We're BACK!! TE Sketch Challenge #151

Good morning & Happy Friday! I'm running around frantically trying to get our little family packed for the flight to California tomorrow... our first big trip with an infant! The laundry still isn't done and the bags still aren't completely packed, but we will get there one way or another. I just hope we're all still in one piece! I'm welcoming any and all advice for traveling with a baby so feel free to leave me a comment below while there's still time to pack and unpack our suitcase and carry-on with all of the necessities!

In the midst of our travel preparations, I really am SUPER excited to get started with the TE Sketch Challenge again! If you're new to our sketch challenge, WELCOME! And if you're a seasoned pro, WELCOME BACK! Everyone will want to continue reading as we're changing up a few things to make it even more fun and exciting!

1. I'm thrilled to welcome Tracy Clemente as our new Sketch Team Coordinator! She'll be keeping us all in line behind the scenes and I can't even tell you how thankful I am for that! These days I need to have someone lay out my clothes for me in the morning. Tracy, can you pop over and do that too!? *wink*  I'm also super excited to welcome Jen Shults and Sankari Wegman to the team. Jen, Sankari, and I will be trading off designing the layouts for each sketch challenge! 

2. Your sketch challenge entries should be uploaded right here on my blog using the In Linkz below. Previously your cards needed to be uploaded to Splitcoaststampers and while you're still welcome (and encouraged!) to upload there, we'll be choosing the winners from the cards that are linked here on my blog. New sketch challenges will be posted on the 2nd and 4th Friday of each month.

3. We're adding in a new twist called the Top Chef! In addition to choosing one random winner for a TE gift certificate, I'll also be choosing my favorite card each week and awarding the creator Top Chef honors! Our Top Chef will participate along with the Sketch Crew in the following week's sketch challenge and have her card and blog featured right here on the TE Blog. I'll be judging the entries based on the three C's....cute, clever, and creative! Can't wait to see what you all make.

OK... so I think I've covered the changes and it's finally time to get to the sketch! Ready!? It's a fun one!

Here are the sketch requirements one more time:

Create a card using the above sketch as inspiration. You're not required to use TE stamps to play, but there's a bonus prize if you do! To be entered into the prize drawing you must link your card using the In Linkz provided below by Thursday, February 9th. And here are the prizes that are up for grabs:

1. I will randomly select one person from all of the challenge links to receive a $10 gift certificate to the TE Store! If you used predominantly TE Stamps on your project you’ll receive an extra $10 bonus for a total $20 gift certificate!

2. I will select my favorite card to win Top Chef honors! The winner of the Top Chef will play along with the sketch crew and have her blog and card design featured here on the TE blog.

While some things change, others stay the same (which is a really great thing when I'm talking about our amazingly talented Sketch Crew!!). They're back to share their inspiration using the above sketch:

Created by Cassie Trask: A Day in the Life of a Homeschooling Mom

Created by Jami Sibley: More is More

Created by Margie Cortina: Oh Bumble is Me

Created by Tracy Clemente: Eat, Sleep, Stamp

 Created by Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper

 Created by Rachel Sztonyk: Gingerbread Gal

 Created by Lisa Hjulberg: The Craft's Meow

Created by Lori Craig: Make a Difference

 Created by Taylor VanBruggen: Taylored Expressions

Attention Bargain Shoppers!

Good morning! We're almost ready to head off to CHA to buy all of the latest and greatest products for the TE Store, but first it's time to make room on our shelves with our semi-annual CHA Clearance Sale! We've taken markdowns on tons of products like Puffies, patterned paper, chipboard, Nestabling, vintage buttons, and more!

When: Now through Wednesday, February 1st

Where: Taylored Expressions What's the Deal Department

Details: Use coupon code CHASALE2012 for an extra 10% discount on all of the already discounted merchandise in the What's the Deal department. Get over 50% off some of your favorite products!

Once these products are gone they will not be re-stocked so shop early for the best selection.

New Year.... New Look!

It occurred to me the other day that I'm heading to CHA in less than a week and I'm going to be seeing lots of friends, customers, and vendors who only know me from the pictures I post on my blog. I've been so busy sharing my sweet Madelyn these days and I realized that I haven't shared my own 'new look'! A few months after Madelyn was born I decided it was time for a change. I needed something quick and easy to style. I'm sure all of the moms can relate that some days it's near impossible to find time to shower, let alone dry, straighten, and style my hair! And I had very short hair in college so when I chopped it all off it wasn't a total shock. Now with short hair my collection of headbands has tripled (from 0 to 3). *grin* I love searching for new headbands and so far I've found my favorite ones at J Crew! After my latest haircut I took a trip to see my friend Diana over at Diana's Photo Expressions and she snapped a few quick pics in her sweet studio!  Anyways, enough about my new look because I know you'd prefer to see pics of Madelyn instead!

