More is More

Celebrate is right!   I’m doin’ a little happy dance this morning! 

Not only is it Day #2 of the Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks, but the set we are featuring today is MINE!!!  Well, it’s not exactly mine…I’m just so excited…it’s the very first stamp set I’ve ever completely concepted.  I’m so fortunate to have had the chance to work with Taylor and Nancy McKinney to get this set from my head into actual rubber!!!

So I was in the shower several months ago and this idea came to me for an all ocassion stamp set with some framed main images that included a sentiment big enough to really carry the front of a card.  Plus I wanted each image to have at least 2 sentiments for inside the card along with a coordinating little decorative element for backgrounds, inside, envelopes, etc.  I sat down and sketched out my idea.  I totally cannot draw – which is why I love stamping so much – so I sheepishly sent my elementary school drawings to Taylor.  I was beyond thrilled when she said she loved the idea and would pass it on to Nancy to work her design magic on it!  After an incredible team effort we are introducing Sweet Ocassions!  Honestly this is a dream come true for me.

Sweet Occasions will be available tomorrow morning ( Friday12/4) at 8:00 am PST.  You can enter to win this set – see the details at the end of my post – it’s easy!  In the meantime I have a few samples to share with you.  The first one is what I originally thought of when I pictured this stamp set – simple one layer cards that you could make in a hurry or when you need sets of cards for gifts.

It doesn’t get much simpler than this, but stil cute, right?  I just stamped the *thanks* image on TE Choice Snow White cardstock and colored it with Prisma Pencils and blended with gamsol and stumps (haven’t done that in forever!)  I added a some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the letters with a Sakura Quickie Glue Pen and a red Rain Dot to the cherry.  I scored some lines using my Scor-Pal and cut little slits with a craft knife for the ribbon.

My next sample is a little more my regular More is More style and features my favorite color of cardstock – black.

I had some Melon Mambo DSP from SU and wanted to create a card in the combo of Melon Mambo, Black and white.  I stamped the *friend* image on black cardstock with white craft ink and heat embossed it with white ep.  The letters and the little flower were filled in with Pink Sparkly Fluff using a quickie glue pen.  The border of the heart was colored with a white gel pen and covered in Frosted Lace Stickles (it looks more white and less silver IRL.)  The image frame was paper-pieced.  The separate little flower was stamped on the black panel inwhite craft ink.  The flourish bling is from a pack of shaped ZVA crystals and the clear rhinestones around the scallops are Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles.  I used Nesties rectangles and Scalloped rectangles to cut and mat the image (I beleive these are on order and will arrive soon in the TE Store.)  These images work wonderfully with the Nesties, but they are also very easy to trim out by hand which is what I did in the set below.

I have a special class coming up next week for my Club girls and we’ll be using the SU Sunny Day Scrappin’ Kit.  I had all the stuff out from making my class samples when my TE rubber arrived and I thought it looked great with Sweet Occasions so I whipped up this set.  Card bases are Confetti White and the images are stamped on the same using black craft ink and heat embossed with clear ep.  Each image was watercolored with an aquapianter and ink from SU markers smeared onto a cd.  Notice the hint of black cardstock on each card?  I love black with brights – really makes them pop.

Little special touches on this card are Crystal Effects on the dish, Stardust glaze pen on the letters and ice cream toppings, red stickles on the cherry.

Each image has at least 2 coordinating sentiments.  Inside this card could say:

*Happy Birthday with a cherry on top!*

-OR-

*success is oh so sweet*

**********

The little special touches here are Crystal Effects on the frosting (yep that heart is supposed to be a sugar cookie in keeping with the whole *sweet* theme), orange stickles on the flower and stardust glaze pen on the letters.

Inside this card might say:

*you make life sweet*

*that was sweet of you*

*I’m so glad that you’re my friend*

 **********

Didn’t Nancy do an awesome job on that sweet little gingerbread house?  I wanted to include a *congrats* in this set because I’ve had so many friends buy houses and move in the the last couple of years.  I added glitter to the snowy roof and stardust glaze pen to the letters.

Possible sentiments here are:

*on your sweet new place*

-OR-

*success is oh so sweet*

**********

The little touches here are stardust glaze pen on the letters, red stickles on the cherry and pink sparkly fluff on the frosting!

Inside might say:

*that was so sweet of you*

-OR-

*you make life sweet*

And just wait till you see the adorable fonts Taylor and Nancy used for all the sentiments.  Pure sweetness!  Plus the tiny coordinating images – oh my! 

I have a ton more ideas, but that’s all my samples for today.  I can hardly wait to see what everyone has…Come blog hoppin’ with me to see what the Baker’s Dozen girls have cooked up with Sweet Occasions today!

