More is More

July Release At a Glance

• We have sneak peeks to share Wednesday and Thursday.  All of the new products will be available for purchase on Friday, July 1st at 8 am PST. You’ll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
• Join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets, as well as a SPECIAL GIVEAWAY, on Thursday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. (that’s TONIGHT!)
• Mystery Baker’s Dozen Blog Giveaway: Each day, one lucky blog commenter will be chosen by random draw to win a $10 TE Gift Certificate.  Winners will be chosen from a different Baker’s Dozen blog each day and will be announced on Taylor’s blog on Release Day!  Be sure to hop around to see all the sneak peeks and leave comments on each and every blog for more chances to win. Limit one comment per blog per day, please.  Comments close Thursday 7/30 at 7pm PST for the drawings.

For Day 2, we have one full sized stamp set with matching dies, 2 Petite Moka sets and an A la Carte stamp to introduce.  My card features the full sized stamp set Birds of a Feather.  This beautiful set of 21 stamps was illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes line at TE.  The wonderful thing about this set is the style versatility.  It can go anywhere from Clean and Simple all the way to Vintage/Shabby Chic and just about everything else in between.  The main images in the set are several iron birdcages.  Two of them in particular made me think of vintage hot air ballons, so that’s what I have to show you today.  I took the image of a perch and turned it upside down to form the basket for each balloon.

The background was sponged with a template I created by die cutting some Eclipse masking tape with the new TE Cloud Border Die. The cages/ballons were stamped and then paper pieced with patterns from the Cosmo Cricket 6×6 Circa 1934 pad.  The baskets were stamped and colored with copics.  I added some black glaze pen and red rhinestones to the balloons.  At the top I added the a piece of white cardstock that was cut with the Cloud Border Die and then embossed with a CB folder and then sponged with some ink.

I needed a Get Well card, so I used It’s a Banner Day 2 and the coordinating die to finish off the inside.

I’ll be back tomorrow -Release Day – with another card featuring this set.  But I’ll use the images as birdcages this time!

Let’s see what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up for more peeks today!

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jami Sibley
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Melody Rupple
Nancy McKinney
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Wanda Guess

Thanks for stopping by!

July Release At a Glance

• We have sneak peeks to share Wednesday and Thursday.  All of the new products will be available for purchase on Friday, July 1st at 8 am PST. You’ll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
• Join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets, as well as a SPECIAL GIVEAWAY, on Thursday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST.
• Mystery Baker’s Dozen Blog Giveaway: Each day, one lucky blog commenter will be chosen by random draw to win a $10 TE Gift Certificate.  Winners will be chosen from a different Baker’s Dozen blog each day and will be announced on Taylor’s blog on Release Day!  Be sure to hop around to see all the sneak peeks and leave comments on each and every blog for more chances to win. Limit one comment per blog per day, please.  Comments close Thursday 7/30 at 7pm PST for the drawings.

The coming July Release of new stamp sets and dies from Taylored Expressions is such a FUN one!  I just know the samples you’ll see today from the Baker’s Dozen will make you smile and I’m happy to get to play along as well!  The first set we’re peeking is Life is a Circus.  This full sized set of 17 images was illustrated by Doug Applegate for the Apple Doodle Ink collection at TE.  After hitting it out of the park with Green Acres last month (which BTW should be back in stock any day now), he’s following it up with all the fun of a day at the circus!

For those of you with fond memories of clowns, you’ll see plenty in the peeks today.  For those of you who are clown-haters like me –  *shudders* #scaredasachildbythosehorriblethings –  there are plenty of other adorable images in this set that you’ll love…like the lion I’m showing you today.  My card is based on Karen’s Sweet Sunday Sketch (SSSC123) and uses MME Fine & Dandy Tickled Pink 6×6 pad (hmmm seems to be out of stock at the moment.)  The balloons are covered with clear glaze pen and I used dots of black stickles for a little finishing touch.  The star is part of the new Seeing Stars Taylored Die Set – so many possibilities with this – you’re going to love it!  You’ll see more of it in my card below along with the new border die.   The lion’s mane was covered in a combo of yellow and orange stickles – sparkly!!!

The second set we’re peeking today is In the Clouds.  This full-sized set of 25 images and sentiments was illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes line at TE.  These blimps and banners have a coordinating die set making it so easy to add dimension with these images.  And the blimps have other possibilities as well…like rockets and submarines.  When the set was in development, Taylor mentioned one day that one of the blimps could be a rocket ship.  Well, being married to a Rocket Scientist, you know I latched onto that idea right away!

My tent topper card features papers from the MME Stella and Rose – Hattie 6×6 pad.  The rocket was stamped and cut with the coordinating die.  Then I colored it with Copics and covered it with Glossy Accents.  It’s popped up on foam squares.  The card is finished off with a ton of KasierCraft yellow rhinestones.  Isn’t that new border die awesome?  It cuts out tiny stars inside a string of circles!  And you can use the tiny stars too!

