More is More

Welcome to Day #3 of the sneak peeks for the November Release at Taylored Expressions!  Everything we are showing you will be available for purchase in the TE Store tomorrow, Thursday, at 8am PST.  I am especially excited about the peeks for today’s stamp set – Enjoy! – because it was developed from my very own concept!  *GRIN*  Nancy McKinney took my elementary (as in looked like a 2nd grader drew them – LOL!) sketches and worked her magic on them to become a Whimsical Wishes stamp set.  I am so thankful to Taylor for the opportunity to see my ideas in rubber and to actually get to stamp with them.

The idea behind Enjoy! is to have images available to create special, yet quick and easy, packaging for gift cards at Christmastime and throughout the year. And I think you’ll also find plenty of uses for this set even beyind gift cards! There is a fun polka dot frame image and coordinating Gift Card Frame Die that fit perfectly on a small hinged (altoids style) tin and also makes a wonderful tag or focal point on a card.  Plus there are 11 images for all types of gift cards – from Starbucks (or other coffee houses) to Macy’s (or any boutique or department store), from iTunes to Home Depot…and much more!

Enough of my yammering…let’s get to some projects.  The first project I have to show you today is a tin to give movie tickets in.  I love to buy movie tickets at Costco ($15.95 for a pair) and give them as gifts, but the paper tickets need to be dressed up a bit and I’m always looking for ways to do that.  I think I’ve finally found the perfect way to present movie tickets as a gift!

This is a clear top hinged tin (some of you may know them as “nugget tins”) and at 5.25″ x 3.5″ it is just the right size for those tickets!  I used some October Afternoon dp in the window of the tin and created a belly band around the outside with some red cardstock.  The popcorn and movie reel image was stamped in white craft ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  The images were punched with a 1 3/4″ circle punch.  All of the images in this set were designed to fit into a 1 3/4″ circle punch to make quick gift packaging a breeze.

I colored the popcorn with Prisma pencils and filled in the stripes on the box with a white gel pen.

I folded some black cardstock to create a little insert to cradle the tickets.

I plan to make up a few more of these so I will have them on hand because movie tickets are a perfect gift for practically everyone!

For my 2nd project I wanted to show how you can throw together a super cute birthday package in just minutes.

I keep a supply of small plain gift bags on hand – usually in both white and kraft.  This particular batch is a little lighter color than kraft and I think they came from Michael’s.  I used 2 of the long border stamps from Borderliscious to create a pattern on the bag.  I actually put both stamps on the same block and inked one with Pear ink and the other with Regal Rose ink for each impression.  This kept the spacing more even.  Then I went in with the cake image from Enjoy! and stamped that in Peach Parfait.  I created the hanging tag with the frame image and die along with the cake and pedestal (2 separate images for more versatility) and the sentiment “enjoy!”  I wish I had had this bag for the birthday party I went to last week, but now I have something all ready to go for next time.

As I mentioned above, that frame fits perfectly on an altoids style tin and I will have 2 of those for you tomorrow along with a little video.  In the meantime, let’s go see what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up with Enjoy!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Donna Baker
• Jackie Pedro
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Karen Motz
• Melissa Sauls
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild
• Nancy McKinney – Whimsical Wishes Illustrator

Oh and before you go I have one more thing to show you.  I was in the backyard yesterday morning trying to find some good lighting to take project photos before I left for work.  Right in the middle of my photo shoot the camera battery died.  I left my gift bag perched on the planter (which is about 2.5 ft tall) and ran in the house for a fresh battery.   When I came back out I found Tessa guarding my project.  LOL!

The sun was so bright that she was squinting!  It was 94 degrees here yesterday!  Happy Hopping!  Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of Enjoy!