More is More

It’s time to start the sneak peeks for the Taylored Expressions April Release.  All of the new products will be available in the TE Store on Thursday morning, April 4th at 8:00 a.m. PST.  And don’t forget the Facebook Preview Party tomorrow/Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. PST!

There are lots of things I’m excited about for this release, but I started playing with one thing and simply could not stop!  Don’t you love it when you get a new stamp set or die or package of patterned paper and you just can’t put it down?  It really makes me happy and always makes me feel like I got my “money’s worth”!

One of the new products we are introducing today is the Shade Tree Cutting Plate.  I have been dying to get this thing in my hot little hands ever since Taylor and I first discussed it on the concept list and as soon as I started playing with it, I could not put it down.  In fact each time I would start a card, another idea would pop into my head.  I actually created 5 cards with this die over the weekend and would have done more had I not run out of time.  I’m going to share two of them with you today and the rest later in the week.

It was so hard to choose which ones to share first, but I decided to go with the ones I thought of first – the two SPARKLY ones!  Yep, I broke out the old school loose glitter for both of these cards and of course the photos do not do them justice.  You’ll have to imagine lots more sparkle and shine than you see here!

Here is the first card I created:

I die cut the Shade Tree Cutting Plate from TE Choice Snow White Cardstock.  The hills were hand cut and sponged.  The sentiment comes from the adorable companion stamp set, Made in the Shade, and it was embossed with white pigment ink and white embossing powder.  The flowers on the tree were created with another die set being introduced today – the Flowerbox Flowers & Sprigs die set.  The super sparkly part is the sky.  I used a sheet of doublestick adhesive over a piece of Pool Party cardstock.  I adhered the hills first and then the tree frame.  Then I poured on a light blue loose glitter, before adding the flowers and their liquid pearl centers.  There’s just no way to capture all that glittery goodness in a photo, but hopefully you get the idea!

After I created this card, I thought…hmmm.what if the tree itself were covered in glitter?  So I die cut the Shade Tree from very thin white chipboard (the stuff that comes in some packs of designer paper.)  The reason I wanted to use the thin chipboard was that I planned to use a liquid adhesive for the glitter and I was afraid cardstock would warp when covered with it.  I painted on the adhesive and then covered the tree and frame with Starfire Glitter and set it aside to dry.

Then I got to work on the background.

I really wanted the sparkly white tree to stand out from the background and I wanted the whole thing to have kind of a dreamy effect.  I decided to go waaaaaaay back and pull out some glossy cardstock, a brayer, and a Kaleidacolor pad.  Oh yes, I did!  I brayered the background and added a sentiment from Embrace Beauty – pretty much all of the sentiments in that set will work well with this die.

So there you have two cards, both with white trees and both with lots of sparkle and yet the two have a very different look and feel to them.  Just wait till you see some of the samples that include scenes from the companion stamp yet.  OH.MY.WORD!  It’s a match made in heaven.  I have two of those myself to show you and I know the team has several.  On Thursday, I’m going to show you two different ways to color this tree for a more realistic look.

I had so much fun playing with this cutting plate {obviously!}, but I do have one regret…just that I did not get a sample created featuring the new Picture Window die and companion stamp set A Glimpse Inside.  Nancy McKinney did a phenomenal on the entire window collection and it’s something else I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.  I guess I’ll just have to play with that next week!  Only so much time in a day!

Now let’s see what the Baker’s Dozen has cooked up for us today.

Broni Holcombe

Carole Burrage

Charmaine Ikach

Jami Sibley

Jen Shults

Kerri Mchaud

Lynnette Kauffman

Nancy McKinney

Sankari Wegman

Shannon White

Shelly Mercado

Stephanie Kraft

Tammie Edgerton

Taylor VanBruggen

Wanda Guess

Thanks so much for stopping by!