More is More

Welcome to the Taylored Expressions Black Friday Tag Hop!!!  We’re celebrating the biggest shopping day of the year with a Tag Hop and a HUGE SALE!

• Hop around for tons of inspiration for your holiday tag making. Link list below.
• One lucky customer will win a set of 10 tags (one each of the tags featured in today’s hop.)  Everyone who places an order at Taylored Expressions Friday – Monday (11/25 – 11/28) and writes “I want those tags!” in the comments section of the order form will be entered to win.  The winner will be announced on Taylor’s blog on Tuesday 11/29.
• Introducing Tags & Tag-a-longs kits designed so you can quickly and easily create your own tags inspired by today’s samples.
• Black Friday Sale – enter coupon code BLACKFRIDAY2011 on any order Friday through Monday to save 10-30% off your entire order!  HURRY! The earlier you shop, the MORE you SAVE!  Details on the TE Store homepage.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Taylored Expressions is running an amazing Black Friday Sale and I’m super happy to be participating in a Hop & Swap with some of the Baker’s Dozen.  We each created a set of tags, so we can swap.  Here’s what I made.

My tag features Penguin Pals with the 12 Days of Christmas Project Pantry (cardstock, ribbon, patterned paper), along with Tag Treats Die Cuts, wide eyelets (Cool Metal), Baker’s Twine (Ladybug and Limeade), and Viva Decor Pens (Paper Pen in Light Carmine Red and Pearl Pen in Cream.)

The image was stamped on TE Choice Snow White cardstock and punched with a 1″ circle punch.  I used various circle punches and dies to forn the layers and as you can see above I used a brad to attach all of the top layers to the bottom layer.  The top swings open to reveal the “to and from”.  I used these new Viva Decor pens to dot little “pearls” around the circles as well as to add a nice thick layer of glitter to the little penguin’s hat.  These pens are quite easy to use as they have a nice even flow to them.  It takes less than an hour for the “pearls” to totally dry.  The pearl pens have a really nice pearly finish and the paper pens have more of a glossy look.  You’ll definitley want to add a couple of these to your cart when your shopping the TE sale!

After you’ve hopped around and seen all the tags in the hop, I bet you’re going to want to create some of your own!  Taylor has put together some great little kits – Tags & Tag-a-longs – to make it super easy!  These will be great for Christmas, but you might also want to think ahead to Valentine’s Day (that pink pack is calling my name!), Easter, and birthdays.  Once you start playing with tags, you’ll be addicted! Of course you can also order the items separately.  The Tag Treats Die Cuts come in sets of 10 in your choice of 40 colors.

Now let’s check out the rest of the Hop!

Taylor VanBruggen

Jami Sibley <—- you are here

Karen Giron

Charmaine Ikach

Jen Shults

Jodi Collins

Lori Craig

Melody Rupple

Danielle Lounds

Sankari Wegman

Thanks for stopping by.  Have fun with your Black Friday Shopping! 🙂

Oh my goodness it’s been almost a week since I posted.  Life seems to just be a whirlwind lately and with a vacation and the holidays coming up I don’t see it slwoing down much for quite awhile.  I need to get to work, but wanted to take a minute to share the cards from the Swap I just hosted.  I swear I have the BEST group of Swappers EVER!!!

Round 1

1. Amy Bell (amysings) Christmas Classics
2. Tandra Boyer (Inkalicious) Mr Twigster
3. Tara Cannon (cannontc) Snow Burst
4. Mary Jo Albright (Mary Jo Albright) Jolliest Time of Year
5. Bev Gerard (Texasgrammy) Scandinavian Season
6. Britta Ward (camsmom) Snow Swirled
7. Crystal Spencer (caspen1973) Big on Christmas
8. Jen Moneagle (jened) Kindred Sprits
9. Janine Tinklenberg (JanTink) Season of Simple Grace

Round 2

1. Tandra Boyer (Inkalicious) Holiday Trinkets
2. Britta Ward (camsmom) Holly Jolly Christmas
3. Michelle P. Fischer (SDiegoGal) Holy Triptych
4. Crystal Spencer (caspen1973) To You and Yours
5. Jen Moneagle (jened) Seasons of Joy
6. Sharon Maranich (Momma Stamper) Holiday Line-up
7. Lisa Hoekstra (Lisa Hoekstra) Christ is Born
8. Vicki Stys (CraftCrazy9 ) Christmas Cardinal
9. Janine Tinklenberg (JanTink) – Winter Post

Round 3 – Surprise Me –

Christmas/Thanksgiving/Winter/New Years

1. Crystal Spencer (caspen1973)
2. Lisa Hoekstra – Deer Friends
3. Tara Cannon (cannontc) Cheers to You
4. Lorien Clark (vz5dzh) Season of Friendship
5. Lisa (biffsbee) –
6. (jenguin) –
7. Rachel Sztonyk (gingerbread-gal) Merry & Bright

I wish I had time to take indiviual pictures of each of these fantastic cards, but the girls are uploading to SCS, so you can see most of them by clicking here.  I asked the girls to decorate the insides and include a sentiment as well.  They are all finsihed off so beautifully!

I plan to make some time to stamp something tonight so I should be back with one of my own creations to share.  Thanks for stopping by.

WooHoo!!!!  One of my favorite days of the year is when I receive the brand new Stampin’ up! Catalog and Idea Book.  *It’s good to be a Demo*  I ran to Carl’s Jr. to get my huge fountain Diet Coke, set up my OTT Lite (these over 40 eyes just aren’t what they used to be) and settled in on the couch for two hours of (almost uninterupted) JOY!  Groceries?  What groceries?  Uh…sorry honey!!!

