More is More

Happy Friday!  I hope you checked out the CHA Specials at Taylored Expressions.  If you haven’t seen them yet, you can scroll down one post for all the deets.  It’s time for a new Taylored expressions Sketch Challenge (every 2nd and 4th Friday).  This sketch was designed by the wonderful Lori Craig.

It’s really a pretty easy and versatile sketch, but I can’t say that I’m overaly thrilled with my card.  I guess you just can’t love ’em all.

I pulled out some older October Afternoon papers and paired them up with Basic Gray cardstock and tafetta ribbon.  My card features TE stamp sets Rest & Renewal and Discover Your Wings as well as a little snippet of the Picket Fence Die (which is on sale this weekend)  covered in Sparkly Fluff.  Some yellow Liqquid Pearls finish it off.

We would love it if you’d come and play along.  All the info is on Taylor’s blog and in the TE Forum on SCS (TESC143).  Each sketch has a prize up for grabs.  TE stamps are NOT required to play, but there’s a little extra prize available if you do use them.  Let’s see what the rest of the Sketch Crew has in store today:

• Jami Sibley  <– you are here 🙂
• Dawn Easton
• Lori Craig
• Melissa Sauls
• Monika Davis
• Rachel Sztonyk
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tracy Clemente
• Guest Designers: Pattie, Colleen

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a great weekend!

Are you feeling left out because you can’t make it to the CHA Craft Supershow this week?  Well some of the Baker’s Dozen and I were feeling the same way, so we got together to create some fun Taylored Expressions shopping specials of our own.  Because you know…

We’re throwing our own little party and you’re invited!  

Each of us perused the TE Store and  

chose a favorite product to bring to you  

at 20% off!!

My Pick: Picket Fence Border Die

Wanda’s Pick: Crafty Cuppie

Jodi’s Pick: Sweet Celebration

Karen M.’s Pick: Wings of Joy

Tori’s Pick: Sprinkled with Love

Regina’s Pick: 1/16″ foam tape & 1/8″ foam tape

Charmaine’s Pick: Take Note Die 3

Melissa’s Pick: Kitschy Kitchen Cardstock Stickers Homemade and Retro & Tag Collection

PLUS We’re bringing you the actual Show Specials to you so you can feel like you are there!

• Purchase any 4 full-size stamp sets (including those on sale listed above) and receive a FREE Mini Binder Box! (Do not add the Binder Box to your cart, it will automatically be included in your package upon shipment.)
• The first 10 orders each day (Thursday – Sunday) beginning at 8am PST will receive a free A la Carte stamp of our choice.
• All orders placed  Thursday through Sunday will be entered into a random drawing to win our CHA Prize Package (pictured below) which includes two exclusive stamp sets never available for sale.  This prize package is valued at over $100! The winner will be announced on Taylor’s blog on Tuesday. 

ALL OF THE ABOVE  OFFERS ARE VALID THURSDAY JULY 21ST AT 8 AM PST THROUGH SUNDAY JULY 24 AT 10 PM PST while supplies last.   

Shipping Notes

• Shipping is suspended from Monday July 18th through Monday July 25th while the TE Crew is away at CHA.  Shipping will resume on Tuesday July 26th.
• Remember that shipping is FREE on all orders over $75 within the United States every day! 

My choice was the picket fence die because it’s so versatile.  I’m continually amazed at the cards created by the Baker’s Dozen using this die.  My sample above was the 3rd card we made in my class last week.  Seriously, if you don’t have this die YOU NEED IT!  And 20% off is a great deal!  Think of it with outdoor sets like In the Park, A Day in Paradise,  Garden Party Critters, etc…with florals…with blimps…with hot air balloons…and on and on!

My card features the new stamp set In the Clouds (withthe coordinating die set) and Alphabet Soup – Girl papers from My Mind’s Eye.  We hand cut the rolling hills and used the cloud border die both on the front of the card as well as the inside.  Notice that’s the same cloud die, but since it’s 6″ long, we just used different ends of the die for a different look on the inside.  Cute, huh?  I love that fresh fun color scheme with the pops of red!

I believe several of the mice girls are planning to post new samples featuring their sale picks, so you might want to hop around to check them out.

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Motz
• Melissa Sauls
• Regina Mangum
• Tori Wild
• Wanda Guess

Glad you could join us!  Hopefully our little party wil help ease the pain of not being at the SuperShow in Chicago for all of us!  I’ll be back tomorrow with a new Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge.  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Tuesday!  It seems so weird to be getting ready to go to work while seeing all the photos from CHA on my Facebook feed.  But, alas, I can’t just sit and daydream all day.  LOL!  Before I head out to the office I wanted to share another prjoject we made in my class last week.  This might be my favorite.

It’s a birthday gift bag and matching tag.  I had almost forgotten how easy and fun it is to decorate custom gift bags.  I always keep a stash of white and kraft bags on hand, but am often in too much of a hurry when it comes time to wrap a gift to actually decorate them.  This bag is approximately 5.25″ x 8.5″ – perfect to be covered with a half sheet of cardstock and some fun patterned papers.  I think I might do up a few of these to have on hand.  🙂

Here’s a close up of the tag made with TE stamp sets Kid at Heart and It’s a Banner Day 1 along with the coordinating TE dies for both sets.  Inks are the new SU Pool Party and Lucky Limeade.  I think that would also make a really cute focal point on a card!

Thanks for stopping by.  I gotta run.  Have a great day!

