More is More

Happy Friday!  It’s time for another one of Taylor’s fun sketch challenges and I hope you’ll play along with us.  For those of you regular players please note a slight change in the keyword to TESC77 instead of TECC77 when uploading to SCS or PCP.  We’ve always said *cupcakes not required* but not everyone believed us, so Taylor has changed the challenge name to the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge to eliminate any confusion for players.

This sketch was just what I needed for my 3rd class project for tonight.  I was planning to use Circle Circus for a card and lo and behold TESC77 was perfect!

 I had the layout all worked out with the stamps and sketch, but was having trouble settling on a color combo.  Then I remembered what I often tell my customers – when you need a good color combo look at the Designer Paper section of the SU Catty.  Sure enough the color combo of Pink Flamingo dp was just the feeling I was looking for – Real Red, Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise, and Summer Sun.  The Coral panel was embossed with the SU Finial Press embossing folder.  This 4.25″ square card is SUO (Stampin’ Up! Only).

Now let’s see what the rest of the Sketch Crew has cooked up for us this week:

Some of you know about the ordeal we had with the vet’s office after picking up Tessa last Friday and finding out later in the day that she had not had the pain meds she was supposed to get that morning (her surgery was the previous day and she had spent the night there).  She had a really rough couple of days – poor little thing.  She started showing improvement in Sunday, but it was really just last night that she started acting like herself again and I was able to take her on a short walk.  I love that silly little dog so much and it’s been a rough week around here.  Looking forward to fun at class tonight. 

Oh and I can’t forget the home improvement update:  My valance is still not back from the cleaners and I forgot to call the guy yesterday to find out what’s up since he said *a couple of days* a week ago Wednesday.  *eye roll*  We got our new mirror up over the fireplace – it’s so pretty!  I’ve done little stuff like purchase throw rugs for the kitchen and bathroom.  The to-do list is still pretty long, but we’ll get there!  🙂  Curt has been out of town on Rocket Scientist Business (seriously!) and I’m really looking forward to having him home!

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday is quickly approaching and I’m looking forward to my monthly Stampin’ Up! Class and beginning a brand new round of Club.  The project I’m previewing today was inspired by one of my Club members – Barbara.  She’s so sweet and has made a couple of really adorable tags for me that I cherish .  She used photos of Curt and I and of Tessa from my blog and both tags are on my frig.  I thought it would be fun to do a tag project for class.

I purchased this pack of SU chipboard sometime in the last year, but had never used it.  This is the perfect opportunity.  Chipboard birdie and owl are covered with Cottage Walls designer paper and the extra pieces were inked with Old Olive Craft ink.  Some of them were then clear embossed and some just left to dry.  The tags themselves are just 2 layers of cardstock (Old Olive and Orchid Opulence).  The finished size is 6 3/4″ X 3 3/4″.  Each person at class will be free to copy one of these tags exactly or play with the supplies any way they’d like.  It should be fun!  Registration is closed for this Friday, but if you’d like to be on my customer mailing list for future classes please shoot me an e-mail with *SU Class Info* in the title.  My classes are usually the first or second Friday of each month and I occasionally hold a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon class.

Thanks for stopping by.

It’s time for the Taylored Expressions August Release which includes two new stamp sets, a new Key Ingredients Kit, two product bundles and lots of fun stuff in the Fresh Out of the Oven department!  And I’m extra excited because I got to play a bit and I have two cards to share.

 My first card features the new Whimisical Wishes stamp set Chillax along with the new Cherries and Berries Key Ingredients Kit.  Even though this KI is actually coordinated with the other new stamp set, I think it goes great with Chillax!  The layout for my card was inspired by a card I saw in this month’s Paper Crafts Magazine.

As soon as I saw this huricane glass image I knew I had to make a virgin strawberry daquiri.  We have a friend named Bill (you read about him in our dating story as the guy who introduced us) who loves virgin strawberry daquiries.  He has an awesome recipe for them and “back in the old days” he would make them at every party we had – no matter who’s house it was at.  I LOVE those things!  The secret is a little half & half.  Mmmmmmm!  Most of my friends didn’t drink so the VSD was about as wild as we got.  LOL! 

This huricane glass image actually has a fruit slice in it…a kiwi or a lime or?  Hmmmm…I needed a strawberry!  The Berries & Cherries KI was perfect as this strawberry braddie was included and at my fingertips.

The glass was colored with Copics (and did you know that The TE Store now has a wide selection of Copic markers???) and then covered with Crystal Effects for a nice thick shiny coating.

My second card features the new Berries & Cherries stamp set.  Recently I’ve seen some people color with Copics on kraft cardstock and I’ve been wanting to try it, so that was my jumping off point for this card. I stamped the strawberry basket on kraft with Memento black ink, colored with Copics and die cut with my Spellbinders Labels 2 die.  I absolutley love the little blossom image in this set and decided to make a background paper with it.  I stamped it repeatedly on SU Naturals White cardstock (which I rarely use) and colored again with Copics.  I like the slight contrast between the kraft and naturals white – I don’t think I’ve ever put these two together before. Ribbon is from the Cherries & Berries KI.

Taylor and the entire Baker’s Dozen Design Team have projects to share today and I can hardly wait to see them.  Let’s do some blog hopping!

Oh and I wanted to assure all you Cuppie fans – he’ll be back next month.  We promise!  He just needed a little vacation from this Summer heat!  So this month you can enjoy different kinds of sweet treats with TE!  To see all the new stuff and shop now click here to head over to the TE Store.  Thanks for stopping by and happy shopping!

Just a quick post before I’m out the door to work.  I wanted to share a preview of one of the cards we’ll be making at my Stampin’ Up! Class this Friday night.  The very first thing on my list when I saw this new SU catty was the Medallion stamp and this is the first card I’ve created with it.

I used the clear emboss resist technique on glossy cardstock.  Medallion was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with clear ep.  I sponged Melon Mambo ink in the center of the design and then brayered Pretty in Pink all over after masking the bottom strip with post it notes.  Card base is Melon Mambo layered with Basic Black cardstock.

Have you been keeping up with all the sneak peeks this week?  Both Our Craft Lounge and Taylored Expressions have tons of eye candy going on.  Thursday is release day for OCL and I believe I read that this release will be available at numerous retailers across the country. Looks like that have a ton of fun sets coming!  Tomorrow is release day for Taylored Expressions and I’ll be back in the morning with a release day project.  TE has two new sets coming out and I’m pretty sure you’re going to really like them – they’re both yummy!

Thanks for stopping by.