Gina K. Preview: Block Greetings & Mugs and Kisses

I am so glad you joined me in sharing the first day of previews for GKD December stamp release!  What I have to share first is a set of cards made with Tami’s newly illustrated set called Block Greetings.  It is a set of 3 square decorative blocks and 10 different all occasion greetings to place inside.  

My first card was made with Crème de Menthe, All Spruced Up and White pure luxury cardstock.  On all the cards, I used 2 different inks for the block; on this one I used New Sprout and Cottage Ivy.  I also used different cuttlebug folders for the top layers, Leafy Branches here.  On all the cards, I used gold lined organdy ribbon.

On my second card I used:
Wild Dandelion, Pumpkin Spice and White pure luxury cardstock.  Inks are Dandelion and Potter’s Clay.  Cuttlebug folder is Textile.

My last card is made with Bubblegum and Passionate Pink and white pure luxury cardstock.  Inks are Rose Bud and Angel Pink.  Cuttlebug folder is Victoria.

 

 

 

Next up for my preview is Melanie’s new set, Mugs and Kisses.  She has done it again with a cute set with so many possibilities and variety!  She hand drew 2 mugs and many smaller images and sentiments to put on the mugs or as sentiments.  The possibilities will be endless (especially when you pair it with other sets!  I made a coffee lover’s gift, even stamping and making my own gift bag out of kraft paper.  The tag I made has a little tree from her Have a Cookie set!

Here are the contents in the bag – small Coffee Talk book with Scripture and coffee information, it is a good read between friends!  On the left is a notepad I covered with chocolate & green apple cardstock and also added a few stamps from another of Melanie’s sets to (& God from The Best Things in Life).  I also put a few Gina K buttons on the notebook.  I love what I personalized the mug with, ‘ Start each day with a smile’

Lastly, I made a small magnetic bookmark using more words from The Best Things in life and combined it with a few from this new set (coffee and xoxo).  I cut the bottom of the bookmark with Labels 14 for a fun border!

Here is a list of all those participating in previews using these 2 fabulous new sets – be sure to check them all out:

• AJ Otto
• Asela Hopkins
• Carolina Buchting
• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Colleen Schaan
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker (that’s me!)
• Emily Giovanni
• Gina K
• Giovana Smith
• Janice Whiting
• Jennie Harper
• Lee Murphy
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Michelle Woerner
• Tami Mayberry
• Theresa Momber
• Tina Gilliland
• Valerie Stangle
• Vicki Dutcher

and mark your calendars to join us this Thursday evening 7:00-10:00 pm CST for our release party at StampTV!  There will be contests, challenges announced where you can have your chance at winning some free stamps, full reveals of the stamp sets being released, awesome samples from the design team and a whirlwind of chat!!  Hope you can make it!!

Gina K. Thankful For You Shopping Special!!

I know y’all love a good sale, right?  Especially those of you who are die-hard Black Friday early bird shoppers – it’s so not for me!  I remember one year my oldest sister and I got out early to Michael’s but that was not before 7:00, ha!  Today I have a Gina K. card for some challenges this week to share with you, along with her Black Friday special which runs through Sunday 11:59 pm CST. 

My card is for this week’s sketch STVSKSP3 and today’s color spotlight challenge STVCSP3 to use Green Apple, Ivory and Ocean Mist.  I cheated a little and didn’t use the Ocean Mist cardstock because I wanted my card to be clean & simple and used aqua vivid ink instead.  I used the butterfly from the Hope is Faith set and sentiment from Inside & Out. I used some turquoise mix buttons and stardust stickles on the butterfly.  This card came together so quickly & I love it!!

Have fun shopping! 

Happy Thanksgiving & TE Blowout and pictures of our home finally!

Today I am thankful for family & my beautiful new home.  Here are a few quick 6x6 scrapbook pages I made this morning with some pictures from when my niece & nephew visited a few weeks ago.  We had craft night one night, it was so fun – I had the kids make hand turkeys and you can tell they were proud of their work (especially Joey, who loved using his glue – he’s even still holding it in his picture!)  I used the TE set Gobble, Gobble in the Stamp a Sweet Impression line of stamps. 

Black Friday through Cyber Monday Taylored Expressions has some fantastic deals for you! Visit our Black Friday Blowout Department to see them all in one place. Here is just a sampling of what you'll see when you get there:
Stamp Sets - Purchase any 5 full sized Stamp Sets and GET ONE FREE!
Taylored Expressions T-shirts (3 styles to choose from) at 25% off!
Twinkles Special - Buy 2 Multi Colored Twinkles and get a Free Package of Crystal Twinkles.
Stickers and Tags - Purchase either the Sweet Season or Waiting for Santa sticker sheet and receive a set of 10 coordinating die cut tags free.
Key Ingredients Subscription - TE is lowering the monthly subscription fee for a 3 Month KI Subscription from $25.95 per month to $23.95 per month just for this 4 day sale. Normally you would need to subscribe for 6 months to get that monthly rate. This is a great time to give Key Ingredients a try!
A la Carte Stamps - Purchase any 3 Animals in Love A la Carte stamps and GET ONE FREE!
AND SO MUCH MORE!!!! Click over to the Black Friday Blowout Department now through Tuesday at 12:01am CST to take advantage of these incredible deals. Some quantities are limited, so for best selection shop early!

So here are some long awaited pictures of the inside of our home which we moved into Sept 25.  As any homeowner knows, it’s always a work in progress and since I took these pictures, things have even changed since!  I will update once I decorate for Christmas too, which will be soon!

Kitchen stove (convection, LOVE it!) new coffeemaker, over range microwave.

Right of the sink (ADORE my open shelves) – crystal, stemware, blendtec, kitchenaid mixer and new toaster.

 

Left of the sink – tea stuff, everyday glasses from IKEA, my favorite new pressure cooker and vegetables

 

Our fabulous new stainless steel side by side fridge with ice/water dispenser!  I got those cute ceramic pumpkins at GardenRidge – my only decoration on the island.

Our dining table we found on Craigslist – mission style which we love.  It’s in great condition 8 chairs.

 

 

Our comfy couch we got from DMIL, which she’s had since John was a baby.  It is a sleeper sofa.  Shelby’s hanging out spot complete with her food/water bowl so she doesn’t have to wear her shoes!

Open shelves, to the left of fireplace we have DVD’s and on the right we have books.  A few decorative items on the hearth.  Since taking the picture, I brought in some firewood for the other side.

 

 

Hall bath – pretty much minimally decorated in all bathroom spaces!

Master bedroom – simple! We have been w/out a headboard for years and recently got a king bedroom set but we still need to get a mattress set.  Can’t wait to show you that soon!  

Here is my favorite picture – my little Elsie sitting on the bed!  I love these pillows I got at Gardenridge! 

I hope you like the pictures!  I’d love to know what you think!  Holiday pictures soon!!  Can’t wait!

Hope you have a Blessed Thanksgiving & thank you for your friendship and visiting my blog!!

Only 5 weeks until Christmas and a card making tip for you!

Yikes!  I am so behind making cards this year – my stash is so small!  So I pulled out my new GKD stamps from the last release and made 2 clean & simple cards that had the same format.  I love CAS – they are less time consuming (30 mins vs 90 for a more involved card for me) so why don’t I do them more often?!  My first card uses Melanie’s A Year of Borders – I love how the border of poinsettias looks as a real border!  I used Red Hot, All Spruced Up and White Pure Luxury cardstock and grabbed a sentiment from Festive Frame and used an oval nestability for interest around it.  Then I topped it off with a few silver brads and I was done!  One card down many more to go!

For my 2nd card, I brought out the new Snow Much Fun set which has the cutest chubby snowmen!  I love this one with the sign that says Happy Winter!  I used the colors from Gina’s first color challenge at STV {STVCSP1} Turquoise Sea, Red Hot and White.  I added a scallop border at the bottom of this one, a scallop nestability around the snowman, red w/ white polka dot ribbon and a turquoise button and red brads this time! 

I hope you are inspired, if you feel like you need an idea about how to make some clean & simple cards and how to make 2 different yet similar cards, that this post helped you!  If you decide to make something based on this tip – I’d love to see what you make! 

Today we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving today with some of the Baker family (John’s dad Cecil & Stepmom Shirley, his sister, brother & his family too).  Here are a few pictures from my sister’s visit: 

This is Cecil – when Gabby was about to leave, she accidentally called him Grandpa Seahorse, it cracked us up!  She has never met anyone with the name Cecil – so that’s what she heard when we introduced them.  She is holding her new Grinch stuffed animal they gave her. 

 

And here is Gabby (I love her smile in this picture, it’s so natural) with Auntie Shmirley which cracked us up EVEN MORE!  She called her that when we were all playing catch in the backyard-Gabby, Shirley, Joey and me.  I almost peed my pants, it was SO funny!   My sister said that she really liked her, which is why she has a special name and by the looks of this picture I took, I would say it’s true. 

