Feelin’ Crabby?

Aren’t you just in love with the new Gina K. set Quite a Catch??  Here’s a fun card I made for the release last week that I wanted to share with y’all in case you missed it.  I adore the looks on all these sea creatures faces – I practically squealed when I first saw it.  I used the cute crab with the ‘heard you’re feelin’ crabby’ sentiment, doesn’t that crack you up?  I used Rocket Red, Black Onyx and SU! tangerine tango and had fun sewing on the card and adding some texture with the tiny mosaic cuttlebug folder.  I finished my card off with some silver brads and some red double stitched ribbon from the Romance ribbon collection. 

I am SO happy it’s Friday!  I am looking forward to stamping for the new TE release this weekend (sneak peeks start Tues) and relaxing (but I also have to study too – finals are a week and a half away!) yikes and so excited at the same time!!

Let’s Do Coffee, a little update and Blast from the Past!!

Hi there!  Remember me?  Sorry I haven’t posted since last Thursday – I had/am having a BUSY week/end full of lots of studying  and tasks for building the house (like  meeting with our construction consultant last Thursday to picking out fixtures at a store 30 minutes away before they closed on Sat!)  The ball is officially rolling on construction and it’s exciting but a little overwhelming at times; we have many times prayed for God’s direction, wisdom, grace and favor with building this house and that is not about to end! 
Now on to my card!  It is a fun one using Let’s Do Coffee from Taylored Expressions and the Early Bird card kit.  I am in love with this stamp set and for this card I wanted to highlight some of the smaller images in it like the coffee cups and sentiment.  Have you seen all the great cards made using this set?  Here is a link to the design team’s samples for you to see! 
A little personal news – I stayed late after my anatomy & physiology test on Monday night and was able to get my test results.  I was so unsure what grade I would get but tested a theory that possibly I was overstudying so I held back just a little this time and ended up with an 83!!  This was my highest grade yet in the class (one test I got a 79 on – ugh.  So close.  I almost got an 86 but I ended up changing 3 right answers to the wrong ones – talk about frustrating!  I was so thrilled to get a B on this test and found out that I am getting a B in the class (for some reason I thought I was getting a C since that was about my average on my prior tests).  Breathe, Donna, Breathe.  Most of you may not realize how very difficult and exhausting these past few months have been working full-time and going to school 4 nights a week.  I am happy to say I only have 2 more weeks to go!  Yea!!  
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Calling all Taylored Expressions fans!!  Mark your calendars!!
Taylored Expressions is hosting a Blast From the Past blog hop on May 18th and you're invited to participate! We'll be featuring any and all TE stamp sets released in 2008 and 2009 so grab one of your ‘older’ sets and play along!
To join the hop simply send an email to bloghop@tayloredexpressions.com. In your email include May 18th blog hop in the subject line then list your first and last name, your blog name and blog address.

You must agree to post your TE creation on your blog on May 18th at 8am Pacific time and include links to the rest of the participants in your post, according to the hop rules. One random participant will be chosen to win a stamp set of their choice from Taylored Expressions. The deadline to sign up for the hop is May 13th. I hope you'll hop along with us and have a Blast from the Past on May 18th!!!

Center of Attention Product Spotlight - Thickers

Today some of the Baker’s Dozen and Taylor are spotlighting a fun product, American Crafts Thickers letters!  There are approx. 125 self-adhesive letters in a variety of styles and symbols in each set for you to use on your cards, scrapbook pages or altered art which is what I have to share with you!  I used a dollar store frame to make a unique gift to give my rock star husband who is also my hero.  I used our current charity giving set, You’re my Hero and Rock Star key ingredients.   

I decided to show you a fun way to change the look of your letters if you happen to have some metal squares.  I covered them with it and sanded down the tops for a distressed look.  I made this in about an hour and presented it to him after, he liked how it turned out and will put it up in his office at work.   