Be sure to leave some love along the way because one lucky commenter will win a Sweet Occasions stamp set! How cool is that?All you have to do is leave a comment on each Baker’s Dozen blog today for the best chance to win! One lucky winner will be chosen at random from all of the comments on one of the blogs, but the trick is that nobody knows which blog it will be! You have until 6am PST on Friday to enter. The winner will be announced Friday morning on Taylor’s blog.I’ll be back tomorrow with a new TE product – Taylored Card Kits.  Thanks for stopping by!

I’m excited to have the opportunity to participate along with the Baker’s Dozen to showcase sneek peeks this week of the new stamp sets that will be available at Taylored Expressions on Friday December 4th at 8:00 am PST.  The set we are featuring today is called Discover Your Wings designed by Nancy McKinney and it is GORGEOUS!  This post is a little long, but stick with me because there just might be a PRIZE at the end.  *wink*

Every three months Taylored Expressions introduces a new stamp into the TE Giving Tree Program to help support a specific charity for a three month period.  I love the concept of having a portion of my stamp purchase to go to a charity and $7 from the sale of each Discover Your Wings stamp set will be donated to a very special organization.  More about that below – first just a little about the card I created to show you today.

This card is a large 5.5″ square using mostly supplies from the TE November 20th Key Ingredients Kit along with some SU Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon and ink.  I started with Karen Giron’s Sweet Sunday Sketch, but I ended up veering off a bit.  That’s one of the great things about a sketch though – it can just be a jumping off point.  The large floral silhouette image was stamped on TE Choice Buttercream cardstock (this is just part of the image – it’s quite large) and then the image was covered with a piece of sticky page and run through my Big Shot with a circle nestie.  Then I was able to peel off the red protective layer and cover the image with clear microbeads.  It’s so hard to get a photo of something that has been beaded, but it’s so pretty IRL and really one of my favorite simple wow techniques.  The butterfly was stamped and cut out, then shaped just by working it with my fingers.  It was then covered in Crystal effects  and sprinkled with a little glitter on the edges and set aside to dry.  Later 3 Tiny Twinkles were added to the body.  The beaded panel was adhered to a larger circle made of two layers – cardstock on top of lightweight chipboard.  The “ornament” was attached to the card with just two small pieces of foam tape so it can be removed and hung up later.

This set has so many possibilites!  I can hardly wait for you to be able to see the whole thing!  Not only is the set beautiful, but partial proceeds will be donated to an incredible foundation called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep which is a charity that serves families dealing with infant death. Their mission statement is “To introduce remembrance photography to parents suffering the loss of a baby with the free gift of professional portraiture. We believe these images serve as an important step in the family’s healing process by honoring their child’s legacy.” NILMDTS administers a network of almost 7000 volunteer photographers in the US and 25 other countries. This is a wonderful charity that TE is honored to support and I would encourage you to learn more about them by going to their website.

I am so pleased to help get the word out about this Founation.  My life was deeply touched by infant death 13 years ago when one of my very best friends learned early in her first pregnancy that her baby had a condition that would cause her to be either stillborn or to die shortly after birth.  It was a very rough time, but it was a privilege and a blessing for Curt and I to walk beside our friends Geoff and Brenda during that time and to witness the way the Lord carried them through the months of pregnancy and everything after.  Sweet little Emma only lived for about 45 minutes and although professional portraits were not taken, the family did take many pictures.  Those pictures have been so very important to Geoff and Brenda over the years – an integral part of the healing process.  Also Brenda created an entire beautiful scrapbook of Emma in the weeks after her birth and death.  Brenda has told me how theraputic that process was for her.  Knowing all of this, when I first heard about NILMDTS it touched my heart deeply and although I knew this would be a difficult subject to broach in the midst of the excitement of new stamps I also knew it would be worth it!

I am soooo anxious to see what the rest of the girls have created! Come blog hoppin’ with me to see what the Baker’s Dozen girls have cooked up with Discover Your Wings today.

 Ok – thanks for sticking with me….did I mention something earlier about a PRIZE???  Well…..

As you blog hop be sure to leave some love along the way because one lucky commenter will win a Discover Your Wings stamp set! How cool is that?All you have to do is leave a comment on each Baker’s Dozen blog today for the best chance to win! One lucky winner will be chosen at random from all of the comments on one of the blogs, but the trick is that nobody knows which blog it will be! You have until 6am PST on Thursday to enter. The winner will be announced Friday morning on Taylor’s blog.Good luck and thanks for stopping by.  I have a super exciting announcment tomorrow so be sure to come back then!