More is More

Today closes out the week-long Mega Celebration for the 10th Birthday of Taylored Expressions and I’m happy to play along with the TE Creative Team with one more card.  This is my very-first-ever eclipse card.

If I’m being totally honest, I didn’t really get the big deal about eclipse cards until I made one!  They are so cool in person! AND so fun to create using TE Caps Locks dies!  This is the new Caps Lock – Happy along with the Caps Lock Companion Happy Occasions stamp set.   I’m in love and will need more Caps Lock dies!  But first I need to make a bunch more cards with this one!  Taylor has a great short video showing you how to create an eclipse card.  In her video she uses multiple layers of cardstock, but for my card, I just used foam tape – either way works.

To create the background I used the Set the Scene Cloud Stencil Strips first and then the Here Comes the Sun stencil.  At the bottom I used the Set the Scene – Wave Stencil Strips.  This was just a ton of inky fun!  The beach/pool scene die is the previously released Eventful-Pool Party.  One thing I love about TE scenery dies like this one is that they are always carefully designed to fit a horizontal card at 5.5 AND also easily trimmed to fit a vertical card at 4.25″ without having to cut one of the elements awkwardly in half!

For the inside of the card I used the new sentiment stamp set The Inside Scoop – Birthday.  Earlier int he week, I used The Inside Scoop – Belated Birthday.  With these two sets on hand, I now have an arsenal of perfect sentiments for the inside of just about any birthday card!

Hop over to the TE blog for the hop list for today and check out the September release available now in the TE webstore!  Thanks for celebrating with us this week!

I’m here today to share my heart and some personal news. I have stepped down from my position as Design Team Coordinator for Taylored Expressions.   This decision did not come easily, in fact it was a heart-wrenching struggle over some time.  I love Taylor, TE, and the Baker’s Dozen Design Team.  Being the Design Team Coordinator was a dream I had from the very earliest days of TE and I was thrilled when Taylor offered to move me into the position.  I have loved doing it.

That being said, I have more recently found myself overwhelmed, exhausted, and unhappy as I have struggled to keep up with the combination of  TE DTC and my job as the church Office Manager.  I never want to give less than my heart and soul, MY ALL, but that’s where I’ve found myself.  Both jobs require a tremendous amount of mental and emotional energy and I found myself constantly coming up short.  I finally had to admit that something had to give.

I have to take this opportunity to publically thank Taylor for allowing me to be a part of TE from the beginning.  I really can’t express how much I love being involved in the company and watching it grow!  I am beaming with pride for you and all you have accomplished with TE in 5 short years!  I know that Taylor and I will always be friends and I plan to continue to work with her behind the scenes in product development as I have always done, but in a much smaller capacity.

As of today, Stephanie Kraft is the new TE Design Team Coordinator.  Stephanie is going to be wonderful and I’m so happy for her and for the team!

I’ve never been a person to embrace change or run towards it, but throughout my life I have gotten better at accepting it and trusting the Lord through it.

Even though this is quite difficult at the moment, I know it will be a good thing in the long run.  I look forward to having more time (and hopefully finding the passion again) to stamp just for fun.  I might even renew the desire to blog on a more regular basis again.  I will continue to teach my monthly stamp classes and am hopeful that the prep will seem less stressful now.  Overall, I’m just needing a little simpler, more peaceful life. {Perhaps that is just menopause talking?  I’m not sure!  LOL} I will remain plenty busy, that’s for sure, and I look forward to this new season of my life.

Here is a devotional blog post that helped me as I struggled to make this decision: When Change is Hard.  I’d encourage you to read it.

I had planned to create a card to share today along with this post, but when it came right down to it, I was honestly just too emotionally exhausted to create anything.  Instead I am re-posting one of my all-time favorite TE creations from way back in April of ’09 featuring one of my all-time favorite stamp sets, Branching Out.  Your friendship is a blessing. I love this sentiment as I have been so blessed by my friendships with so many of you!

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  I appreciate each one of you!  With much love…

Happy Monday! Exciting news from Taylored Expressions – today we launch a brand new web store with lots of improved features!  It will make your shopping experience even better than before!  To celebrate the launch, TE is offering an exclusive set FREE with any $20 purchase now through Sunday 7/14.  The special launch set is called Summer Love and I have a sample to share with you today.

I started my card with this fun ice cream truck image and some Echo Park 6×6 paper – A Perfect Summer.  I actually had a sheet out that has ice cream cones on it, but didn’t end up using it.  I guess I need to make another card!   I used several Taylored Dies, including the sunshine covered in stickles, the banner, and Label Stacklets.  This is such a cute little stamp set! And what a deal!  This is a great time to treat yourself to something on your TE wishlist!

Be sure to hop over to Taylor’s Blog to get the link list of all the samples from the Baker’s Dozen today and to get details on how you can win a $25 gift certificate just for setting up an account!!  Also make sure you check out the fresh new look at www.tayloredexpressions.com

This will be a fun week with lots of activities, so be sure to check in at Taylor’s blog each day this week for fun party games and prizes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Would you like a spot as a Guest Designer for two months with Taylored Expressions?

Taylored Expressions is proud to announce the premiere of a new and exciting stamping talent competition, Last Card Standing. Based in part on very popular reality competitions such as Last Comic Standing, Project Runway, and Chopped, TE is looking for the very best and creative card-makers to stamp their way to the top. Each week, finalists will be challenged to create a themed card for a panel of celebrity judges in hope of avoiding elimination. Finally, the Top 5 Finalists will be voted on by the public, with the stamper receiving the most votes to win the title of Last Card Standing!

What’s at stake? An amazing prize package that includes a 3 month subscription to the Key Ingredients kit club plus 2 full size stamp sets of the winner’s choice and a coveted Guest Designer spot for the November/December Release!

