Category: Papercrafting

Hi! I couldn't for the life of me think of what to share today. I thought I could make this or I could make that…but nothing was coming out right. Ya know? I have one card I want to share, but I didn't give it to the person yet, so that's out. I finished a MAJOR project at work today so I'm sort of brain dead too. That doesn't help.

So, I sat here in my craft room just mulling things over. Waiting for something to come at me and inspire me. Waiting. Hello? Bueller? Is this thing on? (I'm in a weird mood, too). I looked through some crafty magazines and surfed the web. Then I just got out some paper I love (MME Penny Lane Collection) and then a card happened! A card! And then another one! Imagine that! Don't mind me – hope you like the cards though, and I hope you are having a fabulous week. Thanks for stopping in.

I've been seeing this cool technique around a lot lately – where you cut out shapes and then pop up the top layer of your card to let another paper show through. I've seen all kinds of beautiful cards. I thought I would try it with some of my fav PTI flower dies. The cute pink and white check is actually the back side of the flower paper. LOVE. Couldn't be easier. I added some pearls and a birthday saying banner. It's so cheery and happy with those papers.  

I used the flower shapes that were left as a pretty decoration for the inside of the card!

Soooo…inspired by this cool paper collection…another card came out! I don't know where I got the notion to make one of those foldy rosette things. Haven't made one in a long time. I thought it would make a cute prize ribbon. I just kept adding stuff…

I cut the edges of the strips of paper first to make a nice edge. The strips of paper are 12 inches by 1.5 inches. Scored the entire length each 1/4 inch.  

The sentiment is from PTI and the edger is a new one I just got at Joann's. I like it already!  

There ya have it! A couple of clean and simple and colorful cards for today! 🙂

Have you guys checked out Pinterest yet? It's this cooooool website that lets you create your own design and inspiration boards…then you "pin" things to them! It's the neatest thing. You can follow your friends and share your boards with people. It took me a little bit to get the hang of it but now I'm sort of addicted! Click HERE to go to see my profile and my boards! Let me know what you think!

This weekend we are finally seeing Adele in concert at the Berkeley Greek Theater! The show was postponed from back in June when she got sick and had to cancel. I am BEYOND excited to go and have a date night under the stars with the DH! Is it the weekend yet? Talk to you soon everyone!

Hi peeps! Greetings on this fine August day! I have a lot to share with you today. It was a busy weekend and I have a card to show ya. But first an announcement!  I am super excited to announce that I was the winner for Week #72 over at the Shabby Tea Room Blog! Yay! I have been a follower of this great blog since I started looking at blogs and it is one of the ones that inspired me to finally start my own. I have entered their fun challenges several times and I get so much inspiration from everyone's work. To be a winner is so cool!! I am totally thrilled! As a bonus, I will now get to be a guest designer for a week on Shabby Tea Room. My guest designer spot will be on October 3rd. Thank you Debbie!

 
Okay…now on to my card for today. It's a no-stamp Birthday card with a giant cupcake on it! I had fun creating this one. I went through all of my cards last week and discovered that I am low on Birthday cards so I need to start making some more. I gave myself the challenge of making a birthday card with NO GINGHAM PAPER and NO POLKA DOT PAPER! Are you worried I could do it? I was! I was inspired by the pretty patterened birthday paper from Imaginisce and used it for my color palette.

This giant cupcake is a chipboard shape that I covered in paper, glitter glue and a button!  

Here is my color palette and the chipboard shape.  

I cut the top out of pink paper that matched the patterned paper and then sanded it to make it softer and give some depth.  My finished card is 8 x 4 inches…so that really is a giant cupcake!

The bottom part was cut out of kraft paper and then run through my crimper… I had to dust off the crimper… It hasn't seen the light of day in a long time! I thought it was perfect to make this look like a cupcake wrapper though.  

Now for the fun part! SPARKLES!  

Now, I said I couldn't use Gingham paper or Polka Dot paper…. But did you see I sneaked those two things in anyway? Ha. I couldn't help it.  

For the sentiment, I cut out a tiny strip from the paper and put it on a piece of the blue paper to make a banner. I also cut out one of the party hats. NO stamping on this card – just paper crafting. Sometimes I like that.  

 
 Have a fabulous week bloggy friends!

AUGUST RELEASE DAY!

• All of the new products are now available for purchase! Check out the Fresh Out of the Oven category and Taylor's Blog for all the deets!
• More projects from the Baker's Dozen to inspire you.  Just follow the link list below.
• Another chance to win… head on over to our forum (link to sneak peek thread) and tell us your favorite stamp set from this release. We'll be choosing one person to win their favorite set FREE!  You have until Saturday August 6th at 6 pm PST to enter to win.

Today I have one last card to share with you for release week! I made a third card from the Joy to the World set. I was inspired to make something clean and simple with that set. Something to have a quiet message. Very few supplies and lots of white space. Here ya go:

For Christmas I am always drawn to shades of olive and cranberry. Just seems so classy and elegant to use those colors and some sheer ribbon. 

Thank you so much for spending part of your week with me and letting me introduce you to all these new stamps from TE! I hope you have a great day!  
 

Here are the links to the other Baker's Dozen Designers! You will definitely want to see what everyone else has made!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Jami Sibley
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Karen Motz
• Melissa Sauls
• Melody Rupple
• Nancy McKinney
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild   

AUGUST RELEASE AT A GLANCE:

• We have sneak peeks to share and today's the last day before the release! All of the new products will be available for purchase on Tomorrow, August 4th at 8 am PST. You'll find it  all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
• 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.
• Angel Bundle Prize Drawing: We're very excited to be supporting the Angel Tree with Joy to the World, the newest set in the TE Giving Tree Program.  If you'd like to be entered to win our Angel Bundle Prize Pack (Joy to the World Full Sized Stamp Set, Angel Kisses Taylored Card Kit, and the Musical Swirls Taylored Impression Plate) simply click over to the Angel Tree website and find the answer to this question: "Name the founder of Angel Tree."  E-mail Taylored Expressions with the answer in the subject line of your e-mail by Wednesday at 6pm PST.  The winner will be announced on Taylor's blog at approximately 10 pm PST Wednesday night.

Today's sets are so fun! The sets are: "Wild West", "Moka Jesse", "Moka Jane", "Moka Angel", and "School A la Carte." That's a lot of stamps for one day! Be sure, today of all days, to check everyone's blog so you see all the sets. I am using Moka Jane and a sentiment from Wild West! 

"Wild West* is a full sized set on a 5.75" x 8.5" storage panel  and includes 16 images/sentiments. It was illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes line and perfectly coordinates with Moka Jane and Moka Jesse. The "Mokas" each come on a 3" x 5.5" full color sturdy storage panel and were also designed and illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Moka Collection. Jane and Jesse each have 7 total images and sentiments, Angel has 5.

And, introducing…Moka Jane! EEEK! She is so adorable with the big ole' cowgirl hat and those red boots! I colored her in with my Prismacolor pencils to make the colors really rich. The sentiment is from the Wild West set!  

 
 
 
I cut out a second cowgirl hat and popped it up on some foam tape to add dimension to her. I like the fresh combination of red and yellow with kraft. Will have to use that again for sure.  

 I used the current TESC sketch #143 for my layout inspiration….LOVE this sketch.

Do you like my fringe?? hee hee.

Tomorrow is release day! Be sure to check back in. Here are the links to the other Baker's Dozen Designers! You will definitely want to see what everyone else has made!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Jami Sibley
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melissa Sauls
• Melody Rupple
• Nancy McKinney
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild   

AUGUST RELEASE AT A GLANCE:

• We have sneak peeks to share Monday through Wednesday.  All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, August 4th at 8 am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
• 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.
• Angel Bundle Prize Drawing: We're very excited to be supporting the Angel Tree with Joy to the World, the newest set in the TE Giving Tree Program.  If you'd like to be entered to win our Angel Bundle Prize Pack (Joy to the World Full Sized Stamp Set, Angel Kisses Taylored Card Kit, and the Musical Swirls Taylored Impression Plate) simply click over to the Angel Tree website and find the answer to this question: "Name the founder of Angel Tree."  E-mail Taylored Expressions with the answer in the subject line of your e-mail by Wednesday at 6pm PST.  The winner will be announced on Taylor's blog a 10 pm PST Wednesday night.