Now let’s see what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up today!  Remember to leave comments to be entered into the Mystery Baker’s Dozen Blog Giveaways this week.

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jami Sibley  <— you are here
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Melody Rupple <— BIG WELCOME to our newest designer!!
Nancy McKinney
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen  <— Get all the info from our fearless leader! 
Tori Wild

Wanda Guess

• Thanks for stopping by!  Hope to see you back tomorrow for more peeks.

Happy Friday!  It’s time for a new Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge (2nd and 4th Fridays of the month.)  This sketch is an easy versatile one and I hope you’ll play along.  TE stamps are NOT required!  Get all the info to play along in the TE forum on SCS.  There’s a prize up for grabs!!!

For my sample, I turned the sketch on it’s side so I could use one of the images from Sweet Occasions.

I colored the image with Prisma pencils and gamsol (haven’t done that in quite awhile!) and I added crystal stickles over the word “friend” as well as around the patterned paper (Echo Park Country Drive).  The colors I chose were all pulled from the patterned paper and they match much better IRL than it looks in the photo.  The buttons are SU were xlose but didn’t quite match so I colored them with Copics – love that option!

Did you know you can get the stamps that I used on my sketch sample for FREE?  Taylor has a great deal for new subscribers to the Key Ingredients kit club and you can read all about it below:

• Enroll in a 6 month Key Ingredients Subscription with payment to be charged to your credit or debit card monthly and receive your choice of one of the following Mini or Petite stamp sets FREE: Crafty Expressions, Beary Special Accessories, You’re my Type Upper, You’re my Type Lower & #’s, A Little Love, Moka Olivia, Moka Charlotte, Capture my Heart, Collectors Anonymous, Summer Wreath. Click HERE to take advantage of this special offer if you live in the US or Canada, or click HERE if you live outside of North America.

• Enroll in a  6 month Key Ingredients Subscription with one payment upfront and choose a FREE stamp set (Full-size, Mini or Petite) from this list: Miniature Motifs, Borderlicious, Fashionista, Bakery Business, Trick or Sweet II, Sweet Indulgence, Love Everywhere, Tweet Hearts, Luxurious Labels, Sweet Occasions, Crafty Expressions, Beary Special Accessories, You’re my Type Upper, You’re my Type Lower & #’s, A Little Love, Moka Olivia, Moka Charlotte, Capture my Heart, Collectors Anonymous, Summer Wreath. Click HERE for inspiration using these sets. Click HERE to take advantage of this special offer if you live in the US or Canada, or click  HERE if you live outside of North America.

PLEASE NOTE: When purchasing your subscription DO NOT add the FREE stamp set to your cart. Instead, leave a comment at checkout indicating the stamp set of your choice and we’ll make sure it gets included with your first KI shipment.

These special offers are only good for new subscribers and they run through June 30th.

Now let’s see what the rest of the sketch crew has in store for today:

• Dawn Easton
• Jami Sibley <– you are here
• Lisa Hjulberg
• Lori Craig
• Monika Davis
• Rachel Sztonyk
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tracy Clemente
• Guest Designers: Jasmin & Kathi

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a fantastic weekend.  Don’t forget that sneak peeks for the TE July release start next Wednesday!  I don’t know where June went!

Happy Thursday!  I’m excited to be playing in the Taylored Expressions Blast From the Past Customer Blog Hop.  This is a chance to feature some of the TE stamps that have been around for awhile (more than 3 months.)  I love to play in this hop because it’s so easy to caught up in the newest stuff – it’s great to have a reason to get out some of my favorites.  Today’s theme is Old Glory – the color combo of red, white and blue in any shade.  I’m also entering this card in the Paper Crafts Color Inspiration Challenge #6.  How fun that the 2 challenges worked together!

I used the optional sketch provided bythe incredible Sankari Wegman and my card features the TE stamp set What’s Cookin’? along with the coordinating Apron Taylored Die.  Designer paper is Webster’s Pages with SU cardstock Real Red, Basic Black and Cool Caribbean (I still have a stash of that color and sometimes just nothing else will do!).  White cardstock is TE Choice Snow White.  This color combo of caribbean blue and red always makes me think retro…and especially retro kitchen. 🙂

Let’s see what everyone else has done with red,white and blue…

ETA: I’ve been hopping around this morning and am finding that I’m having toruble commenting on several Blogger blogs.  They just keep looping me back through to sign in again and again!  So players today – if you have a Blogger blog and seem a little short on comments, maybe more pople besides me are having problems.  Sorry!  There’s such great stuff in the hop today!!!

If you didn’t play today, you might want to sign up for next month’s hop before you forget (like almost did this month – LOL!)  The theme for July is Sending Sunshine!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a new TE Sketch Challenge.  I also have cards to share soon from my last class.  I’m still catching up after being sick all last week with a really bad cold.  Super happy to be back in the swing of things!  Thnaks for stopping by!

