Gina K. Designs Release Day: Blessed is the Season

Tonight’s the night (if you’re reading this on Thursday, July 1st that is) for the Gina K. Release party on StampTV!  I hope you have plans to join us – the parties are always a lot of fun!!  The card I’m sharing today uses a special edition StampTV stamp set for a Christmas in July series of videos on StampTV called Blessed is the Season.

I used the unique snowflake design and punched out various shapes to highlight different areas of the snowflake – isn’t it fun?  What do you think of the neat background I made using some Bubblegum Pink cardstock that’s behind the circle snowfalkes?  All I did was lay down some nautical netting and used a foam brayer to lay some pomegranate pink on top.  Wine with Everything is the layer below that, in addition to some Silver lining cardstock.  The base of the card is bubblegum pink.  I finished my card off with some silver brads and cord for a very non-traditional Christmas card!

For even more samples with the stamp sets being previewed tonight, check out these designer's links:

• Gina Krupsky *illustrator of Blessed is the Season and Versatile Verses
• Jessica Fick
• Theresa Momber
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Nina Brackett
• Cathy Tidwell
• Lee Murphy
• Carolyn King
• Kurtis Amundson
• Suzanne Dean
• Emily Giovanni
• Erika Martin
• Asela Hopkins

Hope to ‘see’ you TONIGHT at our Release Party starting at 7 pm central on StampTV. There will be challenges, contest questions, and more samples from our designers on all the new stamp sets being released this month.  ‘S'ee’ you then for all the fun!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Gina K. Preview Day 3:

Are you enjoying the designer’s previews so far?  Well we have some more for you!!  Today I am sharing a card I made using Seeds of Kindness, our new Card Kit stamp set!  It is a wonderful collection of potted plants and sentiments in true Gina K. style!  I chose to use the hanging plant which I had so much fun coloring with copics, I even tried my hand at a dotted background, with the help of this tutorial by Crissy Armstrong who is a fabulous artist!  I think I did o.k. – definitely want to get more lighter colored copics, but at least with the colors I chose, I was able to use Sweet Mango as one of my layers to tie it in!  I also used Basic Grey Origins pattern paper, black onyx, creme de menthe and lemon drop – a lot of colors but I truly love how this card turned out! 

For even more samples with the stamp sets being previewed tonight, check out these designer's links:

• Gina Krupsky *illustrator of Seeds of Kindness
• Jessica Fick *creator of Seeds of Kindness Card Kit
• Nina Brackett *illustrator of Hugs and Prayers
• Theresa Momber
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Cathy Tidwell
• Lee Murphy
• Carolyn King
• Kurtis Amundson
• Bev Gerard
• Colleen Schaan
• Valerie Stangle
• Emily Giovanni
• Erika Martin
• Janice Whiting *Seeds of Kindness Guest Designer
• Sankari Wegman
• Asela Hopkins

Mark Your Calendars to attend our Release Party this Thursday, July 1st starting at 7 pm central on StampTV!  As usual, there will be challenges, contest questions, and more samples from our designers on all the new stamp sets being released this month!  We'd love to have you join in on the fun!

Gina K. Preview Day 2: Pretty as a Peacock

Here is a card I made using the new set Pretty as a Peacock illustrated by Asela Hopkins, which will be available for purchase in the Gina K. store on Thursday at 10 p.m. CST!!  It is so unique because Peacocks are one of God’s many beautiful creatures.  Since most Peacocks are yellow green and blue, I reached for Ocean Mist, Creme de Menthe and Sweet Corn. Since the peacock’s feathers drape so far down, I thought it would be nice to cut it outside of the oval nestability shape I used.

The image was colored with copics and I used my Sky Sakura glaze pen over the blue areas for sparkle.  I used part of the sentiment for the outside of the card on the small oval shape and put the rest of it: ‘is the shadow of God on the Universe’ ~Gabriela Mistral on the inside of my card. 

For even more samples with the stamp sets being previewed tonight, including Lawn & Garden illustrated by Rupa Shevde, check out these designer's links:

• Gina Krupsky
• Jessica Fick
• Theresa Momber
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Nina Brackett
• Cathy Tidwell
• Lee Murphy
• Emily Giovanni
• Erika Martin
• Asela Hopkins *illustrator of Pretty as a Peacock

I hope you have plans to join us for our Release Party this Thursday, July 1st starting at 7 pm central on StampTV! There will be challenges, contest questions, and more samples from our designers on all the new stamp sets being released this month!  You don’t want to miss out on all the fun now do you??? Hope to see you there!!

