Taylored Expressions September Birthday Bash - Day 3

• At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash!
• All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
• Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday - lots of inspiration!
• Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
• 2 WAYS TO WIN!

1. You Take the Cake Contest  Go to Taylor's blog to get all the details on how you can win two stamp sets of your choice by guessing which illustrator contributed each image in our You Take the Cake Sampler Set.

2.  Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. Leave comments during the party for a chance to win one of the gift certificates we’ll be giving away!

Hi Everyone,
We are getting a jump on Halloween at Taylored Expressions today! All of the design team are showing samples using the new Halloween stamps and dies and the Tricks & Treasts Project Pantry that will be released tomorrow! I love this Project Pantry - such cute papers and colors - and the ribbons are so fabulous!! I had so much fun creating a little pumpkin from all of the different design papers in the kit. I cut out some tiny tags from the papers and added it to the tags created using the new Totally Tags Halloween stamp set :) 

I stamped the Trick or Treat sentiment with some Tangelo ink and Grape Jelly Ink (and popped out the the purple "or" onto the orange sentiment. I cut out the scalloped circle using the scalloped tag die from the Totally Tags (set of 3) dies from Taylored Expressions. The "happy halloween" sentiment was stamped from the Totally Tags stamp set onto the orange card stock with some Grape Jelly ink that I then hung from the pumpkin:

This is such a lovely Project Pantry - I love the combination of purples and greens and oranges - and the DP is so much fun! I cut out some strips of paper from the DP and attached them at either end with some brads before fanning out the strips into a circular pumpkin shape.The leaves are hand drawn and I cut some thin strips of green card stock that I curled into some mini vines. I attached the Happy Halloween tag onto the center with the ribbon. I LOVE this little project - check out all the DP and ingredients in the Tricks and Treat Project Pantry:

 Please hop around and check out all the gorgeous creations that the DT are previewing today!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Nancy McKinney (Illustrator)

And don't forget to stop by the Taylored Expressions fan page tonight for lots of chances to win these amazing stamp set!!

Thank you for stopping by today and please stop by tomorrow for release day fun!!

Big hugs,

Sankari :)

September Verve Diva Inspiration Hop

Hi Everyone!

On the fifth of every month, we have a Verve Diva Inspiration Blog Hop where we showcase a project with one of our favorite Verve stamps :) Now this is very hard to do because all of them are in my favorites :) but this month I knew I wanted to do a thank you card and one of my favorite thank you sets is the Amazing Wishes stamp set - I love the sentiments and especially love this sweet little thank you sentiment in a mini tag. I stamped the tag and then threaded a ribbon through it and attached it to the Classy Label Die:

I stamped the large flower in the Amazing Wishes stamp set onto some DP and then added some Prima flowers on top of them - that I then bunched together on the side of the sentiment. I added some pearls to the punched borders and then rounded the corners and then added a little butterfly to the corner :) I loved making this card and can't wait to see what lovely creations all of these amazing designers have come up with for today's hop:

	1. Betty	8. Amber
	2. Jen d.	9. Amy
	3. Jen T.	10. Andrea
	4. Julee	11. Janelle
	5. Sankari	12. Maureen
	6. Sony	13. Teresa
	7. Susan	14. Tosha

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

Taylored Expressions September Birthday Bash - Day 2

• At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash!
• All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
• Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday - lots of inspiration!
• Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
• 2 WAYS TO WIN!

1. You Take the Cake Contest  Go to Taylor's blog to get all the details on how you can win two stamp sets of your choice by guessing which illustrator contributed each image in our You Take the Cake Sampler Set.

2.  Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. Leave comments during the party for a chance to win one of the gift certificates we’ll be giving away!

Hi Everyone,

There is a huge par-tay over at Taylored Expressions celebrating 4 awesome years of creativity! Today the party continues with more sneak peeks from the design team who will be showing samples from lots of new dies and stamps! For my project today, I used the newest World A La Carte stamp set: It's a Party to create a little giftset. I altered a small hinged tin - that is perfect for tucking a giftcard into :). I love that these Word A La Carte are the perfect size for both the tin and an A2 card! I also used the smaller die from the Pinwheel Parade and decorated the outside and inside of the tin using the GiftCard Die :

 I used the papers from the Lost and Found Rosy collection from MME to decorate both projects and added just a wee bit of liquid pearls around the word image:

 When you open up the tin, I added some chocolates inside (and can add a gift card too) and used the super cute little elephant from the Elephants Forget Belated Birthday A La Carte stamp set on the inside and used the sentiment from the new Party Monsters stamp set - I love this font!