The first set for the August release is a pretty Angel set called "Joy to the World." The set was illustrated by Nancy McKinney as part of the Whimsical Wishes line of stamps. This is a full sized set on an 5.75" x 8.5" full color sturdy storage panel – and includes 21 images/sentiments. There are  beautiful images for Christmas cards and projects as well as year-round cards.  Also in today's release is a gorgeous Musical and Swirls Impression Plate and the Angel Kisses Taylored Card Kit! I've used all of these products on my two cards for today!!

 
 
The "Joy to the World" set is the newest set in the TE Giving Tree Program tbat support various charities. Giving Tree sets now come pre-trimmed just like the rest of our sets – no cutting needed!   $5 from the sale of each Joy to the World stamp set will be donated to Angel Tree from August 4th – October 31.  
Taylor chose Angel Tree as the charity to support this quarter because it's something she has been involved with for many years.  Angel Tree is a program administered by Prison Fellowship whose Mission is to seek the transformation of prisoners and their reconciliation to family and community through the power of the Lord.  Angel Tree invites churches to provide Christmas gifts to the children of inmates across the country.  Taylor would love to have you learn more about this charity so she planned a special prize drawing! If you'd like to be entered to win the Angel Bundle Prize Pack (Joy to the World Full Sized Stamp Set, Angel Kisses Taylored Card Kit, and the Musical Swirls Taylored Impression Plate) simply click over to the Angel Tree website and find the answer to this question: "Name the founder of Angel Tree."  E-mail Taylored Expressions with the answer in the subject line of your e-mail by Wednesday at 6pm PST.  The winner will be announced on Taylor's blog at approximately 10 pm PST Wednesday night.

For today's cards – you'll notice that I made two cards that are very similar. I wanted to show an "easy" card and a more difficult card made with the same supplies. The first one would be great to mass produce as Christmas cards and it is flat so it's easy to mail. The second one is kind of a "more is more" thing…with ribbon and blings and more layers.  

Here is my Copic color palette for the angels. I loved the pink in the paper so I wanted to pick that up in her dress.

 
 
 
 
Lots of yummy layers, ribbon, and bling! This is definitely "more!" Everything comes in the new Card Kit and it couldn't be easier to mix and match it all.

The new Musical Swirls Impression plate is going to be a favorite of mine – I can already tell. I used the Musical note side for my background paper and the Swirls side for the cream oval under the angel. Here's a close up for you:

  
Angel Kisses Taylored Card Kit: WOW! This is an amazing value at $16.95 and it includes all of the following:

24 A2 Cream Envelopes and 24 Choice Buttercream A2 Card Bases
24 Choice Buttercream Image Panels 4.25" x 5.5"
24 pieces of coordinating cardstock 4.25" x 5.5" (4 colors, 6 sheets each color)
24 pieces of Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses patterned paper 4" x 6"
6 yards of twill (2 yards each of Wine, Artichoke, Carnation)
1 package of Want to Scrap Maroon Pearls
1 package of Want to Scrap Green Pearls

   
With the kit, there will also be a downloadable inspiration sheet that will include 10 easy to re-create samples by the Baker's Dozen! Additional ribbon bundles available for separate purchase as well as a coordinating Copics kit!

Remeber that all TE stamps are made from top-quality deeply etched rubber in a cute shade of pink and come on EZ Mount already trimmed and ready to used with your acrylic blocks.  

Here are the links to the other Baker's Dozen Designers! You will definitely want to see what everyone else has made!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melissa Sauls
• Melody Rupple
• Nancy McKinney
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild   

Hello! Today I'm sharing a sweet birthday card I made for a sweet birthday girl! It's kind of a shabby chic confection sort of thing…full of color and girly goodness. I used one of my favorite card folds too. I used to make these cards a lot…but haven't for a while. You'll see what I mean. Hope you like it! Also, the week is going by at warp speed – so I hope you've had a great one! Thanks for coming by today! 

The inside pulls out! I added a birthday greeting and my own personal message after taking the pictures. I love this card design because you can go ca-razy with all your patterned papers! The sentiments are both from Amuse stamps.

This card is my entry for the Shabby Tea Room Blog Challenge Week #72! Look at this GORGEOUS inspiration image:

 
 
The card starts as an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock scored down the middle, and cut in half the long way. Cut the triangle on your paper cutter but cutting the area in half. The two will then match up when you glue them together. Easy peasy!

Don't you love all this yummy color?? I like that bright pop of red with the yellow and the flowers.

It needed something on the front, ya know! How about a bright pink flower? Why, yes, thank you very much!

 
 Have a beautiful day, beautiful bloggy friends!
 

Hi friends! Today I'm posting my second post as a Guest Designer for Scrapbuggy!  A while back I was contacted by the sweet owner of Scrapbuggy.com, Gia, and she asked if I would like to do some projects for her! Well…of course I said yes! She specializes in QuicKutz and she sent me some of her exclusive dies to play with. I posted some last Saturday and then this card today. Thanks again for the opportunity Gia! It has been so nice working with you!

This vine and flower die that she sent me is fabulous! It could work for a card, as I've done, or for scrapbook pages. It's large enough to cover a good size area. My finished card is 8×4 inchest to give you an idea of scale. I decided to make a happy summer card.

I layered two different colors of green vine to add some interest and depth to the project. I used two shades of pink and then also popped up some of the flowers with foam tape. Added some yellow blings to the centers…voila!  

Here is my pile o' die cuts! Isn't this a happy sight?  Even though this die is on the large size, I cut everything out with my Cuttlebug.

Thank you for coming by the blog today! Have a very happy Saturday! I'm off to see some of my stamping gal pals in the bay area to have some pizza and gab the day away. I need to hear all about the Stampin' Up convention deets.  Cannot wait!!

Today I have a little baby girl card I made for a special someone who was born last week! One of my friends had her baby on Saturday morning…so you know I had to get crackin' on a card for her! I found some inspiration from Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #126 and my Taylored Expressions stamps!  I used some papers from MME Lime Twist Collection and some tiny pom poms! This was a fun card to make – the best ones come from the heart…don'tcha think?

Here is the sketch image….I'll be coming back to this one for sure. You can make is super simple, or add a bunch of layers.

I paper pieced the baby buggy to add some color. At first I tried using Copics, but I thought it looked too plain. I liked this version better. I dug up those tiny pom poms from my stash… 

Taylor and some of the gang are at Chicago CHA this week. I'm just a wee bit (okay a lot) pouty about not being there with them! Please check back on Thursday because we will have some special deals over at the TE store. Have a great day!   

Greetings! Are you having a great weekend!? I hope so! Mine has been full of crafty goodness. Dave Brethauer was in town this weekend, teaching at my friend Stephanie's store and I took another one of his pencil classes. It was AWESOME as always! We used all new Memory Box images and cranked out five cool cards in two hours. Dave is such a fun person and his pencil skills leave me breathless every time. He is on a cross country teaching tour with his wife and kids right now. It was nice to meet the rest of his fabbie family. I took some pix to share with you!  

First off, I always make Dave a card to give him when he comes through town – to thank him for class and to show off some of my favorite stamps from his line. This year I made him a birdie card using the new big ticket background and a bird/flowers stamp. Here's the card I made him…and it was funny because one of the cards we made in class used the same concept! I try to keep it masculine…but also bright and happy at the same time. I used the new papers from Memory Box too…

Here is a cute pic of Dave and his son Cooper. They had the best t-shirts! Each of them has a polar bear tee with their name on the front and "Memory Box" on the back. Love that!

Teadub came into town to take class too and we had a fun time hanging out together. Here's Teadbud taking a pic of Dave and Cooper! Lots of people in class. Saw so many friends – Miko, Erna, Joy, Ruth, Julia….what a great day.

Teadub concentrating on one of our cards…

The next few pics are the projects we made…

Isn't this funny – that this card looks just like the one I made Dave!? I am loving this new background stamp.

This one is my favorite! Love how he taught us to shade the pears with green, yellow and then some red in the center. 

Teadub's birthday is in a couple of weeks so I brought cupcakes and we had a little pre-birthday party after class! MMMMM….lemon…. 

This is me…just having a little fun with a picture I took of my pencils…I'm thinking some version of this is going to turn into my next blog header. I need to get crack-a-lackin' on that.  Before I forget.

Have a wonderful day!

Hi friends! Today I'm posting as a Guest Designer for Scrapbuggy!  A while back I was contacted by the sweet owner of Scrapbuggy.com, Gia, and she asked if I would like to do some projects for her! Well…of course I said yes! She specializes in QuicKutz and she sent me some of her exclusive dies to play with. I will post some today and some more next Saturday. Thanks for the opportunity Gia!

My first set of cards is made with a really fun chair die. It has a big, comfy chair and a pretty, formal chair. Here are my projects:

I cut my chairs die out with my Cuttlebug and I used the DCWV Adhesive backed paper for easy application to my card base. These chairs are great because they can be shabby-chic in white or masculine and formal in brown. You know which I chose! The seat cushion is a separate piece of the die so you can make it with a different paper. Love that!  

The "Chair" sentiments on both cards are from PTI… 

Can't you just imagine yourself in this big comfy chair with a bowl of popcorn and a movie? If I had my own little beach cottage it would be decorated exactly like this – flowers and white and blue everywhere! I made a little rug out of a piece of cardstock cut into an oval.  

Please pop over to Scrapbuggy.com and check out Gia's great dies!!  

Happy Saturday everyone! Have a wonderful weekend!

Take care!   

Alrighty…This is a loooong post that shows my weird train of thought and the roundabout ways that I get inspired! So, the story starts last week, when, out of the blue I got a sweet email from the Editor of Papercraft Inspirations (The biggest card craft magazine in the UK). She asked if it would be okay if she featured this card in their magazine!!! I'm like, um, yeah!

One of my goals has been to be published in a magazine…but I have been too chicken to submit anything. I don't care how long I've been stamping, I just don't want to be rejected. I need to get over it (but that's a story for another time). I guess their magazine has a feature in which they show cards from people's blogs! Yay! I will keep you posted, and let you know when the issue comes out!

I decided to hop over to the Papercraft Inspirations Blog to check it out…and I saw THIS adorable card from Humble Chan!! ACK. Seriously I had a cute meltdown! I knew that I had to find time to put my spin on this!!! (What is it with me and the cute fruits lately?) The ones on Humble Chan's card were store bought embellies, but I thought "I can make those!"  Okay, so that is the roundabout way that I came to make these:

I made all of these in just a couple of hours!! Really, it's just circles!! I used all my nice PTI felt and my circle nestabilities and went to town. The black for their eyes is jet black enamel accents. I used some Tacky Glue to put them together. Could not be simpler! OMG… I love this project. Totally makes me smile. I wish I had more felt…I woulda made a bunch more. Get it? A bunch more! LOL!

Kinda makes you want a margarita, no?  

He reminds me of the Fruit of the Loom guy!  

This one is my favorite!  

Not too many supplies really…. 

Look at them posing… 

 
I got to thinking, and I remembered that I have this nice words set from PTI that has a saying about a peach! AYYYYY. I found the stamp set and then I HAD to make this CAS card!  

 
We will have to examine my fruit fetish later, but for now I hope this made you smile too!  Have a wonderful, sweet day!

Hello! Today I want to share a project that's been rambling around in my noggin for quite some time. I was inspired by the super talented Shari Carroll and a project on her blog. I had saved the link to this gorgeous project she made and just needed some time to sit down and create my version of it. Well…I finally did it! (The link and more about her project are later in the post!) This project took a long time and some patience, but I think the results are worth it. It was really fun to go through all my brads, buttons and blings to find all this pink! Maybe you will try it too?!

Here is Shari's GORGEOUS canvas project! OMG, can you see why I was inspired? Here is the link directly to the project on her great blog.  She is a designer for Hero Arts and I've been a fan of hers for a long time. Please pop over and check out her blog!

First I lightly drew a heart in pencil on my cream cardstock. That was the easy part! ha. I started with the bigger buttons and brads first and then filled in with the pearls and the rhinestones. It doesn't have to be perfect. This took some time…

Here's the back of the project! The buttons and things were put on with glue dots. The brads I just poked through the paper.  

Because the back was so bulky, I mounted the cream piece with the heart on foam tape. I kept the rest of the card relatively simple and light. Let the heart be the focus. 

 
Thank you for stopping by today! Hope you're having a good week. Now this project is very classy and serious… My project for later in the week is super silly and cheery! Nope, I'm not giving any clues… 
 
 

Well…I have been quite the bizzy bee in my little crafty hive this weekend! I've made so much stuff! That's what happens when you stay home all weekend! hahaha. Seriously, I've been having a good time! I hope your weekend was full of fun, sun and joy! Today my card is my entry for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #142! SUCH a cute sketch! I knew right away I had to jump in and join the fun. I used one of my favorite TE sets of all time and some fresh papers. Take a look:

 
Here is the fun sketch image:

Normally, I will shake up the sketch image a little bit…but this time I did the exact layout. I just thought it was so clever and fun. I added a scallop under my banners using the large size TE border scallop die. Just gave it another pop of color. The papers are from MME Lime Twist Collection. MMMMM. 

 
 
Here is my Copic palette, and you can see the stamp set in the background…remember this one? It's called "A Day in Paradise." LOVE. I only used a few shades – that matched the patterned paper. Aqua, red and green. Nice combo.

 
 
Maybe you are out soaking up some sun? I hope you are doing whatever makes ya happy! Summertime is upon us and it's time to relax… Have a great week next week.

Hi peeps! Yup, officially Summer here in our town…been over 100 for five days in a row now… I must say that after being back east a few weeks ago…there really is something to that "it's a dry heat" theory. I don't feel it here as much! I hope everyone is having a good time relaxing.  We are Fall people and we have been trying to plan a vacation for October to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. We are debating several places and keeping a keen eye on the Travelzoo website. Our last two vacations were from that site and they were both great!

Today's post has my card(s) for the July Hero Arts Blog Contest. The themes this month are Summertime and Parties! I chose a cute set of Summer Fruits from Hero Arts to make a notecard set. This was such a fun project! Got out the gingham paper and the Copics and just a smidgen of glitter glue. Couldn't be easier. This stamp set is way adorable!

Some simple supplies and a quick and easy layout. I used a Martha Stewart edger punch for the solid paper. The notecards were cut using a large square Sizzix die. They are about 4.5 inches square. Makes it seem summery to me.

The set also has a Pear and a Pineapple stamp…I guess I could have kept on stamping! Oh, and I think there's an apple too! I think these four are the most season appropriate.  

I know I took a million pictures… These colors were so fun to photograph. So graphic and clean with that white setting.  

 
There is still a lot of time to enter the contest. You can enter as many times as you like. Go on! Have a fabulous weekend everyone! Thanks for coming by my blog today. Mwah.

Hi there! Did you have a nice 4th of July? I hope you did! It was hot hot hot here in Sac-town and we spent the day relaxing at home. It was the perfect day… Yesterday Buddy and I spent some time in the stamp room together making a card to enter into Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #124 for this week! I love Karen's sketches! Buddy helped me pick out a cute stamp from Whipper Snapper, because it reminded him…of him! hahaha. This is a really fun image and it was fun to color.

Here's the sketch image:

Here's Buddy helping me color…  

My Copic Color Palette for this card…

Buddy checking it out to make sure he approves… 

The blue background was made with the super cool, brand new Clouds Impression Plate from Taylored Expressions. You need this… Trust me. LOVE.  I ran it through the Cuttlebug and then gently sanded those adorable clouds to make the white paper core come through!

Made my own paper flower with a punch and a button. I like these bright fresh colors together. Very Summery.

I guess he approved…and then lost interest! 

He was cracking me up….sorry for all the pictures. I think he won't leave me alone ever since I got home from Virginia! So he will sit ON me or on my table! It's very sweet. My little stamping pal. He really is the cat's meow.

 
 
Have a great day my kind bloggy friends!   
 

 Release Day! 

