RELEASE DAY -at Taylored Expressions!!!!!!!

Good Morning Everyone!!!

It's release day over at Taylored Expressions and the Baker's Dozen and I will be showing sneak peeks from the stamp set called Celebrate Life which is one of three sets that are being released today! Also, today I am excited to be the featured designer for the Taylored Expressions newsletter !!! YAY!!! (you can subscribe by going over to the store link and join the mailing list which will give you the inside scoop and deals over at Taylored Expressions) And so for today's newsletter project, I created a gratitude journal using the elegant Celebrate Life stamp set. I ADORE this stamps set and love all the stamps and the variety of possibilities of what you can make have my head spinning :) I wanted to start a journal that we can use as a family to write down through the year all of the things that we are grateful for - from big things to little things - and then create another journal the next year. It would be fun for the kids to see what they had written down when they were small.

and here is a close up of the beautiful silhouette that I sparkled up with chunky glitter and stickles and bling and buttons .

I loved creating this journal and can't wait to sit down as a family and make this our family gratitude journal. Here is a peek at the inside of the card and I created a little folder inside the card for holding little pictures, notes, etc.:

Can't wait to get started journaling as a family! The dandelion image reminded me of the papers in the October Key Ingredients kits and so I used the dandelion paper in the kit to create a 6x6 layout using the same stamp set with the sentiment: "Thankful for You." I love this picture of my daughter - I love the way her nose crinkles as she smiles her "sunshine" smile as we call it :)

This readily slips into the calendar stand over at Taylored Expressions and is perfect to display around the house - my kids love the fact that its all about them! I love that the pages can be displayed and not covered in a book and the kids always love looking at them and then demand more scrapbook pages about themselves!!! :)

I love the pumpkin image in this stamp set and created a card with the paper piecing technique using some My Mind's Eye paper: I wanted to create a card to give to our hostess for Thanksgiving - and love this sentiment: "Thankful for You".

The other reason that I love this stamp set is for its versatility. It has stamps that can be autumnal but also has so many sentiments and images that are all year round. I created a bright spring-ish card using the fun mini circle stamps (that can also be easily punch out with a mini circle punch) and created a ONE LAYER 8 MINUTE CARD!!! (I put that in capitals because I have never made a one layer card before) I wanted to keep this very very very simple - so not dots, ribbon, or layers - just a teeny bit of bling, inks and sponging :) I love the versatility of this stamp set!!!

I hope you have enjoyed all the yummy peeks so far and you won't want to miss all the amazing creations that the Baker's Dozen has created today - so make sure to hop on over and check out the yumminess:

Charmaine Ikach

Denise Marzec

Dawn Easton

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Laura Fredrickson

Jodi Collins

Jami Sibley

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Laurie Schmidlin

Sharon Harnist

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

Thank you so much for visiting me today!!!!

I am off to the Taylored Expressions store to get shopping!!! See you there (and join the newsletter mailing list while you are there - for all of the news and scoops!!!)

Hugs!

Sankari :)

October 20th Key Ingredients are Here!!!!

Good Morning Everyone!!

Today is the 20th of October and that means its time for another Key Ingredient's Challenge from Taylored Expressions. For those of you who are not familliar with these kits, every month, Taylor creates an awesome kit - full of Designer paper, coordinating cardstock, ribbon and embellishments - its such a great way to make cards - because everything you need is in one kit and now Taylored Expressions is now offering a monthly charge prgram - so that menas that instead of paying for all 3 or 6 month upfront, now their will be a charge every month on the 15th of each month of their subscription - so for example the 6 month program is $14.95 a month plus shipping! Now that is total YUMMINESS!

For the October 20, Key Ingredients challenge, we are so excited to work with some maya mist, chipboard and yummy papers!!! The DP is from the Cosmo Cricket line: Earth love and comes with coordinating Prism cardstock, coordinating ribbon, a ton of maya chipboard birdies and yummy Maya Mist (one tip is to make sure you tap the mister on your palm before spritzing the mist onto your project).

The challenge that Taylor has given us is to decorate our creations to give it a dimensional pop! So that could mean, liquid pearls (you know me - I LOVE dem liquid pearls :) lol!), real pearls, bling, chipboard etc. Anything that adds dimension to your creations! Today half of the Baker's Dozen is going to be feautring the elements from the October Key Ingredients - with some different projects from cards, to scrapbook ayouts to 3D items. I created a little 6x6 scrapbook layout of my daughter for this challenge:

Scrapbook page layout:

Paper: Key Ingredients from Taylored Expressions

Stamps: Downtown Diva from Taylored Expressions

Ink: Memento Lilac

Accessories: dimensionals, liquid glaze pens from Sakura, Martha heart punches, Corner chomper, buttons from stash, EK success punch, bling from stash, Frame your Imagination Vertical Stand.

This kit comes with an awesome package of Maya Road birdies chipboard - and I loved using the chipboard that I misted with the Maya road mist (Avocado Metallic mist) which just made it glimmer and shimmer. I then covered it the wing with some of the DP and added some buttons and liquid pearls, faux stitching and ribbon. Here is a closer peek at the little chipboard birdie covered in glorious mist :)

My most favorite thing to do is to display these pages in the Frame Your Imagination vertical stand after I am done - (this is a 6 x 6 layout) - I love being able to display the pages out for everyone to see and not stick it inside a scrapbook (right away at least :) and most of all my children are SO happy to see themselves on the counter (and they show it to everyone who comes in :)

I absolutely love this month's Key Ingredients (of course, I say that every month!!! :) I think one of the reasons that I love Taylor's Key Ingredients is that its so much fun trying out new papers, embellishements etc, and everything is already laid out to coordinate - so it saves so much time and helps to create projects faster! To see more of this yummy Kit- Please check out what the rest of the DT created with this lovely kit!! I can't wait to go surfing:

Dawn Easton

Karen Motz

Denise Marzec

Laurie Schmidlin

Jackie Pedro

and of course - Taylor VanBruggen!!!!

Thanks for visiting my blog!!! Hope you are having a fabu Tuesday!!!

Big hugs,

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions -Day 2 of Sneak Peeks

Good Monday Morning everyone!!!

Are you masculine card challenged?

Because I know I am- lol! - no matter how much I try to make a masculine card - it always ends up being swirly girly whirly.... so I am psyched that Taylor is coming out with a set called Boys Will Be Boys -through her Whimsical Wishes line designed by the uber talednted: Nancy McKinny. This set and the awesome Father's Day Key Ingredients Kit will make it sooo much easier to whip out a "boy" looking card (that still looks "pretty"...ummm... errr... handsome, umm -- err.. masculine... :)

This set features images and sentiments that are not only perfect for Father's Day - but also just regular sentiments for the boyz in your family. One of my favorite image is of the grill with the flame! Couldn't wait to stamp it! As soon as I saw it - I thought of my FIL who is the grill master of the house - and so I made this card for him : "All hail to the Grill Master" - love that sentiment!!! LOL!!!

I cut out the grill with my x-acto knife and then cut out a flame colored by prismas and then stamped the skewers and colored and cut them out and then adhered them after placing them on dimensionals. I used the latest sketch #65 from Taylor's Cupcake Challenges.

I love and hoarde all the Key Ingredients Kits from Taylor (the key Ingredients are kits with coordinating DP and cardstok, ribbon and embellishments. Taylor will also be offering a Father's Day Bundle which will include the metal sheets and a set of assorted charms (like the flipper) - I love the idea of some masculine lookin charms!!!

I LOVE this charm with a little flipper - I attached it to a circle of orange cardstock adhered to one of the buttons from the kit. I cut three strips of metal and attached it on top. I can't wait to give this to my FIL :) There are sooo many cute by boy image in this set - and I Can't wait to try them all!!!

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I also couldn't wait to make a special boy page for my DH as part of his Father's Day Present. I made a little 6x6 layout using elements from the Father's Day Kit and using the awesome sketch by Jen T. for her Scrappy Sunday sketch challenges :) For this sketch - I got out two of my fave fave photos of my DH with our son and daughter while we were in Florida. I love the shot of him holding our daughter's hand and walking by the shoreline as the waves are coming in and then the silhouetted picture of him and our sun running on the beach. I had sooo much fun making this page and it was so easy to put together - I was so surprised that I was suddenly done!

I love that about these awesome Key Ingredients - they coordinate and make it easy to get done quick! The journaling reads: "... from the very beginning you have been my best friend and now to see you with our little munchkins always makes me so grateful for your presence.. you are the best dad: always nourishing, fun, patient, sweet and full of quiet wisdome - we love you!" ---- this is fun of my fave layouts that I have done and I can't wait to give it to him - which will be today - since I can't wait till Father's Day!!!

I love the #1 dad sentiment! The star that holds that sentiment is also layered onto a metallic sheet. Love how the metal sheet makes the whole layout bright, shiny and fun :)

I also wanted to display it in the house - so I used the awesome calendar stand that has 6x6 page protectors and 2 hanging binders. I love this stand and it makes displaying your craft work so much fun and easily changeable - just insert a new page - and instantly - a new look!

Taylor is going to be offering a special on the Boys will be Boys set from the stamps, to the metal sheets, to the charms etc. - here's the scoop on the bundle - also don't forget to check out my amazing fellow DT members from Taylor's Baker's Dozen:

Ana Wohlfahrt
Donna Baker
Jodi Collins
Jen del Muro
Dawn Easton
Laura Fredrickson
Karen Giron
Charmaine Ikach
Denise Marzec
Karen Motz


and of course! Taylor VanBruggen

Thank you so much for checking out my little corner :)

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

PS - Don't forget to check back tomorrow for Day 3 of sneak peeks! AND both of these sets and Key Ingredients kit and Father's Day bundle will be available for purchase on Tuesday, May 5th at 8am PST !!!!!