Taylored Expressions June Sneaks - Day 1

Good morning! Well, the calendar doesn't officially say that it's June, but we decided to start a little early with our June sneak peeks today. Speaking of June, can you believe it's almost here!? I think I say that every month, but the months just fly by so quickly these days! We have lots of fun summer stamps and dies to share this week and I can hardly wait to show you! And I want to make special mention of our June Release At a Glance for everything you need to know about this month's release, including how you can win some awesome prizes!

June Release At a Glance

• We have sneak peeks to share Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  All of the new products will be available for purchase on Friday, June 3rd at 8 am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department in the Taylored Expressions Store.
• Join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets on Thursday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST.
• Special Early Bird Offer on Release Day for the first 15 orders over $100.  It's TOTALLY SWEET!
• 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 all 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. Comments close Thursday 6/2 at 7pm PST for the drawings.

For my first card I used Moka Lani, the newest addition to this sweet collection of characters illustrated by Nancy McKinney. Isn't she the cutest with her Hawaiian tan and grass skirt? The Petite set includes 5 images and sentiments on a full-color storage panel. I also used two new dies on this card, the Wave Border die and the Palm Tree die. The Palm Tree die was designed to coordinate with the palm tree image in the previously released Hangin' Out at the Beach set and happens to work perfectly with Moka Lani too! I grabbed my new Echo Park Splash patterned papers. I cut the wave border die out of three different patterns and layered them on the bottom of the card with some yellow polka dot ribbon. I also added Crystal Stickles to the wave caps. The white image panel was cut with Spellbinders Labels 17 and airbrushed around the inside with Copic marker. The finished size of the card is 3.5" x 6.

For my second sneak peek project, I used A Day in Paradise, a gorgeous Cape Cod themed stamp set illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes collection. The set includes 21 images and sentiments in a combination of solid and open line images. It'll be great for preserving summer memories,  home decor projects, and even for retirement cards which is what I decided to create. I love the soothing colors in the Cosmo Cricket Salt Air collection and thought they'd be perfect for the card I was envisioning. I started by embossing the sailboat with white embossing powder onto the orange patterned paper (I thought it looked like a sunset!). I trimmed the image with a Spellbinders circle die and then created a frame with a scalloped circle and popped that up over the top. I used the same Wave border die on this card and added the Crystal Stickles to the wave caps as well. I added a bit of scalloped crochet trim from my stash and finished it off with some Island Lagoon rhinestones and the sentiment.

And last (at least for today!) our lovable penguins are back in their adorable summer attire! Today we're sharing two penguin Petite sets, Beach Belle & Surf's Up, illustrated by Doug Applegate for the Apple Doodle Ink collection. The penguins can be used separately or combine them to make a cute beach couple. I stamped the images in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them with Copics to match the Echo Park Splash patterned paper. I cut the penguins out and popped them up on a Spellbinders circle. I airbrushed inside the circle with Copic and then mounted it onto a scalloped circle die cut. As you can see, I had trouble putting down the wave border die and I used it again on this card. I was trying to follow Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch, but it took a bit of a turn somewhere along the way! Why do my sketch cards always take a turn!?

Here are the dies I used on my cards today:

I'm already looking forward to sharing my projects for tomorrow, but in the meantime join me in hopping around to see what our amazing design team has created. Don't forget to leave comments along the way for a chance to win a gift certificate to the TE Store!

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