It's finally here! RELEASE DAY at the Taylored Expressions Store! All new items now available in the TE Store.  Click here to go straight to the Fresh Out of the Oven section to see all the new goodies!  I hope you have had fun here with me this week! It has been wonderful working with Taylor and the gang doing these posts. It's been very busy – but the best kind of busy! 

I have one last Taylored Expressions card for you this week…and it's my favorite one! I'm using Moka Jenn again and you'll find the stamp set illustration below. She's so adorable! You can order her now too!

I LOVE this paper combination – from My Mind's Eye Stella Rose – Mabel! It's so yummy and Autumn-y! I knew I wanted her to be a boho chic mom-to-be! I gave her some faded jeans and a pretty paper-pieced top…put some pearls on her cute little flats! Isn't she cute?? 

Here is the stamp set image for Moka Jenn!

One final thing I want to talk about is the Taylored Expressions Project Pantry Papercrafting Kits!  They are a great value at $9.95 each. They are available in limited quantities, so scoop them up while you can! These kits are perfect for card makers since the papers come in a 4×6 size….and everything matches perfectly. You will LOVE Taylor's eye for putting these together. LOVE. You'll find those in the Fresh out of the Oven page too!

Please check out what the rest of the Design Team has for you on this release day!

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Wanda Guess

Amber Hight – Guest Designer

Nancy McKinney – Guest Designer

Okay…it's been a really fun week full of baby cards and projects! Now…what to make next? Have a great day everyone! Hope to see you soon!  

  
Hello! Today is Sneak Peek Day #3 for the May Taylored Expressions release! All of these sets will be available for purchase on Thursday morning at 8am PST. You can get the full stamp set reveal on the TE facebook page Wednesday night: https://www.facebook.com/#!/tayloredexpressions. I hope you have been having fun here with me on this new Design Team adventure! Thanks for tuning in!

Today's release features the stamp sets "It's in the Bag" and "Moka Jenn."  My third post for the week has two projects, using both of these cute sets as well as some neat dies. Are you enjoying seeing me make some baby cards? Something I haven't done a lot of here on the bloggy blog! All my friends are in between having kids and having grand kids…so I don't make many baby cards right now.

Here is my first project – a baby shower card. I thought I would use some different colors – for that modern mom. Nothing says that you have to use pastels…right? I love the pop of red with the baby blue. This card could be for a shower for a girl or a boy. This is the SUPER cute Moka Jenn stamp! I'll be using her for tomorrow's card too…in a totally different way.

She is colored with my Copic Markers and the paper is from the Jillibean Soup Blossom Collection. I used my Nestabilities for the circles and popped the sentiments up with some foam tape.

Here is my second project for today…and this time I used the traditional pastel colors to make some baby shower place cards with ADORABLE gift bags attached! These are SOOOO fun to make! EEEEK! I can think of a billion things to do with these shopping bags! The stamp set is called "It's in the Bag" and there is a matching die to cut out the bags and tags. Trust me, you'll love this one. It's not specifically baby related either – very versatile! Can't wait for you to see the whole set tomorrow.

I used the Heart Frame a la Carte stamp with the Frame it Up 2 matching die to make the outer portion of the front. The frame/die perfectly fits a 2×3 photo if you want to use it for pictures. You know I had to get out some glitter and pearls! Jazz it up a bit! I cut some vellum and folded it to look like tissue paper!

 
"It's in the Bag" stamp set was concepted and illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes line. It is a full-sized stamp set on a 5.75" x 8.5" full color sturdy storage panel and has 27 images (yay!). The Brand new MOKA Petite Collection was also illustrated by Nancy McKinney – these darling little girls will steal your heart.  The first two in the collection are: Moka Jenn and Moka Olivia and each has  5 images. Both of these sets come on a 3" x 5.5" full color sturdy storage panel, and they both coordinate perfectly with It's in the Bag. There will be more of these to come! Can't wait!

Check out what the other ladies are up to!

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Wanda Guess

Nancy McKinney – Guest Designer

 
Hi Everyone! Today is Sneak Peek Day #1 for the May Taylored Expressions release! All of these sets will be available for purchase on Thursday morning at 8am PST. You can get the full stamp set reveal on the TE facebook page Wednesday night: https://www.facebook.com/#!/tayloredexpressions. 

