More is More

My apologies to Taylor and the rest of the Cupcake Crew for being late this morning with my sample for TECC39.  With all the SASI Release excitement last night I didn’t get my card made before birdie bedtime so I couldn’t work in my stamp room (for newer readers here who might not know  – I share my stamp room with 2 huge sleeping cages for our 2 macaws).  But here I am – better late than never.

I recently got some new JustRite Stamper toys including the Brayton font and the rectangular blocks and I’ve been dying to play with them.  The strips in this sketch seemed perfect for a Bible verse – I choose the first part of Isaiah 9:6 and paired it with the Christmas star from the new SASI set Home Sweet Home.  The burgundy cardstock is a Stardream Metallic so it’s super shimmery IRL.  I also used Shimmer White for the Cuttlebug embossed panel.  The navy is SU.  The stars were embossed with white ep and punched out with my SU small oval punch.  A Kaiser Craft rhinestone was added to each star.  The sentiment was also embossed with white craft ink and white ep.

One of the really cool things about these JR fonts is that you get 3 different sizes of letters so you have lots of options when building a sentiment. 

I’m not really sure if I like this card – it’s much bolder than my usual style and now that it’s all finished I feel like it’s a little too *patriotic* looking which is not at all what I was going for.  I guess I still like the concept, but I’d make different color choices if I were to do this again.

I hope you’ll play along with the TECC sketch this week – You could be chosen to be Taylor’s Featured Stamper next week if you do.  See Taylor’s sample today and get all the details to play along by clicking here.  This week’s Featured Stamper is Kathie Bailey at Just an Inkling.

Let’s check out what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up.

• Ana Wohlfahrt
• Donna Baker
• Jackie Pedro
• Monika Davis
• Sherrie Siemens
• Stephanie Hargis
• Vicki Chrisman

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a great weekend!

WooHoo!  It’s party time at Taylored Expressions/Stamp a Sweet Impression!  The Holiday release is ready for your shopping pleasure!  Head on over to Taylored Expressions (the blog) to get all the yummy details!  From there you can click over to go shopping in the TE store and you can blog hop to all the Bakers Dozen sweet samples!

Tonight we’re featuring the first SASI mini set – Tag Treats.  This set is made up of must-have holiday sentiments in beautiful fonts.  The possibilies are endless with this set!  I have a project to share with you tonight that showcases the sentiment “Warmest Wishes for a Glowing Holiday”.  I think this sentiment will be really versatile and the first two things that came to mind for me were the Christmas star and projects involving candles.  Tonight I have a candle project to show you – a pretty little gift set.

I started off with a nugget tin filled with 6 of my very favorite PartyLite tea lights (nothing better than PartyLite candles!!!!)  and a Primrose square candle I picked up at Tuesday Morning because the color was just so perfect with the TE Christmas Key Ingredients.  I couldn’t decide between Rudy and Tangles so I colored one of each with my Copics for this set.  All the cardstock and dp and embellishments are from the KI kit…I am just loving the pink/red/green aspects especially (there’s also blue and brown in the kit for those of you more drawn to those colors).  I used my circle and oval Marvy punches to punch and layer the images.  Rudy is surrounded by Kaiser Craft pink rhinestones and Tangles is surrounded by pink stickles (the only thing not from the KI kit).  Here’s a photo of the Copics I used along with the ink – Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate.  I love the pearly finish, but be sure to allow enough dry time – or heat set it.  Don’t ask me how I know this!  *eye roll*  The shaped end of the tag was cut with an old-school pair of Fiskar corner scissors.  Can’t remember the last time I pulled those out!

Belly bands were wrapped around the candle and the tin.  The one on the tin easily slides on and off.  The one on the candle would slide off also, but it doesn’t have to.  If you look closely, you will see that there is a tea light in the top of the square candle.  I like to do this when I am giving any type of decorated candle as a gift.  It takes a little bit of time, but it’s easy to do and makes the candle last longer, plus it’s safer.  To make the hole for the tealight begin by taking a metal tealight cup with the candle part removed.  Turn it upside down and twist it in the middle of the large candle.  This gives you a template for where you want to remove the wax.  Then burn the candle for awhile – checking it frequently.  Once a nice pool of melted wax has formed I take a small metal measuring spoon and scoop out the melted wax as well as much softened wax as I can being careful not to damage the top of the  candle.  You may need to light the candle a few times to get the proper sized hole needed.  Once the hole is formed just cut out the wick and drop in a tealight.  With my gift set the recipient will be able to burn the tealight already in the candle and have 6 more to replace it with so it can be enjoyed throughout the Christmas season.

While your blog hopping please be sure to check out the SASI blog where we’ve posted yet another opportunity for you to win a prize if you’d like to help TE/SASI Spread the Sweetness!  Wow!  This almost too much excitement for one night!  I can hardly wait to hear what you think of the 3 new sets and the Christmas Key Ingredients.  Don’t forget – the stamp sets are unmounted deeply etched PINK rubber that stamp like a dream and come on a full color index storage panel!  And hey – Taylor has added quite a few new things to the store recently so be sure to browse around so you don’t miss anything!

Thanks for stopping by – I’ll be back tomorrow with the Friday TECC.

It’s almost time for the Stamp a Sweet Impression Holiday Release at Taylored Expressions.  All will be revealed and available for purchase tomorrow night at midnight EST (that’s 9pm for us West Coasters)!  In the meantime Taylor and  the Bakers Dozen Senior Design Team have some sneak peeks to whet your appetite.

I have a sweet square card (5.25″ x 5.25″) showcasing two images plus a sentiment from Season’s Sweetings – one of three new SASI sets to be released.  Aren’t these cuppies just the cutest???  And tell me you can relate to this decorating scene – where one person is totally into it and humming caroles while the other one is just a tad less enthusiastic?  I swear you are going to love these sets!  Don’t forget – they are deeply etched pink rubber and stamp like a dream!  And wait till you see the Christmas Key Ingredients Kit!  So super yummy!  All the cardstock and designer paper and pink rhinestones and red pearls I used on this card are from the KI kit.  Aren’t these colors so fun?

Here are the Copics I used to color my scene.  I tried to coordinate with the dp colors as much as possible.  I used a clear glaze pen on the little tangled up Christmas lights, a Stardust gel pen on the star and a silver gel pen on the tinsel.  There are Red Rain Dots on the cherry on each cuppie (I highly recommend you add some of these to your next TE order!!!)  and red Kaiser Craft pearls adorn the tree as ornaments as well as the corners of the pink cardstock panel.  I pulled out a very old corner punch to create the scalloped corners.  The last finishing touch was the ticket corner punch with the Kaiser Craft pink rhinestones.

 Fellow Bakers Dozen member Denise (Peanutbee) has spurred me to decorate the insides of my cards more often – something I used to do, but had gotten away from.  I love that this set has so many wonderful sentiments along with the adorable images…and I LOVE the fonts!

Come blog hopping with me to check out all the sneak peeks today:

Ana Wohlfahrt

Charmaine Ikach

Denise Marzec

Monika Davis

Stephanie Hargis

And of course Taylor Van Bruggen.

Tomorrow there will be even more sneak peeks by the Bakers Dozen Rotating Team members.  You’ll be able to get all the links from Taylor tomorrow.  And Thursday night be sure to tune in to Taylor’s blog for all the release details!

Oh and there’s still time to sign up for the SASI Sweet Treats give-away on the SASI Blog.  I’ll be announcing the winner of the random drawing on Thursday night just before the release.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a sweet day!

Do you ever create a card that just makes you giggle?  Here’s one I made when I first received my SASI sets from Taylored Expressions, but I hadn’t gotten around to photographing it to share.

When I realized the pirate cupcake would fit with SU Boatloads of Love I was seriously tickled pink!  And then to top it off, the tiny cupcakes from Short & Sweet all stacked up as his sweet pirate booty….I was beside myself!  LOL!  The sentiment was created with the Small Letter set from JustRite Stampers also available at TE (they should be re-stocked really soon I think) and punched with my SU small oval punch.

The scene was stamped on shimmer white cardstock with Palette Hybrid Noir Black ink using some masking and a stamp-a-majig and then watercolored with a combo of ink from re-inkers, markers, and crayons.  I used red Kaiser Craft rhinestones and black pearls from eP along with some paper piercing for some fun accents.

So tell me….what do you think the inside sentiment should be?  I’d love to hear your ideas!

Oooo I just noticed that Taylor has a post on the SASI blog today highlighting some of the versatile uses of the SASI Halloween sets.  You have to go see her yummy cupcake creation today!

I’m off to work.  Thanks for stopping by!

Ok….so I never made it back on Saturday with something for WCD.  My apologies.  It was a busy busy busy weekend!  Yesterday I got together with a few stamping buddies and started working on a batch of Christmas cards though.  I got about half way through a batch of 30.  I had designed the card last year using Dashing dp.  When I get the batch finished I’ll share.

Today I want to show you a Stamp a Sweet Impression card I made a while back, but hadn’t photographed.

Don’t you love the little floating ghosties?  This super simple card is made with Trick or Sweet and the sentiment is from Frightful Night both available at Taylored Expressions along with the Halloween Key Ingredients Kit.  The cupcake in his ghostie costume was stamped several times and colored with Copic Markers.  I used a gray Copic along the inside to highlight the white and a yellow Copic around the outside of each ghost to give them a *glow*.  The sentiment was punched out with the SU key tag punch and I embossed it with Versamark and clear ep.  The ribbon is from the TE Key Ingredients kit too.

I think this would be a great Halloween Party invitation and it’s simple enough to be able to make up a bunch of them.  *You’re Invited for Spooks and Sweets* – I just love that sentiment.  Almost makes me want to throw a party!  😉

Bedroom update:  we bought another set of curtains on Saturday, but decided we didn’t like them once we saw them in the room so they have to go back.  I’ll be ordering some from the Penny’s catalog as soon as I have a minute.  I promise to share pictures as soon as we get curtains and some artwork up.  We still need to get clothes back in the closet too.  For now I just walk in and stare at how pretty it is….and I hope we don’t lose focus before we finish with all the little details.

 Hope you have a great week.  I hope to be back on a more regular posting schedule now…we’ll see.  Thanks for stopping by.

I hosted a swap recently and I thought it would be fun to include a little challenge in their return packages.  I stamped up some images from the Taylored Expressions SASI set Sweet Celebration and included some swatches of SU Prints Pack dp and asked everyone to make something and upload it to SCS today. I have no idea how many people will play, but here’s my card.  🙂

I think the card is pretty self-explanatory – just a simple, fun, happy card.  This is one of my very favorite SASI images.  I colored the cake plate with a silver Sakura Glitter Gel pen and highlighted the cake and writing with a Sakura Stardust pen.  The cherry is a Kaiser Craft hot pink rhinestone.  I cut out the image with Nestabilities and the orange ribbon is from my stash.

Check out the challenge creations here.  I hope someone plays!  LOL!  Busy week ahead as we prepare to completely redecorate our bedroom (including paint and carpet) this weekend.  We’ll be putting up the chandelier that Curt gave me for my birthday back in February and we’ll get our antique bed from lay-away.  I’ve had a new comforter set for about three years sitting in the package waiting for this make-over.  I need to find curtains and a mirror and some other finishing touches.  I couldn’t be more excited.

Oh and a puppy update – we cancelled the appointment Saturday and didn’t go see them.  We spent more time talking and evaluating.  My dear friend Brenda was  hugely helpful in talking me through the current situation with our birds.  We’ve been having a terrible time with R.B. (our Greenwing Macaw) bitng me over the past year. I haven’t been able to handle him at all in the last several months and it breaks my heart.  We realized that we really need to focus on those issues before we can consider adding a dog to our *flock*.  It made me very sad, but I know it’s the best thing for now and I felt a peace once we decided.  Thanks to those of you who shared with me your experiences with Eskies.  I loved reading about them and hope one day in the future we’ll be able to have one.  Beaker (our Red Front Macaw) is a Mama’s bird all the way and absolutely loves to cuddle with me on the couch.  Lots of people don’t realize just how cuddly some birds can be – beaker is almost like a puppy in that way!

Have a great week – thanks for stopping by!

It’s Saturday – WooHoo!  And it’s the 20th so it’s time for another SCS Dirty Dozen Alumni Gallery Reunion.  For today’s reunion I challenged the Girls to create a one layer card using the masking technique and the restriction *gasp* was no pink! 

With a Fabriano notecard I started by stamping the frame (Frames with a Flourish by SU) and then masking it.  Next I stamped this comical stack of cupcakes from Sweet Celebration  (Stamp a Sweet Impression available at Taylored Expressions) first on Eclipse making tape twice and cutting it out.  Then I was ready to stamp a whole group of them masking two at a time.  The sentiment was created with Karen Foster Snap stamps.  The rest is just watercoloring with ink and an aquapainter and a little highlighting (code for *mistake covering* – LOL!) with a white gel pen.   Little red Rain Dots are the cherries on top.

I just have to say – I don’t know how I managed before Eclipse tape!  The first time I bought it after hearing so much about it, I thought it was kind of expensive.  But wow – it is soooo much better than using post it notes!  And once I cut out a mask I save it with the stamp set for future use.  I love that stuff!

To see what the rest of the playing DDA came up with check the SCS gallery here.  People will be uploading all day so be sure to check back again tomorrow so you don’t miss anything.

We have an appointment today to go look at a litter of Miniature American Eskimo puppies – pretty much the only dog breed Curt and I both agree on and love.  We both feel torn/conflicted about the idea of a puppy – mostly because of our three birds.  They will always be the priority and we just aren’t sure about balancing time and attention for everyone and how they would react/adjust.  But these puppies are just so darned cute.  They won’t be old enough to take home for a few weeks anyway.  Can’t hurt to just go look, right?  (Mom – I wish you and Dad were home to go with us!)

One of the five puppies –

and here’s the pup’s mom and dad –

On that note of happy cuteness – have a great weekend!