Three Tree Thanks
August 17th, 2013
Happy Saturday! I hope this finds you in the midst of a great weekend. Last night, I took my two nieces out for dinner to a restaurant right on the beach. I wish I had taken some photos. They are both such beautiful young women and it was so great to have a chance to just hang out with them! Today has been busy, busy, busy, including making pasta salad for 80 people to be served at the Summer Supper at church tomorrow night.
I just had to take a few minutes out to create another card with S’More Fun (the Taylored Expressions Stamp of the Month set) since all the stuff was still out my table from the last card I shared. This time I wanted to try something Clean and Simple (away from my norm.)
The patterned paper is from the August Key Ingredients Kit. I die cut a frame out of the white cardstock using TE Labels Stacklets 4 after stamping the arrow images, then I layered that white piece over the patterned paper. The trees were stamped and die cut using the coordinating Around the Campfire dies. One was adhered flat to the card, one with standard foam dots and the last with double thick foam tape. The ink I used was Autumn Leaves Kaleidacolor pad. My collection of K-pads makes me laugh. They are so “old-school” and I loved collecting them so much. It’s fun to find uses for them every once in awhile. I think I may never stop loving them. The sentiment is from A Classy View. I added a few Kaisercraft chocolate pearls and called it good.
We are headed over to my parents’ house to pick them up for a quick dinner. Thanks so much for stopping by! Oh, I almost forgot – the Stamp of the Month is only available through the end of August, so if you love this little set as much as I do, don’t wait!
Taylored Expressions Stamp of the Month – August
August 13th, 2013
Happy Tuesday! Today I get to play along with the TE Baker’s Dozen and KI Design Team to show off the August Stamp of the Month: S’more Fun. I jumped at the chance to play along as soon as I 
saw this stamp set. Y’all know that I have fallen in love with our 5th wheel trailer and with RV-ing {and I even pin vintage trailers on a Pinterest board}, so I adore this little camping set! It also has coordinating dies – Around the Campfire AND it coordinates perfectly with the August Key Ingredients Kit. Both the Stamp of the Month and the Key Ingredients are subscription plans at TE that you can get individually or as a Deluxe package each month.
You know, it’s funny, I’m not usually really big on fall colors, but I just love this Key Ingredients Kit. I think there’s just enough of that teal blue to balance out everything else. And there are so many great patterns in the paper!
I had so much fun with this card. I used the stamps, dies and Ki kit along with TE dies Shade Tree Cutting Plate, Build a Scene Mountain Tops and Build a Scene Swirly Clouds with SU inks (Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Always Artichoke.) With all of these coordinating elements, the card came together quite quickly and easily. You might notice that I trimmed the branches on the shade tree a little bit. This is still my very favorite die and I just can’t get enough of it! I honestly love this happy little card and – BONUS – it’s actually a great masculine card. Do you have as much trouble with those as I do?
Let’s see what the rest of the girls have created today!
Jami Sibley <— you are here
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Taylored Expressions August Spotlight
August 9th, 2013
Happy Friday! A ton of new products were released yesterday in the Taylored Expressions web store and today I’m playing along with the Baker’s Dozen Design Team to highlight a lot of those new stamps and dies. I couldn’t let this week go by without sharing a sample featuring the newest set in the line of my jars concept – Hey, Sweet-Tea. The previous sets have been petites, but Nancy went to town on the illustrations this time and we ended up with a mini set which has almost twice as many images as a petite.
This time we have a mason jar with a handle that’s perfect for all of your favorite beverages! There is also a die set available that has the jar and a cool lid with a straw-hole! The set is oriented toward lemonade and ice tea, but you can let your imagination run wild!
My sample today showcases a refreshing glass of ice tea with a wedge of lemon. I grew up having ice tea with dinner every night from a very young age. {Perhaps all that caffeine explains why I’ve always been a night owl. LOL!} My aunt brewed the tea in a pan of water on the stove using Lipton’s loose tea leaves. It was the BEST! I still make my ice tea that way, although I don’t make it very often. There’s just nothing like it. Oh and I actually do NOT like lemon in my tea. When I order it in restaurants I always ask for it without lemon, but it comes with the lemon wedge anyway about 80% of the time! Despite that, I couldn’t resist adding the cute lemon wedge to the side of my mason jar!
I used Karen Giron’s Sweet Sunday Sketch #190 for the layout of my card, along with the same papers and cardstocks I used on Wednesday – Simple Stories Vintage Bliss. I distressed most of my edges for a little more shabby feel. The mason jar was layered onto a tag cut with Tag Stacklets 1 and the sentiment was die cut with the Band It Die. I used Crackle Accents on the ice cubes and Glossy Accents on the rest of the jar. {Why oh why do I find it necessary to use these products when I have a deadline and I’m losing light to get a photo taken??} The butterflies were cut with the new Butterfly in the Sky Taylored Dies and I added some Kaisercraft pearls.
Now let’s see what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up today:
I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead. At the moment we have nothing on the agenda and after almost 2 months of total craziness from one thing after another, “nothing” sounds awesome to me right now!
Taylored Expressions August Sneaks: Chalkboard Elements
August 7th, 2013
Welcome to Day 3 of Sneak Peeks for the Taylored Expressions August Release. Today is my first
chance to play along and I get to show you a stamp set that I’m particularly excited about. All the new products will be available at Taylored Expressions tomorrow morning (Thursday) at 8 am PST. You can see the full reveal at 6 pm PST tonight on the TE Facebook page and there will be prizes up for grabs too!
With chalk art being all the rage, and with my love of TE Graphic Greetings stamps as well as sets like In the Word, I requested a set of chalkboard elements from Taylor. I wanted a set with enough mix and match sentiments to be able to use it on it’s own, but I also wanted to be able to add the decorative elements to other sentiments to create my own look. I love how this set – Chalkboard Elements – turned out. The possibilities are practically endless! You can combine the words and decorative images in so many ways. Plus you can you use lots of different stamping techniques. Emboss your sentiment in white on black cardstock for a classic chalkboard look, stamp your sentiment in black or any color for a traditional look, emboss with a metallic powder for an elegant look, and on and on.
For my first sample today, I combined several elements (each decorative image and sentiment is a separate stamp) and stamped them all with white pigment ink on black cardstock. Then I used Pebbles Pearlescent Chalks in several different colors to rub over the stamped images. the result is the look of real colored, pearly, shimmery chalk. I love it! C’mon – how many of you have those chalks sitting in a drawer somewhere? Just had to have ’em, huh? Here’s a great way to use them!
Once the sentiment was complete I die cut it with the brand new Label Stacklets 4 – pretty shape, yes? Very pretty! The sentiment panel was layered onto the yellow patterned paper cut with Tag Stacklets 1. Paper is Simple Stories Vintage Bliss and cardstock is from the June KI cardstock kit. I added some piercing around the edges and embellished with a die cut from the Curly Swirlies Taylored Die set with some pink Kaisercraft rhinestones.
For my 2nd sample, I wanted to combine some of the decorative elements from Chalkboard Elements with a verse from In the Word. I decided to create a tag for a sweet friend.
This tag was so fun to make! I started by creating my embellished sentiment by stamping (black pigment ink) and embossing (clear powder) one element at a time on TE Choice Watercolor cardstock. Then I die cut with Tag Stacklets 1. Then I decided to experiment with a technique I’ve seen, but never tried. I used waterbased markers to scribble on a large acrylic stamping block. Then I spritzed the block with water. I also spritzed my cardstock. Then I laid the block down on the cardstock to transfer the ink. It gave me this lovely watery look. The color is a little stronger/deeper in person than in the photo, but you get the idea. I finished off the sentiment with some clear Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles. Now I want to make a whole set of these tags playing with different color combos. It’s such a fun and easy technique!
Now let’s see what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up today!
Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you are enjoying all the peeks! This is a huge release! Please let me know what you think about Chalkboard Elements!