Going on now:  Open Casting Round. To enter, simply upload your best cards to your Splitcoaststampers Gallery using keyword: TELASTCARD. For this round, ANYTHING GOES — Birthday, Thank You, Holidays, Get Well, Congratulations…the sky’s the limit! The only requirement is that you use at least 1 stamped image from Taylored Expressions. Do you have a card that you think could get you a callback to the next round? Go for it — submissions do NOT have to be a new creation for the Open Casting Round and you may enter as many cards as you want! Both new and old projects will be considered.

Deadline for submission to Open Casting Round: Thursday, September 20, 2012 by 11:59 pm PST.

For contest details, visit the Taylored Expressions Member Company Forum at Splitcoaststampers. They even have free digital images you can use!  Good luck!

I made a pair of cards featuring TE Let’s Chat, Circles Big Background and dies Take Note 1 and 3 with SU Melon Mambo cardstock.  With all these similar elements, each of these cards has it’s own personality.

For the first card I stamped the Circles BG in Melon Mambo ink on white cardstock.  I kept this card pretty simple and straighforward, adding the Curly Border Die and some Goosbumps sparklers for some fun finishing touches. I used a black layer of cardstock to tie in with the black candlestick phone.

For the second card I stamped the Circles with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder onto shimmery white cardstock.  Then I watercolored over that with ink from SU markers.  I just scribbled them onto a cd and picked up the ink with an aquapainter.  I love the ombre effect it produced.  The payphone was also watercolored and then cut with the coordinating die and popped up on foam tape. I didn’t want to add an extra layer like I did on the first card, so I just rounded the corners for a little extra interest.  I added some rhinestone sparkle and a fun flower brad from my stash.

These were really fun to create!  I’m looking forward to playing with this set some more!  I apologize for the quality of the photos.  I took these indoors with my phone.  A little moment of honesty here – I love making cards, but I don’t so much enjoy photographing and editing the photos.  In this case, it was a choice between sharing less-than-great photos, or not sharing these cards at all.  Of course, they are so much cuter in person and a better photo would be awesome, but for now I’d rather share than not.  I hope you get where I’m coming from on that.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

• At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash!
• All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You’ll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
• Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday – lots of inspiration!
• Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
• 2 WAYS TO WIN!

I added Ranger Glossy Accents and some of Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles to the frosting.  I also added some stickles to the candle and balloon.  Spellbinders Labels 1 and Labels 1 Small were used to cut and mat the image and I sponged some Daffodil Delight ink around the image while it was still in the die.  I colored the image with Copics, using my colorless blender pen to dot onto the rats (let’s say “mice” ’cause it sounds nicer) to create a fur effect.

These images are so much fun to color.  You need several of these in your stamping arsenal.  You can stamp some and get them colored up and then when you realize you didn’t get that birthday card out, you can can put a card together quickly and get it in the mail!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley (DT
  Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Carolyn King (Guest Designer)

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Labor Day.  I hope you are enjoying a wonderful long weekend!

• All of the new products are now available for purchase! Check out the Fresh Out of the Oven Department to see everything in one place!
• More projects from the Baker’s Dozen to inspire you.  Just follow the link list below.
• Be sure to check the TE Current Specials page for May Release Bundle options.  The new Father’s Day Digi Image and inspiration sheet is available FREE with purchase of any Bundle!
• Did you win one of the Mystery Baker’s Dozen Blog Giveaways? Find the list of winners on Taylor’s Blog.

And here’s that Mini Tag Die set – so cute, HUH???

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley <— you are here
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melissa Sauls
• Michele Boyer – Guest Designer
• Nancy McKinney – Illustrator
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Stephanie Kraft –
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild
• Wanda Guess

TE Release Day!

• All of the new products are now available for purchase! Check out the Fresh Out of the Oven Department to see everything in one place!
• More projects from the Baker’s Dozen to inspire you.  Just follow the link list below.
• Be sure to check the TE Current Specials page for Release Weekend Specials and Bundle Deals! 
• Did you win one of the Mystery Baker’s Dozen Blog Giveaways? Find the list of winners on Taylor’s Blog.

I hope you’ve been following the peeks this week as they have really been fantastic.  I’m dying to ink up those two new adorable abodes by Doug!  I love them!  The whole team has more to share today and I’m jumping in with a set of cards made with some of the new Word A la Cartes.  You can purchase these images separately – so pick and choose the ones you want. Of course I think you might need them all.  LOL!

Each card in this set is 4.25″ square and uses papers from the MME 6×6 Miss Caroline Dilly Dally pad along with Sahara Sand and Basic Black cardstock.  I colored the images with Copics and then used various products to embellish: Ranger Crackle Accents on the letters, Glossy Accents and Stickles on the flowers.

I used the new Majestic Border Die on all of the cards. Above, I added red Liquid Pearls.  For the Grace card, below, I used the negative space left from the die.  I think it makes a really cool 2nd border option.

On the Faith card I also used the Jumbo Hearts Border die.  I filled in the hearts with Glossy Accents and used Platinum Liquid Pearls on the tiny circle openings.

Before you head off to shop, you might want to check out what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up.  It’s sure to be yummy!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley (DT Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melissa Sauls
• Melody Rupple
• Nancy McKinney (Illustrator)
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Stephanie Kraft (Guest Designer)
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild
• Wanda Guess

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I’d love to hear what your favorite new stamp set or die is from this release!  Let me know in a comment.  Besides all the new stamp sets and dies, Taylor has gotten in lots of new products from CHA.  Be sure to scroll through everything in the Fresh Out of The Oven Department.  🙂 Happy shopping!