Some Sneak Peek Sweetness with SASI

You are hardly going to believe Taylor is releasing 5 sets to ring in the New Year with us! They are so delectable (I can say that because they are cupcakes!!) I have a sneak peek from A Year of Sweets 2 which are images for May, June, July & August. I am showing you June; happens to be my birthmonth (the 3rd) and also my mom & dad's anniversary (5th). I love that June also has other significance such as Juneteenth celebration, graduations, weddings, births and the beginning of Summer to name a few!!

I love the cuppies sharing a picnic in the sun but I wonder what cuppies have in the picnic basket? My DMIL asked me, what do cupcakes eat? It was so funny, I just chuckled. I said they look like eggs and laughed some more.

I stamped & colored my cuppie picnic image on new cardstock that Taylor will also carry in the store called Choice Cardstock. It will come in white & natural whie, a sturdy 100 lb that gives perfect results with copics & prismacolor pencils which is what I used here. I used Green Galore cardbase & apple green/white polka dot ribbon from Taylored Expressions and DCWV summer glitter stack pieces. The sentiment 'Let's Get Together' is from a Year of Sweets Sentiments - so many in there, you will be delighted at the of the appropriate sentiments for the vast array of cuteness being released!!

Next up is my calendar project! Everyone needs a calendar for the new year & what could be sweeter & more trendy than a cupcake calendar?? I so adore it. Taylor will also feature 2 calendar options for purchase, a perpetual birthday calendar & 6x6 dated calendar, which is what I am showcasing today. You can purchase a "Frame Your Imagination vertical stand" - which is unfinished wood to hang your dated calendar in 6x6 page protectors which will also be available to purchase in the TE store. I chose to paint my stand white with acrylic paint to jazz it up a little.

Isn't it cute how the card & calendar coordinate? How about making a year's worth of cards & make it a point to send a card every month to a special friend? How special would that make them feel (hey, that was a good idea-hopefully I follow-through with that thought).

Be sure to check out all the Baker's Dozen DT members to see what they baked up for your sweet tooth today & be sure to come back tomorrow for another sneak peek! The sets will be released on Thursday evening 11:00 p.m. CST at the store!

Taylor Van Bruggen
Ana Wohlfahrt
Carol Halvorson
Charmaine Ikach
Denise Marzec
Jami Sibley
Jen del Muro
Laurie Schmidlin
Monika Davis
Sharon Harnist
Stephanie Hargis
Terri Dodd

Will you be my LoVeBuG treat

I have been wanting to participate in Gina's Daily Challenges Dec 27-Jan 1 and I finally have! Here is a card I made for 2 of the 4 challenges issued so far, a double mat & off kilter (black mat) Using Asela's Framed Friends ladybug, I wanted to mimic the ladybug spots on my real red panel with eraser dots and ran it through the swiss dots cb folder.  I found the tall lovebug ladybug vase at the Dollar Tree & filled it with some Hershey's hugs for a matching treat!  

IMPORTANT REMINDERS: 

• Don't forget to check out Gina's blog for giveaways this week & her daily challenges
  

• Thursday, January 1st you are all invited to attend Melanie's One Year Anniversary of blogging & illurstrating for Gina K Designs!!! The celebration begins at midnight January 1st on her Blog “Hands, Head and Heart” She will be sharing samples from all her Gina K Designs sets this past year, along with the help from several stamping guest stars (including yours truly), and chances to win fabulous prizes EVERY day for a WEEK!
  

Sponsors include Scor-Pal, Gina K designs, My Favorite Things, Paper Temptress, AND Melanie herself, is going to be giving away (among other random fun prizes she has!) a brand new BOX of 36 COPIC CIAOS, the winner chooses which box! 

Melanie will be announcing a very special new contest that she will be hosting every month! So please come share the fun and be sure to subscribe to Melanie’s blog BEFORE it starts, some days will have multiple posts, so you won’t want to miss a single day or entry!!