This month's release is all about babies! Did you see Taylor's exciting announcement on Friday? She is expecting her first baby in September. I think you will see that she had babies on the brain when designing this release! All kinds of cute stuff in store for you this week. Here is my first card for the week, using the set called "Welcome Little One" and the super cool matching Bracket Die.

This adorable bracket stamp is part of the set, and has it's own matching Bracket Die to make it easier to mass produce and the get the images just perfectly cut out! I really recommend it! Cuts so nice and crisp!  

I used a very soft Copic color palette for this card…and matched the colors exactly to my patterned papers! The Paper Collections are: Jillibean Soup Blossom, and My Minds Eye Stella Rose Gertie!

"Welcome Little One" is the next set in the TE Giving Tree series of special stamp sets that help support various charities. For the months of May, June and July when you purchase this set you'll be helping to support Bethany Christian Services, the nation's largest adoption agency. Their services include adoption, foster care, counseling, and family support. Taylored Expressions will donate $7.00 to Bethany Christian Services for each Welcome Little One stamp set sold in the next 3 months. If you would like to learn more, here is the website link:  http://www.bethany.org/ 

 
"Welcome Little One" was designed and illustrated by Taylor VanBruggen as part of the *te* Collection of stamps. The set includes 26 images in high quality deeply-etched rubber on EZ-Mount.  This set is perfect for birth announcements, baby shower invitations, and baby congrats! Since it is part of the giving tree program, the stamps are not cut…this saves more money - to give to the charity. All of the other stamp sets come with the images already cut out!  

I hope you will take a look at what all the other DT members have for you today! I'll see you tomorrow!

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Wanda Guess

Nancy McKinney – Guest Designer

I've been keeping a crafty secret…and today I can finally tell everyone! Starting with the May stamp release tomorrow…I am officially a member of the Taylored Expressions Baker's Dozen Design Team!

 
I am very excited to announce this big news! Not just excited, thrilled would be a better word. I have admired Taylor and her crew for a long time, and now I get to play with them every month! Taylor's stamps are so fun and such great quality. Her taste in embellishments is perfection. Don't even get me started about the other DT members…people I have blog stalked followed with admiration. Thanks, Taylor, for the opportunity to be a part of your great company! And, thanks to the other design team members who have welcomed me into their club! I am already impressed by the kindness and generosity shown to me!

In honor of this announcement, I thought a card would be in order! I got out one of my favorite Taylored Expressions stamp sets: Crafty Cuppie! Cuppie is the most darling cupcake, who gets into all kinds of situations! SO adorable! 

The next four days in a row I will be posting cards for the Taylored Expressions May stamp release! I hope you will come back and see what I've been working on behind the scenes!  
 

 

Hey! How is your week going so far? Easter has come and gone and now it's time to start looking towards Summer! We ended up having a very nice Easter day. A great sermon at church, great breakfast out and a movie! We went to see Water for Elephants. It was terrific! I loved the costumes, the animals, and all the action. I definitely recommend it and it is more of a girl movie. DH liked it, but not as much as I did. It was just a nice day out.

So, to get in the mood for the next change of season…I have a little nautical action for today. My card was made with the GORGEOUS collection from Webster's Pages called Yacht Club. Seriously gorgeous. The motifs remind me of New England Summers and Cape Cod (which is where we got married). I made a card that could be either masculine or feminine. Okay, enough blabbing…here it is!

The little banner flags were made out of the frame stickers that are part of the collection. I punched them out with my triangle punch and the used some twine to mimic rope. I had those little shells in my stash. I used a dark cranberry ink for my sentiment.

This is kind of a cool technique…Tear one piece of paper and put another piece underneath it and then fray the edges. These papers all go together so nicely! Love the anchor!

Hello and Easter Blessings to you and your family! We will be at church this morning and then out for a nice breakfast. Who knows…maybe even a movie! I'm dying to see Water for Elephants! Looks so good. I'm posting a hodge podge of things today. I have my last Easter card to share, some pix, and a shout out thank you to Hero Arts. Let's get started!

 This is a stamp from a set from Flourishes…called Spring has Sprung!

