More is More

Happy Friday!  It’s a big day at Taylored Expressions.  First we have the weekly sketch challenge and then at 8am PST all the super fun new stuff is available in the store!  I’ve been playing along with the Baker’s Dozen all week during sneak peeks and today I have 2 more cards featuring sets I hadn’t had a chance to play with yet.  Both of my cards use TESC116 – Taylor’s new sketch for today.  Both of these cards were super quick which was great because I was super short on time! So quick, that I just realized I completely ignored the little sentiment flag across the image…OOPS!

My first card features Summer Afternoon and Care & Comfort. Summer Afternoon is such a beautiful set and Care & Comfort is full of wonderful sentiments!

I used the Black Magic technique here – stamped the images on black cardstock with white craft ink…allowed the ink to dry and then colored over it with Prismacolor pencils.  Then I used a white gel pen to highlight with some dots.  Paper is October Afternoon Thrift Shop.  Ribbon is black polka dot grosgrain.  Large pearl brads are from my stash – I’ve had them forever.

My second card features all 3 of the new 4th of July A la Carte images. And check it out – no patterned paper – just good old fashioned stamping here!  The main image on my card is one of the A la Carte’s and it’s called God Bless the USA.  This is one whole image and I simply inked it up with markers.  Then I used a clear glaze pen over the words and I added Fire Engine Red glitter to the sparklers.  The two images in the background each come with their own separate sentiment so they can be used as a focal point, but I love them as a background!I then ran the background panel through my Big Shot with the Floral Fantasy CB folder to give it some texture.  The ribbon and crochet trim are from TE and the red metallic star brads are from deep in my stash…had to really dig to find those!  Cardstock is Real Red and Night of Navy SU.

Lots of blog hopping to do and I hope you’ll play along with us in the TESC (TE stamps NOT required!)…let’s see what the sketch crew has created today:

And of course you’re going to want to see what the Baker’s Dozen has in store.  There will be samples from all 5 stamp sets and the 3 A la Carte stamps!  If you can spare a couple extra minutes please leave a little love along the way!

Blog hop or shop…blog hop or shop????  That’s a tough one!  If you’re off to shop, what are you getting?  I’m dying to know!  Leave me a comment to let me know your favorites from this release!  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Thursday!  Just 24 hours till all the new goodies are released and ready for your shopping pleasure at Taylored Expressions!  I’m playing along today as the Baker’s Dozen presents peeks of another fabulous new set as well 3 new A la Carte images.  Today’s peeks are all about Summer…the beach and the 4th of July.  The set I’m working with today is called Hangin’ Out at the Beach and it was designed to be a companion set to the original Hangin’ Out stamp set.

I’m loving this set so much I just couldn’t stop at one card!  I had to create two and if I’d had more time I would have gone for a third.  Living in SoCal all my life the beach has always been just a few minutes away.  Although I’m not a beach girl in the get-in-the-sand-or-swim-in-the-ocean sense, I do love to be where I have a view of the coast.  Nothing is better than dinner on the patio of a good restaurant with a sea view!  This stamp set evokes that same feeling in me!

My first card was inspired by our Pastor. Pastor Jeff is a surfer and often uses surfing analogies in his preaching.  As soon as I saw this set, I knew I would need to make a card for him with it.

See –  I told you I would have yet another card featuring the Pet’s Place Project Pantry! Don’t these papers look great with this set?  All the cardstock, patterned paper and ribbon are from the PPP Pantry.  The images were colored with Copics and cut with a rectangle nestie and then the corners were rounded with the Corner Chomper.  That was layered onto a Big Scallop Rectangle nestie.  I then added Brown Sugar Sparkly Fluff (not from the Pantry.)  The swirly wave is a large image from the stamp set.  It was stamped onto blue cardstock from the kit and cut out, then I added white liquid pearls.  It is popped up on foam tape.  I wanted to keep this one masculine, so I decided to forgo the bling, etc. that I was tempted to add. This card is 5.25″ square.

I absolutely LOVE this sentiment!

