More is More

Happy Friday!  It’s time for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge (TESC117) and this week’s sketch is particularly easy and versatile I think!  It also works great no matter which way you turn it!  I flipped it over on it’s side so I could play with Hangin’ Out at the Beach some more.  I really love this set and I was super inspired by this card by Karen Motz.  I love her bright cheery colors and the way her sponged background so closely mimics her vacation photo!

So here’s my “wishing you white sandy beaches and the perfect swimsuit.”

I started out with the Basic Grey Green at Heart 6×6 pad.  First I chose 3 specific sheets of the paper that I thought I might work with for this card and then chose solid cardstock and ink colors from there.  I decided to use glossy cardstock for my main image panel since I love the way sponging and blending dye inks looks on glossy.  I sponged on Elegant Eggplant, Rich Razzleberry, Regal Rose and Pumpkin Pie inks for that sunset/twilight feel.  I cut a little strip of Kraft cardstock using the cutting blade from the SU cutter kit for my beach.  That was covered with Brown Sugar Sparkly Fluff.  All of my swim suit pieces were stamped on Green at Heart papers and cut out.  The palm tree was stamped on TE Choice Snow White cs, colored with Copics, cut out and highlighted with stickles.  The clothesline is hand-drawn with a Copic multi-liner pen.  Card base is Regal Rose, layered with Rich Razzleberry, then Pumpkin Pie and then the sheet of Green at heart.

I have a friend preparing for a family vacation to Hawaii in just over a week and we were just talking about bathing suits – YUCK!  LOL!  So I thought this card would be the perfect bon voyage for  her.

I hope you’ll play along with us in this week’s sketch.  Let’s check out what the rest of the Sketch Crew has created.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I have a fun post planned for tomorrow so please come back.  Have a fantastic weekend!

Card Recipe

Stamps: TE Hangin’ Out at the Beach

Paper: Regal Rose, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Kraft, Glossy White, TE Choice Snow White. Basic Grey Green at Heart 6×6 pad

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Elegant Eggplant, Rich Razzleberry, Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie

Other: Copic markers, Stickles (orange, lime), Sparkly Fluff (brown sugar),Kaisercraft rhinestones (champagne), Liquid Pearls (espresso), EK Success Dotted Wave border punch, corner rounder

Happy Friday!  It’s a big day at Taylored Expressions.  First we have the weekly sketch challenge and then at 8am PST all the super fun new stuff is available in the store!  I’ve been playing along with the Baker’s Dozen all week during sneak peeks and today I have 2 more cards featuring sets I hadn’t had a chance to play with yet.  Both of my cards use TESC116 – Taylor’s new sketch for today.  Both of these cards were super quick which was great because I was super short on time! So quick, that I just realized I completely ignored the little sentiment flag across the image…OOPS!

My first card features Summer Afternoon and Care & Comfort. Summer Afternoon is such a beautiful set and Care & Comfort is full of wonderful sentiments!

I used the Black Magic technique here – stamped the images on black cardstock with white craft ink…allowed the ink to dry and then colored over it with Prismacolor pencils.  Then I used a white gel pen to highlight with some dots.  Paper is October Afternoon Thrift Shop.  Ribbon is black polka dot grosgrain.  Large pearl brads are from my stash – I’ve had them forever.

My second card features all 3 of the new 4th of July A la Carte images. And check it out – no patterned paper – just good old fashioned stamping here!  The main image on my card is one of the A la Carte’s and it’s called God Bless the USA.  This is one whole image and I simply inked it up with markers.  Then I used a clear glaze pen over the words and I added Fire Engine Red glitter to the sparklers.  The two images in the background each come with their own separate sentiment so they can be used as a focal point, but I love them as a background!I then ran the background panel through my Big Shot with the Floral Fantasy CB folder to give it some texture.  The ribbon and crochet trim are from TE and the red metallic star brads are from deep in my stash…had to really dig to find those!  Cardstock is Real Red and Night of Navy SU.

