More is More

Welcome to Day 1 of Sneak Peeks for the Taylored Expressions March Release!  I’m excited to play along with the Baker’s Dozen Design Team today as we show you peeks of some of what’s coming on Thursday morning at 8 am PST.  The girls will be showing you everything listed in the graphic above today, with more to come tomorrow!  My sample is a combination of the Spring Wreath Petite Stamp Set (a continuation of my seasonal wreath concept) illustrated by Nancy McKinney, combined with It’s a Banner Day 2 (a continuation of the banner sentiment concept brought to us by Iwona Palamountain) illustrated by Taylor as part of the *te* collection.  It’s a Banner Day 2 is a Mini Set (4.75″ square full color storage panel) and Spring Wreath is a Petite Set (3″ x 5.5″ full color storage panel.)

I started with the February SFYTT and a brand new 6×6 pad of My Mind’s Eye Stella Rose – Hazel patterned paper.  I added Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy cardstock.  The wreath was stamped on TE Choice Snow White cardstock and die cute with the Seasonal Wreath die (this die fits all 3 of the wreaths released so far, with more to come) before coloring with Copics.  I also covered each little egg with Glossy Accents for shine and dimension.  The bird was stamped and colored separately and cut out.  The wreath and bird are up on foam dots. 

The banner image was stamped in a pale pink ink and then the sentiment was stamped on top using my stamp-a-majig before die cutting with the new Banner Day 2 die.  I am seriously loving the Banner Day series…so many possiblities…and so awesome to have banner images with the matching die!  I honestly don’t know how anyone can resist these sets!  But then I’m a sucker for a good sentiment!  LOL!

I plan to use this card as a somewhat non-traditional baby congrats card for friends who just adopted a little girl.  We are so excited for them! I think it works. What do you think?

Now it’s time to see what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up today:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Jackie Pedro
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Karen Motz
• Melissa Sauls
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild
• Iwona Palamountain is also joining us today.

Thanks for stopping by and have fun hopping!  Oh and in case you haven’t heard, Taylored Expressions will be giving away THE ENTIRE MARCH RELEASE TO ONE LUCKY WINNER by random drawing as soon as we reach 1500 fans on our Facebook page. (We were over 1360 last time I checked!)  All you have to do to be entered into the drawing is be one of our Facebook fans.  It’s easy just click over to –> the TE Facebook page and click on “Like” at the top of the page.  That’s all there is to it – easy peasy!  And fans will get first look at the new sets in their entirety Wednesday night.

Happy Monday and I hope you have a fantastic week!

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It’s time for the monthly Taylored Expressions Blast From the Past Blog Hop!  All TE customers are invited to join in as we play with some of our favorite (but not newest) sets.  The theme for this month is Going Green. I used the optional sketch (created by Sankari Wegman) and turned to my all time favorite TE set, Branching Out with a little help from Garden Party Blooms and the coordinating die (for the sunshine.)

Papers and ribbon are from a TE Key Ingredients kit from last year that featured October Afternoon Modern Homemaker.  All of the colors I used on the card were pulled from the striped piece of patterned paper.  I added some SU Daffodil Delight cardstock.  I inked up the sun image with Daffodil ink and then used the rock’n’roll technique to ink the edges with Peach Parfait before stamping onto Daffodil cardstock and die cutting with the Taylored Die.  The sun was overpowering the card by covering up a portion of the branch and leaves, so I used a craft knife to cut around a couple of the leaves and tuck the sun in behind them.  It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the little flowers are KaiserCraft pink rhinestone flowers – just the special little touch I needed!

There are a ton of people playing in the hop today and I can hardly wait to see what everyone created.  I always love to see which sets people chose to use for these hops. Be sure to stop by Taylor’s blog to see her sample and to get the info to sign up to play with us next month.

Thanks for stopping by.

It was a work day here.  Not sure why the Rocket Scientist didn’t have the day off, but I kept quite busy all day!  Just wanted to stop in and share another card I made with Sweet Summer (SU) last week.  This was also inspired by one I found in the SCS Gallery (I told you there were a ton of fantastic cards in there!).  The one that inspired me this time was by Fran Sabad.  I wasn’t actually looking at it when I made my version, but I was totally inspired by hers!

Flowers were watercolored with ink and an aquapainter. The white images at the top and the sentiment are rub-ons from my extensive, rarely-used, but much-loved stash!  Cardstock colors are Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Black. Yellow stickles gave just the finishing touch I was looking for. I just love this stamp set and hope I can find some more time to play with it!

Thanks for stopping by!

**Please press Ctrl-F5 to “hard” refresh if you’d like to make sure you are seeing my latest post. Thanks!**

Happy Friday…uh…actually it will probably be Saturday by the time I finish typing this post…so, Happy Weekend!  Had another fun stamp class tonight and wanted to share the 3rd card we made.  This card was CASEd from Beth/bigsky.  I knew I wanted to use Season of Friendship for my 3rd card, so I went cruising through the SCS gallery for some inspiration.  I found a ton of fabulous cards, but just kept coming back to this one and knew I had to use the idea for my class.

Once again, we used Springtime Vintage designer paper.  Sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and everyone got to choose whichever sentiment they wanted from the set.  This card would work well for lots of different ocassions.

Stamps: Season of Friendship, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Always Artichoke, Rose Red, Very Vanilla, Designer Paper

Springtime Vintage

Ink: Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz

Other: Word Window Punch,

Modern Label Punch, Pear Ribbon

Non-SU: Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles, Scallop Circles, Prima

Flowers, Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles, foam tape

 We had a brand new stamper with us tonight (hello Susie!) and that’s always extra fun!  There’s just nothing like seeing someone discover stamping for the first time!  And then of course, there’s the first time they open the SU catalog!  Oh boy – I bet most of us remember doing that.  I know I do.  Good times!

I thought I’d also share a photo of all 3 class cards together so you can see how different they are, despite the fact that they all use the same pack of designer paper. Of course, as always, they are MUCH cuter in person! 

My next class will be Thursday March 10th and will feature Taylored Expressions stamps.  Registration is $15.  E-mail me by clicking the icon under my photo in the sidebar if you’d like to come and I will let you know where to mail the check or send PayPal.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a great weekend.  It’s raining here and we have no big plans tomorrow.  Might be a good day to relax and recharge! (Hehehe – yep it’s Saturday – like I figured!  Good night!)

Popping in to share another card we’ll be making in my class tomorrow night.  This card features the FREE Sale-a-Bration stamp set Sweet Summer.  I just love this cute set!  When I went looking through the Sweet Summer Gallery at SCS I saw so many adorable cards!  I just had to CASE a couple of them.  This one was CASEd from Vicki Burdick (she has an amazing gallery!)

Cute, huh?  It’s SUO except for the Nesatabilities…I just can’t seem to live without them!  LOL!  The flowers are watercolored (with ink and aquapainter) onto Shimmer White cardstock.  All three of the cards we are making will use Springtime Vintage dp from the mini catalog.  The patterns and colors are so varied that it’s easy to make 3 very different looking cards all from the same pack of dp.

If you’d like to place a Stampin’ Up! order, let me know by Friday late afternoon.  🙂  Thanks for stopping by.

Hey there!  Hope you had a nice Wednesday!  I’ve been creating samples for my class on Friday.  Since we’re in the midst of Stampin’ Up! Sale-a-Bration I’m featuring SU! in my class this month and I’ll be taking a Stampin’ Up! order as hostess.  If you’re local and would like to place an order, just let me know by Friday.  There’s a ton of cute stuff in the SAB brochure this year and you can get it for FREE!!!!

I had a special inspiration for the card I’m sharing today.  Some of you might rememeber when I posted photos of the hummingbird nest outside our bathroom window last June.  Well, a couple of days ago I opened the bathroom window to find mama hummingbird back and sitting on that same nest.  We are so excited!  So in honor of her, here’s one of the cards we’ll be making Friday night.

Cardstock is Kraft (Crumb Cake – whatever – LOL!) and Rose Red, Designer Paper is Springtime Vintage from the mini catalog (love that paper!) and ribbon is Crumb Cake seam binding.  Hummingbird from Elements of Style was embossed with cocoa craft ink and clear powder.  In class I’ll show you how to use a die to get this “out of the box” look.  I used Jen’s February Sketch For You to Try  for the layout. This was a fun sketch and I hope to get a chance to make another card with it soon.

I still have a couple of spots open for class but will only take registration through tomorrow (Thursday) early afternoon because I need to get all the projects prepped tomorrow.  If you’re not registered, but would like to be, send me an e-mail right away.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Tuesday!  I hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!  I got lucky and had the Rocket Scientist at home with me, so we went to one of our favorite places – Old Towne Orange – and tried a new place for lunch.  Bruxie serves waffle sandwiches and boy oh boy are they ever yummy!  It’s just a little corner stand and we were super lucky to find a seat.  We’ll definitley be going back!  If you live in SoCal, you’ve just got to try it! 

Today I have another card to share made with the There She Goes stamp set Puppy Love.  I used the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 102 from a couple of weeks ago.  Patterned Paper is Doodlebug.  It’s a Valentine Collection, but I think the bright fun patterns will work all Spring and Summer really. (I got it from TE, but it seems to be out of stock.)

This card might look like a Valentine at first glance, but it is actually a thank you card for my parents from Tessa.  When we were opening presents on Christmas Eve, my Mom handed a Nordstrom box to Curt and said she had a gift for Tessa.  We just thought she had used the Nordy box to wrap a little dog toy, but no…my mom bought Tessa a shiny red dish at Nordstrom.  🙂  Wow!

That special gift called for a special thank you card, don’t you think?  The above photo of Tessa is included inside the card.  Really, there’s just no place like Nordstrom!

I’ve got to run – off to the office today.  Thanks so much for stopping by.