DF Winter cards

I know it's after Christmas and I have moved onto creating Valentine's cards BUT I forgot to take pics & post these 3 cards from my last Starving Artistamps Doodlefactory Winter set before mailing to Tracey.  She was kind enough to take the pics for me & send them so here they are! On my first card, I used Mel Stampz Vintage dictionary scans of Merry & Christmas (printed pdf on my printer. Then, I shabbied it up by crumpling my cardstock & rubbing several Distress inks (I believe tea dye & vintage photo) 

my next card uses the wind up toy & I made him in motion by stamping him in baja breeze ink and withouth re-inking the stamp, I kept stamping to the right of him so it has a blurred look about it.  I used my new Basic Grey offbeat pad on this and Jen's Sketch for you to try from several weeks ago (Dec 13).  The sentiment is from Casual Holiday Greetings. 

Lastly, this is my favorite frm the DF Winter set, the squirrely girl.  I thought it would be cute to put a thought bubble from the Doodledads set (also the stars & circles on the bottom) with the sentiment I believe in Santa Claus from Casual Holiday Greetings.  Since I had my distress inks out, I shabbied this up with some sponging too. 

Reminder: You have until tomorrow to participate in the Clearly Cool Card Challenge to win a set of Santa's Sweet Shoppe stamps (or other if you already have it) hosted by Tracey with Starving Artistamps (at Papercraft Planet) 

GKD Challenge: Buttons & Bows All Askew - Congrats

how's that for a title?  Here is the card I made for Joanne's Gina K December challenge on SCS

"create something with any combination of buttons and bows, your card must use both (they don't necessarily need to be together) and something on your card must be on an angle. You could have a tilted main panel, or a tilted sentiment - be creative, just keep it crooked somehow!"

For my card, I used all sets by Melanie for Gina K Designs: Little Tees set (shirt, arrow) Just So Sporty (baby), Say it with Flowers (happy) and A Year of Flowers (for you) and Basic Grey Urban Prairie dp & buttons and the rose satin ribbon is from Taylored Expressions.  Last but not least, the sketch I used is from Lauren's Saturday sketch16 from a week ago, better late than never, right?  

Gina K is also hosting  series of daily challenges in the forum on SCS, Dec 27-January 1st.  Go check them out - there have been 2 great ones so far I haven't been able to participate in yet (not because I don't want to, I haven't had the energy! I got sick on Christmas Eve and is still lingering, my body's way of telling me to slow down and I am listening).  

TECC48: Offbeat Cuppie Cake

Here is yet another offbeat cuppie because I love them with this yummy paper pad by Basic Grey! My card is pretty straight-forward so I don't have much to say about it other than I decided to finally do a fun banner for my sentiment that is popped up for dimension. I punched the circle with 1-inch punch & smooshed it in a versamark pad & embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder. I chose to leave cuppie's cake white because it's Buttercream frosting & has chocolate icing accents (courtesy of cinnamon stickles). FUN!

Today is my middle sister's birthday, the one I made the Butterfly gift for (she opened it on Sunday, neither of us can wait to give/get gifts so we usually do it early) and she loved it! I also told her there were quite a few ladies who wished I was their sister so they could get something as nice. That made her feel good. She then went on to tell me how much she boasts about how creative I am, and how much of a great cook our other sister is and that she doesn't really do anything, well except make people laugh and well, that made us laugh! But, it's not true, shortly after all the gifts were done we started chatting about makeup (we've all recently gotten into using bare minerals, it's really nice) and she was going on & on about all of it. Then I had to stop her and say, Deana you said you're don't really do anything special but you do, you really know your makeup and you're good at that. She said, oh yea. She would spend hours getting dolled up, and always knew exactly how to put her makeup on to look smashing and did it many times for us like special occasions. In fact for our oldest sister's wedding we didn't have to pay someone to do her makeup because Deana did it, in fact she did everyone's that morning! Have a happy birthday Deana - we love & miss you!!

Here is the sketch so you can try it! Taylor will choose the most clever, creative, and cute creation from the submissions this weekend to be the Featured Cupcake Sampler next week. Your design and blog will be featured on her blog during Cupcake Friday. You're not required to use cupcakes for the challenge, but if you got 'em why not use 'em!? You're welcome to create something other than a card, just stick as closely to the sketch as possible and you'll be eligible for the Featured Cupcake Sampler honors. If you're uploading to Splitcoast use keyword TECC48 (for Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge 48). Leave a comment on her post with a link to your blog post or gallery upload so she can check it out! You must have your cards uploaded by Monday, December 29th at 8am PST to be eligible for the featured cupcake sampler. Most of all - have fun!!

Now go check out what sweet creations Taylor & her Cupcake Crew have for you!

Taylor
Ana
Jackie
Jami
Monika
Stephanie
Vicki

This week's Featured Cupcake Sampler is Ashley - Cherry Hill Design. Here is the card Ashley made last week that caught Taylor's eyes A Happy Hello

P.S. Less than one week for the next Stamp a Sweet Impression release! A bigger than ever one that will have your head spinning with sweet creation possibilities! Sneak peeks will start next Wednesday, Dec 31st!

Awesome blog giveaway!!

Erika, one of my fellow Gina K design team members had a birthday on Monday & is having a Groovy Giveaway on her blog a Journaling 101 Online Scrapbook course. Be sure to stop by to see her non-traditional birthday cake, a cool present from her friend & check out her great scrapbook pages where she shares her innermost thoughts & feelings, part of her scrapbook course she is giving away.  

Merry Christmas

This image takes my breath away; it brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart warm & fuzzy. With all the hustle & bustle of the season, whatever your beliefs may be, take a moment to pause & reflect on the true meaning of the season - it's not about the tangible gifts you will give or get because those are not lasting gifts. But think about your loved ones; whether you will spend time with them or not, appreciate them, give them a hug & let them know you love them. Read about the birth of Jesus and know that this love in its purest form. I appreciate & love all of y'all that take the time to read about what I create & share in my little corner of the world.

Personalized Girly Gifts & Crazy Copic Sale!!

Here is a gift I made for our 13 yr-old niece in Austin (John's step-sister's daughter) Taylor. She is really into the dramatics in more ways that one *if you know what I mean* and loves High School Musical so I picked her up little things at Wal-Mart -necklace) and pen, lip balm & file from Avon and decorated my last mini canvas bag for her. I went with the red & yellow theme of HSM and made a little post-it holder. I used the Flight of the Butterfly by SU!

And here is a little personalized tote & notecards I made for Taylor's 5 yr-old sister Emma (it was a suggestion by her mom to make them since she is teaching her to write thank you cards). I used All in the Family SU! set as well as JustRite stampers Times New Roman & Curlz font with border from self-inking monogram kit I kept the layout simple & all the paper used is My Mind's Eye Magnolia slab (such fun colors & patterns in there). I made 2 of each card for a total of 8 and just love how cute the tote is! I used a clear envelope case & sliced off the top to slip in the dp and finished off the ribbon/handles with my 50 cent satin turquoise ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

P.S. Interested in taking advantage of a CRAZY Copic Sale at Gina K Designs? Dec 23-25 only

all sets of Copic Ciao markers are $99.95 while supplies last! AND there's a bonus special too!

If you purchase BOX C, you get "Rectangle Greetings" free!
If you purchase BOX D, you get "Heartfelt Hits 1" free!
If you purchase them both, you get both sets free!

"Heartfelt Hits 1" was one of last year's Valentine's releases. Gina has talked a lot about how music is such a huge part of her life; she plays keyboards and sings so last year she came up with the idea of creating a stamp set using song titles with images to match. This set is being featured this month in Scrap and Stamp Arts "All Star" edition and here is a card sample for you that uses both "Heartfelt Hits 1" and "Rectangle Greetings." (Last week I picked up a copy and I'm so proud to say that I represent a stamping All Star, serving on her Sr. Design Team!

Lastly, if you have not yet signed up for the Gina K newsletter - scroll down to the lower right & enter your email address) or sign up for updates on her blog because next week she is going to be counting down the new year with fantastic blog candy (and anyone who is familiar with Gina K knows she is so generous - be sure to get in on the goods!)

Take Flight with Black Magic

I couldn't wait any longer to make a card using Take Flight & Tropical Flowers by Gina K with the black magic technique and I bet it won't be my last!  I sure needed a break from making Christmas cards so I enjoyed making it because I love this technique!  I used Handsome Hunter & Rose Red and various Koh-i-noor pencils, layering colors on the flowers & butterfly.  

Celebrate MFT Day - Stay Warm!!

This is me today - trying to stay warm but I have more clothes on that cute Flopsey - layered shirts, sweatpants & socks!  I'm about ready for a hot cup of cocoa like flopsey too! It is 36 degrees here today (I know what some of you may be saying who have snow and much colder temps but that's COLD for us).  After all, yesterday it was in the upper 60's and the temp in the house was 78 so what a difference a day makes!

So to Celebrate MFT day (last night, the 20th) I grabbed my new Flopsey & made a winter card and used Cindy's sketch 61 and even used MFT colors (pink, white & black courtesy of my All Dressed Up stack by DCWV).  I also got the idea to run flopsey through the swiss dots cb folder from Cindy Haffner, who was Taylor's Featured Cupcake Sampler last week.  I was so excited to see the pink velvet ribbon I had in my stash is a perfect match for pink pirouette.  I topped off with an embellishment of 2 felt snowflakes with a pink pirouette button.  I totally love this card (even though it's a tad bit busier than my usual).  It was sure fun to make though!  

Quickie Sweet Treat

I have to be honest, I am tired of making Christmas cards and gifts.  This week I finished crocheting a long scarf, made a matching necklace & earrings, had stamp club, made a stationery set, another personalized gift, baked cookies, made candy and several small treat containers including the ones shown here!  (and that's just a few of the things I've done - phew)!  Instead of saying it's the most wonderful time of the year I think we should say it's the busiest time of the year!  

I picked up a bag of 10 small square containers at the Dollar Tree (have to be careful because they do not have a great seal on them) and filled them with red & green m&m's and slapped on some ribbon, a square scallop & the holly cuppie from Season's Sweetings by Stamp a Sweet Impression and I have a quick sweet treat to give away.  Now I rest!  Hope you manage to get some too.  

P.S. the next SASI release is less than 2 weeks away!  I'm so excited to share sneaks of the biggest release yet! stay tuned!

TECC47: An Offbeat kind of Cuppie

Have I told you lately how much I adore Basic Grey paper?  It truly is my favorite and in the 

6 x 6 paper pads you get 2 of each sheet, so many different patterns for LOTS of fun on your cards & they last forever!  I was so excited to get my offbeat pad to see that most of the SU! In colors are represented in it!  Here I used Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red in addition to chocolate chip for this fun sketch by Taylor!  I can hardly believe she comes up great sketch after great sketch every week!  Or maybe it's because I'm using her adorable Stamp a Sweet Impression stamps (Sweet Celebration used here) that cause me to be so pleased with the way my cards turn out each week! One of my favorite cakes is yellow with chocolate frosting so on my cake here I put cinnamon stickles for the frosting.  Cuppie is colored with reinkers and the buttons (baja & riding hood red are by SU! and chocolate is from the sultry brads by Basic Grey) FUN!  

Here is Taylor’s sketch so you can play along too!!  You can be eligible to win Cupcake Sampler Honors & be featured on Taylor’s blog using the next Cupcake Friday Sketch!  You’re not required to use cupcakes on your sketch, but if you got ‘em why not use ‘em??  You can create something other than a card but try to keep as close to the sketch as possible. If you’re uploading to Splitcoast, please use keyword TECC47.  Leave a comment on Taylor’s post with a link to your blogpost or gallery link so she can check it out!  You must have your creation uploaded by Monday, December 22 at 8:00 a.m. PST to be eligible for the featured cupcake sampler honors.  Lastly, be sure to have FUN creating!

Be sure to check out the other Cupcake Crew’s Creations:

Taylor VanBruggen
Ana Wohlfahrt
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Monika Davis
Sherrie Siemens
Stephanie Hargis
Vicki Chrisman

Today’s Featured Cupcake Sampler is Karen Motz – Paper Playhouse (what a fun name for a blog!) and here is the cupcake creation that touched Taylor’s sweet tooth!  

Simple One Layer Bird Notecards

I got a request for a set of bird notecards from a co-worker, today is her mom's birthday & she loves birds so of course I was so happy I had Gina K's new set Home Tweet Home to make them. Since it's such a busy time I had to make them real simple but she was pleased with them.

Im sharing my 2 favorite cards in the set. I used Gina's 120 lb weight pure luxury cardstock for the card bases and scored simple lines for visual interest and colored them all differently. I personalized real easily with my JustRite harmony rectangle stamper with the Curlz font for capital letter & Times New Roman for the rest of the letters. They were colored with my peerless watercolors & aquapainter. The birthday wishes on the curly label punch tag is from Winter Foliage .

SA/DF CCCC (Clearly Cool Card Challenge)

This is my first time making a clear card (wasn't sure I had enough acetate to do it but I did!) and it was fun!  You can tell it was my first time because I put a snowflake right smack dab on top of Coco's right eye!  I didn't lay my image down before stamping my snowflakes, oh well!   This is a challenge posted on the SA blog as well as Papercraft Planet and if you play you could win this fun set Santa's Sweet Shoppe (and free sentiments)!  But never fear if you already have this set you can choose another if you win!!  Just be sure to use keyword SADF1208 when uploading to SCS or PCP and you have until December 30th to play so no excuses - take a break from all the hard work preparing for Christmas & make a clear card & increase your chances at getting free rubber!!  

A doggie, holly leaves, wreath & thanks

Here are a few more Christmas cards to share with y'all - my first card uses the new set Framed Friends - the trees in the background that Asela drew reminded me of Christmas trees so I had to make my doggie in a wintery setting.  The 'snow' is stardust stickles and the 'ornaments' are red rhinestones.  Sparkly details are from Copic atyou spica pens. 

I love glitter and thought the SU! Baroque Motifs set would make a nice glittery background on a simple Christmas card with holly leaves from Winter Foliage, inked up with a marker to separate the leaves from the berries.   I just love the nestabilities tags I got when sentiments fit perfectly inside!  

After I made the above card, I got the idea to make a holiday wreath with the holly, just inking them up & stamping in a circle (a little tedious but look how pretty it turned out, what do you think?)  I ended up having to cut out the wreath because I smudged the inside (don't you love it you can salvage just about every boo boo made with stamping?) a lot of my cards turn out better than expected because of it.  I like the fact that you can see the detail on the snowflake cb folder inside of it.  

p.s. thanks for all the prayers & thoughts y'all have sent our way regarding the untimely, tragic death of our cousin last week.  We went to the funeral on Sunday and I have to tell you, out of all these years of losing family & friends it was the first time it was an accident caused by another person that was the reason I was there and it has been extremely hard to deal with (unfortunately it was not for others since another cousin was murdered by someone about 20 yrs ago - I know it brought back a lot of memories for John).

We were told by her dad that her boss is planning a $100,000 reward for information on the person responsible.  Of course we all know that will not bring Cathy back but it will bring some closure to family & friends who feel robbed by the irresponsible actions of the person who caused Cathy to not be around to share her love & assist in the raising of her 3 children who are dealing with more than any child should at their ages, especially during this 'most wonderful time of the year'  The only thing I find solace in is that Cathy will be spending Christmas with Jesus this year (thanks to Jada who shared a heartfelt poem with me about that after I heard the news).  

Gina K Release Party Aftermath

not really - that sounds bad! It was a FUN party last night with lots of new faces, great chat; with Theresa (new Sr. DT member) and Carolina (In the Spotlight Designer) rockin' the samples as well as the other design team!! Everyone always does a bang-up job and I am so happy to be part of the design team! The only bummers were Cindy (new Sr. DT member) not being able to make it due to an unexpected power outage and sad family news we got during the party. One of our cousins got killed in a car accident on her way home from work. We hadn't seen Cathy in years (you know it goes with cousins having their own families/lives that don't seem to make the time to get together, it really is a downfall). Anyway, I am so sad because she has 3 young children but I can't remember their ages right now and she was too young, just 35. We will be going to either the visitation or service this weekend and I know it will be extremely difficult; especially with the holidays so close for the kids to have her memory & sadness of their loss overshadow the season - my heart just aches for them.

The card I'm sharing today uses one of Gina K's new style of stamps Tropical Flowers, which lends itself to many different techniques, one of which is heat embossing I did on this card for Challenge #3 (Monochromatic)

For this challenge, pick one color to use in various shades on your card or project plus only one neutral (black, white, vanilla, kraft, grey, etc.) Whatever neutral you use, you can use it in whatever form you’d like but not more than one (for instance, in my sample, my flowers were embossed in black embossing powder on white cardstock but I rubbed the purple metallic rub-on paste from the holiday collection because I chose black as my neutral). My main monochromatic color is purple (Pale Plum, Perfect Plum) and Black as my neutral (embossed flowers, ribbon). What do you think? Have you tried the rub-on paste? It is so fun and just glides over Gina's Pure Luxury Cardstock. I love the look of the half top note bigz die by SU! so I ran my pale plum top with the cuttlebug leafy branch & matted a perfect plum then sliced off the side, adding a single black brad as an embellishment.

Be sure to play, you can win any Gina K stamp set valued at $19.95 or less!! Just upload your card using keyword GKDECDB on SCS and link back to the main thread so we can all see it. Carolyn, Carolina & Melanie have samples created for it so you can see their take on the challenge (they are all wonderful by the way).

TECC46: Blinged up Gingerbread House

Happy Cupcake Friday Y'all!  I am so ready for the weekend, we have my company holiday party tonight, free booze!  j/k they can never make my favorite drink which is a Midori Sour so I don't indulge.  I know it's going to be a nice party, the owners really know how to show us appreciation for our hard work.  Here is my card for Taylor's sketch this week - since it was a square card the gingerbread house from Home Sweet Home was going to be perfect for it!  All supplies used (except stickles used on the gumdrops & sparkle on the house from copic spica atyou pens) are from the Christmas key ingredients. The blue & green gems used are by Zva Creative which you can get at Taylor's store.  

Here's a close-up of the sparkle!  

Here is Taylor’s sketch so you can play along too!!  You can be eligible to win Cupcake Sampler Honors & be featured on Taylor’s blog using the next Cupcake Friday Sketch!  You’re not required to use cupcakes on your sketch, but if you got ‘em why not use ‘em??  You can create something other than a card but try to keep as close to the sketch as possible. If you’re uploading to Splitcoast, please use keyword TECC46.  Leave a comment on Taylor’s post with a link to your blogpost or gallery link so she can check it out!  You must have your creation uploaded by Monday, December 15 at 8:00 a.m. PST to be eligible for the featured cupcake sampler honors.  Lastly, be sure to have FUN creating!

Be sure to check out the other Cupcake Crew’s Creations:

Taylor VanBruggen
Ana Wohlfahrt
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Monika Davis
Sherrie Siemens
Stephanie Hargis
Vicki Chrisman

Today’s Featured Cupcake Sampler is Cindy Haffner – Cindy Haffner’s Corner

Don't forget - 

Taylored Expressions has a fun way to win an awesome prize. You can play the SASI Holiday Blitz where one lucky winner will receive a prize package including the JustRite 10 Designer Borders and Centers set along with a Birthday Boy Key Ingredients pack!

It's so fun and easy to play The Blitz! We want to see how many SASI cards and projects you can upload to our SCS gallery and your blogs in the next week, so to make it easy, for each one uploaded to the SCS gallery you'll be entered into our prize drawing. The rules are super simple:

***Upload your card or project featuring SASI images (any SASI set) to the SCS gallery and use the Keyword SASI. You will be entered one time for each separate card or project you upload from now through Monday December 15th at 6:00pm PST.

***In the description field of your upload please be sure to mention that the stamps are from the SASI line available at Taylored Expressions and include this link http://www.tayloredexpressions.com/category.php?category_id=135

Sneak Peek Release Day: Take Flight

I am so excited to show you my sneak peek of the One Free with 3 set (purchase any 3 sets from Gina K Designs and this will be yours for free!)  However, the month after the release, the set will be available for purchase separately.  I made this card & set for my sister Deana whose birthday is the day after Christmas.  I always like to be sure she gets something real special since she has been jipped out of gifts growing up.  We always had cake & ice cream the day after Christmas to celebrate although we were always stuffed!  I remember my mom recalling the birth of my middle sister, they were out eating dinner at a restaurant when her water broke on Christmas Day and until then I don't believe her & my dad had a name picked for her.  Well, Dean Martin's birthday was Christmas Day and one of his daughter's names was Deana so that is who she was named after.  I guess they liked Dean Martin.  Interestingly, I just looked him up and he ended up dying on his birthday in 1995, 29 years to the day that his mother died.  That's weird.  

I altered a box from Federal Express that all the gifts fit perfectly inside.  I covered the white box with the pattern paper I used on the card, My Mind's Eye as well as the inside by spraying with spray adhesive (works great!).  Closed it with some pretty white ribbon & topped it with 2 big flowers & silver dew drops in the middle.  

Here are the contents of the gift inside the box.  It;s going to be real easy to mail & will keep the contents protected.  
Here is a picture of the frame I made, placing the cut out butterfly inside.  What is so neat about htis frame is that there is space in between the glass & the actual picture that the butterfly's wings are actually off the page because I wanted it to coordinate with the card.  However, I added some flowers on the background of the lovely lilac with Tropical Flowers.  I love the 2 sentiments in this set - and both of the butterflies, I prefer to have realistic ones to whimsical ones so this set appeals to me so much!  Since I love to color, I had so much fun coloring the butterfly with my Peerless Watercolors, aquapainter & highlighted with Copic atyou Spica pens (sorry I didn't get a photo of the sparkle)

Finally, a picture of the butterfly necklace, cell phone charm & bookmark I made using clear polyshrink.  As I was making the card, Deana called and I asked her if she liked butterflies.  She said, 'yea, remember I have a butterfly tattoo on my chest" I said oh yea (she has like 9, I forget what they all are) and when I asked her the colors, she said blue & purple.  Stamping Serendipity - I colored the butterfly for the card 2 nights before (with the help of John who suggested blue & orange when I had already started with the purple).  I bet she's going to love this gift!!  I just realized I haven't made her any jewelry and I've been making it almost 2 years!  

You have to see what sneak peeks of Take Flight the rest of the design team have to share today!  See ya tonight at the release party on SCS!!  7:00 - 10:00 CST for fun, challenges (I'll be issuing one), contests & chatting!

Gina Krupsky
Joanne Basile
Carolyn King
Cindy Lawrence
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Melanie Muenchinger
Theresa Momber

Carolina Buchting – In the Spotlight Designer

Patchwork Cuppie

I love all the papers that come in the Christmas key ingredients at Taylored Expressions so I wanted to make somewhat of a patchwork background using an assortment of the designer paper by My Mind's Eye.  My card is pretty simple with the papers making a statement but having the cuppie decorating the tree is so cute for it.   

Now for some News for YOU!  

Taylored Expressions has a fun way to win an awesome prize. You can play the SASI Holiday Blitz where one lucky winner will receive a prize package including the JustRite 10 Designer Borders and Centers set along with a Birthday Boy Key Ingredients pack!

It's so fun and easy to play The Blitz! We want to see how many SASI cards and projects you can upload to our SCS gallery and your blogs in the next week, so to make it easy, for each one uploaded to the SCS gallery you'll be entered into our prize drawing. The rules are super simple:

***Upload your card or project featuring SASI images (any SASI set) to the SCS gallery and use the Keyword SASI. You will be entered one time for each separate card or project you upload from now through Monday December 15th at 6:00pm PST.

***In the description field of your upload please be sure to mention that the stamps are from the SASI line available at Taylored Expressions and include this link http://www.tayloredexpressions.com/category.php?category_id=135

And don’t forget to get your Top Chef entries in this week.  Details on the SASI blog here

HAVE FUN STAMPING!!  

Gina K Sneak Peek Day 3: Hand in Hand

You'll be pleasantly surprised at Melanie's new set (aren't you each month anyway?) she has created, another extremely unique set that you can use for many occasions - from love, support, friendship, new baby and more! On my card I used it as friendship and paired it with my Basic Grey Eva paper, I just love these colors - don't you love that sentiment? You will love all the ones in this set - so much versatility.

Here are links to the design team's sneak peeks today - see ya tomorrow at the release party! It's 7:00-10:00 p.m. (Central time) in the Gina K forum on SCS - for fun, contests, challenges & more!

Gina Krupsky - leave a comment on her post to win a set!
Carolyn King
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Melanie Muenchinger - check out her post for a contest to win a set!!
Theresa Momber
Carolina Buchting – In the Spotlight Guest Designer

DF Winter Fun - Mayhew & Bling Bling Sexy Lips

I just had to get the Doodlefactory Collection Winter Set (which was last year's but I didn't know about them until this year).  I think all the DF sets are so unique & fun and this is no exception! My favorite is the squirrelly girl & the snowman - this set was created prior to the naming of the DF characters, guess I may have to make up my own, huh?  Let's call this dude Mayhew ... Variant of Matthew (Hebrew) "gift of the Lord" since he is wearing his yamika & holding his menorah in the midst of celebrating Hannukah with his presents & dreidel - exlcaiming 'Oh Goodies'  

Here is my snowman Bling-Bling Sexy-Lips* built in the meadow.  I got the idea to create my meadow from this card by Anna Wight (she used patterned paper for her meadow).  I just cut a scratch piece of cardstock with various size waves & laid on my cardstock & sponged with baja breeze ink.  The I put a layer of stardust stickles on it.  So fun!  The tree is from the DF Halloween set from last year.   The sentiment is from Casual Holiday Greetings.  Bling Bling Sexy Lips' scarf is colored with Copic atyou Spica pens for some bling (I'm totally addicted to them!)

*Want to know what YOUR snowman name would be?  Click here to find out!! and leave a comment to tell me what it is!  More Fun!!

Gina K Sneak Peek Day 2: Birds & Flowers

Today I have 2 cards to share of sneak peeks for Gina K Designs! The first is Rupa Shevde's-Home Tweet Home which you can use for a variety of cards with the many sentiments included. I made this card for the 12th Day of Christmas sponsored by Gina K on Papercraft Planet and it is to use 12 embellishments! I figured it would be a challenge since I'm a minimalist when it comes to multiple embellishments, so I new I could manage 12 rhinestones (they happen to be in the top 3 of my favorite ones). I have them on the blossoms on the tree - sorry the picture is not quite picking them up, but trust me - they are there. The pattern paper I used is a level 1hostess bundle by SU! and uses all in colors, so soft for the pretty bird. Be sure to play in the challenge this week so you can win a free set from Gina K!

Next up is Tropical Flowers, which is a new style for Gina K and happens to be one of the sets given away to all cruise participants. Silhouette, solid stamps are very popular right now and I like them because there are so many different techniques you can use with them to create so many different looks. With this card, I chose to create a classic black & white card - embossing the flowers with black embossing powder. The pattern paper is Ebony & Alabaster by Black Market and the black & white gingham ribbon is by SU!

Go check out all the other design team's sneak peeks today and remember the release party on Thursday, December 11th 7:00-10:00 p.m. (Central time) in the Gina K forum on SCS. There will be contests, challenges, chat & more!!

Gina Krupsky - leave a comment on Gina's posts for a chance to win the sets previewed!

Joanne Basile
Carolyn King
Cindy Lawrence
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Melanie Muenchinger
Theresa Momber
Carolina Buchting – In the Spotlight Designer