Gina K. Preview Day 1: Fun Aloha Stitches

Welcome to the next Gina K. release!  Another one that will not disappoint all you GKD fans out there!  My first card is for the new set illustrated by Melanie called Fun Year Round, a fun round background with tons of images to place in the circles and sentiments!  I made mine super Summery & cheerful with Passionate Pink and Wild Dandelion!  I cut some of the circles and the black border off the background I stamped on pure luxury white cardstock and layered it on Wild Dandelion for the cardstock to peek through!

My next card uses the beautiful set Aloha illustrated by Theresa Momber!  I used today’s Featured Stamper challenge on SCS and used this card of Debbie’s to case! I used Basic Grey Lemonade papers on this card and truly love how it turned out!

For even more samples with the stamp sets being previewed tonight, including Stitches by Tami, check out these designer's links:

• Gina Krupsky
• Theresa Momber *illustrator of Aloha
• Melanie Muenchinger *illustrator of Fun Year Round
• Tami Mayberry *illustrator of Stitches
• Jessica Fick
• Nina Brackett
• Cathy Tidwell
• Lee Murphy
• Lynn Mercurio
• Carolyn King
• Kurtis Amundson
• Emily Giovanni
• Erika Martin
• Asela Hopkins

We'd also like to invite you to attend our Release Party this Thursday, July 1st starting at 7 pm central on StampTV! There will be challenges, contest questions, and more samples from our designers on all the new stamp sets being released this month!  We'd love to have you join in on the fun!

Life is like a wave.

…You can't change the way it breaks, but you can change how you ride it (that’s what the inside of this card says)…although I’m not a surfer, I like that sentiment!  Isn’t Hangin’ Out at the Beach by Taylored Expressions a fun set for summer?  I love the lanterns in this set too so I made a night scene with it!

My inspiration for making this card came from my friend Theresa Momber who has amazing sponging skills; with this beauty of hers!  I think I definitely need more practice though!

I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

I am busy working on the next Gina K. release and the peeks start tomorrow evening at 10 p.m.!  Hope you come back for that!

Center of Attention Product Spotlight - Liquid Adhesives

Every month Taylor & half the Baker’s Dozen Design Team take a specific product available in the TE Store and do a focus for our readers!  This month it is on liquid adhesives, of which there are a variety available out there and each one has it’s pros and cons.  We’re here today to share what we used and what features we observed about it!

  I used Zip Dry Paper Glue which is fast drying  on almost all paper types; it never wrinkles paper and dries crystal clear. What I liked about this adhesive is that you can use it to adhere wire to paper as well (and not a lot of adhesives do that).  Zip Dry is different than what I normally use which is Tombow Mono Multi and I have to admit that Mono Multi will still be my favorite because I like the dual applicator feature of that glue and it is much easier to squeeze out.  You have to squeeze real hard to get the Zip Dry to flow so it wouldn't be the best choice for someone with gripping challenges. I also found out that Zip Dry is the WINNER of the Golden Glue Gun Award for Best Adhesive from customer votes on their website!"  I actually tried adhering clear microbeads on the bathing suit & flowers but not long after it had dried, they all fell off unfortunately so they may be good for regular beads but not microbeads (I wish that I had time to try regular beads but I didn’t – I will try to do that in the future and will reference this article).  I used the new Hangin’ Out – at the Beach on my card. 

All our liquid adhesives will be on sale for 15% off following our product focus (June 24-27). 

Be sure to check out the posts from the rest of the gals participating in today’s product focus:

Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive: Jodi
Tombow Mono-Multi Liquid Glue: Karen G.
Zip Dry: Donna (me!)
Dimensional Glitter Glue: Charmaine
Quickie Glue Pen: Melissa
Best Glue Ever: Taylor

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Thank You STV Challenge Hostesses!!

Tonight we are having a special blog hop to thank our recently retired StampTV Challenge Hostess Team members: 

• Tina Gilliland: Color
• Karen Knegten: Anything but a Card
• Vicki Dutcher: Sketch
• Sharri Seffens: Blast from the Past

These 4 designers have provided StampTV with a challenge each week during the months of March, April, and May, which totals up to 13 challenges!  To view each of their challenges in one area, click on their names and it will direct you to their Idea Center Inspiration Page.

Here is a card I made to send to Tina featuring her color challenge from 3/22 STVCCTG4 because purple is her favorite color!  I used the current STV kit Enjoy the Sunshine and made my card clean & simple!  I added some crystal lacquer to the flowers that looks so pretty - I wish I had had more time to play with her awesome color challenges, great job Tina!

Here is a card I made to send to Vicki, who came up with a sketch that truly caught my eye – I would have never thought of it myself and adore how yummy this card turned out!  This is her sketch from 3/5 stvscvd01.  I used Enjoy the Sunshine again – first time to ink up the delicious strawberries in the set!  I enjoyed coloring them with my copics too – and I also put some crystal lacquer on them to make them all shiny! 

Lastly, I made a card to send to Sharri for her great job with the blast from the past challenge – and I used one of my favorite techniques, paper-piecing for my card from her stvbpsls12 challenge on 5/21.  I had to use Nina’s beautiful Fine Furnishings set, it was so fun picking out a pattern for my lounge chair, it’s Basic Grey Green at Heart.   I used the Victoria cuttlebug embossing folder on my pumpkin spice layer, it goes well with this elegant set!

I wish I had time to make something for Karen’s Anything but a Card challenge, but with having to keep up with paying bills for our house being built and getting this house ready to sell, I have had little ‘extra’ time lately!  Sorry, Karen – I know you did a fabulous job bringing a fun challenge every week, I checked them all out!!

We have a special StampTV Challenge Magazine Volume 2* located on the Freebie Tab, where all 52 of their challenges are shared in a download PDF that you can save to your computer and print out at your leisure!  *We will be doing a similar magazine for our first Challenge Hostess team as well in the near future, so watch for that soon.

To honor the team a bit more, several GinaK Designers are joining together in a special thank you blog hop and would like to invite you to join us!  After visiting the links below, please check out this discussion on StampTV and share a favorite card you've made in the past or a new one you're inspired to make using one of the challenges from any four of the challenge hostesses.

• Jessica Fick
• Theresa Momber
• Jennie Harper
• Lee Murphy
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Carla Suto
• Brenda Turner
• Linda Payne
• Melissa Shultz
• Giovana Smith

Thanks for stopping by! 

SC285: Thank You

I need some Thank You cards since a few weeks ago I had a birthday and I want to send them to a few people who blessed me so on to today’s SCS sketch 285 for my starting point!  I knew I wanted to use Garden Party Critters by Taylored Expressions and reached for the Udderly Sweet Project Pantry kit for my cardstock, papers and embellishments because I wanted my cards to be super cheerful!

Here’s a close up of the Green Apple Smooch I colored the butterflies with!  I also added some Mango Kaiser Pearls to their bodies and in between the ‘inchies’.

 

I used the same papers and cardstock on this other card, but used 2 different images on the inchies and used some Tim Holtz tumbled glass distress ink which is a pretty blue to match my cardstock!

I hope you’re having a great week – it’s almost the weekend!  It’s been rough for me; every day after I get off work I have to lay my head down and take a cat nap alongside my cat Elsie and then I get to bed normal time too!  I’ve gotten back into reading again – one of my other hobbies which I missed while I was attending school.  I started reading Eat. Pray. Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and got about 100 pages in and had to put it down – the author is funny but the story was so slow.  So then I picked up Dear John by one of my favorite authors, Nicholas Sparks – it’s instantly good!  I’ve read quite a few of his books and have not been disappointed yet so I will continue with this one for now and maybe get back to the other one after!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gina K. Designs Design Team Challenge: Summer Memories

Here is my card for the next design team challenge that you can participate in for a chance to be chosen as the next CSS designer for the next GKD release!!  Our challenge from Gina K. is to create a card using one of the current release sets inspired by a summer memory. 

I chose to use Tami’s Stars set with the silhouette couple from Eclectic Summer.  I chose these sets because my memory takes me back to June 27, 1997 – it was 2 days after John and I had met for the first time in real life and one night that will forever be a special memory!!  It was a dark night in Central Texas out in the hill country and while I freshened up in the house, he was planning our special evening with a fire, blanket and picnic on his mom & stepdad’s 12 acres.  We were enjoying the hot but nice evening after being out all day in the sun in San Antonio.  It was strange, though as we were enjoying one another’s company and the great outdoors, I noticed something odd – there were no stars out and the sky was real dark (it was probably between 10-11 p.m.).  As I lay in his loving arms in this romantic setting like something out of a movie, he says, “there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you all day” and I said “what?” and he looks over my shoulder and says, “what is that on your shoulder?” and I jumped up to see and he said, “oh it’s just the design on your shirt!” now I am not a scaredy-cat when it comes to bugs & critters but I was only there a few days and I just wasn’t sure what to expect in Texas! 

After all the hoopla died down, he reached over and grabbed something while kneeling and reached out to grab my hand.  He then goes on to say something to the effect of make me the happiest guy and be my wife; unfortunately neither of us recalls exactly what he said but we do remember I broke out in happy tears and said yes – I was SO looking forward to seeing my ring which is beautiful and of course spending the rest of my life with him.  Then something amazing happened; as God is our witness, after we hugged and kissed, we looked up at the sky and there were so many beautiful and bright stars out, which had suddenly appeared-as if God was giving us His approval!  As Christians we were seeking it after all and know without a shadow of a doubt that it was a God-thing how we met!  By the way, we ended up getting married 9 days later…2 days before I had to leave to go back to CA *sniff*
For all the specific details on how to enter your card in Gina's Design Team challenge, please visit GinaK's blog.
Then be sure to stop by these participating GinaK Design Team member's blogs to be inspired by their creations for tonight's hop:

• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Emily Giovanni
• Erika Martin
• Jessica Fick
• Kay Simmons
• Kurtis Amundson
• Lee Murphy
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Nina Brackett
• Tami Mayberry
• Theresa Momber

thanks for stopping by and good luck with the challenge!

FS175: Summer ‘Lemonade’ Afternoon

 
Anyone else happy about Summer approaching?  I am in most aspects but I’m not entirely thrilled about the extreme heat/humidity in Central Texas-ha!!  Here is a card I made for today’s SCS Featured Stamper challenge {FS175} using the new Whimsical Wishes set Summer Afternoon by Taylored Expressions!  I used this card for the inspiration of my card by LeAnne Pugliese which is also very Summery with the cherries on it!

I used my Basic Grey Lemonade papers which reminds me of a great summer drink – have you ever tried strawberry lemonade by Country Time?  It takes me back so many years; the first one we visited friends in Colorado Springs and I fell in love with it – we ended up bringing some back with us from our first trip to a Super Target there!  Since then, our taste in summer drinks has changed a little because we don’t use instant tea anymore, we drink cold tea made from loose tea in our tea maker – Assam is our favorite (it’s a black Indian tea).   

Here’s a close up of the sparkle from my copic atyou spica pens on the blooms and dragonfly. The yellow cardbase is Sunflowers Medium prism cardstock and the ribbon is white glimmer ribbon from the TE store. 

Blast from the Past Customer Blog Hop

There’s going to be another Taylored Expressions' Blast from the Past customer blog hop later on this month.

If you haven't singed up for the hop, there's still time – you have until this Thursday, June 17th to sign up and hope you'll be able to join in on the fun!  Here are the details:

Hop Rules: Create a card or project featuring any Taylored Expressions stamps released through March 2010. A challenge will be sent out to all participants that is completely optional, it's more of a way to get you started in case you're stuck on what to make. Your post with your card or project must be live by 8am PDT on June 22nd with a links to all blog hop participants. A code which will contain all this information will be sent to you in order to make it easier for you.

How To Sign Up to Play: Send an email to bloghop@tayloredexpresions.com with the subject line "June 22 Hop". In the body of your email simply list the following information: your first and last name, the name of your blog, and your blog address. By sending this email you are committing to posting a creation on your blog at 8am PDT on June 22nd as detailed on the Hop Rules above. Once you sign up you will receive the following:

• An email confirming your spot on the hop. That email will also include the optional challenge, a list of excluded sets (released after March 2010) and recap of the rules.
• You will receive another email 2 days prior to the hop with a list of all participants and links to include in your post along with the Hop badge.

