More is More

Today closes out the week-long Mega Celebration for the 10th Birthday of Taylored Expressions and I’m happy to play along with the TE Creative Team with one more card.  This is my very-first-ever eclipse card.

If I’m being totally honest, I didn’t really get the big deal about eclipse cards until I made one!  They are so cool in person! AND so fun to create using TE Caps Locks dies!  This is the new Caps Lock – Happy along with the Caps Lock Companion Happy Occasions stamp set.   I’m in love and will need more Caps Lock dies!  But first I need to make a bunch more cards with this one!  Taylor has a great short video showing you how to create an eclipse card.  In her video she uses multiple layers of cardstock, but for my card, I just used foam tape – either way works.

To create the background I used the Set the Scene Cloud Stencil Strips first and then the Here Comes the Sun stencil.  At the bottom I used the Set the Scene – Wave Stencil Strips.  This was just a ton of inky fun!  The beach/pool scene die is the previously released Eventful-Pool Party.  One thing I love about TE scenery dies like this one is that they are always carefully designed to fit a horizontal card at 5.5 AND also easily trimmed to fit a vertical card at 4.25″ without having to cut one of the elements awkwardly in half!

For the inside of the card I used the new sentiment stamp set The Inside Scoop – Birthday.  Earlier int he week, I used The Inside Scoop – Belated Birthday.  With these two sets on hand, I now have an arsenal of perfect sentiments for the inside of just about any birthday card!

Hop over to the TE blog for the hop list for today and check out the September release available now in the TE webstore!  Thanks for celebrating with us this week!

10 Years!  Wow!  Taylored Expressions is celebration 10 years this week since the very first release!  I am so proud of Taylor and everything she has accomplished.  I so clearly remember heading to house in Pasadena CA to help pack orders out of her garage after the first couple of releases.  I have been honored to be along for the journey working in lots of different capacities behind the scenes over the years, from participating in the original Bakers’ Dozen Design Team to now working in product development.  Taylor’s friendship is very special to me!

Today I’m especially excited to have helped coordinate a reunion of over 40 designers who have been a part of TE.  We’ve had fun catching up and stamping up a storm.  I hope you’ll hop around and see all the super fun cards everyone has created!  Everything starts at the TE blog where the links for the hop list are.

For my card, I really wanted to feature the new stamp set The Inside Scoop – Belated Birthday.  I don’t know about you, but I totally suck at mailing birthday cards and gifts.  I almost never forget a birthday, I just can’t get stuff mailed.  I hate that “sorry I forgot your birthday” sentiment in most belated cards.  I DIDN’T FORGET!   LOL!

So, here I paired the new sentiment set with the My Super Hero Stamp  Die Combo set.  I inadvertently used a retired die for the cityscape (because I am apparently incapable of following my own directions), however you could achieve a very similar look with the Downtown Border Die.

The background panels for both the front and the inside of the card were created using the Smoosh technique with TE liquid watercolors.

Here’s a look at the whole stamp set which was released just last night.  The entire TE September Mini Release is now available in the TE webstore.

I am also very excited about the new Share Joy campaign that TE launched just last week!

At the heart of Taylored Expressions is a mission to share joy through the gift of handmade cards. As part of their 10th birthday TE is continuing that mission with the launch of a special Share Joy campaign focused on providing birthday cards to those in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities across the U.S. To make as deep an impact as possible TE is inviting card makers everywhere to join the campaign. Will you join us? Find out how to participate by viewing their Share Joy page here: https://tayloredexpressions.com/share-joy

As some of you know, my 96 year old uncle broke his hip last year and was in assisted living for a few months.  We were fortunate that he was in a truly wonderful facility and I’m so happy that they will be receiving some of the cards from this campaign!  I do hope you’ll read the details and send in some cards!

Happy Birthday and Congratulations, Taylored Expressions!!!  I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years brings!  Now be sure to head over to the TE blog to continue the hop!