I got this super cute picture of Joey; he was so tired after playing so hard at the Dino Park that day, he fell asleep in the car and slept while we ate lunch.  He got a reindeer stuffed animal from Cecil & Shirley and when my sister gave it to him, he grabbed it and put his arm around it and went back to sleep.  SO sweet!!

Shirley also made a cake for John since his birthday was 2 days away (pineapple upside down cake yum) so here is a picture of Nino John & Gabby being silly.  I love it!!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great weekend!!

TE Blog Hop: Thankful for You

Hi there and welcome to this month’s TE customer blog hop!  Our theme this month {since Thanksgiving is fast approaching} is Autumn or Thankfulness. 

This month I am thankful for family.  Two weeks ago my oldest sister and her family came to visit us and we had such a wonderful time!  I miss them so much and am so blessed to have them in my lives.  My niece and nephew are so adorable – and I am thinking of sending this to my niece some day, I bet it will put a big smile on her face and she will say in such a high-pitched voice, "oh how cute" - I can just hear her now!  Here is a picture of them showing off their pretty Fall wreaths they made us - they BOTH love to do crafts (they are surely related to me, huh?) in fact we had craft night on Sat night where I showed them how to make hand turkeys - that was fun!  I will share those pictures soon (perhaps on Turkey Day next week, that would be fitting!)

I wanted to use one of my favorite TE sets, Beary Special/Accessories and paired 2 of the bears (head & arms of one and legs/feet of another and took the pumpkin from the Celebrate Life set for the bear’s pumpkin body – I just adore how this turned out!!  The papers and buttons I used are Basic Grey Pyrus – perfect for an Autumn card, and the ribbon is my all-time favorite brown w/cream dot!  I used the beautiful & talented Sankari's sketch for my card, I just adore her & her style! she creates magic with her creations all the time!


We'll be drawing one random winner to receive a FREE Taylored Expressions stamp set of their 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!) 

Happy Holidays!

Can you believe Christmas is just 5 weeks away?  Yikes – this year has literally flown by!  When I saw this week’s There She Goes challenge was a sketch {TSG81} by Holly, I just had to play!  I got my new stamps Snowy Days out because I just couldn’t stand it sitting on my desk for one more day without being inked up!  I just adore this little puppy and I’m a sucker for cute snowmen too so it was a win-win for me!  Since I am very into stamping & coloring on kraft cardstock, that’s what I did here and wanted to make it somewhat of a monochromatic card with a twist!  I got out my Imaginisce Cottage Christmas papers out, along with some black for POP and colored in my image with colored pencils.  This card was such FUN to make and I can’t wait to send it out (or sell it, we’ll see what happens *wink*). 

Thanks for stopping by today!!  I’ll have another post in the morning for the TE customer blog hop – hope to ‘see’ ya then!

Surprise Birthday Hop for Nancy McKinney!

Today is TE’s Whimsical Wishes illustrator Nancy’s birthday and her good friend Saucy organized a little surprise birthday hop in her honor!   If you came to my blog from the talented Regina Mangum, you are on the right track!  If not, start at the beginning (Karen’s blog so you don’t miss out on all the eye candy!)

I made a card using the current TE Giving Tree Charity set called Make a Wish, in which a portion of the sale goes to the Make a Wish Foundation!  I used fellow Baker’s Dozen dt member Karen G’s Sweet Sunday Sketch 93 for my card, which I thought could showcase the fun banner in the set.  I used Cosmo Cricket Pixie-licious papers as well as some prismatic cardstock in addition to Choice Snow White.  I had fun coloring in the sentiment with copics, atyou spica glitter pens {on sale for $2.49 each!} and then layering on sparkle with star dust stickles!  I even colored my banner with aqua stickles.  I finished off my banner with a row of ruffled trim and a pixie-licious button!

Now hop on over to the beautiful & fabulously rockin’ stamper Alex Maldonado to see what she whipped up for Nancy! 

Nancy, I hope you have a fabulous birthday – I’m so happy to be working with your awesome images month after month!  They are just delightful!!

STV Sketch Spotlight #2

Have you seen the new revamped challenges on STV lately?  Gina will be sharing a video for the challenge as you see her create her card from start to finish!  It will be a sketch challenge on Monday and a color challenge on Friday.  I used the pretty A Year of Borders, illustrated by Melanie that coordinate with several 5 of her other stamps such as a Year of Leaves, Wild at Heart, A Year of Flowers, Gifts from the Sea and A Beautiful Life.  I used Pumpkin Spice, Sweet Corn, Chocolate, Green Apple and Kraft cardstock.  I used the Leafy Branch cuttlebug embossing folder and an Autumn button. 
You have one week to participate to get a chance to win a free stamp of your choice ($24.95 value) and if you use Gina K. stamps, you have 2 entries for the drawing!  How great is that? Hope you will play along for your chance to win and share your artwork with us! 

We also have a special announcement today at STV - check out who Gina has added to the team of designers and congratulate them!  So excited to be working with them all and I totally can relate to their excitement, it seems like not long ago, my dream came true when Gina asked me to join her team and it's been over 2 years ago!!

Click here to see Gina's video!!

Thanks for stopping by – hope you have a great week!

Technorati Tags: Gina K. Designs,Sketch Challenge

Merry Christmas SFYTT

Well I’m finally back from my little break from the blog – did you miss me!?  I sure missed sharing stuff with you! 

My family left last Monday afternoon and it was sure sad for me!  We had such a wonderful, fun time and I miss the little squeaky voices of my niece & nephew, the pitter patter of little feet and roaring laughter we shared for 4 days! 

I now need to get back to a routine of work, home stuff and stamping though so here is a card I made using Jen’s Sketch For You to Try and several Taylored Expressions stamps (Beary Special, Beary Special Accessories and Hangin’ Out at the North Pole) because I LOVE combining sets!  I had to make this sweet little bear ready for Christmas after all.  I used my fun Mitten Weather Cosmo Cricket papers which is real cute for winter cards!  I did lots of sponging with Tim Holtz distress inks and even dusted off my sewing machine which I hadn’t used since we moved into our new house! *haven’t forgotten I promised to share new pictures – I just need to make the time and get the house cleaned up a bit!)

Don’t forget you have until tomorrow to sign up for our monthly customer blog hop event, which is Thursday Nov 18th!  Here are all the details. Our theme is Autumn/Thankful and remember, one random participant gets a free stamp set of their choice and someone will be featured in the upcoming newsletter with their card! 

I know there are several of you out there who are a looking forward to hearing about my trip with my family (Lori and Cindy(casmiles) that’s you!) So now I will leave you with a picture I took of my sweet niece Gabriella (Gabby 4 1/2) and Joseph (Joey 2 1/2) at the airport when I picked them up – aren’t they adorable?  They were so excited for their trip (Gabby’s 2nd time on a plane and Joey’s 1st) and to see Auntie Donna & Nino John in Texas!

They did well but Joey was NOT happy about having to take his Woody boots off at security, my sister said he cried – he loves them (see he is wearing them late at night with his Woody pj’s – can you tell what he was for Halloween?  Yes, he was Woody!!  I haven’t seen the pictures from that yet but I’m sure he was adorable!!  I miss them so much!  Promise to share more soon!

Thanks for stopping by today – I missed you!!

TE Release Day - Time to Dig In!!

Well today is the day!  Have you been inspired by all the Baker’s Dozen peeks all week?  Today I am sharing another creation I made using the Enjoy! stamp set.  I fell in love with Whimsical Wishes illustrator Nancy’s card last month here (2nd in the post), so I wanted to CASE it to showcase these cute shoes and purse she illustrated for this set!

I used Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather and cardstock sampler on my card along with Choice Buttercream cardstock (on sale right now!) I also thought using the shopping sentiment from Downtown Diva set would be fun – especially paired with the ‘you deserve it’ sentiment in the Enjoy set!  I had fun paper-piecing the cute little purse and coloring the sexy shoes several shades of purple copic markers.  My embellishments are crystal tiny twinkles (on sale!) placed with Embellie Jellie (also on sale!) and cream mini rose trim.

Before you go off to shop in the TE Store, be sure to hop around the following blogs & prepare to be inspired:

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Jami Sibley
Nancy McKinney
Mona Pendleton (our guest designer for November & December!)

Happy Shopping!!

TE Sneak Peek: Enjoy!

Welcome to ay 3 of TE sneak peeks!  Remember all 3 stamp sets and 5 Taylored Dies will be available for purchase at 10 a.m. tomorrow!!

Today we are happy to bring you Enjoy! illustrated by Nancy for the Whimsical Wishes line which is also a concept by Jami Sibley!  It is a fun collection of stamps/sentiments to go along with gift cards for all those hard to buy people on your birthday & Christmas lists!  Personally, I love getting and giving gift cards because it takes a lot of guesswork out of what to buy someone but is still a thoughtful gift!  We also have a gift card frame Taylored Die to go along with this set to make your gift card giving easier!

We love watching movies; either at home, a friend’s house or the movie theater so I have a movie night gift to share with you!  I found this cute popcorn bucket and individual small buckets at the dollar store and put in some vitamin waters, popcorn seasonings, movie theater candy, a movie (one of my favorite ones!) and a microwave popcorn package which I used the stamps on!  Did you know all TE stamps are deeply etched rubber, die cut mounted on EZ mount and ready to stamp with the moment you get them with an acrylic block?  They also come on a full-color hole punched binder panel so you can organize them in a binder box!  Easy to store!
The popcorn packaging was very easy & quick to make!  First I stamped the gift card frame on Choice Snow White cardstock and cut it out using the new gift card frame die using my cuttlebug machine and stamped a few coordinating sentiments to go with my popcorn bucket and movie reel image!  It’s super fun!  I also ran the red cardstock through my cuttlebug with the spots & dots embossing folder to mimic the polka dots on the frame.  I adhered it onto a small strip of black cardstock.  This would make a fun gift for any movie buff, don’t you think? 

Another option you have with this set is to get a movie gift card (or give cash) and place it inside a small hinged tin like I did here. I just placed the die cut image directly on the tin with sticky tape, tied some ric rac around it and now I have a ready made movie gift to give!

Be sure to check out all the sweet creations the Baker’s Dozen have to share with us today:

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Jami Sibley
Nancy McKinney

Thanks for stopping by today; be sure to stop back tomorrow for release day goodies!!

TE Sneak Peek: From the Heart & From the Heart Funnies

Welcome to Day 2 of Taylored Expressions sneak peeks!  Today the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up some delectable eye candy for you using From the Heart & From the Heart Funnies, illustrated by Taylor herself! 

 

For my project, I made some yummy sugar coated pecans from a recipe I found on-line* and packaged them up in a clear top hinged tin wrapped up with a belly band and made a matching card so this is ready to give as a holiday gift!  The pattern paper I used is Imaginisce Cottage Christmas which I got in the TE store (but it looks like they are sold out right now).  The solid cardstock I used is the Cottage Christmas cardstock sampler.  Check out the cute frame die my image is on, it’s a new Taylored Die which will be available on Friday along with all the other sneak peeks we show (pictured on the right)!   The ribbon I used is one of my all time favorites, red with white polka dot, it’s super easy to tie especially if you’re using the fabulous bow-easy!  That tool is ALWAYS within my reach at my desk because I used it a lot!

 

Here’s a close up of the treat tin, isn’t it cute?  Oh and those pecans are so yummy I want to share the super easy recipe with you:
Ingredients
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
1 pound pecan halves
1 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Grease one baking sheet.
In a mixing bowl, whip together the egg white and water until frothy. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, salt, and cinnamon.
Add pecans to egg whites, stir to coat the nuts evenly. Remove the nuts, and toss them in the sugar mixture until coated. Spread the nuts out on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes.

Here are links to all the ladies who have something to share with us today:

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Jami Sibley

Thanks for stopping by today – hope you come back tomorrow for day 3 sneak peeks!

TE Sneak Peek: What’s Cookin’?

Welcome to the first day of sneak peeks for the Taylored Expressions release!  We have ‘cooked’ up some special sets for your holiday/year round gift giving!



Our first set is an adorable  kitchen theme illustrated by the talented Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes line of stamps called What's Cookin'! 
There will be 2 sets of Taylored Dies to coordinate with several images i the set – the ones I used on my card are for the cute tea kettle & oven mitt!  I chose to keep my kettle uncolored and stamped LOVE on it from a sentiment in the set.  The pattern papers I used on my card are by Doodlebug from their new Bon Appétit collection!  I paired them with some Prism papers: island mist blue, sunflowers medium and blush red medium. I used Labels 16 die for my focal image, border punch is open scallop and Caribbean satin ribbon.  I wanted the look of stitches but was too lazy to use my machine, so I whipped out my Borderlicious stamps – isn’t it cute? I also sponged the edges of the pattern paper with Cool Caribbean ink.

Here is a picture of the set of dies I used for my card - so cute & fun to coordinate with the set! 

Check out what the ladies have also whipped up for our sneak peeks to share with us today:
Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jackie Pedro
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Jami Sibley
Nancy McKinney
Thanks for stopping by – see ya tomorrow for day 2!