Life is like a wave.

You can’t change the way it breaks,

but you can change the way you ride it.

This is something I’ve been learning more and more over the past few years.

I love playing with stamps to build scenes, so that’s what I did for my 2nd card.

For this card I used the Garden Party Project Pantry that was introduced last month.  The colors and paper in this kit are also awesome for this stamp set!  I started by stamping my basic scene on a piece of scratch paper just to get an idea of how things would line up and how much room everything would take.  I then stamped everything directly on this cloud patterned paper using my stamp-a-majig. The tree trunks and coconuts were colored with copics while everything else was paper-pieced. I added some Brown Sugar Sparkly Fluff to the beach and some KaiserCraft rhinestones (split pea and aqua) as finishing touches.  I just love how this turned out!

And now let’s see what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up!

Thanks for stopping by!  Please join me tomorrow for Taylor’s sketch and even more New Release samples.  Everything will be available for purchase at 8 am PST Friday.

Happy Wednesday!  Today is the 2nd day of sneak peeks for Taylored Expressions and we have two different sets to show you, split in half among the team.  I know my last two blog posts were super long so I’ll try to keep this one short and sweet…Udderly Sweet that is.

Cuppie goes to the farm in Jessie’s latest set, Udderly Sweet, which will be available Friday morning at 8 am PST.  There will also be an Udderly Sweet Project Pantry kit (details on Taylor’s blog today), but I made my farmin’ Cuppie card with the Pet’s Place Project Pantry (shown yesterday).  In fact I have another card with yet another new set using this same Project Pantry ready to go for tomorrow as well.  One of the best things about Taylor’s Project Pantry kits is that, although they are selected to coordinate well with a particular set, they are always amazingly versatile to go with so many other stamp sets!  All the cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon and buttons are from the same Pantry we all showed you yesterday. I decided to make this Cuppie *chocolate* and as I was coloring him I kept thinking he had a *farmer’s tan* (snort!  I crack myself up!)  Layout for this card is the fab Karen G’s Sweet Sunday Sketch SSSC71.

Let’s check out the rest of the Cuppie Udderly Sweet samples along with samples from Summer Afternoon which is a GORGEOUS set you really have to see!  There should be something for everyone today.  I can hardly wait to see what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up –

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ll stop back tomorrow.

Happy Tuesday!  Today marks the first day of sneak peeks for the Taylored Expressions June Release of 6 new stamps sets, 2 new Project Pantry kits and more.  Everything will be available Friday morning June 4th at 8 am PST.  I’m excited to play along with the Baker’s Dozen in the peeks this week and the first set we are showing of is Pet’s Place. Taylored Expressions supports various charities through the TE Giving Tree Program.  There is a new stamp set introduced every 3 months to support a new charity.  We are proud to bring you Pet’s Place, the newest set in the Apple Doodle Ink line, to support The Humane Society of the United States.

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation’s largest and most effective animal protection organization. The HSUS seeks a humane and sustainable world for all animals—a world that will also benefit people. They are America’s mainstream force against cruelty, exploitation and neglect, as well as the most trusted voice extolling the human-animal bond. HSUS is also the lead disaster relief agency for animals, and they provide direct care for thousands of animals at  sanctuaries and rescue facilities, wildlife rehabilitation centers, and mobile veterinary clinics. Read more about HSUS here.  $7 from the sale of each Pet’s Place set will be donated to HSUS.  Please remember that sets in the Giving Tree Program are the same high quality deeply etched pink rubber on EZ Mount as all other TE stamp sets, however unlike our other sets you will need to trim these images yourself.  This allows us to cut production costs and donate more to our charities.If you a regular reader of my blog, you know that we love our animals like crazy!  We have two macaws, Beaker the Red-front and R.B. the Greenwing, and of course our little 3 year old pup Tessa (scroll down just one post to read her whole story.)  I’m more than happy to help TE support the HSUS and I’m especially excited because this stamp set is so darned cute and has so many possibilities!  To help illustrate what I mean I created two different projects for today.