Hi peeps! What's shakin'? How is your week going? Have you had your 'freak-out-because-next-week-is-Thanksgiving-moment' yet? Mine came on Monday! How does that happen? We're going along, enjoying Fall, and then BAM Thanksgiving is here and we have to go grocery shopping! And, I just know that after next week it's full on Christmas coming at us like a freight train! I'm not ready! LOL.

I was inspired to create an Autumn apple card when I went to the grocery store on Monday and saw all the beautiful shiny apples all in a row. See how inspiration can come at the weirdest times? I got out my Fiskars Apple Punch and some trusty gingham paper and had a go….This is what I came up with!

I started out with three small manila tags that I had in my stash. I stamped the Hero Arts Friends words background in Linen Distress Ink and then also inked the edges of the tags. Then I punched out my cute apples.

I went through and dug up some doo dads in my stash, some twine, a clip, some safety pins…just to see what worked… Stamped my sentiment on green paper with brown ink.

Here's the picture I snapped at the grocery store with my iPhone – my inspiration image!

I lined my tags up before stamping them so the words would match all the way across…

Here's a side view. The tags are mounted on foam tape to add dimension.

I think this card is cheery and happy! I sure had fun creating it in some fresh colors and a new layout design for me. We'll be Christmas crafting soon – before we know it!

Have a wonderful day!!! 

Hi there friends! How is your weekend going? Hope you are having a great weekend so far. It's Sunday, and I made some pancakes for breakfast and then I've been hiding out in my crafty cave ever since. It's a crazy mess in here, but I managed to find some space to make something. Isn't that the never ending battle? How do you keep your stamp space clean!? I just have too much stuff. That's the bottom line. Oh well…that's a good problem to have!

I was looking around for inspiration and found it at my first stop – at Moxie Fab World!  I saw the Tuesday Trigger Image from last week…and it hooked me right in! CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE IMAGE – you have until 11-18 to enter too! The image is called Fall Fantasy!

I was mostly inspired by the beautiful color palette and that's what I went with. I would not have thought to combine the pretty celadon green with the fall colors, but I love it. I was also inspired by the cream background and the little 'balls' on the wreath. I set out to make something….

Here is the Tuesday Trigger Image that inspired me…

Here's a close up of the leaves…this turned out to be a fifty step process and took forever! But, I finally got them to look the way I wanted!

I used my Stampin' Up Woodgrain embossing folder for the background. I have a tip to share here. The first two times I embossed this, my paper cracked and even tore!! I went online and found a tutorial with the tip to place a sheet of vellum in between the paper and the embossing folder…It worked like a charm – and this one came out perfect!

I used Tim Holtz Grungeboard for my leaves and a Tim Holtz die. In order to put ink on the grungeboard, I painted them with cream acrylic paint first…

After the cream paint was dry, I sponged these three ink colors onto the leaves and let that dry…

SOOOO pretty, these colors together!

Okay, so here's where my project went wonky on me… I had envisioned pretty crackled leaves…but when I put on the Distress Crackle Paint…it just smeared my ink!! NOT happy! But, what can you do? Sometimes these crafty accidents turn out okay…

Here are my leaves after they dried. Hmmmmm…. I decided to put some pretty chunky glitter on them to jazz 'em up. Are you starting to see why this took so long!? LOL.

Now that's looking good!

I wanted my 'balls' to match my project, so I colored some pearl pins with my Copic markers…

Here's everything, all ready to assemble…. 

My supplies….

Happy Thanksgiving! The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse Stamps and the banner die is from Simon Says Stamp – one of the Stamptember dies.

Thanks so much for spending part of your day with me! I got a bunch of new subscribers last week, so a big welcome to all of you! So happy you're here. Did you enjoy the TE Release last week? Lots of new things to play with. Have a nice afternoon – and a great week ahead! XO

It's Taylored Expressions November 2012 Spotlight Day! This is where we take one last chance to showcase each of the new stamp sets and dies…What a week! Today I have something really fun to share!

All of the new Taylored Expressions products are now available in the Fresh Out of the Oven Department. Everything is just so cute and happy this month!