BONUS: One random participant will be select to win the stamp set of your choice from Taylored Expressions! Someone will also be chosen to have their card featured in an upcoming newsletter.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you will join the fun!

Happy Birthday Taylor!!

Jami had the fun idea to organize a Surprise Birthday Hop to honor Taylor on her special day so a bunch of her friends made Taylor a card and are sharing it on their blogs ~ I hope you will take some time to check out all the fantastic inspiration that’s out there!  I know I am excited to hop around! 

On my card for Taylor, I decided to use Tena since she is inspired by Taylor herself in the Appledoodle, Ink line of stamps!  And of course, since Taylor is a cat lover (like me) it made sense to use the new Pet’s Place charity set!!  I also used elements from the Pet’s Place Project Pantry kit so my card came together real quickly because Taylor has hand selected all the papers, embellishments to coordinate perfectly together!  All I had to do was come up with my card design!  I added an EK Success border punch (open scallop) for a decorative border!

Taylor – I hope you have a fabulous day!!

Alex Maldonado
Alice Wertz
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jami Sibley
Jenn Balcer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Lisa Hjulberg
Lori Craig
Melissa Sauls
Monika Davis 
Nancy McKinney
Rachel Sztonyk
Sandra MacLean
Sankari Wegman
Sharon Harnist
Sherrie Siemens

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a fun, relaxing weekend!  

Gina K Botanicals Blog Hop

Welcome to the Gina K. Botanicals blog hop!  Jessica challenged us all to share a different technique using the lovely new Botanicals set and I chose the Brick Wall Technique, which is a little bit of work but very worth it in the end because the image always packs quite a punch with the different sized' ‘bricks’ and sponging!   I stamped my blooms on ivory pure luxury base weight cardstock with some Wild Honey Tim Holtz distress ink  and script was stamped off with Crushed Olive distress ink.  Then I cut all my bricks, sponged them and laid them out on my Sweet Mango panel layered on another ivory cardstock.  I sponged wild honey ink on the white paper flower and put on an olive button from the Autumn collection.  My card base is Green Apple. 

Here’s a close up of the flowers outlined with a Sakura stardust glitter pen, which is one of my favorite quick embellishment tools!

Please visit these designer's blogs for their project using a variety of techniques all made with the Botanicals stamp set.  Be sure to leave some stamping love with a quick comment to appreciate their hard work showing you how many awesome techniques you can get lots of mileage out of this beautiful set with:

• Jessica Fick
• Suzanne Dean
• Colleen Schaan
• Bev Gerard
• Jennie Harper
• Sharri Seffens
• Lee Murphy
• Nina Brackett
• Erika Martin
• Brenda Turner
• Giovana Smith
• Tina Gilliland
• Carla Suto
• Linda Payne
• Kay Simmons
• Vicki Dutcher
• Karen Knegten

Then, for even more samples with the Botanicals stamp set, visit the StampTV gallery here: botanicals.  To view more information about the free card kit that is included with the purchase of the Botanicals stamp set, click here. 
Thanks for stopping by!

FS174: You’re so Tweet

Here’s a card that took me way too long to make for today’s Featured Stamper Challenge {FS174} using the new TE giving tree charity set Pet’s Place!  I chose this card of Nikki’s to case; changing my pattern paper, cardstock colors, stamp set and embellishment.  I used papers/ribbon from the Udderly Sweet Project Pantry kit.  I made my paper flower embellishment using packing paper cut with the Spellbinder’s Blossom die, sponged with some yellow ink and placed my sentiment inside with a small Basic Grey granola button in the center. 

I’ll be back later with a special Botanicals Gina K. hop at 10 p.m. this evening – hope you can back by! 