I used a very simple and soft color palette of blue and green and a touch of brown. I always love the soft pastels with brown. That never gets old.

For the brown border around my central image I used two Nestabilities at the same time in my Cuttlebug. I cut out a ring to place over the image instead of layering my image on top. Just wanted to try something different.

 I cut tiny strips of foam tape to put my ring of brown on top.

I wanted some more soft blue on the card so I made my own embellishment with seam tape, a flower and a gem. After I made the whole thing, as you'll see below, I distressed the ribbon and the flower.

Here are some pictures I took this week! They scream out SPRING! These daisies are planted in front of my office building and the pink flowers were on a tree in front of Starbucks. I really like both images for the fresh colors and the feel of the change of seasons…

 Lastly…you guys might remember that I won a prize from Hero Arts a couple of weeks ago (click here to go to that post)! I got to choose $50 in free product! Well, my package arrived and I thought I would show you my choices. Some of you had asked me what I would choose.  WOO WOO! SO cool. Thank you Hero Arts!

Wow. Friday. And a GOOD Friday it is! This has been a long stressful week and today I am trying to be mindful of the true and great significance of this day. My problems are small and I am safe. There is much to be grateful for. Amen. I hope you all have a nice Easter weekend! I have Easter cards to share today and then one more to share on Sunday. Be well and take care.

My Easter card to post today is also an entry for the Shabby Tea Room Challenge #58.  The theme this week at STR is pastels and stripes. That's fun, isn't it!? There are still two more days to enter your card into the mix…why don'tcha?

I'm mad about this plaid paper! PERFECT for Easter and Spring cards! The bunny stamp is from WhipperSnapper and the words are from Penny Black. The papers are We R Memory Keepers…

The coloring is very simple here…not too much shading or anything. I barely outlined the inside of the bunnies with a soft grey and then a soft pink for their ears. I went around the entire image with a light aqua to give a little more color and definition to the image. Nothing to it really.

Mr. Buddy was especially helpful in the making of this card and he wanted to make sure he received proper credit for ribbon oversight. So, I put this pic in just for him!

 
Happy Easter weekend Peeps! Get it? Peeps? Sorry, you know it had to be said. :-) 

Can you believe it’s been a month already since the last Taylored Expressions Blog Hop? I sure can’t! I have enjoyed making cards for these hops and I always “meet” some new bloggers in the process as we go from blog to blog to check out everyone’s cards. Well, today is the April Blog Hop Day! The theme for this month is “Clean and Simple” design. Yeah, I had to seriously curtail the use of ‘stuff’ on my card!! It’s good for me though, right? Hahaha.

Here’s my finished card. I used the adorable little pie stamp and setiment from the Sweet Treats stamp set. I also used the sketch from Sankari as you’ll see below. Have fun today hopping around. The list of all the cards and blogs is at the bottom of my post!

Here’s the sketch image. I kept is simple! Are you proud of me? hahaha. No layering, no ribbon, no blings, no pearls, no brads… But you know I had to add a teensy bit of glitter glue, right?  I do like how my card turned out, and this is a great layout to save for the future!

Hi friends! Been crafting up a storm allll weekend! My crafty mojo finally kicked in early yesterday afternoon and since then it's been non stop for me! The DH was busy with some stuff for work so I had uninterrupted crafty time. I got all my Easter projects done and started on some other things that are in the works for May. Since Easter is only one week away, I figured I'd better start posting my cards! I'm sitting down to watch The Amazing Race with the guys and blogging…perfect way to end the day. I hope a great week is in store for you! 
 

I started off thinking I was going to make an all white card, using different embossing folders and paper textures. I just wanted to use that pink bunny as the only color on the card. As I got into it, it just didn't look right to me. I decided to use some thin pink borders and then it looked better. The pink felt bunny is a Martha Stewart sticker!

Hi peeps! Saturday morning…feeling a bit melancholy today for whatever reason…trying to find some crafty mojo and some energy. Put the laundry in, now just looking at the giant hurricane aftermath on my stamping table. Not knowing where to start. But maybe I just want to go lay down with my kitty and take a nap. Ever feel that way? I will perservere and I know that something will kick in! I hope you are having a great weekend so far. Are you crafting this weekend?

