The Stampin' Bean: Encouragement

Showing posts with label Encouragement. Show all posts

Monday, August 20, 2012

The Woman Who Wears It...

My mom is the strongest person I know. Three years ago, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Without once complaining, she had surgery, went through painful chemotherapy and is now cancer-free. This card is made in honor of my mother, who turns 70 years old next month.

Last week, I showed you two cards I created using the same die, and today's card makes use of the Apron Die from Taylored Expressions. I simply die-cut the apron shape from black cardstock to create a "little black dress" and dolled it up with some black pearls. I love the quote from fashion icon Yves St. Laurent:

"What is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it."

Do you have a strong woman in your life that you would like to honor? I would love to hear about those amazing ladies!

Leave me a comment by Friday, August 24 at midnight and one lucky winner and the wonderful woman described will each win a packet of 6 x 6 patterned paper!

BEAN NOTES

Cardstock: Choice Snow (Taylored Expressions), Basic Black (Stampin' Up!); Accents: Black Pearls (Kaisercraft); Dies: Apron & Pocket Dies (Taylored Expressions)

Friday, August 10, 2012

Work Hard and Have Fun...TE Spotlight Day!

It's been a blast all week featuring all the fun new stamps and dies from Taylored Expressions and I've got one more project to share with you featuring some of the newly released goodies -- Library Card a la Carte and the cool Notepaper and Clipboard Die.

I decided to make a fun interactive card for a hardworking student. I stamped the library card image and die-cut it out using the Notepaper Die.

I assembled the Clipboard and attached the notepaper to it. I stamped several of the sentiments from the new set, Doodle Notes, and also paper-pieced one of the arrows from that set.

With a simple mechanism, the clipboard lifts and stands up and the arrow moves from "Work Hard" to "Have Fun" -- neat, yes?

BEAN NOTES

Stamps: Library Card a la Carte, Doodle Notes (Illustrated by Nancy McKinney for Taylored Expressions); Patterned Paper: This & That (Echo Park); Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa (Tsukineko); Cardstock: Silver Smooth (The Paper Co.), Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!); Dies: Notepaper & Clipboard Dies (Taylored Expressions)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! The TE Store is now open and these and all the other products we've been featuring this week are for sale, plus, there are a few fun specials. For more spotlight inspiration, check out the rest of the Baker's Dozen. Have a great day!

BAKER'S DOZEN DESIGN TEAM

Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Bit of Button Love...

I hope for all my U.S. readers that you all had fun and full-of-bbq goodness 4th of July's! Today I get to share a couple projects I created with the fun "steal" going on at ScrapbookSteals.com. If you are new to ScrapbookSteals.com, it's a fun way to get some terrific deals on your favorite scrapbooking supplies and today's steal are these darling Doodlebug Designs Striped Buttons.

For my first card, I used the buttons as blooms on flowers. I love how bright and cheery they are.

I added some little red hearts "raining" from the clouds in the sky.

For my second card, I wanted to keep things clean and simple. I added the buttons to a fun bicycle and stamped a sweet little bee to make a cheerful card to send to someone who might need a little "lift."

BEAN NOTES

All Things Grow With Love Card

Stamps: Faith in Bloom (Taylored Expressions); Everyday Button Bits (PTI)

Patterned Paper: Petite Prints (Doodlebug Designs)

Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah); Pool Party, Real Red, Kiwi Kiss, Green Galore (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Ballet Blue (Stampin' Up!); Memento New Leaf (Tsukineko)

Dies: Clouds (PTI)

Tools: Heart Punch (EK Success); Small Heart punch, Grass Border Punch (Martha Stewart)

Fibers: Red Embroidery Floss (generic)

Accents: Doodlebug Designs Striped Buttons

Here to Give You a Lift Card

Stamps: bee, swirl from Sunflower Wreath set (Taylored Expressions); Everyday Button Bits (PTI)

Patterned Paper: Petite Prints (Doodlebug Designs)

Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah); Real Red (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Ballet Blue (Stampin' Up!); Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)

Fibers: Baker's Twine (The Twinery)

Coloring Medium: Sketch Markers (Copic)

Accents: Doodlebug Designs Striped Buttons

If you'd like to see more button love inspiration from the other gals on the ScrapbookSteals.com Design Team, visit the SS blog and get your button on!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Life is Like a Rollercoaster...TE Release Party!

The Release Party at Taylored Expressions continues with more fun projects that the Baker's Dozen hopes will inspire you! Today I am sharing a project I created with the new Adventureland set, which is a darling set from the creative mind of my teammate, Sankari Wegman!

I decided to create a fun, interactive card with the adorable little people riding on a roller coaster.

I set my coaster high up in the clouds with the Cloud Border die and some fabulous patterned paper.

Coloring with Copics in bright colors set the little cars out against the subtly colored background.

Just a quick little pull on a tab and two of these fun-loving kids head down at breakneck speed!

And they're off!

BEAN NOTES

Stamps: Adventure Land (Illustrated by Doug Applegate for Taylored Expressions)

Patterned Paper: Sweet Day (Echo Park)

Cardstock: Textured (Bazzill); Solar White (Neenah)

Coloring Medium: Sketch Markers (Copic)

Dies: Cloud Border (Taylored Expresions)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)

The Adventureland set, as well as all the other products featured today by the Baker's Dozen are available in the TE Store. You'll find tasty little morsels of inspiration presented by the Baker's Dozen featuring everything that is Fresh Out of the Oven from Taylored Expressions!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Your True Colors...

It's a gloomy, foggy, Monday here in San Francisco, so I have a happy, rainbow-y kind of a card to share today. Card Caravan has a Clean and Simple Challenge going on and here is a quick but striking CAS card using the new Tall & Skinny Alpha dies from Taylored Expressions.

As I did on this layout a couple weeks ago, I took the white on white graphic look of the die-cut letters and used it here on a card. However, to really make the last word of the sentiment shine, I die-cut the word out of individual colors. I hope your day is bright and shiny...and if not, may it have a rainbow or two somewhere in there!

BEAN NOTES

Cardstock: Choice Snow (Taylored Expressions); Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Only Orange, Delightful Daffodil, Green Galore, Lovely Lilac (Stampin' Up)

Tools: Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

Dies: Tall & Skinny Alphabet (Taylored Expressions)

Friday, May 18, 2012

Simple Dreams...

This week seemed a bit long to me for some reason, so I needed a little pick me up. Making a card was just the thing, and I was really in the mood to make something soft and pretty. I found some perfect paper and got busy.

I found the lovely Make it Amazing set from Taylored Expressions in my stash and it was exactly what I was looking for. I cut the little square from the patterned paper, stamping the single butterfly. I also stamped the gorgeous silhouettes, which paired perfectly with the paper. I added a coordinating button, tied with twine.

BEAN NOTES

Stamps: Make it Amazing (Taylored Expressions)

Patterned Paper: Songbird (Prima)

Cardstock: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!); Pink Textured (Bazzill)

Accents: Songbird Button (Prima)

Fibers: Hemp Twine (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Soft Suede (Stampin' Up!)

Monday, April 2, 2012

Amazing Friends...Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek Day 1!

April Release At a Glance

We have sneak peeks to share Monday through Wednesday. All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, April 5th at 8 am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
Join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets, as well as a SPECIAL Facebook GIVEAWAY, on Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST.
Mystery Baker's Dozen Blog Giveaway: Each day, one lucky blog commenter will be chosen by random draw to win a $10 TE Gift Certificate. Winners will be chosen from a different Baker's Dozen blog each day and will be announced on Taylor's blog on Release Day! Be sure to hop around to see all the sneak peeks and leave comments on each and every blog for more chances to win. Limit one comment per blog per day, please. Comments for the drawings close Wednesday 4/4 at 7pm PST.

Can you believe it's April?! Time is flying fast, but at least it means we have another week of Release Week sneak peeks for Taylored Expressions! Today, I have two projects to share, one featuring the new set, Make it Amazing and the second a fabulously fun set from the delightful and darling brain of my teammate, Wanda Guess!

First up, I have a pretty wall hanging that I created with Make it Amazing from the Whimsical Wishes line, a really lovely set that I paired with this month's Project Pantry, which features papers from the London Market patterned paper collection from Pink Paislee.

This shadowbox was die-cut with my electronic die-cutting machine on the cardstock from the kit. I filled each frame with papers from the kit, stamped, and embellished before assembling.

There are coordinating dies for Make it Amazing, including for the butterflies, the pretty frame around the lovely sentiment, and the twiggy branch! I also stamped some of the beautiful silhouette images in cream ink on the darker patterned paper.

I am so in love with the colors from this kit and the images from Make it Amazing are simply wonderful.

Next, I have a set of bright and happy tags, inspired by and created with the new set from the Embracing Grace line of stamps, Fruity Friends, conceptualized by my friend, Wanda Guess. How cute are these little friends?

I simply hand-trimmed these with a paper trimmer and stamped each fruit, paper-piecing to make them super-cute. The sweet sentiments are just darling (if you knew Wanda, you wouldn't be surprised!) and I finished off with some happy ribbon.

BEAN NOTES

Make it Amazing Dream Wall Hanging

Stamps: Make it Amazing (Illustrated by Nancy McKinney for Taylored Expressions)

Patterned Paper, Ribbon, Cardstock: from London Market Project Pantry (Taylored Expressions)

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa (Tsukineko); Baja Breeze (Stampin' Up!)

Tools: Creative Station (Xyron)
Specialty Ink: Very Vanilla Craft Ink

Dies: Twiggy Branch, Elegant Butterflies, Frame It Up 3 (Taylored Expressions)

Templates: Shadowbox 8 x 10 (Lori Whitlock for Silhouette)

Fruity Friends Tags

Stamps: Fruity Friends (Illustrated by Emily Burger for Taylored Expressions)

Cardstock: Choice Snow (Taylored Expressions); Peach Parfait, Real Red, Kiwi Kiss, Wild Wasabi (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)

Tools: Tiny Attacher (Tim Holtz)

Fibers: Twill Ribbon (Stampin' Up!)

Accents: Tiny Attacher Staples (Tim Holtz)

Now I hope you enjoyed my projects today. For more sneak peeks, please visit the rest of the Baker's Dozen and enjoy your Monday!

Charmaine Ikach

Jami Sibley (DT Coordinator)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Grow, Seek, Go, See, Be...

It's a Mojo Monday kind of Thursday! I was in the mood to make some springtime sunshine and when I saw this week's Mojo sketch, I just had to give it a whirl.

I have been wanting to try out the new Tiptoe Through the Tulips die set from Taylored Expressions and I paired it with this lovely sentiment from the set, New Beginnings. There is nothing so pretty as yellow tulips growing on a field of green!

For some added dimension, I die-cut multiples of the tulips dies and popped them up over the stems after sponging ink all around for some depth. I stamped the beautiful sentiment and created my own "tag" element, sponging on more ink around the edges. A ribbon treatment, a pretty button, and a bit of twine later, my card was done and I think I'll go outside and soak up some sun.