June Sneak Peeks

I hope you're all enjoying a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Guess what? This week the Baker's Dozen and I are going to be sharing sneak peek projects from our June stamp release! I'm kicking it off today with a little image sneak peek from each of the 6 sets we're releasing on Friday, June 4th. Aren't they fun!? I guarantee the Baker's Dozen is going to blow you away with their creations and I hope you'll stop by tomorrow!

TESC114 Top Crops

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you're all enjoying some beautiful weather and time spent with family. In the past I've found myself allowing this day to pass by in a blur with a BBQ picnic and other family activities, but today I'm thinking about the many soldiers and families who give their lives so that I can enjoy a simple BBQ. I've been fortunate not to have any of my immediate family or friends fighting in the war, but for those of you who have (or do), thank you for your service, your bravery, and your sacrifice!

Right now I have the TESC114 Top Crops to share with you! Oh my goodness... there were so many wonderful eye candy treats to choose from with this sketch. It was a tough choice, but here are this week's Top Crops:








Congratulations (from left to right): Mary, Lori, Andrea, Jessie, and Julia!

You can click on each of the snippets above and you'll be taken to the designer's blog to see the full card and all the details! This week's Top Crops will soon receive a blog badge to display on your blog! There's also still time to participate in this week's TESC115 challenge for your chance to be featured as one of the TESC Top Crops next week. Check out the sketch and all the details HERE!

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

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #115

Happy Friday! I'm flying over Denver as you're reading this and so happy to be heading home to my hubby and my own bed. I had a wonderful time in Southern California and enjoyed meeting all of the ladies who took my classes at Pages from the Heart. And I ate about 8 cupcakes while I was here too.... might as well just stick those right on the hips, but they wouldn't have tasted nearly as good that way! *grin*

So do you have some fun plans for this Memorial Day weekend? Hopefully your plans will include playing the sketch challenge this weekend!


Just create a card using the above sketch as inspiration (you're not required to use TE Stamps in your sample)! Link your creation below by Friday, June 4th at 8am PST. I'll choose the most clever and creative cards to be included in the TESC Top Crops on my blog! Each of our Top Crops receives a blog badge to proudly display on your blog sidebar and a link on the TE blog for all to marvel at your beautiful creation!

Created by Taylor VanBruggen: Taylored Expressions

Created by Rachel Sztonyk: Gingerbread Gallery

Created by Jami Sibley: More is More

Created by Alice Wertz: Alice's Little Wonderland

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

Created by Melissa Sauls: In Stamping Mode

Created by Lisa Hjulberg: The Craft's Meow

TESC115 - Thanks a Latte!

Happy Friday! Today I'm heading home from Southern California and back to Iowa. As I was booking my flight it sounded like a good idea to save the extra $60 and take an early morning flight, but now that I've been here for 5 days and I'm super tired a 4 am wake up call is about the last thing that I want! Note to self: pay the extra $60 next time and fly out once the sun comes up. Yesterday I had a chance to spend some time with my friend Jami which is always fun! She let me have the run of her stamp room to make this card for the sketch challenge. I think it's fun to see what I create when I'm not in familiar surroundings. I love how this card turned out, but I wouldn't say it's my usual style. We've been house-sitting for a friend while we were in So Cal and I thought this card (with a Starbucks gift card inside) would be the perfect little thank you for allowing us to stay. I stamped images from Let's Do Coffee in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them with Copic markers. I added a little bit of Espresso Dimensional Pearls to the coffee beans, some big silver brads, and popped up the sentiment on foam tape.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend!





Stamps: Let's Do Coffee (Taylored Expressions)
Cardstock: Classic Red, Choice Buttercream
Patterned Paper: October Afternoon Cherry Hill
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copic markers, Espresso dimensional pearls, foam tape, silver brads, 1 3/8" circle punch

Blooming Cupcakes!

I always have the best intentions of pre-scheduling blog posts while I'm traveling and I just never seem to get there! So I'm stealing a few minutes away (while my mom makes breakfast!) to share a little something with you today!

I told you I'm in cupcake heaven out here in Southern California. There's a new cupcakery on every block and I'm sure I've gained at least 5 lbs. with all of my sampling! Since I have cupcakes on the brain I wanted to show you the cupcakes I made and decorated with the new Garden Party Blooms stamp set. I found these adorable silicone baking cups at Michael's and I thought they'd make the cutest little Garden Party cupcakes! You just bake the cupcakes right inside the little pots and then frost them after they cool. I decided to go all "Martha Stewart" and bought food coloring to change the frosting color to a grassy green. And then I used a decorative tip and frosting bag to squeeze out the frosting in a pretty design. OK...OK... I know it's nothing special, but I was proud of myself for diving into the cake decorating world! *grin* After frosting the cupcakes, I stamped cupcake picks using the various flowers in the Garden Party Blooms set. These were super fun to make and even more fun to eat! :)

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you'll all tune in tomorrow for another sketch challenge! Have a wonderful day!





