joining us as a special guest as we release these three banner stamps/dies over the next three months and I thing these are such a great idea and cute look that goes with almost any stamp set. 

For my card, I used the set "BERRIES AND CHERRIES", one of my favorites at Taylored Expressions... and the paper is Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety.  As a side note, Taylor has the following paper collections on sale for 20% off beginning Friday morning: 

Crate Paper Restoration

KI Memories Paisley Parade (which I used on my day one peeks - Cozy Cottages) 

Echo Park in the Park

Echo Park Little Boy

Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety

October Afternoon Cherry Hill

I did some major shine on here (using crystal effects) with the basket of strawberries and the Strawberry accent (a spellbinders die.)  I used the "You're the Best" sentiment from It's a Banner Day 1 -- which worked great with the Thank you Berry Much sentiment in the Berries and Cherries set! Taylor has some adorable Strawberry and Cherry charms (also on sale)-- which are similar to the one I used here. 

 

So that's our peek for today-- come back tomorrow for our actual release day and here are links to the whole Baker's Dozen team and featured guests today!

Iwona Palamountain

Jami Sibley

Charmaine Ikach

Danielle Lounds

Donna Baker 

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Regina Mangum

Sankari Wegman

(Me) - you are already here

and of course, Taylor Vanbruggen