Welcome to this Fantasy Birthday Tour for sweet friend Taylor VanBruggen.  Since we couldn’t all be together today to throw a party, all of Taylor’s teams – Baker’s Dozen, Key Ingredients, Sketch Crew –  are throwing a virtual Birthday Party Across the Miles and everyone is invited to come along!  Taylor, I hope you have a wonderful birthday and I hope you enjoy your party!

  What’s a fantasy party without fantasy gifts?  I figured as along as we were going with money-is-no-object-fantasy gifts, I might as well think big!  Taylor, you know that I would love nothing more than to have you back in SoCal, so I chose this beautiful Pasadena Estate as your birthday gift.  There is even a guest house for the TE Store!  Heck, there might even be room for me to have an office.  LOL!

Elegant Mediterranean on an estate lot with guest house and outdoor pavillion. Beautifully maintained and features 5 bedrooms, 2 family rooms, garden room, 4 fireplaces and newer kitchen.  Enjoy!

And here’s the birthday card I made for Taylor and actually sent in the mail!  I’m hoping it arrived yesterday.

This card was inspired by Cindy Lawrence.  I just love the way she’s been punching wide borders up the side of cards and I jumped at the chance to get this Martha Stewart deep border punch on sale at Michael’s last week.  I just had to use one of my very favorite TE images from For the Love of Cupcakes because, Taylor, if you were here we would be indulging in a tray of sweets just like this!  Paper is MME Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky.

Your next stop on the tour is Wanda Guess at A Blog Called Wanda.

Here’s the full list just in case you get lost along the way:

• Wanda Guess
• Tracy Clemente
• Tori Wild
• Stephanie Kraft
• Sankari Wegman
• Rachel Sztonyk
• Regina Mangum
• Monika Davis
• Melissa Sauls
• Melody Rupple
• Lynn Put
• Lisa Hjulberg
• Lori Craig
• Karen Giron
• Jodi Collins
• Jessica Diedrich
• Jen Tapler
• Jackie Pedro
• Dawn Easton
• Danielle Lounds
• Charmaine Ikach

Hey it’s Friday!  It’s the 2nd Friday of the month, so it’s time for a new Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge.  I hope you’ll play along.  TE stamps are NOT required and there is a prize drawing offered!  This was a particularly fun sketch in that it uses a non-typical size.

This could be a long card (for a legal sized envie) or a mini-tall card (6.5″ x 3.25″).  My card is a long card and I used Green Acres.  (Are you surprised???) Click the photos to see them much larger.

I’ve been dying to use the “Hay there” sentiment.  It’s a bit of a joke with several friends – we all begin our voicemails to each other with something like “HEYYYYYY Taylor, it’s Jami…”  So I stamped the haystacks onto So Saffron cardstock and colored them with a copic to create the background.  The horse was stamped and colored with various shades of brown copic before being punched out.  The “congratulations” was stamped over a banner image from It’s a Banner Day 1 and cut with the coordinating die.  Hey – I didn’t use any patterned paper here!  What are the chances of that?

Here’s the inside of the card:

Now let’s see what the rest of the Sketch Crew has created with this fun sketch!

Tonight the Rocket Scientist and I are attending a French themed party.  I have a new dress and, thanks to my Mom and the Cookie Lee party I hosted last night, new jewelry to wear!  I hope you have a fantastic weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Tuesday!  I have another Green Acres card to share with you today.  It might even turn into a Green Acres week ’cause I don’t want to stop playing!  This card uses TESC139 which is still open for entries.  You are NOT required to use TE stamps and all you have to do it upload your card to the SCS gallery with keyword TESC139 by Thursday evening and you’ll be entered to win a gift certifcate to the TE Store!

So here’s the little piggy from Green Acres all muddied up with liquid pearls!

I used the wood grain side of the new Chicken Wire/Wood Grain Taylored Impression plate on the Soft Suede panel and then sponged it with Early Espresso ink for a little more depth.  The little chicks are covered with Crackle Accents (ooo I just noticed that the large bottle of Crackle Accents is on sale – that’s a great deal!).  I dyed the cream seam binding by just going over it with the broad tip of a Copic marker.  Papers are from the Lily Bee Design This & That Tiny Tablet.  I had planned to sew around the edges, but had some issues with my machine so I just grabbed my trusty piercer and went around with that instead. Love that cute little piggie!!

You know, this is the time of year that I most miss being a Stampin’ Up! Demo.  I know lots of Demos have gotten their brand new catties already and I’m hoping to get my hands on one really soon!  I’ve seen several photos and descriptions of the new in-colors.  In case you haven’t seen them yet, check out this one by Dawn Olchefske.  She has very clear photos comparing the new colors to both existing and retire colors we are all familiar with.  Just thought I’d share.

I’m off to work.  Hope you have a great day!