Stamps: Garden Party Blooms (Taylored Expressions)
Cardstock: Choice Buttercream
Ink: Colorbox Chalk Tangerine, Yellow Ochre, Aquamarine, Lime Pastel, Warm Red
Accessories: Toothpicks, silicone baking cups, ribbon, cupcakes & frosting, rhinestones

TESC113 Top Crops

It's time for the TESC113 Top Crops! I usually post them on Monday, but yesterday was a crazy day! I'm out in California this week running errands to some of my favorite area manufacturers, restaurants, and shops! And guess what!? I've already hit up 2 cupcake shops with plans to go to a third one on Thursday. I'm in cupcake heaven out here!

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the TESC113 Sketch challenge! We decided to do something different with this sketch and allow you (our amazingly creative readers!) to vote on the submissions! The top 5 vote-getters will receive the TESC Top Crops badge to proudly display on their blog. So here they are:








Congratulations (from left to right): Tracy, Carisa, Wanda, Jamie, and Arielle!

You can click on each of the snippets above and you'll be taken to the designer's blog to see the full card and all the details! This week's Top Crops will soon receive a blog badge to display on your blog! There's also still time to participate in this week's TESC114 challenge for your chance to be featured as one of the TESC Top Crops next week. Check out the sketch and all the details HERE!

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

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #114

Happy Friday! The weather is supposed to be amazing here this weekend (high 80's!) so I'm looking forward to spending time outside and getting ready for my trip out to L.A. I leave on Sunday! I hope you all have some fun weekend plans with a little spare time to try out this week's TESC sketch challenge! I also wanted to let you know that the voting has begun for last week's TESC submissions. Click on the thumbnails at the bottom of this post to see all of the submissions and then click the little star next to your favorite! Voting ends on Sunday evening and the winners will be announced on Monday. And here's this week's sketch:


We're going to go back to non-voting for this sketch challenge so I will be selecting our 5 Top Crops at the end of next week. Just create a card using the above sketch as inspiration (you're not required to use TE Stamps in your sample)! Link your creation below by Friday, May 28th at 8am PST. I'll choose the most clever and creative cards to be included in the TESC Top Crops on my blog! Each of our Top Crops receives a blog badge to proudly display on your blog sidebar and a link on the TE blog for all to marvel at your beautiful creation!

Don't miss the Sketch Crew inspiration below! Just click on any of these cards to read more about the details of the card:

Created by Alice Wertz: Alice's Little Wonderland

Created by Jami Sibley: More is More

Created by Lisa Hjulberg: The Craft's Meow

Created by Melissa Sauls: In Stamping Mode

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

Created by Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme

Created by Lori Craig: Make a Difference

Created by Taylor VanBruggen: Taylored Expressions

Center of Attention Product Spotlight - Stickers

Today the Baker's Dozen and I have our monthly Center of Attention Product Focus! We've each chosen our favorite stickers from the TE Store and we're sharing our sticker-ific projects with you today. I don't know about you, but my drawers are filled with stickers! They're hard to resist because they're inexpensive, easy to use, and when they match a must-have patterned paper it's a match made in heaven. I hope you enjoy checking out the many ways to use stickers in your papercrafting projects! And as always, our Center of Attention product is 15% off through the weekend (May 20-23). Click here to check out our selection of Stickers at the TE Store!

One of my favorite things to do with stickers is to find ways to combine them with stamping. Many of the stickers available these days make the perfect accent piece for our stamped creations! I used the new Cosmo Cricket DeLovely patterned paper and sticker sheet for all of my cards. I started by stamping the stem and flower from Garden Party Blooms. I added a yellow button from my stash to the flower center. Then I used the cute little birdie tag sticker as an accent. And the green patterned strip right underneath the yellow polka dot ribbon is a sticker border strip. For my second card I wanted to make a sticker the focal part of my card. I love this 'bloom' circle sticker and with a little layering, some popping with foam tape, and a small button, I think it makes a pretty cute image! I added another border sticker at the bottom along with yellow double-edge polka dot ribbon. Don't the bright colors in this patterned paper put you in the mood for summer? My sticker sheet still had lots of stickers that I wanted to experiment with so I decided to dive in and create another card. Once I've dragged out all the coordinating supplies I like to create as many cards as I can before I have to put them all back away again! I used the Garden Party Blooms stamp set for the last card as well. The stems are stamped in Lime Pastel Colorbox Chalk ink and the sun was stamped in Memento Dandelion ink. I layered the stickers onto a Big Scalloped Circle cutout and popped them up with foam tape. I always think it's more fun to see all of the projects in a grouping so here's a picture of my group of DeLovely cards. Now I know you don't want to miss what the rest of the Baker's Dozen has designed using stickers! Each of their names is followed by the sticker sheet that they're featuring!

Karen M. - October Afternoon Thrift Shop Mini Market Ledger
Jeanie - October Afternoon Thrift Shop Word Stickers
Sankari - Stampendous Velvet Lime Scrollwork
Carolina - Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety
Jackie - October Afternoon Fly a Kite Word Stickers
Alex - Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride

In addition to our Center of Attention sale, we have some more exciting things happening at the TE Store today. We've just reduced the price of many products so you'll want to check out our What's the Deal category for the latest deals!

And as always, our Fresh out of the Oven category is full of new goodies including my new favorite embellishment, Candy Crystals!

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

Cloudy Days Video Tutorial

First things first... a HUGE thank you goes out to everyone who participated in our Blast from the Past Blog Hop yesterday! I am continually amazed by your creative talents and it was so fun to take a walk down memory lane and see what you created with our previously released stamp sets!

Did you remember that there was a prize up for grabs for one lucky participant? Random.org helped me choose our winner and it's lucky #9: Tanja Hartmann! For her prize, Tanja gets to choose one free stamp set from the TE Store! If you missed out this month, you'll find details for our next blog hop in the TE Newsletter later this week. Everyone is welcome and I hope you'll join us!

Today I have a video tutorial to show you how to get even ink coverage on your Taylored Expressions Big Background stamp using a brayer. Our Cloudy Days background was incredibly popular during our last release and I'm happy to announce that it's now back in stock!



It's hard to see in the photograph, but I used the Cloudy Days background on this card along with the Garden Party Critters set. I started by stamping the Garden sign and flowers onto Choice Buttercream cardstock and then masked them off before stamping the cloudy background. Then I cut around the image with Spellbinders Labels 1. The cardstock, patterned paper, and ribbon are from the Garden Party Project Pantry kit. I also used the Open Scallop border punch and some rhinestones from my stash. Once I got through cutting the masks for all those flowers, this card was quite easy!

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you all have a wonderful day! Stay tuned tomorrow for our May Product Focus and a sale at the TE Store!






Stamps: Garden Party Critters, Cloudy Background
Cardstock: Garden Party Project Pantry
Patterned Paper: Garden Party Project Pantry (We R Memory Keepers 72 & Sunny)
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Colorbox Aquamarine, Warm Red, Lime Pastel, Ice Blue
Accessories: Labels 1, foam tape, ribbon, rhinestones, open scallop border punch
(Taylored Expressions)

Blast from the Past Blog Hop

Are you ready for some fun!? I've been so excited for our customer blog hop and the day is finally here! We challenged all of our fabulous customers to see what they would create using any Taylored Expressions stamps released during 2008 and 2009. This sketch (designed by Sankari Wegman) provided some inspiration for everyone to get started on their creations!

If you missed out on signing up for this blog hop, don't worry! We'll be having a blog hop each month and there will be instructions on how to sign up in our next newsletter. If you'd like to subscribe to our newsletter, click here!



I decided to use For the Love of Cupcakes for a couple reasons. Reason #1: I LOVE CUPCAKES! I still remember the feeling of excitement I had when we released this stamp set a year ago! Reason #2: It's still one of my go-to sets for birthday cards and a special friend of mine happens to be celebrating her birthday today. She also happens to be one of our blog hoppers! Happy Birthday, Lori!

I started by stamping the cupcake in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, masking it off, and then stamping the cake stand over the top. I colored the cupcake and stand with Copic markers and paper pieced the cupcake liner. Then I used a jar of Copic Opaque White to add small white dots to the cupcake stand and finished off the cupcake with a little Espresso Dimensional Pearls for the 'frosting'. I know you can hardly believe your eyes, but it's true... I broke out my sewing machine for this card.

I hope our Blast from the Past blog hop inspires you to take a look through your TE stamp collection and get creative with one of your well-loved sets! I know you're not going to want to miss the rest of these projects so keep right on hoppin'!