Here’s a close up of the letters.  I look forward to using more of these letters on my cards & perhaps some scrapbook pages since they are so quick and fun to use as a substitute of a sentiment, or shorten a work like I did with you. Now you can try them out if you haven’t already, because each of our Center of Attention products will be on sale for a limited time following our product spotlight (April 22-25). This time we'll be offering a 15% discount on all Thickers! The Thickers I used are the polka dots – sorry I didn’t have time to make anything with them all by themselves but I’m sure I will in the future! 

Be sure to check out what the other gals have made for us to drool over:
Charmaine, Jodi, Karen G., Melissa and of course Taylor! 

Gina K. Preview Day 3: Welcome Home

 
Today I bring you a sample from the new set illustrated by Rupa Shevde for Gina K. Designs called Welcome Home.  This set is a fun collection of images you can use to welcome a new person to your neighborhood, congratulate someone on moving to their new home or to announce you’re moving!  That is what I used on my sample – since this past weekend John and I finally signed our closing documents on our construction loan, we are well on our way to building our home on our land!  We have a closing date of October 16 which is a mere 6 months away – everyone says we can build within that time frame and I believe it’s doable, it’s just a little nerve-wracking since it’s our first time to build from scratch!  We are so excited about it at the same time!  I chose to make a postcard announcement to send to friends and put ‘our new address’ directly on the moving truck!    Of course since we’re going to live on acreage, our neighbors will not be this close – thank God (nothing against city living, it’s just not something we want anymore).

Here is the back of the invitation, it’s already addressed to send to Melanie – ha!  This was so simple to do in Word and printing on layering weight pure luxury cardstock.  You can either send just like this or slip in an envelope!  I used the new turquoise sea cardstock as the base.  

Designers participating in previews using Welcome Home and Sew Pretty:

• Gina Krupsky
• Jessica Fick
• Cathy Tidwell
• Erika Martin
• Emily Giovanni
• Kurtis Amundson
• Lee Murphy
• Lynn Mercurio
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Nina Brackett
• Tami Mayberry
• Theresa Momber
• Bev Gerard
• Colleen Schaan
• Suzanne Dean
• Geri Utterback - our Center Stage Spotlight Designer!
• Asela Hopkins - Sew Pretty illustrator

I hope to see YOU at our Release Party  on Thursday evening on StampTV.  We would LOVE to have you join us for the fun!
There will be challenges, contest questions, chatter, as well as tons of samples from the Design Team members from 7-10 (CDT) all leading to the new products being available in GinaK's online store at 10pm.

Gina K. Preview Day 2: Quite the Catch & Gone Fishing

Welcome to Day  2 previews!!  Today I have 2 samples to share with you.  The first uses Gina K.’s new set Quite the Catch (when you purchase this super cute Summery Under the Sea set you get a free card kit!)  I used the super sexy girl fish with big eyes for my card and on this one I am showing a lot more of our new Turquoise Sea cardstock, embossed with the bubbles embossing folder.  I added the little worm on a hook from Best Fishes since the sentiment is ‘I’m yours hook line & sinker'!  I had a lot of fun coloring this fish vixen with copics to coordinate with the papers I used with the turquoise sea, lovely lavender and vibrant violet – isn’t it a fun combination? 

Here’s a close up of my fish vixen so you can see the sparkle from the sakura glaze pens – I gave her purple colored mascara (have you ever had colored mascara? I used to wear it.

 

 

Here is the card I made using the new set illustrated by Theresa Momber called Gone Fishing.  It is a wonderful realistic fishing set that is perfect in time for Father’s Day!  Ever struggle with making masculine cards?  Well, this one will be great for those men in your life, especially those who like to fish!  I know my father-in-law will LOVE the cards I make him using this set!  I stamped the fisherman on the end of the pier with memento rich cocoa ink on kraft cardstock.  On the bottom green apple cardstock, I embossed with the distressed stripes cuttlebug folder but then decided to put some nautical netting over it and embellish with a cut out fish from the set.  I think that sentiment is great (but of course it’s not my mantra) for someone who loves to fish!

Designers participating in tonight's previews:

• Theresa Momber - Gone Fishing illustrator
• Jessica Fick - Quite the Catch card kit designer
• Gina Krupsky
• Cathy Tidwell
• Emily Giovanni
• Erika Martin
• Kurtis Amundson
• Lee Murphy
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Nina Brackett
• Bev Gerard
• Colleen Schaan
• Suzanne Dean
• Sankari Wegman
• Valerie Stangle
• Geri Utterback - our Center Stage Spotlight Designer!

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for our release party this Thursday, April 22 on StampTV for 7:00-10:00 CDT.  There will be challenges, contest questions, chatter, as well as great samples from the Design Team members! All the new products will be available in Gina K's online store at 10pm.  Don’t miss out on all the fun!!

Gina K. Preview Day 1: Oh Boy!

Well here we are again with previews for Gina K’s April’s release!  I’m sure you’re going to LOVE the offerings like usual!!  

I am showing a card I made with the cutest boy images illustrated by Tami Mayberry called Oh Boy!  I used the fun little truck image.  Since I decided to put my truck on a road with rolling hills in the background, I stamped the sun and sponged on some clouds. I know you can’t see all that well, but the matted blue layer is our new Turquoise Sea cardstock – it is a dream! Look how great it looks with Green Apple, Lemon Drop and Black Onyx!  This card was really fun to make – I can’t wait to send it to my 23-month old nephew who loves cars & trucks!  Since he also loves money, I will slip in a few dollars to him too. 

Be sure to check out what the other designers have to share with us, including Melanie’s new set Gifts from the Sea:

Designers participating in previewing tonight:

• Melanie Muenchinger - Gifts from the Sea illustrator
• Tami Mayberry - Oh Boy! illustrator
• Gina Krupsky
• Jessica Fick
• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Emily Giovanni
• Erika Martin
• Kurtis Amundson
• Lee Murphy
• Lynn Mercurio
• Nina Brackett
• Theresa Momber
• Valerie Stangle
• Geri Utterback - our Center Stage Spotlight Designer!

Mark your calendars for our release party this Thursday, April 22 on StampTV.  There will be challenges, contest questions, chatter, as well as great samples from the Design Team members!  It will be 7-10 (CDT), and then all the new products will be available in GinaK's online store at 10pm.  We'd love to have you join us for all the fun!!

Let’s Do Coffee!

I have a fun card to share with you using the newly released set Let’s Do Coffee by Taylored Expressions!  I also used the Early Bird card kit which is such a fun collection of papers, embellishments, cardstock and a perfect package card box to put all your creations in!  Another product I used is the big polka dot frame, which is a Spellbinders nestability shape – isn’t it fabulous with the polka dots? 

Tena is so fun hanging out in the frame – I think I should send this to a friend and invite her for coffee, huh!!?  One thing’s for sure – working FT and going to school has left me with very little girlfriend time and I miss it!  I enjoyed a spontaneous visit with a great friend who’s like a mom to me the other night, who I hadn’t seen her since before Christmas which is way too long between visits.  And today I had lunch with Melanie for her birthday and we hadn’t seen each other since January! It was a great week mainly because of those times. 

Oh and because I found out I got an A on my medical terminology test and an A on my lab practical in Anatomy & Physiology.  Yea me!!  The semester is over in just 4 weeks – I am so glad but also nervous because of finals…yikes.  Another reason I had a great week?  I am working FT – it was a year ago Wednesday that I was laid off from my job and I am blessed with a new one at a BETTER company with BETTER benefits and so many incredible PERKS it’s so GOD. I’m talking casual dress everyday (as in t-shirts, shorts, flip flops, jeans – I am SO much more productive dressed comfortably), free gourmet coffee, free breakfast every Friday (my favorite fast food Chick-fil-A was today), making my own hours (within reason), 1/2 Fridays in the Summer!!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend – thanks for stopping by!