Lots of blog hopping to do and I hope you’ll play along with us in the TESC (TE stamps NOT required!)…let’s see what the sketch crew has created today:

And of course you’re going to want to see what the Baker’s Dozen has in store.  There will be samples from all 5 stamp sets and the 3 A la Carte stamps!  If you can spare a couple extra minutes please leave a little love along the way!

Blog hop or shop…blog hop or shop????  That’s a tough one!  If you’re off to shop, what are you getting?  I’m dying to know!  Leave me a comment to let me know your favorites from this release!  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Friday!  Yesterday was such a FUN day, but can you believe that I totally forgot to take even one photo?  D’oh!  Oh well, it’s time to play the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge.  This sketch along with this week’s SCS Color Challenge (CC272 Real Red/Bermuda Bay/Kraft) gave me the perfect jumping off point for a card for a teenage boy.  C’mon on now – what’s harder  than coming up with a card for a teenage boy?  AND it’s not a *happy birthday* card or a graduation congratulations – NO – this poor kid shattered his collar bone and had to have surgery earlier this week!  Fortunately I had what I think is the perfect stamp set – You’re My Hero from TE.  I’m hoping it’s still plenty masculine even with the addition of a few red KasierCraft rhinestones.  I figure there’s some glitz associated with rock’n’roll so I should be ok.  LOL!

If you haven’t checked out You’re My Hero yet, be sure and do it this weekend.  It’s currently in the TE Giving Tree Program so $7 from every set sold is being donated to CureSearch, but it rotates out of the charity program at the end of the month (Monday) to make way for a new charity and new stamp set in June.  You’re My Hero also has images for the girl rocker in your life…and the rock star in all of us!  And having a stamp set to make a card for a teenage boy at a moment’s notice…well that’s priceless!

Let’s see what the rest of the Sketch Crew has cooked up for us this week:

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a fabulous long weekend.  I plan to get some more stamping in!

Happy Friday!  Today we’re taking Tessa for her first professional grooming.  We usually just bathe her at home about once a month, but she’s needing her nails clipped and we’re just a week away from her 1st Anniversary in our home so I decided we might as well spring for the full treatment.  I hope she’s not mad at me all weekend.  I’ll try to get some photos when we get home.

It’s time for another Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge (TESC114) and of course we’d love to have you play along!  My card today is 4.25″ square and features October Afternoon Thrift Shop papers along with Choice Buttercream from TE and SU Kraft and Real Red cs.

I combined images from TE sets Hangin’ Out and Garden Party Critters and stamped them directly on the patterned paper, then colored them with Copics.  The kraft banner strip was stamped with Miniature Motifs.  Everything was sponged and embellishments are Kaisercraft pearls in red and some SU buttons (Yes I hate nekkid buttons, but that just shows how much of a hurry I was in to get this card finished and photographed!  LOL!)  Nesties used are Classic Cirlcle large and Blossom.

Let’s check out what the rest of the Sketch Crew has in store for us today.

At Taylor’s blog you’ll see the sketch and get all the details to play along.  Also, entries for last week’s sketch have now closed and you can click over to this post to cast your votes for your three favorites.  You only have through the weekend to vote.  The top vote getters will be announced on Monday.  How fun to get to have input on the Top Crops!

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

Happy Friday!  It’s a BIG day as Taylored Expressions now has the May Release available for purchase inclduing 4 new full size stamp sets, a Big Background (5.75 x 5.75), 2 A La Carte images with sentiments and two new Project Pantry kits!  Plus TE has a ton of other new products in the Fresh Out of the Oven Department.  On top of all that it’s time for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge 112. 

I have 2 cards to share with you today – one for the sketch featuring Cuppie in the Kitchen and October Afternoon Cherry Hills papers and the other featuring the Apple Doodle Ink Classic Car A la Carte Image and the Garden Party Project Pantry.  I made both of these cards for birthdays.  The first is for a girlfriend and the second is for my Dad.  Enjoy!