So I'll leave you with a few angelic pictures. I love it when I find her sleeping with both of her arms in the air. I've also recently downloaded the Camera + and Instagram apps on my iPhone and I'm having fun editing my 'ordinary' pictures into something unique (which is what I did on the black & white pic). If photos could be scratch and sniff I'd add the sweet baby smell to make these moments complete!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

CPS Sketch Sponsorship

Good morning & Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I had so much fun at the Archivers crop on Friday night and I have more layouts of sweet Madelyn to share later this week! But first, I wanted to let you all know that Taylored Expressions is sponsoring the CPS Sketch Challenge this week! What does that mean? It means that if you participate in the CPS sketch challenge this week you'll be entered to win a free TE stamp set of your choice! And the sketch is super cute so it's a win-win! All of the different panels gave me the perfect opportunity to use up some scraps from the We R Love Struck 6x6 pad. And to go along with it I pulled out an oldie but a goodie, Love is Sweet. I stamped Cuppie in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored him with the Cuppie Copic Kit. Then I added a Button Heart Candy Dot for his cherry and colored the chocolates with Copics (E25, E34, E55, E57, E49). I added a bow with red glimmer ribbon, flagged my sentiment for the bottom corner, and called it good!

If you'd like a chance to win a free TE stamp set, then click here to check out the CPS Sketch challenge! Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

January Key Ingredients Blog Hop

Good morning and Happy Friday! Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? I'm heading to Archivers for a crop tonight and I'm so excited! The hardest part is deciding what to pack! Both of us like to "feel the vibe" before committing to scrapping certain pictures with specific paper which usually means a hefty total by the time I decide what I need in order to do my layouts!

But first, I'm joining the crafty gals on the Key Ingredients Design Team for our monthly challenge and blog hop. This month's challenge theme is Classroom Treat. When I think something to make by hand for 30 children a couple words come to mind... fast, quick, simple, easy! OK... those all mean relatively the same thing so I bet you catch the drift. The kids are just going to tear it apart to get the candy as fast as possible! My project was inspired by Toddlers & Tiaras... yes, it's one of my guilty pleasures. *grin* I was watching re-runs earlier this week and was reminded of Pixy Stix (and how it's probably not a good idea to let a 5 year old eat an entire package of them in one hour). I know they were one of my favorites growing up so I decided to make a classroom treat using Pixy Stix, but I limited each pouch to just two stix! I made the pouches from cardstock and sealed them with 1/4" sticky tape. Then I adhered a strip of patterned paper and found that many of the coordinating stickers in this month's kit work great for the To: From:. Here's this month's kit and you'll want to keep reading for the important updates to our kit club. Now is a great time to sign up so you don't miss the exclusive goodies being released in February!

With another postal rate increase taking effect later this month, we unfortunately have to raise the price of our Key Ingredients kit club subscriptions.  While we were able to absorb the previous postal rate increase without raising prices we are unable to do so again.  So starting February 1, Key Ingredients kit club subscriptions will be priced as follows:

US - $25.00 per month

Canada - $27.00 per month

Countries outside North America -  $37.00 per month  

A bonus for you!  For anyone who subscribes by the end of January your monthly fee will remain at either $23.95 per month (US & Canada) or $34.95 per month (countries outside North America) through the month of June!  After June, your monthly fee will adjust to the new price.

We have also designed a full size stamp set to coordinate with the vintage patterned paper in our February kit.  This set will be available exclusively to subscribers at a 50% discount during next month's Key Ingredients discount period!  The only way to get the stamp set is to be an active subscriber! Here's a sneak peek of the patterned paper for February along with a glimpse of the exclusive set!  

We're super-excited about this new feature and plan to offer these exclusive sets periodically in the future! Click here to join our Kit Club today!

And now you'll want to follow these links to the rest of the KI team's crafty classroom treats!

• Corinna McGregor
• Debbie Carriere
• Jessica Diedrich
• Jessie Rone
• Lea Lawson
• Monika Davis

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Fresh Flowers Birthday

Good morning! YAY for Thursday! Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but Thursday is Taco John's day at TE! What's that? Well, we have a taco chain here called Taco John's (it's way better than Taco Bell IMO!). Every Thursday their Taco Bravo is just $1.00. It's a hard shell inside a soft shell with all the fix-ins and I LOVE it! Now that it's super cold outside we might have to do the drive-thru, but either way the Taco Bravo is still one of my favorite weekly treats!

Now that I've finished my tangent for today I'll get to my card! We'll be celebrating my sister-in-law's birthday this weekend so I sat down to make her a card last night. She's the first family birthday of the new year and I'm still on board with my goal of sending more cards! I started out with Jen's Deconstructed Sketch #34 (which is a super fun one!). I didn't want the card to be too cutesy or kiddish so I pulled out a classic standby, Fresh Flowers. I stamped the flower and vase in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with Copics. Then I cut the image out and created the perfect tag shape by chomping the top two corners with the Angle/Photo Corner Chomper. I paired the image with bright and colorful patterns from the Life of the Party collection of patterned paper by My Mind's Eye. The sentiment is from Branching Out.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Make sure you stop back tomorrow because the Key Ingredients team and I will be sharing our projects around the challenge theme of "Classroom Treat"!

I Love Everything About YOU

Good morning! I can't believe it's Wednesday already! I haven't been writing much about the bitter cold this year because we haven't had any bitter cold to write about.... until yesterday. I was just starting to get comfortable and think that the snow might never come. Well, I was wrong and now it's time to complain. It's snowing and blowing and freezing and I hate it! OK... I feel better after getting that out. My cold weather rant is over (at least for today!).

If you missed my post yesterday you're definitely going to want to scroll down to check out the adorable kids in our card kit video! They were so excited to be 'movie stars' for a day and they all did such a great job. It's a cheerful video that will definitely put a smile on your face (and have you singing Jackson 5 for the rest of the day).

Well, since the weather is cold that means I "have" to stay inside and create, right? I've been so excited about scrapbooking my sweet Madelyn that I decided to use our newest Be Loved Project Pantry kit to make another layout for my non-Project Life album.

In addition to the patterned papers from the kit I used coordinating die cuts from the Be Loved die cut accessories pack. The two hearts, title, journaling piece, swirly border, adore button, and the little tab that I wrote the date on are all from the die cut accessories pack (love that it all coordinates with the cute patterned papers!). Then I used my Spellbinders Grand Labels 1 to cut the shape from patterned paper and layered my photos over the top. I liked the look of having big and small of the same photograph on one layout. I spelled out her name in glittery chocolate Thickers across the bottom.

Here's a look at the latest kit! It's great for Valentine's Day, but there are so many sweet patterns that can be used year-round too. And it's meant for creating cards, but it works for scrapbooking if you have your own 12x12 paper to throw into the mix.

You can find the Basic Recipe kit and the optional "Spice it Up" ingredients HERE! Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

NEW! Kids Valentine Card Kit

Guess who's in the house today!? Our Tiny Chefs are back! I invited some of my young crafty friends over for a little creative time at Ms. Taylor's last week! They each received our NEW Kids Valentine Card Kit to create handmade valentines for their friends and classmates. It was so fun to see the excitement in their eyes as they stamped their own masterpieces. These kids were soooo creative and I just LOVE the ideas they came up with! Here's a short video from our crafty time:

Perhaps you have a son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter, niece or nephew, maybe even a neighbor who might enjoy creating their own Valentines. Or maybe you're a kid at heart and looking to make some super sweet and simple Valentines yourself! *wink* That's just what our Valentine Card Kit is for and it's a steal at just $7.95!

The kit includes the following supplies:

• 20 - 3 1/4" square flat card bases (5 each of 4 colors)
• 20 - 3" square image panels
• 20 - 3" squares of patterned paper (5 each of 4 patterns from the Doodlebug Sweet Cakes collection)
• 12 Heart Stickers
• Assorted cardstock and glittered chipboard heart die cuts
• 3 yards of ribbon (1 yard each of 3 styles)

Everything is packaged together in a clear bag with a cute label sticker and tied with ribbon. You just need to provide stamps (goes great with the Love Monsters stamp set), crayons or colored pencils and they'll be crafting in no time! Creativity is contagious... pass it on!

I wanted to use the Valentine Card Kit to make a little something for the kids who joined us for the video session. I stamped each of my image panels with different monsters from the Love Monsters stamp set and colored them with Copics. I added a small strip of patterned paper to the bottom and used a black marker to write my 'To: From:' I thought it was so cute that all the kids were calling me "Ms. Taylor" during the video (I'm not used to that!) so I signed all of my Valentines from Ms. Taylor. I bought some heart shaped Crunch bars at the store, punched a hole in the corner of the candy wrapper, and tied the card on with ribbon. I put together 6 of these Valentines in a matter of minutes so 20 would be no problem to complete quickly!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I know the kids are going to be checking out today's post (they were so excited to be "movie stars"!!) so leave them a little love with your comments!

My Project Life Title Page

Good morning & Happy Monday! Ever since I started playing with paper I've been telling myself that I'd start scrapbooking once we have a baby. Well, now we have a baby and it's time to get started! I've been making cards for the better part of five years and I must admit that I was a little intimidated by the idea of scrapbooking! That 12x12 paper just looks like such an enormous blank slate staring up at me!

So when I starting hearing the buzz among my friends about Becky Higgins Project Life I checked into it and thought "There's my perfect solution."! I told you about how I'm taking Maggie Holmes' photography class (which starts today!) and one of my goals this year is to take more pictures. I figured that Project Life will give me the perfect opportunity to practice my photography skills and record lasting memories at the same time!

Shortly after deciding to do Project Life I ran into my first snag. I want to use the Design A page protectors for my Project Life album, but they're out of stock until sometime next month. Once I get the page protectors I'll already be several weeks behind. *sad face* But instead of getting frustrated I decided to tackle that blank piece of 12x12 paper in front of me and do my title page:

I LOVE how it turned out! I used pictures from Madelyn's newborn photo session and paired them with papers from the October Afternoon Thrift Shop collection. I started with a piece of 12x12 cardstock that I cut out with an Accucut die at my local scrapbook store. The I just played around with the different patterned pieces until I had them just the way I wanted. I just glued down all of the pieces, added canvas alphabet stickers for my title, and slipped it inside my album. 

Since completing my title page I decided to continue with my 12x12 pages while I'm waiting for the Design A to come back in stock. I already have a couple more pages done that I'll be sharing later this week! So I guess my scrapbook album will be a combo of Project Life and regular scrapbook layouts. 

Are any of you doing Project Life too? I'm always collecting ideas and I'd love to see your pages so leave me a link below!

Taylored Expressions Calendar Challenge - January

Good morning & Happy Thursday! Today I'm excited to introduce a new challenge at Taylored Expressions to kick off 2012! But before I get into the details of our new challenge I want to give you an update on our other challenges. First, the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge will be back at the end of the month! We have some exciting changes in the works to make it bigger and better than ever so mark your calendar for January 27th! Second, we are replacing the Blast From the Past Blog Hop with a brand new monthly Calendar Challenge (starting today!). Not only will this challenge help keep us organized, but perhaps at the end of the year you'll have a completed calendar (or two or three) to give as a gift! There's a lot of freedom in this challenge and I hope you'll all play along! Here are the deets:

Each month the Baker's Dozen will supply inspiration using Taylored Expressions Calendar Products and showcasing designs for the current month. To play along you simply need to choose a TE Calendar Product to use with any stamps or papercrafting supplies you'd like. Create a calendar page using the month in the title of my post (start with January this month), post it on your blog or online gallery, and come back here to add your link to the Mr. Linky at the end of the post.

And what would a challenge be without a prize!? Everyone who participates in 10 out of 12 months of the calendar challenge will be entered into a random drawing for a prize package of TE stamps, dies, and other supplies worth over $150! Now that's an incentive to play along, right!?

I love to have pretty things sitting out on my stamp desk, propped in the windowsills of my stamp room, and all over the shelves! It gives me inspiration and it's a daily reminder of what I love so much about this hobby! So I decided to create a calendar just for me to enjoy in my stamp room. I'll probably duplicate these for gifts once the 2013 calendars are available (in March), but for now this is just for me! I wanted to start the year off with a quote from the New Beginnings stamp set "A New Year is unfolding like a rose with petals curled tightly concealing the beauty within." Love that! And it goes perfectly with the new roses from the Rosy Posey stamp set. I stamped the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and cut it out with a circle Spellbinders die. Then I trimmed off the bottom part of the circle and stamped the roses in Berrylicious and Pink Pastel inks. The patterned paper is from the MME Vanity Fair collection and I used the Large Scallop Border die to cut out a houndstooth piece for underneath the sentiment. I layered the patterned paper onto cardstock and slipped the insert into the magnetic acrylic frame. Then I just adhered the 2012 Mini Calendar to the outside of the frame with sticky tape so that I can rip off the month of January and continue on with new inserts each month.

Here's a quick re-cap of the TE Calendar Challenge:

• The challenge for the current month will go up at 8 am PST on the 2nd Thursday of each month and you can play along any time after that.
• Use any TE calendar product and any stamps or papercrafting supplies to decorate the current month (not required to use TE Stamps).
• Post your creation to your blog or on-line gallery. If you post your creation on SCS or other on-line gallery please use KEYWORD: TECALCHAL
• Add your direct link to the Mr. Linky list below.  The linky list will remain open all year, so you have the opportunity to go back and catch up should you start late or miss a month.
• Show your spirit for the calendar challenge and grab our blog badge HERE. 
• ENTER TO WIN!  Everyone who plays in 10 or more of our monthly Calendar Challenges in 2012 will automatically be entered to win a Taylored Expressions Prize Package valued at over $150!!!!  The winner will announced on New Year's Day 2013.

Now before you get started on your calendar project, you'll want to take a look at the fabulous calendar inspiration from the Baker's Dozen gals:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jodi Collins
• Melissa Sauls
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess