TE sneak peeks: Christmas Blessings

I am so happy to share with you a sneak peek today for the new Taylored Expressions Christmas release; set one of three that will be released is Christmas Blessings in the Lasting Impressions line. It's such a beautiful, spiritual and elegant set that celebrates Christ in Christmas.


The manger scene just takes my breath away because it conjures up what the meaning of Christmas is for me as a Christian. Now, I'm not usually a fan of solid images although there are some fun techniques you can use with them. But for this one, because it is usually a scene as a silhouette just works on so many levels. I embossed my scene with chocolate craft ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. Then, I was able to sponge the night sky, leaving a halo (the light from the Christ child illuminating the dark). I kept my card simple but it took a long time to make because I wanted it to be perfect. My stitching started to get better once I started working on samples for this release (smile).







I sponged antique linen ranger ink on the ivory background, which happens to
be one of the pretty patterns Taylor will be offering by SEI called Christmas Mint. Each of the pieces is either flocked, embosseded highlighted with shimmery foil (you can click on the picture for a closer view). I used a few embellishments on my card which can be found in the TE store: chocolate velvet ribbon, lace trim and Kaiser chocolate pearls. I used prism Suede Brown Dark and Choice Buttercream cardstock for my card.



There was no room for my sentiment on the front of my card, so I put a bigger greeting on the inside of the card. With a powerful image like this, it's not necessary to try to squeeze it on the front! I love the greetings & sentiments in this set and I bet a lot of you will too!!


My next card uses the same Christmas Mint paper, I just love the swirly colorful ornaments on this paper! On this card, I embossed the dove with gold embossing powder and was so excited to see I had some metallic gold thread in my stash so of course I had to stitch on this card too! I love the way the metallic thread exudes elegance on this card. The prism cardstock colors I used on this card are Classic Red and Classic Yellow Green in addition to Choice Buttercream by TE. I also used red glimmer ribbon which goes along nicely with the glimmer from the gold thread. The dies used on this card are Labels 4 by Spellbinders.

Be sure to check out all the wonderful creations the rest of the Baker's Dozen design team have to share with you today:

Taylor, Charmaine Ikach, Denise Marzec, Jackie Pedro, Jodi Collins, Karen Giron, Karen Motz, Lori Schmidlin, Sankari Wegman, Sharon Harnist and Jami Sibley

be sure to check out the design team announcement on Taylor's blog and see ya tomorrow with Taylor's Sketch Challenge and Day 2 previews!