 

I had so much fun creating a coordinating giftset with these stamps! I love these cute Word A La Carte stamp sets and I can't wait to see everyone's projects today with all the new stamps and dies! Please hop around and check out all the amazing creations from these wonderful ladies:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley (DT Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

 Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Please come by tomorrow for more sneak peeks!!
Big hugs,
Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions September Birthday Bash - Day 1

• At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash!
• All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, September 6th at 8am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
• Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday and the party continues with spotlights Thursday and Friday - lots of inspiration!
• Check the Current Specials on Thursday morning to find out how you can earn a FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp or a FREE You Take the Cake full-size stamp set. Birthday Bash Specials will award you FREE stamps with purchases over $50 and over $150.
• 2 WAYS TO WIN!

1. You Take the Cake Contest  Go to Taylor's blog {CLICK HERE} to get all the details on how you can win two stamp sets of your choice by guessing which illustrator contributed each image in our You Take the Cake Sampler Set.

2.  Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. Leave comments during the party for a chance to win one of the gift certificates we’ll be giving away!

Hi Everyone!!

There is SOOO much to show off this month over at Taylored Expressions! Taylored Expressions is celebrating its birthday and to celebrate - there are 17 new stamp sets and 7 new dies and 5 days of inspiration peeks on all of our blogs!! Its definitely the biggest release yet!

I am so excited to celebrate TE's birthday today because its also my birthday :) I LOVE September and there are so many birthdays and already I have missed a few - and TE has sooo many cute Belated Birthday A La Carte stamps for which is perfect if you are like me and constantly forgetting and trying to keep up with everyone's birthdays :) We are adding more cute little animals stamps to the Belated Birthday stamp sets - and I used the previously released Ducks in A Row stamp set to create this card today:

I loved stamping these cute little ducks in a row (and will I ever get my ducks in order? I hope so :) I also had a lot of fun decorating the little duckie inside :)

Here is a close up of the little duckie holding a ballon using the Make A Wish Balloon Dies (set of 3) to which I added some twine and then "tucked" under her wing :)

I love all of these cute little Belated Birthday A La Cartes - check them all out here:

All customers will be able to get one of the above FREE with a $50 purchase through Monday September 10th!! How awesome is that!!

For my second Project today, I am so excited to show peeks from this new stamp set: You Take The Cake which is our first ever stamp set that showcases the designs of all of our illustrators!! This set will not be available for purchase until after the October release - but of now,it will be FREE with any purchase of $150 or more! This is a total must have birthday set that combines all the super cute sweetness of TE from all the different designers! I LOVE all the sweet cakes and cupcakes and sweet images and the fonts and sentiments are so perfect! 

I made a set of 7 birthday cards featuring the simple cake stand with that delicious looking cake! I added sentiments on 3 cards and kept 4 cards blank:

I used the new Curly Border Die to decorate the bottom border of the 4 blank sentiment cards - I tried to keep the design a bit more CAS ish so that it was easy to mass produce them - I love the look of a simple Kraft CAS card and the My Mind's Eye Kraft Funday 6x6 design paper :

I love the new Curly Border die - it makes such a festive look - and I love how detailed it cuts the paper:

I also created a set of 3 cards with the sentiment: You Take the Cake: I kept the design the same but just added the sentiment at the bottom:

Here is another angle of the cards:

Here is a picture of all three of the sentiment cards - I love how it turned out:

Check out Taylor's Blog to see all the contest details about how you can get two stamp sets FREE of your choice by entering a contest to guess which designer contributed which images - and hop around to all the designer's blogs to see more images from this awesome stamp set!!!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley (DT Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Carolyn King (Guest Designer)

Thank you so much for stopping by!!!
Please hop on over tomorrow for more of the birthday bash celebration!!
Big hugs,
Sankari :)

PS: Here are the dies that I used in my project today including the new to be released Curly Border Die:

Taylored Expression Studio Challenge

Hi Everyone,

Today over at Taylored Expressions, the Design Team is showing projects from from this month's Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge studio challenge, where each month there is a different question that we answer and a fun way to get our craftiness on!!! This month's theme is Project Runway!

PROJECT RUNWAY!  Do you watch this show?  It's perfect for creative types like us!  On PR, the designers are given crazy challenges each week and asked to maintain their own personal style or point of view in their creation.

So, what's your stamping style or point of view?  Would you consider your style to be CAS (Clean and Simple), Cutesy, Graphic, Vintage, Elegant, Layers & More Layers, or what?  Describe it any way you like, it's your style after all!  Today's challenge is to show us a couple of different projects using the same supplies.  Show us one CAS card and one Fancy Fold card while still retaining your own personal style as much as possible.

 

When I was thinking about my stamping style, I was trying to figure out a description - but I think I tend to fall into the category of "more is more" :) Its really hard for me to do a very simple card because I always want keep adding things - so this was a difficult challenge because it also included doing a CAS card! That takes me hours because it always feels like something is missing :) For my CAS card - I used the Build A Treat Borders stamp set for the image and the Build A Treat stamp set for my sentiment (I LOVE this sentiment! Makes me want to eat a cupcake right now!) I tried to keep the layers simple and matched the colors to the DP from the Cosmo Cricket's UpCycle: I love these cute cupcakes - and the fork in the sentiment :)

 Using the same supplies and the same stamp set, I created a trifold card that opens to the side. I cut 1/4 of the card from two of the sides so that you can see the back layer onto which I put the sentiment: For my Favorite Lil' Cupcake :)

 And then when the card is opened, there is another row of cupcakes revealed. I love how this turned out. This was such a great challenge, because usually I made A2 cards, and it was fun to be challenged to create a different way to open and close a card!

I can't wait to see what the rest of the Baker's Dozen has created! Each of these ladies have such amazing styles - can't wait to see what their take on the Project Runway Challenge is - please hop along with me:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

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

My little Bookworm :)

Hi Everyone,

One of my favorite stamp sets from the August Taylored Expressions release is the Doodle Notes stamp set  - such a great set for both wee ones and older ones :) I couldn't wait to make a special project for a very special wee one: my godson!! One of my best friends in the world had the cutest little baby boy in May and I was so lucky to be there when he was born - he is truly so special and so amazing! He has the cutest cheeks and the sweetest little smile and I love holding him and smelling his sweet little baby smell! I stamped the "my little bookworm" sentiment onto a onesie with some Clearly Better black ink (that works on clothes) and then colored it in with some fabric markers. 

The onesie was heat set with a heat gun and then ironed to set the image before washing it. I love making special little presents for my dear ones and this one is especially dear to me :) Will post a picture of my little godson wearing this! Can't wait :) Check out all the sentiments in the Doodle Notes stamp set at the Taylored Expressions store!

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

A Big Announcement :)

Hi Everyone!

I have been holding in a some big news and am so excited that today I get to share it:

I am an official DIRTY GIRL!!!
(I am typing this with a huge smile of disbelief!!)

Joining the Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen design team is such an honor and I am still in shock and slight disbelief to be joining these amazing women! I don't at all feel worthy of this honor and I feel very grateful to be here! I have no words to convey how thankful I am to be joining these amazing women! And I can't stop using exclamation points!! A huge thank you to Lydia for asking me and to all my fellow teammates for making me feel so welcome (you guys are so sweet!!). My fellow partner who is also getting dirty this month is the awesomely talented Mindy Backes of Bada Bing! Paper Crafting! woo-hoo!!!! I am so speechless and excited and nervous and happy and frozen in shock and feeling all kinds of joy! Yippeeee!!!

Thank you for reading through that - and I apologize for its lack of proper sentence structure - I am just too giddy to think quite properly :) 

I do have a quick and simple project today also - in creating these fun bookmarks using the Mark Your Spot stamp set from the August Release from Taylored Expressions. The kids are excited to head back to school and I thought I would make some bookmarks for them and for their teachers as well:

 I used the new Mark Your Spot Bookmark die form Taylored Expressions to make these bookmarks :

I stamped some of these beautiful sentiments with different colored inks and added some paper piecing to the hills along with some copic coloring as well. Here is a picture with some of the bookmarks individually:

I had so much fun making these bookmarks and so much fun typing up this post!
Can't wait to give these to my kiddos and to their teachers! Let another fun school year begin!
And I can't wait for this exciting ride with the Dirty Dozen!!! Woo-hoo!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!
Big hugs to all :)
Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions: August Release Spotlight hops!

Hi Everyone!

This week has been release week over at Taylored Expressions and there are a ton of new products - check out all the deals and steals in the Fresh Out of the Oven section at the TE store and check out all the Current Specials section! I have been lovin' this release and for my project today, I created a simple CASish card using the Chevron Big Background stamp set with the sunshine rainbow from the Doodle This stamp set. I stamped the Chevron Big Background image onto some Choice Snow White card stock and then colored a rainbow with my copies. Taylor also has come out with a Chevron Border Dies that fit perfectly with the stamp! 

I die cut some yellow felt with my Chevron Border die and then placed it over the yellow row in the rainbow and then added a row of liquid pearls over the felt. I stamped the rainbow and clouds and cut it out with some circle nesties and then popped a cloud out and stamped the sentiment that I added some corner interest and then sponged with some brown ink. 

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Doodle This and Chevron Big Background stamp set from Taylored Expressions
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black ink and Bahama Blue and copies
Accessories: Yellow felt, liquid pearls, Chevron Border dies, Circle Nestabilities, purple bling, yellow ribbon and dimensionals

I loved how quick it was to make this card - it was also fun to color it in with a rainbow motif :) Please check out all the awesome creations on the Release Spotlight hop that these amazing ladies have created!!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Courtney Kelley (Guest Designer)
• Jami Sibley (DT Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you have an amazing weekend!
Big hugs,
Sankari :)