And to spread the joy I just happen to have my Sneak Peek Swaps to share with you today.

Sorry to post thumbnails, but if I size them down too much you really can’t see the individual cards.  Just click on each photo to see it larger.  I hosted this fabulous 3 Round Swap.  My Rockin’ Swappers are: 

Round 1

 Fresh Cuts –   Britta Ward

Heard from the Heart – Taylor Van Bruggen

Wow Flowers – Jessica Newton

Sock Monkey – Janine Tinklenberg

Dreams du Jour – Lori Craig

Bella Rosa Designer Paper  – Tandra Boyer

Surprise me with any of the above – Jen Moneagle

Round 2

Fall Flair  – Jen Moneagle

Deer Friends –  Jessica Newton

Occasions Collection or Dreams du Jour – Lisa Hoekstra

Serene Spring – JanTink

Heard from the Heart –  Crystal Caspen

Window Dressing – Deborah Robb

 Sock Monkey –  Bev Gerard (not pictured)

Round 3 This round is based on the new in-colors.

1. Baja Breeze –  Tandra Boyer
2. Kiwi Kiss –   Leann Yoho
3. Pacific Point – Britta Ward
4. Pink Pirouette – Tracy Harp
5. Riding Hood Red – Jen del Muro
6. Tangerine Tango – Crystal Caspen
7. Pink Pirouette AND Riding Hood Red –  Sharon Maranich

Seriously – aren’t they fabulous???  You can see their individual uploads with details in the SCS gallery by clicking here.  Looks like not everyone has uploaded yet.  The Swap Nazi might need to crack the whip a bit!  Bwahahahahahaha!

I LOVE so many things about the new catalog.

*SPOILER ALERT* If you have not seen the catty and don’t want to read spoilers (like I didn’t) then read no further.

Some things I LOVE:

• Sweet Bella Style Watch – I am all over that one – the colors, the images, everything – it’s SO ME!!!
• New punches – love all four – scallop edge, wide oval, scallop square, 1 3/4″ circle PLUS the Curly Label Punch Bundle – love the whole set and am so happy they took the ink spots out!
• Designer Papers – especially Bella Rose, Georgia Peach, Parisian Summer and the new monochromatic Patterns.  Also love love love that they printed the names of the coordinating cardstock colors with each dp.  GENIUS!
• Favorite new ribbons – Riding Hood Red Taffeta, Sage Shadow Grosgrain (not that there is anything all that exciting about it, but I have wished for some kind of ribbon in Sage Shadow for years!)
• Favorite embellishments – designer brads – especially Filigree – wow!
• Stamp sets – well I need to really go through the catty a bunch more times, but some of the sets I wrote down on my first impression list are: Humor in High Heels (p54), Cheers to You (p54), A Flower for All Seasons (87), Bella’s Bloom (103), A Rose is a Rose (105), Beautiful Borders (132)
• Die Cut stamps – hallelujah – all new stamp sets are die cut!!!!
• Techniques tutorials – a full page at the begining of each new section – this is awesome!
• Never Before Seen Savings on Never Before Seen Stamps – can you believe SU is offering 15% off 10 brand new sets?  I am floored by this!!!!  So cool!

So, here are my questions to you….what is your favorite

1. New stamp set?
2. New item in the Accessories section (p161-195)?
3. feature about the catalog itself?

I’m off to work – be sure to join me tomorrow morning for a double challenge Friday.  Thanks for stopping by.

Time for another swap and as always my swappers ROCK!  I wanted to keep the photos big enough for you to really see each card in the groups so I’m just posting thumbnails here – click on each one to view it larger.  If you’d like to see the cards individually with details you can see them in the SCS gallery here.  The girls are still in the process of uploading all week – please go leave them some nice comments!

Round 1

Shelley Cantrell – Live Your Dream

Janine Tinklenberg – Big on Spring

Michelle Laycock – By Ones and Twos

Jen Moneagle – Bloomin’ Beautiful

Tara Cannon – Essence of Love

Sharon Maranich – For Father

Crystal Spencer – Time for You

Round 2

Lori Craig – Just Celebrate

Sharon Johnson – Tart & Tangy

Tandra Boyer – Friendly Flowers

Tara Cannon – She’s All That

Debra Daam – Sassy Suzie

Katie Lilly – Phrases for a Friend

Jen Moneagle – In the Stars

Round 3 – Designer Papers and Rub-ons

Jenn Balcer

Michelle Laycock

Sharon Maranich

Britta Ward

Bev Gerard

Tandra Boyer

Crystal Spencer

Several of the girls used the ribbon slides from the new Hardware kit – I thought it was interesting to see the different ways they each used the slide.  Perhaps it will inspire you a bit.

It’s funny how I’m such an administrator through and through.  I love hosting swaps while I do not enjoy making cards for swaps.  I love planning StampMania and being upfront on the microphone while I tend to be shy when I am a guest in a large group where I don’t know many people.  I enjoy myself most at a party when I am the planner making sure others are having a good time.  Some people might see me as anal or uptight and that’s fine…I would say I’m thorough and detail oriented.  *wink*  I am thankful for my talent/gift and enjoy being able to exercise it.  And I love my Swappers – those amzingly talented girls who enjoy making swap cards!  Thanks for playing girls!  🙂