• All of the new products are now available for purchase! Check out the Fresh Out of the Oven category and Taylor's Blog for all the deets!
• More projects from the Baker's Dozen to inspire you.  Just follow the link list below.
• Did you win one of the Mystery Baker's Dozen Blog Giveaways? Find the list of winners on Taylor's Blog
• Another chance to win… head on over to our forum and tell us your favorite stamp set from this release. We'll be choosing one person to win their favorite set FREE!  You have until Saturday July 2nd at 6 pm PST to enter to win.

My final project for the release is made using another one of the adorable Moka stamps!! This one is named after Taylor! This was Taylor's personal favorite from the stamp line so Nancy named it after her! The Moka Taylor set comes on a 3" x 5.5" full color sturdy storage panel. As with the rest of the cute collection, she was designed and illustrated by Nancy McKinney! There is also a Moka Justin coming out today…with inspiration from a famous Justin *wink*  and it has some funny sentiments perfect for a 'tween boy. 

My card features Moka Taylor and the Happy Birthday sentiment that also comes with the set. I used the My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup/Girl paper collection and a fresh color theme of orange, aqua and salmon. This is called a Z fold card…and I like it because you can use a lot of different patterned papers! You should try it!

That's it for me today…and it's RELEASE DAY! Go shopping and have fun! Here are the links to the rest of the gang for today. Take care!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Jami Sibley
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Karen Motz
• Melissa Sauls
• Melody Rupple
• Nancy McKinney
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild  

 July Release At a Glance

• Today is our second sneak peek day! All of the new products will be available for purchase tomorrow! – Friday, July 1st at 8 am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
• Join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets, as well as a SPECIAL GIVEAWAY, on TONIGHT beginning at approximately 6 pm PST.
• Mystery Baker's Dozen Blog Giveaway: Each day, one lucky blog commenter will be chosen by random draw to win a $10 TE Gift Certificate.  Winners will be chosen from a different Baker's Dozen blog each day and will be announced on Taylor's blog on Release Day!  Be sure to hop around to see all the sneak peeks and leave comments on each and every blog for more chances to win. Limit one comment per blog per day, please.  Comments close Thursday 7/30 at 7pm PST for the drawings.  

Two more amazing sets to be introduced today! The first one is called "Birds of a Feather" and is a full sized set on a 5.75" x 8.5" full color sturdy storage panel. It includes 21 images/sentiments! Gorgeous bird cages and four shapes of birds and cute words…LOVE. It was illustrated by Nancy McKinney as part of the Whimsical Wishes line. This set is very versatile…can be shabby chic and vintage or bright and colorful and clean…You're gonna love this one. 

Taylor made a Bird and Branch die set to use to cut out the main branch image and the little birdies too! SCORE! You can see the die set used in my card. I used the stamp with the branch, but for the birdies I just used the die and then colored them with ink.

See how perfectly that branch is cut out? The die is fantastic! It comes with a clear plastic index to put over the stamped image so you get it even. Wonderful. I stamped the branch in brown ink and then went back over it with some colored pencils to give it some texture, like bark.

The sentiments for this set are in a cool, vintagey font… I used the shabby chic My Mind's Eye Stella Rose Hattie paper collection. It has some neat colors in it- like this mustard yellow. Something different. I used my oval nestabilities and layered in some text paper.

The second stamp for today is an a la carte single stamp called "Hello." Well, you had me at hello! It's so perfect to send someone a quick note to let them know you're thinking about them! "Hello A la Carte" is illustrated by Nancy McKinney. This line of A la Cartes has been so well-received that Taylor is excited to introduce another that you'll want to use over and over again!

My whole card was inspired by the color palette from the My Mind's Eye Lime Twist -Happy Go Lucky paper pad. YUM. I had not ever used these colors together before. The paper led me to this Copic palette. OMG. Yes….I will be coming back to this one. Maybe for Fall projects?  

I used the TE Medium Scallop Border Die for that pretty violet border under the ribbon… 

There are two other stamps being released today {hint – Moka} that you will want to check out! Here are the links to the other Baker's Dozen Designers!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Jami Sibley
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Karen Motz
• Melissa Sauls
• Melody Rupple
• Nancy McKinney
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild