Authentique/Taylored Expressions Project Inspiration Blog Hop - Day 2

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to Day 2 of the Authentique-Taylored Expressions Blog Hop! Woohoo! If you are coming here from Kay Fatula's wonderful blog then you are in the right place, or you can start at the beginning of today's hop at Taylor's blog! I am so excited that the Baker's Dozen DT is teaming up with the Authentique DT to showcase the wonderful papers from Aunthentique and its perfect fit with all of the awesome TE stamps and dies!

Some of you might know that I love to check out garage sales on the weekend - there is something so exciting about seeing possibilities in pieces and then transforming them into something else. Recently, I found this cork board piece for a $1 at a garage sale - HOW could I pass that deal up?! I love all the fun designs and colors from Authentique - so much fun - I love that they have both 12x12 paper sizes for projects like this one as well as 6x6 paper pads for smaller projects like cards. For this project I thought it would be fun to use the large 12x12 gorgeous papers with some Mod Podge to cover up this cork board:

I saw so much possibility of altering this with all the lovely papers of the Strong Collection from Aunthentique and decided to make it for a very special friend of mine to keep near her desk so she can stay organized with her to-do list :) Here is what my finished project looks like:

I love this sentiment from Henry David Thoreau from the New Beginnings stamp set: "Go Confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the Life you've imagined." It always breathes new life into me when I read this sentiment - there are so many things that I want to do in this precious life and reading this quote always makes me feel like there is no place for self-doubt or fear - sometimes you've just got to move forward (however small the step) towards your dreams, your big goals and your passion. I cut out this lovely sentiment and created a mat using the Labels Stacklets 3 and then added some pearls to the side of the sentiment:

I love the hints of blue in this collection (from navy to this beautiful turquoise color) and so I primed the entire piece and then painted it bluish turquoise with some craft acrylic paint. I measured out the arc area and then cut that out with some Choice Buttercream cardstock. On to this I sponged some clouds using the Cloud Border Die and then using the Birds and Branch Dies (set of 5) I die cut the branches from Authentique's Strong collection and then die cut it again with some different DP from the same collection for the leaves. 

I love these papers in this collection - they are so versatile - which makes it fun to use with all of Taylor's dies to create this project! The sun and clouds were also die cut from the same collection using the Sunny Days with Coordinating Dies and the butterfly is a die cut using the Flutter-bys die set. I added sweet little bird on the branch from the Tweet Hearts stamp set - here is a closer picture of the image part of cork board:

Project Ingredients:

Stamps: New Beginnings stamp set for the sentiment and bird on the branch is from the  Tweet Hearts stamp set from Taylored Expressions

Papers: Strong Collection from Authentique

Taylored Dies: Cloud Border Die, Birds and Branch Dies (set of 5), Flutter-bys die set, Labels Stacklets 3 and Sunny Days with Coordinating Dies.

Accessories: Corkboard, liquid pearls, Best Glue Ever, Mod Podge, bling, pearls, and dimensionals

The original cork board had a lots of holes in it - so I decided to take a larger section form the 12x12 papers in this collection and then adhered it to the cork board - great fun way to cover up some broken cork :)  Just for fun, I wrote a note to remind me to " Buy some stamps" :) HAHAHA - never need a reminder for that though!

I had lots of fun creating this project and the only hard part was deciding which of these beautiful papers and stamps to choose from :) Speaking of fun, Taylored Expressions is offering a 10% coupon code (TENOFFDIES) for dies during the hop that is good for ALL of the dies in the TE store that is good from now through April 19!

AND there is also an Authentique/Taylored Expressions prize pack GIVEAWAY for one lucky commentator from ALL the blogs on the hop yesterday and today! Here is the blog roll from yesterday and today to check out and leave comments - please hop along with me and check out these amazing designers and their gorgeous creations!

Day 1- April 11th

Authentique Paper

Carole Burrage

Audrey Pettit

Charmaine Ikach

Emily Lanham

Kerri Michaud

Angie Blom

Taylored Expressions

Day 1- April 12th

Taylored Expressions

Shannon White

Shellye McDaniel

Wanda Guess

Stephanie Kraft

Kay Fatula

Sankari Wegman

Authentique Paper

Thank you so much for stopping by today!
Big hugs,
Sankari :)