Taylored Expressions August Sneak Peeks - Day 1

Hey there! I'm back from the Stampaway Convention in Cincinnati and we're hitting the ground running as we begin the sneak peeks for our August release! As summer comes to an end and kids get ready to head back to school (and moms look forward to a routine again!), I'm super excited to introduce TONS of fun new products that will be useful now and throughout the school year. And when I say "tons of new products", I mean a whole lot... how about 10 stamp sets and 7 Taylored Dies!? The Baker's Dozen and I are kicking everything off by sharing sneak peeks of all of the new stamps (tomorrow we'll be sharing sneak peeks with all of the new dies!). Because there are SO many stamps, you'll need to hop around to all the blogs to make sure you see them all! So let's get started!

My first project uses the super cute Doodle Notes stamp set. Jen Shults provided the concept for these stamps and Nancy McKinney brought her ideas to life with these doodlicious illustrations! I think my favorite part about this set is the versatility. There are so many image and sentiments combination options and it works for kids of all ages!

I stamped the images onto the new Notepaper & Grid Bitty Bags with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I didn't want to use Copics to color since the color would bleed through the bag so I pulled out my old standby - Prismacolor pencils - to color the images. I put a little treat in each bag and tied them closed with red elastic trim. I just love how cute these turned out (and they were quick too!).

My second project uses a coordinating companion set called Mark Your Spot. Nancy and I collaborated on this set as she provided more of her doodlicious illustrations and I did the 'subway art' sentiments about reading. This set has many uses (stay tuned for the coordinating bookmark die tomorrow!) but I decided to create a card for the peeks today:

I started with Jen's Deconstructed Sketch #62 for the layout along with patterned papers from the brand new My Mind's Eye School Daze 6x6 pad. I used the small scalloped border die along the side of the sentiment and the new chevron border dies along the bottom. The clouds were cut out using the cloud dies that come with the Sky's the Limit stamp set.

My next project uses Happy Trails, a stamp set concepted by Jami Sibley and illustrated by Doug Applegate. If you tune in over on Jami's blog then you know that she and her husband have a 5th wheel and love to go camping. We're all super excited about how this set turned out!

I used patterned papers from the Loyal Project Pantry kit along with a new set of Hexagon dies (which I'll tell you more about tomorrow!) to create the background. I stamped the camper and then masked it and stamped the mountains in the background. Then I colored everything with Copics and a little silver paint pen for metal accents. I also used my Prima Distressing Tool to rough up the edges of my image panel. 

My last project for today uses the latest image in our Adorable Abodes series of houses. This one is called Little Schoolhouse:

I started by creating the background for the card by cutting out numbers from our new Tall & Skinny #'s dies (they coordinate with the Tall & Skinny Alpha). I sponged the edges of the numbers with Toffee Crunch ink to set them apart from the kraft background and then glued them down in a random pattern. I colored the image with Copics and cut it out so that I could pop it up on the card front. The patterned paper is from the Pebbles Fresh Goods collection. I also used the new notepaper border die and a little red with white dot ribbon to finish it off.

Even though I shared four projects today, I didn't get to show you all of the stamps from this release so make sure you head out to the rest of the design team blogs to check out all the goodies! We'll have more sneak peeks tomorrow featuring the new dies and then make sure you mark your calendar to join us for the Facebook Preview Party tomorrow night! It's always lots of fun with lots of prizes!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Courtney Kelley (Guest Designer)
• Jami Sibley (DT Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess