Friday, September 28, 2012

You're Amazing!

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to share one of the cards that I made using the September Key Ingredients Kit from Taylored Expressions. Every month Taylor creates a new and unique Key Ingredients kit where she hand selects different design paper, cardstock, coordinating ribbon and embellishments to all match and make it easy to create a card, altered project or scrapbook page. This month, I was excited to play along with the September Key Ingredient kit and I am simply loving it!! All the elements in this kit are so adorable - the papers and the ribbons are gorgeous and the card stock coordinates perfectly!! One of the papers from the My Mind's Eye collection: Tangerine (6x6) pad had this beautiful design and I added the sentiment "You're Amazing"

Card ingredients:
Stamps
: Make It Amazing from Taylored Expressions
Papers: My Mind's Eye: Sweetest Thing - Tangerine from the September KI kit from TE (includes Bazzill cardstock and Choice Cardstock)
Inks: Chalk Inks: Berrylicious
Accessories: Buttons and ribbon and pearls from the September KI kit, Small Scallop die from Taylored Expressions, liquid glaze and liquid pearls, corner chomper and dimensionals.

I love these wooden DP buttons - they add such great texture to the card - I strung them with some glittered thread and adhered them to a diagonal line of DP with a border of small scallops from the Small Scalloped Die from Taylored Expressions and then dotted them with some liquid pearls. 

Check out all the different subscription options to Taylor's monthly Key Ingredients kit - it truly makes card making fun and easy!!

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

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge: September

Hi Everyone!

It's time for the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge.  This is a monthly opportunity for us to share what makes our stamping studios hum.  Each month we will have a fun, crafty question so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more.

The question for September is:
Within Arm's Reach - What do you keep within arm's reach at your stamp table?  Show us what you have access to without leaving your seat.  What organization methods do you use?  Tell us which ones you love and which ones you'd like to change.

Well, let me just start out by saying - that I am NOT a very clean stamper - I usually don't get to clean my stamp area until I reach the point that I can't find anything - I once lost a 12x12 ScorPal in there for months! LOL! So I thought I would show you a before I cleaned picture (WARNING: messy craft room ahead!!) This is crazy - but I stamp in that little clean corner of a desk - HA! and when there is no more desk to stamp on (even a 2x2 square will do - then I know its time to clean up a little!!!

BEFORE:


 So I took the Studio Challenge as a challenge to clean up and organize and PURGE my craft corner and I have to say that even though it took the whole weekend - it was really fun to (and a bit scary) to see all the things I haven't seen for sooo long! Here is a picture of the AFTER shot - a clean craft area - YAY! :) I got a new table cloth - and labeled things and moved things around - made it so much more fun to scrap and craft! And hopefully my tornado style of crafting will be a bit less tornado-y :)

AFTER:


Here is a picture of my desk and all the things I keep in arms reach - on the far right are my 12x12 papers and then I have my Big Shot and Spellbinders on the desk next to the big desk (I keep my Spellbinder dies in CD cases that I can flip through to find the one that I am looking for - ontop of which I have embellishments, brads, etc. Underneath I store stamps organized by their different companies. There also is a little room heater for when it gets cold in the winter :) I covered the front of the containers with little strips of paper (I love green, so I picked different shades of green) so that it looks a bit cleaner and you don't see all the stuff inside the containers:

This is a closer picture of the desk - my craft corner is located in our bedroom (My husband totally rocks for being sooo awesome about my late night crafting :) I try to stack things up and down to maximize a small space - all the furniture in here were different pieces that I found at garage sales. The one thing that I would love to change - is to have a room of my own - it would be so nice to have a space that I close the door! But the challenging part is to keep it clean - and since I cleaned my desk area, I have made 5 cards - and my new challenge to myself is to clean up after each card - that might be the only way to keep my tornado stamping style in check! :)


Here is a closer pic of my desk - I try to keep everything at arm's reach - these are the products that I would say that I use the most: I keep a little CD case with Spellbinders that I use the most, ontop of the copics (which are so little compared to how much I wish I had - which is all of them!) I store my dies and also on the side are dies that I keep from different companies, in front of my desk are twine and embossing folders and on the extreme right my liquid pearls and my Memento inks (yay!) and to the left, I store my bling in the Key Ingredients Kit containers from TE:

 Here are some smaller pics of the ways that I have found to organize my craft area: I keep my bling organized by color in the KI kits that Taylor sends out each month - its a nice way to find bling that coordinates with your card easily.

 

Since I don't have that many copics I keep them organized in these plastic containers that I labeled with different heart colors.
Underneath my desk I tried to maximize space by adding some containers to hold tools (like corner chompers, cropadiles,etc., adhesives, cardstock sorted by color that I use alot. I keep my punches on the table adjacent to me sorted by their manufacturer:



The first drawer to my right, I keep stickles, more liquid pearls, glitter, stamping blocks etc.




On the side of my craft area, I keep my 8.5x11 cardstock organized in file folders and next to them little cubbies that hold my 6x6 paper pack organized by companies. Our local scrapbook store was closing down (:( such a sad day) and she also sold many of the furniture items in the store - I was able to snag these cute cubbies along with  another one that has pull out drawers - I am not sure where she got them from. I would love to label all the file folders and drawers one day!


Thanks for peeking into my craftroom - I had fun organizing everything and I can't wait to see everyone's craft areas on the hop today! Join me and see the fun:
 Thanks for stopping by today!
Hugs
Sankari :)

Saturday, September 22, 2012

You Rawr the Best!

Hi Everyone,

One of my friends had a quick impromptu birthday party and I wanted to make something super quick to give to her - so I pulled out my super cute Party Monster's stamp set from Taylored Expressions to make a little gift set. I wrapped a little votive, and punched a heart from my scrap DP pile. and added a little ball of chocolate (yum!) to a cellophane bag. I love the sentiment: "You rawr the best" (awww!!) and I adore this little Party Monster:


Here is a closer picture of my little party monster - isn't he so cute! I love the pennants that he is holding and it was fun to color all them some fun colors and added a little ribbon to the grommet on the tag to the cellophane baggie:


Card Ingredients:
Paper: Choice Butter Cream card stock from Taylored Expressions and scrap DP for the votive and the punched heart
Inks: Memento Rich Coco, Tuxedo Black and copics
Accessories: Circle nestabilities, grommet, ribbons, cellophane baggie


I love love love these adorable monsters --- sooo CUTE! And the sentiments are just adorable! It was so much fun to give this to my friend - she loved it - and she loved this little monster too! Can't wait to make some fun favors for my son's birthday party!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!
Hope you are having a beautiful day!
Hugs,
Sankari :)





Thursday, September 13, 2012

TE Calendar Hop - September

Hi Everyone,

Its the monthly calendar challenge over at Taylored Expressions where the Baker's Dozen DT are showing all the different ways that you can use all the awesome calendar products in the Taylored Expressions store! You can also win a HUGE prize by playing along with us (please check Taylor's blog for all of the details!!) For my project this month I love how this page turned out and I love making a page for each month - such a great way to keep track of birthdays and anniversaries!!! 

For the month of September - I am excited to use one of the newest Mokas to the TE family: Moka Madelyn, named after Taylor's cute little daughter Madelyn whose birthday is also in September as is TE's birthday! September is full of birthdays in our family - my birthday is early on in the month and the rest of month is full of the birthdays of close friends and family (and anniversaries too!). So for my project today, I used the Perpetual Occasions Calendar - which is fantastic for jotting down all the important dates each month (birthdays, anniversaries etc.)! Here is my page for September and I added some party hats along the page just for a little festive fun :)


Here is a close up of Moka Madelyn - isn't she so cute! For the paper pieced dress and the rest of the page, I used cardstock, ribbon and DP from the September Key Ingredients Kit from Taylored Expressions.

Project Ingredients:
Stamps: Moka Madelyn from Taylored Expressions
Papers and ribbons: September Key Ingredients Kit
Accessories: liquid pearls, dimensionals and Pennant Border Die and Perpetual Occasions Calendar from Taylored Expressions

Please check out all the amazing creations using the Calendar Products at the Taylored Expressions store and we hope you will play along with us!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Big hugs,
Sankari :)

PS - This is the Pennant Border Die used on today's project:

Monday, September 10, 2012

TE September Key Ingredient Subscription: "You Are.."

Hi Everyone,

Every month Taylor creates a new and unique Key Ingredients kit where she hand selects different design paper, cardstock, coordinating ribbon and embellishments to all match and make it easy to create a card, altered project or scrapbook page. This month, I was excited to play along with the September Key Ingredient kit and let me just say - that I LOVE this kit - honest to goodness - it is SO sweet and the papers are so fun, bright, cheery and lovely! I especially love the dusky gray paper as a dark neutral and the striped ribbon - sooo sweet! The design paper is from the My Mind's Eye collection: Tangerine (6x6) pad and I love how some of the papers already have some design elements in it so its easy to make a card. One of the sheets of paper had a list of adjectives that I thought was so cute - so I cut them out and added the sentiment: "You Are" using my Taylored Expressions Tall and Skinny Alpha dies (set of 26)

Card ingredients:
Papers: My Mind's Eye: Sweetest Thing - Tangerine from the September KI kit from TE (includes Bazzill cardstock and Choice Cardstock)
Accessories:Tall & Skinny Alpha dies from Taylored Expressions, Buttons and ribbon and pearls from the September KI kit, Small Scallop die from Taylored Expressions, liquid glaze, liquid pearls and dimensionals.

I think one of my favorite pieces in this kit are these darling little wooden buttons - they are so vintage chic and add a really cool texture to the card! Underneath the "You Are", I added a little scallop border trim using the Small Scallop Border die from Taylored Expressions and then added just a few liquid pearls to it and some white pearls from the KI kit to the center of the buttons with twine.

Please check out the Taylor's Blog for all of the details on the KI kit this month and check out the September Key Ingredients Gallery for more ideas and projects created using this lovely kit from the design teams!

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

PS - Here is the TE Small Scalloped Die border and the Tall & SKinny Alpha dies that I used today:


Friday, September 7, 2012

Taylored Expressions: Spotlight Hop!




  • At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash!
  • All of the new products are NOW available for purchase. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
  • Lots of inspiration from the Baker's Dozen - just follow the link list at the end of this post.
  • Check out the Current Specials 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.


Hi Everyone,
Yesterday we celebrated the 4th birthday of Taylored Expressions with a huge release and today, we are having a Spotlight Hop showcasing all the fun creations with all the stamps and dies released! For today's project I made a set of cards using the awesome new die: Dial In Style! This die is so awesome - it assembles together to create a phone (remember those phones where you actually had to dial and you dreaded having a number with lots of zeros because it took so long to dial it! lol!) It's so much fun to assemble these phones :) I cut out 4 different phones in 4 different colors and then also cut up 4 phones in white card stock. I then cut out the ends of the phone in white card stock and adhered them to the different color phones and then switched the colors of the die pad around of the different die cuts. I used the different sentiments from the Let's Chat stamp set on the bottom of each card:
It was so much fun mixing and matching the different die cuts to create these different phones. On the end of each phone I added some sparkly glitter and then opped up the phones with some dimensioanls.  And added a little glitter to the little dial buttons and then added some coordinating ribbon and a button in the middle with some twine:

Here is the second set of coordinating cards. It was fun finding coordinating ribbon and buttons in my scrap stash. I added just some paper flags in coordinating card stock on the bottom of each card and then rounded the corners:

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Let's Chat stamp set by Taylored Expressions 
Paper: Cardstock in different colors
Inks: Memento Inks: Bahama Blue, Bamboo Green, Ladybug Red, Rose Red
Accessories: ribbon, twine, buttons from stash, corner chomper, glitter, dimensionals, glaze, silver stickles, Dial In Style die from Taylored Expressions

I am so excited to see all the creations by all of these amazing designers on today's spotlight hop!! Please hop along with me and check out these gorgeous projects:


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

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Taylored Expressions: September RELEASE DAY!!



  • At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 4th Birthday and you’re invited to our Birthday Bash!
  • All of the new products are NOW available for purchase. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department.
  • Lots of inspiration from the Baker's Dozen - just follow the link list at the end of this post.
  • Check out the Current Specials 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.

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to RELEASE day over at Taylored Expressions - where all the dies and stamps and Project Pantry that you have been seeing this week are now available! YAY! 
But before you head out shopping, the design team has lined up some more samples and today I am showing a project made with the Up a Tree stamp set which is illustrated by Doug Applegate for the Apple Doodle Ink collection for TE. I love this treehouse - and this set comes with treehouse accessories including a hammock, birdhouse, line of clothes and tire swing. I used the tire swing with my tree house - I have always loved a good tire swing - brings back so many summer memories! I paper pieced my tree and then added added the color portion of the rest of the tree over my paper piecing and then used the same scrap paper for the grass. 
Card Ingredients:Paper - Choice Buttercream card stock,Scrap pieces of paper and DP from MME Stamps: Up a Tree stamp set from Taylored ExpressionsInks: Memento Tuxedo Black and Bahama BlueAccessories: corner chomper, pearls, dimensionals, EK success scallop punch, MS star punch, Cloud Border die, sponger and red satin ribbon.

The clouds were sponged with Cloud Border die and I kept it a simple design by just stamping the sentiment on the bottom and adding some ribbon on top. I LOVE this sentiment - it is so perfect! Having a good friend beside you both in your sunshine and when dark clouds hide the sun is so important and I feel so lucky to have so many sweet and true friendships. 

Please hop along with me to all of these amazing ladies blogs to see their projects with all the new TE goodies!! 


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

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!




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 :)