TE Release Day: Udderly Sweet

It’s release day at TE!  I bet you are excited everything is available for purchase now in the store!  Today I am sharing the farmer Cuppie set called Udderly Sweet!  I used Wednesday’s SCS sketch challenge 283 for my layout – it’s a fun one to show off farmer cuppie, his pig friends and his colorful barn!  I just adore all the fun elements in the Udderly Sweet Project Pantry kit which coordinates wonderfully with the Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety patterned paper!  I had a little fun piecing the cuppie & pigs in front of the barn (there is a different cuppie attached to that image).  It was super easy, all I did was ink up JUST the barn and grass area and then filled in the rest of the lines that were missing and colored it with copics.  Then on a separate piece of choice snow white cardstock I stamped the cuppie with pigs, colored them in and cut them out.  I popped them up in the scene like they are on top of the hill by coloring in ‘land’ in front of the barn.  I also used a cloud template for some soft pillowy clouds. 
Here’s a close up (kind of blurry, sorry) of the pigs, I cut off their curly tails and put some curled wire in its place for a fun look!    I made the key punch tag smaller with just a portion of the sentiment to cover up where I goofed with the barn-HA!  I hope you’ve enjoyed all the sneak peeks and have lots of inspiration to get the creative juices flowing with the new stuff you buy in the TE Store.  Check out the WHAT’S NEW category so you can see it all in one place for quick & easy shopping!  Don’t forget to check out the awesome galleries where you can see inspiration all in one place!  Hope you have a fabulous weekend and thanks for stopping by! 

Don’t forget to be inspired by the designer’s creations today though! 
Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Sankari Wegman
Taylor Van Bruggen
Sandra MacLean – our guest designer!
Nancy McKinney
Jami Sibley

TE Sneak Peek: Hangin’ Out - at the Beach

Are you enjoying all the TE Sneak peeks like me?  They’ve just been fabulous – I love the different styles represented with all the designers, everyone putting a unique spin on their creations!  Today I am sharing a card I made using the new Whimsical Wishes stamp set Hangin’ Out -at the Beach illustrated by Nancy McKinney!  I wanted to make a serene beach scene with inks so I went to Michelle Zindorf’s blog for inspiration, her tutorials are always so easy to follow.  I used copics to color my palm trees and paper-pieced the hammock (and I apologize I can’t remember what paper I used right now!)   This card makes me think of that I would LOVE to  put up a hammock at our property, not far from the house we have 3 trees that we could easily put up 3 hammocks!  How fun would that be? Here’s a tip: I brayered/sponged my background on a sheet of choice snow white cardstock and then stamped, colored, cut out & outlined the palm trees with a brown marker and glued them on, that way I didn’t have to mask anything.  I added a seagull at the top of the palm tree and a greeting hanging from the top of the card to finish off my card.

Sharing creations with Hangin’ Out-at the Beach:
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jeanie Witmer
Karen Motz
Sankari Wegman

Sharing 4th of July A La Carte stamps & 4th of July Bundle:
Alex Maldonado
Jackie Pedro
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Melissa Sauls

Taylor Van Bruggen
and joining us again today are:
Jami Sibley
Nancy McKinney

Hope you have a great day and come back again tomorrow at 10 a.m. when all the offerings will be available for purchase in the TE store!

TE Sneak Peek: Summer Afternoon, Care & Comfort

Welcome back for day 2 sneak peeks for Taylored Expressions!  The first set in which I made a summer vintage card, is Summer Afternoon, a beautiful solid image set in the Whimsical Wishes line with coordinating sentiments to create gorgeous Summer cards!  I have been using one of my very talented design team member’s tips (Jodi) and using lots of neutral cardstock layers (here I have a white layer on kraft cardstock), and combined it with some Basic Grey Basics Manila paper and a small snippet of Origins on the bottom.  Distressing the edges a little with antique linen distress ink gave this the classic vintage look that I am pleased with.  I also used some ivory silk ribbon, cream glitter candy dots, apple blossom flower with distress ink rubbed on and white crochet trim and crystal tiny twinkles adhered with some fantastic embellie jellie in a jiffy!  That stuff is a MUST HAVE if you love to embellish with tiny things!!

My next card showcases Summer Afternoon with the addition of a sentiment from Care & Comfort, a beautiful script sentiment set in the Lasting Impressions line of stamps which includes timely Scriptures to comfort those who may be needing words of encouragement in the form of a handmade card. I used Jen’s sketch for you to try from this past weekend and chose to make this a monochromatic card, adding some prism medium suede brown cardstock to the Basic Grey Basics manila papers , in addition to a new Tim Holt distress ink, pumice stone.  I must get the rest of the Basics!!  I also added a cream glitter candy dot to the sentiment circle. 

Lastly, I wanted to have some kind of pop on this card, so on the solid flowers I stamped, I colored with a chocolate brown copic atyou spica pen and covered them with crystal lacquer for an unexpected pretty shine!

Don’t forget to hop around the rest of the Baker’s Dozen blogs to be inspired by their creations:

Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Sankari Wegman
Taylor Van Bruggen

and joining us today are:
Jami Sibley
Nancy McKinney (Summer Afternoon illustrator)

TE Sneak Peek: Pet’s Place

I am so excited to share sneak peeks of the new sets being released on Friday June 4 by Taylored Expressions!  TE supports various charities through the TE Giving Tree Program with a new stamp set introduced every 3 months in which a portion of the sale of the set is donated to a specific charity.  This quarter, we are happy to bring you Pet's Place, the newest set in the Apple Doodle Ink line, to support The Humane Society of the United States.  I had so much fun making this card, and pairing the new set with the Window Shopping set. 

Here is a close up of the crystal lacquer shine on the fish bowl – I just love the big lips on this fish, it cracks me up!

 

 

 

I put together a little treat bag & filled it with some of my dog Shelby’s X & O treats I got at Costco, she LOVES these treats!  I have them on my dresser next to the bed and whenever I get anywhere near the dressed, her face perks up with the anticipation of getting a treat – it’s so cute!!  These little treat bags will be available on Friday for the release, they are cut from Basic Grey Max & Whiskers patterned paper.  I stamped the bag with white ink with the little dog bone in the set so they could peek through.  You can also package some people treats inside like candy or crackers, and give to someone who had a ruff day!  Do you like the fun edge punch I used on the bag?  It’s available in the TE store, Open Scallop by EK Success, it’s one of the easiest edge punches to use and there are some fun patterns to choose from!

Next I have a photo cube I decorated with elements from the Pet’s Place Project Pantry kit (Taylor’s blog will have details & pictures of this kit).  I will display this at my desk at work so I can smile when I see my happy dog Shelby. One of the highlights of my day is when I get home and she is waiting to greet me with her tail wagging, it makes me realize that she was waiting all day to see me too!  I just can’t imagine what the past 11 years she’s been in our lives would have been like without her, and it makes me sad to think of the dreaded day when the tumor on her lung takes her life and she will not be here to greet me at the end of the day. 
 
Here’s another side of the photo cube with my baby Elsie, the reason I call her that is because we rescued her when she was barely weaned from being killed in rush hour traffic and hiding between a van’s two tires.  I definitely babied her as a kitten, allowing her to snuggle in my hair and to this day (even though she is 10 years old), she looks forward to that bonding time, every day.  It usually just lasts less than a minute and then she settles down to sit next to me,  In fact right now she is laying next to my leg.

Lastly, here is our sweet Chica, who had to be put asleep the week before Christmas last year after being sick for more than a year, it broke our hearts to see her waste away and we miss her so much.  We were so happy to have her for the 9 years we did, though and have many good memories of her!!

Now for more info on our charity: The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest and most effective animal protection organization. The HSUS seeks a humane and sustainable world for all animals—a world that will also benefit people. They are America's mainstream force against cruelty, exploitation and neglect, as well as the most trusted voice extolling the human-animal bond. HSUS is also the lead disaster relief agency for animals, and they provide direct care for thousands of animals at sanctuaries and rescue facilities, wildlife rehabilitation centers, and mobile veterinary clinics. Click here to read more about HSUS.

Pet's Place will be available in the TE Store on Friday morning at 10 am Central. $7 from the sale of each set will be donated to HSUS. Please remember that sets in the Giving Tree Program are the same high quality deeply etched pink rubber on EZ Mount as all other TE stamp sets, however unlike our other sets you will need to trim these images yourself. This allows us to cut production costs and donate more to our charities.

Be sure to check out all the designer’s blogs for more inspiration:

Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Charmaine Ikach
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Karen Motz
Melissa Sauls
Sankari Wegman
Taylor Van Bruggen
and Jami Sibley will be joining us today!  

Be back tomorrow for our next sneak peek!