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend.  It was a busy one here.  Summer Sunday Suppers started at our church last night and I coordinate/oversee the program for 8 weeks.  We had sloppy joes last night and the team did a wonderful job!  So many of my papercrafting friends are in, or on their way to, Chicago today for CHA.  Although it really was the best choice for me not to go, it’s still likely that I’ll be incresaingly pouty as the week progresses.  Happens every Summer.  But I’ve got a little mischief up my sleeve, so be sure to check back later in the week.

Last Thursday evening I held my July Stamp Class.  We created birthday projects featuring Taylored Expressions stamps and the My Mind’s Eye Alphabet Soup Girl 12×12 kit.  For the first project everyone had a choice to make either of these cards:

The two cards use the same paper elements – just opposite sides of the two-sided patterned papers.  One pattern was die cut with a Spellbinders Blossom die.  Then they had the choice to use Moka Taylor Petite Stamp Set of Birds of a Feather Full Size Stamp Set (along with the birdies from the coordinating die.)

Here are close-ups of the two cards.

We paper-pieced the dress and colored the rest of her with Copics.  The Spellbinders tag is popped up on foam tape and KaiserCraft rhinestones cover up the holes meant for brads.

Ink used for the bird cage is Early Espresso.  Ribbon on both cards is SU Pumpkin Pie Taffeta and the cardstock is Peach Parfait.  Images were die cut with Spellbinders Labels 10 and sponged with Peach Parfait ink with the die still in place.  Card layout was losely based on the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 125.

Thanks for stopping by.  I have more class projects to share this week so stay tuned.  Have a great day!

Happy Monday!  Before I get started on what promises to be a busy day, I wanted to share a card I created around a couple of elements that were sitting on my table.

I started out with just the Olive Fleur de Lis die cut medallion with the circle die cut from MME paper.  I had cut those two pieces a couple of week earlier for a project that ended up going a different direction.  They were sitting on my stamp table taunting me to make something with them.  (Am I the only one sometimes taunted by her stamping supplies??)  I took up the challenge and created this 5.25″ square card.  To be honest I struggled with it over a couple of days, but I think it was worth it.  🙂  What do you think?

Here’s the inside:

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Birds of a Feather, It’s a Banner Day 3, It’s a Banner Day 1

Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Basic Black, TE Choice Snow White, MME Lime Wtist Happy Go Lucky

Dies:  Banner Day 1, Banner Day 2, Birds and Branch (all TE), Fleur de Lisa Doily Motifs Spellbinders die

Other: Want2Scrap Green Pearls, Want2Scrap Cream Baby Pearls, EK Success Parisian Edger Punch

Almost all supplies available at Taylored Expressions.  I’m having a little blog glitch at the moment and am unable to insert links.  I’ll try to come back and edit them in later.

I just love those tiny die cut birdies.  I’m sure I’m going to be using those on lots of things!  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a great week!

Happy Friday!  It’s time for another Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge. This week’s sketch was designed by Sketch Crew member Lori Criag and has lots of fun possibilities for creative interpretation!  I’m usually pretty literal when it comes to following a sketch, but I took a few liberties with this one.  😉

I wanted something kind of CAS so I went with a white panel on a white base and stamped the new Hello A la Carte image and colored it with Copics to match the paper from the MME 6×6 Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky pad.  The paper was die cit with the Large Scallop Border Taylored Die.  I added the Pennant A la Carte  image in Rich Razzleberry ink. Corners were rounded with the Corner Chomper and I added some piercing.   Super simple!

Now let’s check out what the rest of the Sketch Crew has created with this sketch:

• Dawn Easton
• Jami Sibley <– you are here
• Lori Craig
• Melissa Sauls
• Monika Davis
• Rachel Sztonyk
• Taylor VanBruggen <— get all the deets to play along here
• Tracy Clemente
• Guest Designer: Cindy

Did you know that Taylor has a prize up for grabs for each sketch?  You can win a gift certificate to the TE Store just for uploading your take on the sketch to the gallery on SCS and using keyword TESC142.  And you know TE stamps are NOT required to play.

It’s been a busy week and I have a very busy day ahead.  Hoping to unplug and relax some tomorrow.  I hope you have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Thursday!  I printed out the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge over the weekend and sat down to play with it on Monday.  I have a basket of newer stamp sets and sets I’ve come across recently that I want front and center so I’ll use them.  As I flipped through the sets in the basket with sketch in hand I found the perfect set to use – Rescue Remedies from Waltzing Mouse.  I recently purchased the 6×6 pack of Hometown Summer paper by Pink Paislee and thought they would be fun with this stamp set.  As I got everything out to make choices, I couldn’t make just one card, so I made a set of 4 instead.  I just love how they turned out and it was so much fun mixing colors and patterns and finding ribbons and such!

Here’s the full set –

It’s funny because when we saw this line of paper of CHA, Taylor fell in love with it, but it didn’t do much for me.  Then several of the Baker’s Dozen used it in samples for Green Acres during the May release and I decided I needed it.  Well now I absolutley LOVE it!  I embossed the images with black craft/pgment ink (didn’t I mention recently that I hate using that stuff?) and clear embossing powder.  Such a bold look!  The black decorative strip is from a TCP border die – I used the die cut piece on 2 cards and the left over piece on the other 2.  I recnely purchased Spellbinders Labels Four Small dies to go  with the the Labels Four that I already had.  I’m so glad that Spellbinder finally has started to make “small” versions of some of the poplular lables dies.  I wish they would have named them 4 1/2, etc. because I think the word small might confuse some people.  It just means that the new sets layer in between the original sets – something so many of us have wanted for so long!  Here are individual photos of each card.  Click on any photo to see it larger.

I put them all on kraft card bases and used black cardstock matting and black rhinestones to tie in with the black embossing and make everything pop!  Aren’t they cute?  I think they’ll make a great gift!

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be back tomorrow with a new Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge.