Princess Gabriella {gift and trip}

I’m sharing this little present I gave my now 4-yr old niece Gabby when I visited for her first dance recital last October.  I was so happy to be able to visit (thanks to my DMIL and sister who paid for my plane ticket!) I wanted to give her a special little gift to commemorate attending her dance classes and her first recital.  I naturally had to use my Trick or Sweet II set by Taylored Expressions with cuppie in a tutu!  I wanted to share a sweet photo of Gabby in her tutu, but I don’t have the original picture (it’s uploaded in costco.com and can’t retrieve it –ugh)!  Believe me when I say Gabby is ADORABLE in a tutu!

Here is a close up of the box (it’s a nugget box) and the cute little pink tutu bracelet I gave her.  I used justrite stamps to personalize the tag and put some stardust stickles on cuppie’s tutu!  

Here is a picture of us right after her recital; she did such a great job during the WHOLE song – she was right on with all her moves, and never skipped a beat!  In fact, I may be a little biased but I have to admit she did better than all the other little girls – some froze and didn’t do much dancing at all!  She made us ALL proud…afterward, we had a pizza party at Round Table pizza which is where she wanted to go) and then went back to the house for some yummy cake!!

…and while I am thinking of my trip, I want to share with you a cute picture of me reading to Gabby and her little brother Joey – it took him overnight to warm up to me since he hadn’t seen me 6 months and he was only a year old.  I had such a wonderful, blessed time during this last visit – all the trips are special but tend to get better and better, I guess it’s because the kids are getting older and we always have so much fun – I know they enjoy the one on one time I have with them.  I try to give my sister & bil a break and do as much as I can to help them out like feed them, get them dressed, etc.  I miss them so much and think about them every day; try to talk to them at least once a week although sometimes a few weeks may pass in between calls, I hope they know their auntie Donna and Nino John who live in Texas love them so much! 

Thanks for stopping by today; sorry it’s been SO long in between posts!  We are gearing up for a BUSY month getting so close to the house being completed, we have a close date of August 31st-  Yikes!  So the posts may be few and far between while we get a handle on things and of course there will be some time until we get settled once we do move and I get my craft room set up.  Check out the house blog if you’d like an update! 

GKD Hop with a STV technique!!

Gina K. and the design team are bringing you a fun review of this past month’s release stamps and we have picked a favorite STV video to showcase with it!  I chose the new set Fun Year Round illustrated by Melanie, along with the Smackin' Acetate video!  
It was the first time I tried this technique and it was super easy – I just adore how this card turned out!  I used a pink and green marker to apply color to my acrylic block and then pressed my pure luxury white cardstock on it, then stamped my circle background with memento tuxedo black ink over it!  I layered that on black onyx and bubblegum pink cardstocks then zig zag stitched around it with black thread.  The card base is green apple.  I had to make my blooms pop, so I outlined them with a black glaze pen then finished the card off with a black button, ribbon and pink thread.

For more projects from the other designers participating in the hop tonight, please check out these links:

• GinaK
• Jessica
• Theresa
• Melanie
• Nina
• Tami
• Cathy
• Lee
• Kurtis
• Emily
• Erika

I hope this little hop will inspire you to try out a technique you’ve never tried before, or go back to one you haven’t tried in a while!  You can join us as the next Center Stage Design Team member by participating in this challenge – Gina will pick a winner and you will join us for the August stamp release as designer!  Check out Gina's blog for all the details! Thanks for stopping by! 

TE Blast from the Past Blog Hop: Berries & Cherries

Since it's the middle of Summer, I wanted my blast from the past to be Berries & Cherries* - who couldn't use a little chocolate covered something every now & then?  I know I could right about now!  Making this card got me craving a little chocolate too!  I used the newly released Summertime Project Pantry kit for my card (which I think goes really well - isn't the liner of the sweet treat cute paper-pieced with the paper in the kit?

Here's a close up of the chocolate covered cherry on my card - to show you the delicious shine from the Glossy Accents I used, I just love it!  My card uses the layout that fellow Bakers Dozen design team member created just for us (if we wanted to use it) for the hop!  I attached a picture of the sketch if you'd like to play along too - isn't it fun? 

There's more: we'll be drawing one random winner to receive a FREE Taylored Expressions stamp set of your choice from all the participants in the blog hop below and we'll also be choosing another creation to be featured in an upcoming TE newsletter.  So, if you're not participating this time, you can next month, when we hop again so take out your TE stamps (or buy some now so you can play next month!)  Be sure to check out all the great creations below:
*Berries & Cherries is currently out of stock - click here to be notified when it is back in stock!

Sweet {Mercy} Bug

Hello there!!  I have a ‘sweet’ {Mercy Kerin sketch 82} volkswagon bug card to share with you today!!  I always intend to use Mercy’s Tuesday sketch, but time eludes me as I don’t usually do much stamping during the week so I made this Friday night but yesterday we were out/busy *ALL day* and I never got the chance to upload it!  Better late than never, though right?  I totally loved her sketch too – which I thought was perfect to showcase this cute vw bug in the new Feelin’ Groovy set by Taylored Expression!  I also had t use the new July key ingredient subscription which is only available to subscribers!  A fun collection of pattern papers, coordinating cardstock and embellishments that are delivered right to your door each month (3 and 6 month subscriptions are your option).  The brown flower & yellow button are from my stash, not the kit. 

*Yesterday we had a fun day Geocaching with some dear friends, went to a granite place since we are in the process of picking out our countertops for the house, then took them to see the progress on the house (they were rocking the fireplace and it’s exciting to see!!) then went to lunch at Cabo Bob’s (yum) and came back to the house to have some watermelon.  Good times! 

Hope you have a relaxing day and great week – thanks for stopping by!

TE July Key Ingredients Challenge

It’s one of my favorite days of the month – it’s the key ingredients subscription reveal & challenge with Taylored Expressions!  You are going to LOVE this kit!   I had so much fun playing with the ingredients in the kit (ha) and paired it with my set Feelin’ Groovy!  I used a sketch from the Sketch Saturday blog!  I thought it was fun to showcase the papers {Paisley Parade by KI Memories} and images in the set!  I had fun blinging up my VW van because….

This month's kit is all about the bling and so is our challenge to our subscribers!  It's time to try out the Quickie
Glue Pen (if you haven't already) and apply glitter to any and
everything! Create glittered chipboard pieces, write words in glitter, doodle with glitter (like I did on my first card), outline stamped images (like I did with the clouds on my 2nd card) or bling up the tiniest spaces with the small pen tip!

If you do not know what the key ingredient subscription is all about – here is some info about it and where you can sign up.  It’s like Christmas every month because the whole kit arrives in your mailbox (and your cc is charged once a month so you don’t have to pay up front) and you can participate in our challenge when you get your kit!!  Let’s not forget about the 10% discount you get in the TE Store plus free shipping on your order!!  What I love most about the key ingredients is that everything coordinates so well – it takes ALL the guesswork about coordinating your papers, cardstock and embellishments because Taylor does all the work for us!  There are enough supplies to create at least 16 cards! 

DON’T MISS OUT ON THE FUN:  Taylored Expressions is excited to host a monthly customer blog hop and we're looking forward to seeing what you create with our stamps! Our July Blog Hop is scheduled for next Tuesday, July 20th and the deadline to sign up is today, Thursday, July 15th.

- Sign up to play by sending an email to bloghop@tayloredexpressions.com with the subject line "July 20 Hop". In your email simply list the following info: your first and last name and a link to your blog.  You will be sent a reminder & more details in the email!

-- You can WIN!! One random participant will be selected to win the stamp set of your choice from Taylored Expressions and someone will also be chosen to have their card featured in an upcoming newsletter.  How exciting!!

Before you go, be sure to check out all fabulous creations the Bakers Dozen have created to inspire you with the bling today! 

Charmaine Ikach
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Melissa Sauls
Taylor Van Bruggen

Thanks for stopping by today! 

FS179: With Sympathy

I’m sad to say I had an occasion to make a sympathy card this past weekend.  My childhood friend’s (Allison) mom Carmen died on Friday.  I was numb when I read her post on Facebook on Saturday, not surprised since Carmen had been sick off and on for months prior (and was 82 years old with recent heart problems). 

I was sad because she was one of the first of many mother figures in my life.  Growing up, there were times I spent more time over their house than my own since she lived around the corner from me and there were no kids my age who lived on my street at all!  I was thrilled when my mom allowed me to start going walking over there by myself (many times someone would always have to walk me to the corner until they would see me walk up to her house).  Allison and I met at 5 years old and have kept in touch all these years even after graduating although we haven’t seen one another in about 10 years – we have many many happy and fun memories which is why I said in this card I mailed to Allison that her mom & dad (who died last May) will always hold a special place in my heart!  I hope this card gives Allison the feeling of a hug in the mail since she and her family are in my thoughts & prayers.

When I sat down on Sunday to make this card, I reached for my Care & Comfort set by Taylored Expressions and paired it with Miniature Motifs (background sentiment stamped on) and CreativiTEA set (label) as well as papers from October Afternoon Fly a Kite.  I used the SCS Featured Stamper Challenge {FS179} and used this card of Stephanie’s to CASE.  I embellished my card with a few punched flowers & cream glitter candy dots and some of my favorite ribbon!  Lastly, of course I had to distress everything a little with some Tim Holtz distress inks (I am SO hooked on that lately!)

Thank you for stopping by today…

Christmas in July

I know it’s just July and who wants to be thinking about Christmas, right?  Well, it’s not that much of a bad thing especially if you have a LOT of Christmas cards to send out!  In fact, there are a few monthly challenges out there that encourage you to make holiday cards ALL year so that by December 1st, you may have them all done!  HA – well, in theory it is quite a good idea but I am not that organized of a person!  In fact, since we will be in our new house by then, I am thinking of making plans to have a picture done of us at the new house so I may get out of making cards all together!  Now that’s a novel idea (and stress-free too)!!

Well, my card today is a card I made using Melanie’s new set for Gina K. Designs called Fun Year Round, a fabulous circle background stamp and images/sentiments to fill them with!  But, I used just the snowflake images and Let it Snow sentiment to make a Christmas card!  I also used the poppin’ pastels technique, which I haven’t done in a long time.  First, I stamped the images with white craft ink on chocolate brown cardstock and then used various shades of pink chalk to rub the images to make them pop!  The card base is Innocent Pink and I used pink organdy gold lined ribbon from the romance collection as well as a mega bling rhinestone brad.

Have you checked out Gina’s StampTV technique videos lately?  This month, she is using the special edition StampTV kit called Blessed is the Season to bring you a special Christmas in July series sharing different techniques to inspire you to get some of your Christmas cards done!  Check them out!!

TE Release Day: Feelin’ Groovy and In the Park

It’s release day at Taylored Expressions!  Before you go spending the big ones, be sure you hop around all the designers sharing samples with you today, I’m sure you won’t be the least bit disappointed in the offerings!  On my first card, I have Feelin’ Groovy, a set illustrated by Taylor herself, 70’s hippie, groovy and flower power inspired!  I used Mojo Monday 6/28 sketch for my card and even used the new 5” square background stitched plaid, which is so fun!  All the supplies except ink and coloring medium are in the new That 70’s Project Pantry kit featuring patterned paper from Doodlebug, peace sign brads, groovy mylar flowers, glittered brads, rhinestone flowers, and butterflies!

My 2nd card uses just some cardstock from the kit because I decided to make my own pattern paper with images & words from the set, isn’t it fun?  You can make a whole bunch of cards by stamping up one sheet of cardstock and cutting them down to size.  

My next card uses the set In the Park, another super Whimsical Wishes set illustrated by Nancy McKinney!  I just love the little pooch who can be placed on the park bench ‘just sittin’ here thinking of you’ – awww.  My card also uses all items from the Summertime Project Pantry kit featuring papers by Echo Park!  I had a lot of fun coloring this set with copics and sponging on some soft clouds.

My next project using In the Park set again, is a corner bookmark (tutorial on SCS which is super easy & fun to make)!  The bicycle goes along with the sentiment, “If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on” by Lance Armstrong: Son, Father, Texan, Cancer Survivor and 7 time Tour de France winner! 

I’ve actually been reading his book written in 2000, and it’s great learning more about him and how he got his start in cycling (did you know he was a swimmer before he was a cyclist?  (he was trying to figure out what he was best at during those early years).  He was raised by his mom who had him at age 17 and everyone had told her they ‘wouldn’t amount to anything, but she believed differently’ and raised him with an unbending rule: “Make every obstacle an opportunity'” She was his biggest cheerleader and at age 21, he was the first American to win a stage ride in the Tour de France, which caught King Harald of Norway’s attention.  Shortly after the stage win, Lance was told the King wanted to meet him and the guard at the door stopped them and said the King would meet him alone and Lance said, “I don’t check my mother at the door” and was willing to pass up the opportunity to meet him.  They conceded and they both met the King.  I was impressed with his devotion to his mom who was always there for him!  In fact, Lance has been blessed to have a great support group, which rallied at his side during his battle with testicular cancer and in the years to follow, always believing he was capable of a comeback!  Currently, he’s in not in the lead in the Tour de France but that doesn’t mean anything – he can still win!!  Go, Lance!!

Sorry about the LOOOONG post but I just had to share a little of the book with you!!

Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Sankari Wegman
Taylor Van Bruggen

Stacey Schafer, our guest designer
and Jami Sibley are joining us today! 

Thanks for stopping by!!

TE Sneak Peek: Weigh To Go!

Today I have a fun new set in the Apple Doodle, Ink line of stamps for Taylored Expressions called Weigh To Go!  It is a set set featuring Tena in a set geared toward cheering on a person who is attempting to manage their weight or a set you can even encourage yourself with!  For my card, I decided to feature the veggies with faces with a cute sentiment that says, “Veggies are our friends!” HA!!

I used the Udderly Sweet Project Pantry kit that is still available in the store, the Garden Variety paper by Cosmo Cricket with veggies is perfect fto compliment the cute little veggies in the set!!  I also used a fun Jenni Bowlin vintage cream button!

Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Sankari Wegman
Taylor Van Bruggen
and Jami Sibley is joining us today! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to come back tomorrow so you can be sure to start your shopping list since all the stamps and project pantry kits will be available for purchase in the TE Store at 10:00 a.m. CDT! 

TE Sneak Peek: Destination Cuppie

Welcome to our first day of sneak peeks for the July release!  We have Destination Cuppie up first; since it’s Summer vacation time, it’s just perfect for Cuppie to travel across the U.S. on his adventures!!  His first stop is on the Northwest coast, Seattle, WA!  Jessie did a great job illustrating these sets, you cuppie fans will adore them!  I used the Paper Loft Morning Rain papers, which I got at CHA, with the umbrellas, it’s just meant to go with this cuppie (maybe I should have drawn in some rain).  The thing is, is that it rains most days in Seattle, and on the 2 trips I have made there, I can attest to that but can still say it is a fun place to visit!  So many fun things to do – I meant to have some pictures from our visit to share with you but we don’t have access to them on our server at home *bummer*.  Pike’s Market is one of our favorite places, it’s rich in culture and you can get the freshest seafood and flowers there, it’s unreal! 

Next on Cuppie’s stop is to the most expensive place to live in the U.S. San Francisco!  Having grown up in the Bay Area; this place will always hold a special place in my heart, so I can truly say I left my heart in San Francisco – I took for granted I would live around there for a long time, so there are a few places I neglected to hang out when visiting there, like this famous tourist spot with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background (I’m sure on one of our future visits there to see family, we will make it a point to get back there!).  In fact, on our trip last May for our nephew’s 1st birthday, we did a little geocaching around there and when I went to grab some photos of our trip, I realized I can’t find them even though I looked on ALL the sd cards I have – ugh!!  What is wrong with me not being able to get pictures I need when I need them?  Anyway, I have so many fun memories spending the day there with friends and family (many days I played hooky in high school to hang around there with my best friends) and of course, the nightlife – I used to LOVE going dancing on the weekends there!! I can’t forget all the rich culture, with fabulous museums and wonderful places to eat too – I just adored the different cultural areas: Chinatown, Japantown, Little Italy – there is something for EVERYONE there! 

Now a little detail about my card since I rambled on about how much I LOVE the City!  I used October Afternoon Fly a Kite papers and the cardstock is from the June Key ingredients pack.  Ivory silk ribbon and cream glitter candy dots were used as embellishments, and Tim Holtz distress ink!  Here is a close up of the bridge, covered with red copic atyou spica glitter pen!

Be sure to check out what fabulous creations Taylor & the Baker’s Dozen have to share with you – cuppie’s other destinations!!

Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Sankari Wegman
Taylor Van Bruggen

I {heart} books…

Howdy!  I can’t remember how long I’ve had this MFT stamp set illustrated by Stephanie Fizer, I {heart} books, but it’s the first time I inked it up – what a shame!  It was so fun to play with too!

I had to play along in the Crazy 4 Challenges blog challenge this week since my girl Jessie is the hostess and MFT is sponsoring it for a free stamp set to a random winner!  Her challenge is to use 2 or more ribbons on your card and I used Mercy’s sketch from last week too, since I needed a little help in that department!  I hate when I sit down to stamp and draw a blank on what layout to come up with so then I hunt one down to use and this was a perfect one for this set!!  I used October Afternoon Fly a Kite papers along with some of my favorite ribbon from the Taylored Expressions store.  I couldn’t help but sponge on this card with Tim Holtz distress inks and put a few few stitches either!

Be sure to check out Taylor’s blog for her announcement of our guest designer for the next 2 releases! 

You Rock and our House Rock!

I’m so excited to have a 4-day weekend, 2 of which are paid!!  So, I was up early this morning to stamp – I have a busy few days ahead of me since I’m working on sneak peeks of the new TE release that will be on Thu July 8th!  But first, I went to SCS and checked out today’s Free For All challenge (F4A19), which is to use gold and a star on your project!  I reached for my TE set, You’re My Hero and also this week’s sketch challenge (SC287)for my layout but that’s wasn’t planned at all – I initially started out making an ATC and decided I should turn it into a full sized card and it worked with this week’s layout!  I’m not totally happy with the card since I don’t think I should have sponged around the girl in blue but oh well – there is blue in the pattern paper.  Oh and I totally meant to use a spiral border punch on that paper and completely forgot – ugh!  I feel totally off my A-game, hope I get my act together soon or I will be in big trouble. 

Not much planned for the long weekend, although our 13-yr anniversary is next Tuesday, perhaps we will celebrate it this weekend since it’s hard during the week.  Oh, and Sat. we will be going to pick out our countertops and maybe some tile backsplash!  The house was insulated this week with spray foam insulation and I believe all the rock work should be done – it totally ROCKS – take a look for yourself here.   Maybe I will convince him to go see Eclipse *wink*

Whatever you do to celebrate America’s independence, I hope you have fun and be safe!