TESC112 Cuppie in the Kitchen

Everyone is welcome to play along with the sketch challenge using any company’s stamps.  Check all the info on Taylor’s blog.  And here’s the Sketch Crew links for even more inspiration using this week’s sketch.

 A Real Classic

  This is a hinge card.  I kept it pretty simple on the embellishments since it’s for a guy and it’s already pretty wild with those bright colors!

And let’s see what the Baker’s Dozen has for Release Day!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I know you have a ton of hopping to do and shopping shopping shopping!  I hope you have a fantastic weekend.  Mine is booked solid!

Happy Friday (Note to Mom – if you are reading this before Mother’s Day, please look away immediately and close this post.  Thank you.)  It’s time for another sketch from Taylor (TESC111) and *WOW* I really like this one a lot!  I tend to be pretty literal when it comes to sketches, so for this the one the first thing I told myself was that the circle element does NOT need to be a circle…let’s think Nesties.  Hmmm…that led me to think of the Labels 9 image in CreativiTEA by Taylored Expressions and I was off and running.  I’m not sure what possessed me to create a window in the card…not something I have done very often…but I love it!

Red is one of my all-time favorite colors and since painting my kitchen red, I seem to be using it even more often in my stamping. I was so super excited to pull out my new favorite line of paper Thrift Shop by October Afternoon!

Card base is TE Choice Buttercream.  The front is layered with Real Red (with distressed edges) and 2 patterns from Thrift Shop.  After cutting the window with Spellbinders Labels 9, I stamped the label image in Real Red ink on the inside of the card.  The cup was then stamped and paper pieced.I cut out part of an additional cup so I could pop it up for some dimension.  Then I stamped the patterned cup and colored in the flower on it, cut out the flower and adhered it to the paper pieced plain cup.  Make sense?

The large flower was stamped, colored with copics, cut out and covered with Crystal Effects. I added some Sakura glitter pen to the leaves.

The sentiment is from TE Fresh Flowers.  It was punched with a circle punch and layered onto another pattern of Thrift Shop paper and then onto a red cardstock circle and popped up on double thick foam tape. Additonal elements include red KaiserCraft pearls and Crochet trim from TE.

My original intention was to be done at this point, but somehow I smeared some ink on the inside of the card.  Uh-oh!  No worries – let’s just cover it up with some more of this yummy yummy paper and cut another window!

*

*

*

And now it’s time to see what the rest of the Sketch Crew has done with TESC111.

• Alice Wertz
• Jami Sibley
• Lisa Hjulberg
• Lori Craig
• Lynn Mercurio
• Melissa Sauls
• Monika Davis
• Rachel Sztonyk
• Sherrie Siemens
• Taylor VanBruggen – see her sample and the sketch and get all the info so you can play along with us!

I’m looking forward to a visit from a very special friend this weekend so I have lots to do around the house today – most especially getting my stamp cleaned up so there’s room for two!  *GRIN*  I hope you have a fantastic weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Friday!  It’s been a busy week and I decided to try a “quick card” for my TESC sample this week.  Y’all know I’m not much of a “quick card” gal, so I have to admit I’m not overly thrilled with this card.  Really it was cuter in my head.

Designer paper and Bloomer is Basic Grey Green at Heart.  Rather than use small separate squares in the layout I decided to try some stick on ric rac. I used Tiny Twinkles from the Multi-color shaped pack. Cardstock is Razzleberry, Pink Pirouette and Artichoke.  No stamping here.  Finished card size is 4.25″ square.

Time to see what the rest of the Sketch Crew has created and then head over to Taylor’s blog to see her sample and get the sketch so you can play along with us!

I’m hoping to have a catch up day today…laundry, straightening up, errands, etc etc.  And maybe, just maybe, a little time to stamp.  Hope you have an fantastic weekend!