Today I'm sharing a card I made for Eat Cake Graphics with their Summer Houses stamp. This is a big image and I had a lot of fun coloring it a while back. Reminds me of summers by the lake and easy breezy days. I hope you like it!

I colored the houses with my trusty Copic Markers. I made the roofs all the same color to give some uniformity to the image and also to "ground" all that color. I wanted the houses to pop off the page. I went back and forth on how to color the grass and ultimately decided just to add a little bit of green and leave the rest white. Don't you wish we were there right now?

Okay, I'm off to find my crafty mojo for today. Have you seen it?

THE END. Hee hee.

Bonjour mes amis! Greetings of the Spring…and today it's Springtime in Paris! I got this super adorable stamp set a while ago and finally got inky with it! Mimi in Paris…from Penny Black…Ooh la la indeed! Since France's colors are the same as ours, red, white and blue, I used that as my color scheme. Scrounged around in all my stash for some Paris related items…and voila! Here's a card to share with you today. Best wishes for a fabulous day!

Here's the stamp set! EEEEK, so cute! Sorry I couldn't get a bigger image!

I colored her with my Copics and kept the colors super simple and bright. I used the B21, B23, B24 combo for the blue, which is one of my absolute favorite color palettes. I used a very light gray for the little pooch.

 
 Au revoir!

Hi everyone! Happy weekend! I have had a blast this weekend so far. Yesterday was the big Rubber Stamp Convention in our town! Over the years I have become friends with the owner of A Stamp In The Hand – Kat – and her crew of FUN ladies. Kat puts on the RSC every year and starting about 7-8 years ago I began to work at the show. Sometimes I demo for one of the vendors, sometimes I will work the register, and this year I was at the front table taking admissions and greeting the crazy stamper stampede! Friday night we all went out for a nice dinner together and then yesterday worked the show all day and then had another nice dinner. Shout out to Kat for her generosity to me…she is such a cool lady. Now, in a flash, just like they arrived, they are back on a plane to LA. It was a good show – best attendance for the past few years. I reconnected with some stamping friends I hadn't seen in a long time and I look forward to getting together with them soon. There was a raffle for some amazing baskets full of stamping supplies and it raised $1600 for Japan Red Cross. Wonderful…

So this morning I had a little freak out moment realizing that Easter is in exactly two weeks! Now, normally Easter would have come and gone already…so I have had lots of time… But I haven't made my Easter cards yet! I made one this morning and wanted to share it right away. Kind of a shabby chic thing. I hope you have a fab day today!

This whole card was inspired by the pretty Easter banner with the chicks on it. I found this at Michael's a few weeks ago and stuck it in my stash. It is canvas and really thick. It had a wooden dowel through the top and a wire (so you could hang it on the wall) and I removed that part since I thought it was the perfect size for a card. I based my color scheme around the banner. I wanted to pop some of that pretty deep golden color and found a perfect match in some cardstock. Um, and yet again, me with the gingham paper. (I know what you guys are thinking – she really does need a 12 step for that!).

 
 Thank you for visiting me today here on the bloggy blog!

Hi everyone! WOOT WOOT! Okay I am totally excited to write this post tonight! Because…I'm a Hero Arts Fab Five Winner! Yay! Before I even had time to post this card I found out I won a prize on the Hero Arts Blog! The contest for March was a Birthday theme and I made this fun card with the uber cute new stamps from Basic Grey/Hero Arts! These images are so happy and silly and fun! Before I blabber on further…I'll show you the card!

I can't believe I won a prize! I get to choose $50 worth of product from the Hero Arts online store! OMG are you kidding me? How great is that!? I have admired and used Hero Arts stamps since I started stamping in 1994! Now I feel like I am a part of the Hero Arts bloggy family. I'm really happy about this! Can you tell? Hahaha.
 

These stamps are just so happy! Don't you love the little cotton candy and ice cream? They just remind me of summer and fairs and fun times. I colored them in with my Copics and then smothered them in prisma glitter to make them all purty and spar-ka-lay! You know I love me some gingham and some banners…There you have it.  

 
 Thank you Hero Arts! Have a great weekend everybody!

Greetings and Salutations! How's your week going? Mine is so far, so good! Lots going on this week. Tonight is my monthly stamp club meeting and I always look forward to that very much. We are a crazy bunch of women who meet at our friend Janice's house once a month to share our love of all things Stampin' Up! We eat, gab, stamp, gab some more, card swap, give Janice a hard time, stamp some more…you get the drift! We act like a bunch of silly girls and I adore it. We've been stamping together a long time. One of the things I always look forward to is seeing all the great swap cards.

I was having trouble getting some swap card mojo going so I started surfing the web looking for ideas. I knew I wanted to use the new Stampin' Up set called "Bliss." In my surfing I came upon this post by Shelli Gardner – the founder of Stampin' Up.  I used her layout and made some (if I do say so myself) cute swaps! Take a look!

Everything on this card is from Stampin' Up…down to the last tiny pearl! My all time favorite color from SU is Kiwi Kiss…I used it here with dark brown and Soft Suede. The new seam binding tape is just wonderful.

Here is Shelli's card that I got the idea from. Isn't it wonderful? I loved it right away! I will use this layout again for sure.  Everything about it is just shabby chic perfect!
 

Here are my little swappies all ready to go! I used liquid Tombow clear glue down the center of my butterflies to make it so their wings can pop off the page. I made some in three different colors so everyone can pick the one they want.
 

Hi friends! Another weekend zoomed on by and here we are Sunday night already…ready for a new week! I had a nice weekend and hope you did too! Yesterday was Mr. Buddy's birthday…and he's four already! Check out this post from his birthday last year (some cute pics).  I got to spend a little bit of time in the crafty cave…

I have a fun post to share today! A few months ago, when we were cleaning out the garage, the DH found a box with a bunch of cards I had made him back in the day. That was a hoot! It was nice to see that I have improved over the years! hahaha. I thought it would be a fun thing to share with my bloggy friends. I particularly liked this one card we found…and come to find out I still have the same Hero Arts stamp set from 1996! So, I made a new card along the same design and color scheme. Isn't it fun to see our old stuff? Try not to laugh too hard at my old card!

I told you not to laugh! Looks like somebody just got a whole bunch of new scissors!

I must have been very proud - to sign the back of my work!  

Here is the stamp set – still in great condition! A pretty set from Hero Arts that I would still pick out today probably. Nice and cheery for Summer or for a picnic theme project.
 

 

Here's my card remake! How nice to be able to use Copics! No crazy scissors used here! 🙂

 
Have a great day! Come back soon!  

HELLLLOOOOO! Well now, Spring has come full blast to my part of the world. It was 80 degrees here today! Yesterday we were out in the yard and my husband did the first mowing and trimming of the season. My hydrangeas are going CA-razy! So my card today is inspired by flowers and gardening. I surfed around this morning and came upon a great sketch layout from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #110. This card sort of made itself once I got out the most beautiful patterned paper from Webster's Pages… I hope your week has been a good one and that something fun is in store for you over the weekend!

 The Sketch Image:

The gorgeous patterned paper:

I first cut the paper into strips and then into individual squares…It was hard to cut that paper…but now I have a big stack of pretty images to play with. I was trying to think of a way to make a note card set, but nothing good came to me yet. Any ideas? The butterfly and vellum do-dads are from a K&Company collection. Minimal stamping on this card…just the sentiment.
 

 
 
 Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. You make me happy!
  

Hi there! It's Wednesday…so I'm posting for iCopic Blog today! For this card, I'm using the sweet Birthday Anya stamp! Do you guys remember that Baskin & Robbins Commercial that goes Ice Cream and Cake, Ice Cream and Cake?"  I LOVE that commercial! It's silly and fun and happy. This card reminds me of that – nothing but happy birthday cheer! I hope you likey. Have a great day today!

One tip I have for you – in order to get your projects to match your patterned paper…choose your patterned paper first! Then, select your marker colors to match. Your projects will look professional and clean. 

I used my Cuttlebug polka dot embossing folder to make the background oval. The papers are from Basic Grey and the Cake and Ice Cream stamp is from Hero Arts. I cut her out and popped her up on some foam tape. Added flat ribbon and just a couple of buttons… 

Marker colors:  E00, E000, RV10 (face) Y21, Y35, Y11, E31 (hair) YR01, YR02, B02, B04 (dress and cake)