Be sure to check the TE Current Specials page to find out how you can get your very own  Crafty Expressions stamp set for FREE!

There is a new addition to the Moka collection by Nancy McKinney…and her name is…Wanda! SO FUN! It was my idea that we needed a stamping and crafting girl Moka so I told Taylor. And, Taylor named her after me. Coolest thing ever, right? She has on her crafting apron and has all her tools ready to go.  

Here is the LINK TO THE SCS TUTORIAL for this card! It's called a center step card. It was very easy to follow the directions and I really like how it came out. Give some room to add different papers and showcase your sentiment on the bottom.

Here is how it folds down for mailing…

This is my Copic palette for this card…

I used the beautiful new MME Paper pad called Tangerine. I also used one of our new TE dies from the Handmade Charms die set!! I put the little scissors on with a jump ring to hang off my main image.  

Stamping friends REALLY are the best!

One last look at another Signature stamp from the 'Signature Style' set!

Okay, friends, one last linky list for you for the week! Hope you've had a good time here with the Baker's Dozen this week!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Nancy McKinney (Illustrator) 

It's day two of November sneaks! Tomorrow you will be able to see EVERYTHING! But today, I have some more peeks for you!  Are you ready!?

• Today I'm featuring TWO new stamp sets! The first one is called 'Spectacular'  it's from the Whimsical Wishes stamp line by Nancy McKinney. This one is truly spectacular! It's cute glasses and sayings! EEP! So fun. Perfect for funny and light cards.  
• The second set for today is called 'Signature Style' and this one was my idea! YAY! I have been wanting a Taylored Expressions set for the back of my TE creations. Well, this one is a sampler of all the different designers. There is a signature stamp for any mood or creation. I'm very excited about this one! I hope you will love it too.
• We have inspiration to share Tuesday through Friday.  All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, November 8th at 8 am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
• Readers can join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets, as well as a SPECIAL Facebook GIVEAWAY, on Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST.

Here is my card using the 'Spectacular' set! I kept it very graphic and clean and simple. I chose a bright fun color to match the mood. I found the perfect matching Doodlebug twine… You know me, sometimes I like lots of white space and a POP of an image!

My very first pair of eyeglasses were baby blue cat eye numbers with blue rhinestones! This is what made me have this idea! It was the sixties after all…

I used one of my Circle Nestabilities to cut out a piece of my white paper, then mounted that piece on some foam tape. This would be a nice layout to use to make a whole set of notecards.

Here's one of the Signature Style images! Isn't he cute!?

I was trying to think of something to make using all the 'Signature Style' images….so I came up with this! It's a gift bag full of pre-made signatures for the back of cards. It's the perfect gift for a stamping pal. I used the gorgeous new Stacklets Dies to make the topper!

Here's a close up of the top….

Here are my individual signature pieces…see…truly something for every kind of card!

On the back I put a strip of double sided tape so that my friend can just pop them on the back of her cards. Voila! Ready to go.

I used my scoring board to score the Stacklets Die pieces in half for the top of my gift bag…

Here is the list of players for today! Please hop on around and see all the neat projects! Thank you for stopping by.

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Kerri Michaud (Guest Designer)
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Nancy McKinney (Illustrator) 

Yep, It's that FUN time again! Time for November's Sneak Peeks for Taylored Expressions! WOOOOHOOOOO! Get ready for lots of inspiration this week!  

Joining us this week is the winner of our Last Card Standing contest…the talented Kerri Michaud! She won a spot on the Baker's Dozen and I just know her work will wow you! Welcome Kerri! So glad to have you stamp with us in November and December!

• Today I'm featuring the GORGEOUS new stamp set from the Lasting Impressions collection called In the Word – When Mark Your Spot and the Bookmark die were released, Jami  immediately thought a set of Bible verses would be perfect to go with them, and I agree! This set will allow you to create beautiful bookmarks, as well as cards, tags, framed art, and more! I like this stamp set because it can be used for encouragement cards. Sometimes you just want to send a nice thought to someone to uplift them. 
• We have inspiration to share Tuesday through Friday.  All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, November 8th at 8 am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
• Readers can join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets, as well as a SPECIAL Facebook GIVEAWAY, on Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. That really is a ton of fun, if you've never joined us, you should!