Sketch Saturday a week late: sereniTEA

I had good intentions on posting this card much earlier than I am – really I did!  A few weeks back I discovered another sketch blog called Sketch Saturday!  I made this card using the new TE set CreativiTEA and Miniature Motifs for their sketch challenge on April 3.  It was such a fun sketch to show off some of the beautiful papers in the March key ingredients kit!  I paper-pieced the tea cup with the papers, isn’t it great?  I totally forgot my DMIL has a TON of pretty teacups in the house that I can stage along with projects I make with this set, so I grabbed!!

If it looks like there is a shadow under the bottom scalloped panel, there is – I was making do with a few shorter pieces of the mustard cardstock and put the top layer on over some foam tape so I didn’t waste any paper!  I adhered both both to the kraft card base.  I like how it turned out! 

SFYTT – Thanks for believing in me

So did you enjoy all the sneak peeks from Taylor and the Baker’s Dozen design team this week?  The samples were all amazing and the products released were all fantastic!!  If you haven’t taken a look yet, here is a direct link to the ‘Fresh Out of the Oven’ category where you can see ALL the new stuff at one time and not wonder what’s new in the store in a particular category! 

For the card I’m sharing today, I used a few new sets: Miniature Motifs, Make the Grade and an older one, Discover Your Wings for Jen’s Sketch For You to Try from yesterday!  The paper is what was in the March key ingredients subscription, which is such a rich earthy collection that I love!!  If you’d like more info on the key ingredients subscription, click here – remember these kits are not available for individual purchase; you can get a 3- or 6-month subscription and I guarantee you will NEVER be disappointed in the hand-picked selection by Taylor!! 

Happiness is…

Having a friend like you!!  That is what I stamped on the inside of this card I have to share with you today.  I made it using the current StampTV kit, Spring Mix (flower and sentiment) and Spring as Sprung (the little birds taking a drink from the fountain)!  I love the color combo of lemon drop, lovely lavender and vibrant violet. 
The design team posted a great challenge you can participate in to win a spot on the design team for April’s release!  Read about all the details on Gina’s post and good luck!  You will LOVE the new release!!
Personal Note: I didn’t do so well on the last 2 tests I had to study for and it’s pretty depressing to me since I studied SO HARD and want to get good grades (translates to better than a C for me) In my Anatomy & Physiology class I got a 73% and the class average was 76%! 

On my medical terminology test I initially got a 79.5% -UGH!  But after reviewing my answers, I discovered the scan tron machine counted a correct answer as wrong because of an incomplete erasure mark so my grade went up to 80.5% – at least it’s a B.  I am at a stand still – I don’t think I can handle studying harder than I am and not sure if I can do better at retaining the info!  Good/Bad news is that there are 5 weeks left in the semester…
Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by! 

Apology for bad pictures in previous post

Sorry for the lack of photos in my previous post (TE Release Day); I had a snafu yesterday, learned from my mistake and hope it never happens again.  I did, however see the photos from my cell phone today when I clicked on them, they just didn't show up in my Feedburner email subscription or directly on my blog and I feel badly about that! 

If you didn't get to see the pictures, please click here to see the post; I'd love to hear how you liked my cards & coffee shop box! 

TE Sneak Release Day: Let’s Do Coffee

Today is the day you’ve been waiting for, huh?  All 4 full size, 1 mini and 3 Cuppies A la Carte  and 3 card kits are available to purchase at Taylored Expressions! 

This is also the day we will preview my FAVORITE set in the release; Tena is back to share her love of java in Let’s Do Coffee! I adore this new set in the AppleDoodle Ink line of stamps!  I also have the Let’s Do Coffee card kit to share with you!  In the first picture, you see how I decorated the outside of my box with papers in the kit, Cosmo Cricket Early Bird.

Here is the first card I made to share with you using one of the fun cups in the set, with polka dots, I thought it would be fun to color it to mimic the cute polka dot paper in the kit.  I added the use of the Blossom Nestability die for the circle frame. 


My 2nd card showcases the set along with the Window Shopping set which was released a few months ago, now we have a window full of coffee cups!  How fun is this to give to a friend who loves coffee?  I just love the sentiment and wanted to to something fun with it to fill the empty space in the ‘window’ and balance out my card.  I paper-pieced the window with the papers in the kit and water-colored the tiny coffee cups on this card.

My 3rd card uses the Wake Up Coffee blend atop a mound of coffee beans!  I also paper-pieced the very familiar To Go coffee mug and water-colored the image.  On the inside of the card it says “All the goodness of life in a cup” how perfect is that?!  Well, for those of you who LOVE java like I do, you can appreciate that because once I get my cup of gourmet coffee in the morning at the office – I can’t help but say ‘yum’ because it tastes so wonderful to me! 

Want to know what you get in the card kit?  A TON of stuff for just $14.95, you can make at least 10 cards (that’s how many card bases you get) but I guarantee you will have leftover supplies and can add a few more from your stash and increase the amount of cards made!  Don’t forget you will have access to a downloadable inspiration sheet when you purchase one of our three new card kits, with cards made by the design team.  This makes a great gift too for the person who loves to give cards but may not make cards and you have a gift box all ready to go!  How great is that!?

Card kit contents: 10 Choice Cardstock A2 card bases
10 A2 envelopes
8 panels of Choice Cardstock sized 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (for images and layering)
15 sheets of patterned paper sized for card making at 4" x 6" (3 sheets each of 5 double-sided patterns)
20 sheets of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cardstock (4 sheets each of 5 colors)
1 package of Kaisercraft Pearls
5 yards of ribbon (2.5 yards each of 2 different styles)
1 Perfect Package Card Box
Be sure to check out all the wonderful projects the Baker’s Dozen have to share with us today and have FUN shopping for your new goodies! 
Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Sankari Wegman
Amy Sheffer (guest designer for April)
Taylor Van Bruggen
and Jami and Nancy are joining us again! 

Thanks for stopping by today and hope you had fun looking at all the inspiration!!

TE Sneak Peek Day 2: Make the Grade, Extra Credit and A La Carte Cuppies!

 
Today the Baker’s Dozen and I have 2 sets and 3 A la Carte Cuppies to share with you. 

On my first card, I combined Make the Grade and Extra Credit sets, which were illustrated by Nancy McKinney.  Did you know Teacher Appreciation week is May 2-8?  This set is coming out just in time for you to make cards and projects for your kid’s teachers to show them how much you appreciate all they do!  I remember as a kid I would always love to make something special for my favorite teachers, I crocheted a blanket for my teacher Mrs. Landrock who retired and she loved it. On my card, I used Die Cuts with a View Green stack.  I used Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 7 to make a ‘book’ and here is a view of the inside.  I am a big fan of reading, in fact since I’ve been back in school, I really miss reading!  It really opens up a new world to me just like teachers who share their knowledge with us.  This will be a great set for me to make cards for my college professors too!

Here is a card I made using one of the A la Carte Cuppies called Desk Cuppie that was illustrated by Jessie Oleson.  I used a sentiment from the Extra Credit set.  The paper I used is Cosmo Cricket Ducks in a Row and prism cardstock. Isn’t it cute with the alphabet on it?

 
Be sure to check out all the wonderful projects the Baker’s Dozen has to share with us today:
Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Sankari Wegman
Taylor Van Bruggen
and joining us again today is Jami Sibley

Be sure to stop back tomorrow for our release day projects, you will be blown away!!  Can’t wait to share with you!

TE Sneak Peek Day 1: Creativi-TEA and Miniature Motifs

I’m so excited about this month’s Taylored Expressions release and I’m sure you will be too!

Nancy has illustrated the prettiest tea set and miniature motif background sets that stand alone and coordinate nicely together! I have a pretty gift set to share with you that I made to give my sweet friend and design team member, Carolina for her birthday!  I bought some ultra soft ivory knit material and stamped one of the background images in the Miniature Motifs in the set on it with old olive craft ink (heat set it), then hand sewed on a little crochet trim I got in the TE store (it’s sold out right now but there are some wonderful trims you can see here).

Here is a closer view of the card I made, it’s a little more frilly and feminine than I usually make (I’m no Melissa Sauls after all) but I like how quickly it went together and how it looks! The label in the set coordinates with Spellbinders Labels 9.  I stamped one of the background images in the Miniature Motifs directly on some Basic Grey Origins paper.    I love the flower in the Creativi-TEA set, I used the paper-tole technique on the centers.  These sets will make wonderful cards & gifts for Mother’s Day, anyone who loves feminine images, tea and more!!

Available this release will be some Here’s a close up of the top of the tin so you can see the pretty scallop square I added a Missing You sentiment to along with a few tiny pearls.



Be sure to check out all the wonderful projects the Baker’s Dozen has to share with us today:
Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Sankari Wegman
Nancy McKinney (our awesome illustrator)
Taylor Van Bruggen

Hope you have a great day – be sure to stop back tomorrow for Day 2 sneak peeks!

Happy Easter to one of my favorite peeps

Happy Easter y’all!  Real quick post because I need to get back to studying for my Anatomy & Physiology test that’s tomorrow evening (that I MUST get a B on!) It is about the Nervous System, Special Senses and Endocrine System.   A TON of information, did you know we have 12 cranial nerves? I know all the names and what their functions are but I also need to know where to LOCATE them on a diagram (that’s the next step for me). 

Anyway, remember the Egg Hunt card I made last week for my niece Gabby?  Well, it inspired me to make this one for her little brother Joey and I wanted to use the monkey from the Beary Special set but he wasn’t very ‘Eastery’ so I made him some bunny ears and fuzzed him all up with some sparkly fluff!  Isn’t he cute??  I made a quick Easter scene with the rolling grassy hills and a Spring-time tree using Branching Out.  Of course I had to add a ‘peep’ and sentiment from the new set Favorite Peeps and voila! I had an Easter card for my adorable nephew!

Here’s a close up of the bunny ears I drew as well as the ‘fluff’ that stuff is really easy & fun to work with! 

I sent these cards along with a few dollars in them; for those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while may remember Gabby is saving her money for college (she has been since about a year old) and now Joey is doing the same.  We talked to them on Friday night when they opened up their cards.  Gabby was so excited about the chicks on their egg hunt, she counted the chicks on the card and was so thankful for her card & dollars. Joey, on the other hand is not very vocal yet but he is trying (h'e’s not quite 2 yet) – he mumbled a lot of stuff to us but when we talked about the MONEY, boy he said that word clear as day which was hilarious!  He knows what that’s all about for sure!  lol

Here is a little Easter gift we got in the mail from Gabby, Joey and their mom & dad!  We opened it during our conversation as well.  It’s a homemade Easter basket filled with lots of goodies (Val picked out the basket, Tom picked out the Pez containers: I got Belle from Beauty and the Beast and John got Tigger)  Gabby ‘signed’ and decorated our card and even put some special foam stickers on it and sealed up the card before her mommy could sign it – ha! 

Her mom did sign the special note from Gabby – she likes to dictate to her what to write.  And another favorite part of our conversation?  When I heard Gabby in the background ‘reading’ the card we sent her.  My sister always reads the cards to them and she was recalling what it said afterward which was so cute! 

I hope whatever you do today, you stop for a little while and reflect on what great sacrifice Jesus made for us so that if we believe in Him, we will have the free gift of everlasting life and peace & comfort in this life and hope for what comes next; for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  It helps make the inevitable (death) more comforting to know we have a choice to live eternally in Heaven with a glorified body and not in Hell where there is suffering and torment.  Which one will you choose?  Hope you have a wonderful week!  I’ll be back on Tuesday with Day 1 sneak peeks with Taylored Expressions April Release!