Here is my card for today. I used all the pretty background stamps to make sort of a collage effect for my card, then framed out the sentiment using the brand new Stacklets Dies. I am over the moon thrilled that Taylor started doing frame dies!! I know I will use these all the time.

Here's a close up of my layers….All the inks are Tim Holtz Distress Inks that are available in the TE Store!

Here is my card in progress…Yes, I'm a messy stamper! You can see my color swatches of inks – from when I was trying to figure out what colors best matched my patterned paper. The paper I used for this card are from the Authentique 'Thankful' collection. So pretty.

Here is what my base layer looks like. I have fun putting different colors and shapes down on my cream base. I think I like the soft words the best…or maybe those big swirls…

Here's a sneak peek at another new set…that I designed! It's called Signature Style! Yipppeeeee! I will show you all about it tomorrow!

Here is our fun filled link list for today! We have our contest winner guest blogger Kerri Michaud joining with us! Welcome to Kerri!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley (DT Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Nancy McKinney (Illustrator)

Happy Anniversary to our awesome designer Emily! This month marks the One Year Anniversary of the Embracing Grace collection of stamps illustrated by Emily Burger.  To celebrate, the Baker's Dozen is highlighting Emily's very own set Love Grows Here. I love Emily's work, and this set in particular. I use it all the time! We are all featuring it today on our blogs to give Emily a big shout out! All three of my cards for today are from this set. You've maybe seen them before?

Emily has donated two sets of mirror cards from her etsy store to go to one lucky winner (so you can keep one and give one as a gift.)  The winner will be chosen by a random drawing from all of the comments left on all the posts in today's blog hop (One comment per blog, please.) and will be announced in Taylor's blog post tomorrow morning. So, leave a comment to win! Thanks for coming by today! And don't forget – Release Week starts tomorrow! WOOO HOOOO! 

This first one was for my former boss's retirement. I thought it made a nice masculine card so I chose a soft celery green and brown as my accents…

This next card is a pretty Autum Thank you card! You know I love Autumn…oh and cute owls too! This card features the TE Mini Leaves and Scallop Dies.

Last, but not least, Here's fun all-occasion card with some sweet honey bees!

Here are the links for today. Have a great time looking at everyone's cards and don't forget to comment to win! XOXO 

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley
• Jen Shults
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

Today it's time again for our cool new calendar projects from Taylored Expressions and I have had such a good time making my pages each month this year! The Baker's Dozen Design Team has been sharing calendar goodies and ideas with you throughout the year, and we are winding down to the last two months.

Refer over to Taylor's blog to get all the info to play along with us each month. There will be a linky at the bottom of Taylor's post and it will remain open all year, so you have the option to go back and catch up if you start playing late. For everyone who plays in 10 or more of these monthly calendar challenges in 2012, there will be a random draw for a TE prize pack valued at over $150!!! Click here to go to the TE Calendar Department and see all the goodies.

I chose to make the "Frame Your Imagination" calendar and use Cuppie as my theme! The stand for the calendar comes in raw wood and then you can paint it whatever color you choose. I painted mine kind of an antique white and then speckled some brown onto it to give it some character.

CLICK here for the calendar stand…CLICK here for the page protectors and CLICK here for the page inserts. I like this a lot because the finished pages are 6×6 and that gives a lot of room to stamp!

Well, I might be biased, but I think November is the BEST month! Oh, might be because my birthday is this month! LOL. Seriously, how cute is Cuppie out in the pumpkin patch?? I used the adorable fence die and some pretty leaves to make an Autumn scene…. 

I cut the fence out of kraft paper! Colored in my cute pumpkins and Cuppie. I cut out a few extra pumpkins to place around my calendar page.

Here are my Copic choices for this project…

Here are my supplies….

Here is our list of calendar players for today! Take a look! Thank you for coming by my blog today! And, hello to all my new subscribers! Have a fabulous day. XOXO

• Charmaine Ikach
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess