My apologies to Taylor and the rest of the Cupcake Crew for being late this morning with my sample for TECC39.  With all the SASI Release excitement last night I didn’t get my card made before birdie bedtime so I couldn’t work in my stamp room (for newer readers here who might not know  - I share my stamp room with 2 huge sleeping cages for our 2 macaws).  But here I am - better late than never.

I recently got some new JustRite Stamper toys including the Brayton font and the rectangular blocks and I’ve been dying to play with them.  The strips in this sketch seemed perfect for a Bible verse - I choose the first part of Isaiah 9:6 and paired it with the Christmas star from the new SASI set Home Sweet Home.  The burgundy cardstock is a Stardream Metallic so it’s super shimmery IRL.  I also used Shimmer White for the Cuttlebug embossed panel.  The navy is SU.  The stars were embossed with white ep and punched out with my SU small oval punch.  A Kaiser Craft rhinestone was added to each star.  The sentiment was also embossed with white craft ink and white ep.

One of the really cool things about these JR fonts is that you get 3 different sizes of letters so you have lots of options when building a sentiment. 

I’m not really sure if I like this card - it’s much bolder than my usual style and now that it’s all finished I feel like it’s a little too *patriotic* looking which is not at all what I was going for.  I guess I still like the concept, but I’d make different color choices if I were to do this again.

I hope you’ll play along with the TECC sketch this week - You could be chosen to be Taylor’s Featured Stamper next week if you do.  See Taylor’s sample today and get all the details to play along by clicking here.  This week’s Featured Stamper is Kathie Bailey at Just an Inkling.

Let’s check out what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up.

• Ana Wohlfahrt
• Donna Baker
• Jackie Pedro
• Monika Davis
• Sherrie Siemens
• Stephanie Hargis
• Vicki Chrisman

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a great weekend!

WooHoo!  It’s party time at Taylored Expressions/Stamp a Sweet Impression!  The Holiday release is ready for your shopping pleasure!  Head on over to Taylored Expressions (the blog) to get all the yummy details!  From there you can click over to go shopping in the TE store and you can blog hop to all the Bakers Dozen sweet samples!

Tonight we’re featuring the first SASI mini set - Tag Treats.  This set is made up of must-have holiday sentiments in beautiful fonts.  The possibilies are endless with this set!  I have a project to share with you tonight that showcases the sentiment “Warmest Wishes for a Glowing Holiday”.  I think this sentiment will be really versatile and the first two things that came to mind for me were the Christmas star and projects involving candles.  Tonight I have a candle project to show you - a pretty little gift set.

I started off with a nugget tin filled with 6 of my very favorite PartyLite tea lights (nothing better than PartyLite candles!!!!)  and a Primrose square candle I picked up at Tuesday Morning because the color was just so perfect with the TE Christmas Key Ingredients.  I couldn’t decide between Rudy and Tangles so I colored one of each with my Copics for this set.  All the cardstock and dp and embellishments are from the KI kit…I am just loving the pink/red/green aspects especially (there’s also blue and brown in the kit for those of you more drawn to those colors).  I used my circle and oval Marvy punches to punch and layer the images.  Rudy is surrounded by Kaiser Craft pink rhinestones and Tangles is surrounded by pink stickles (the only thing not from the KI kit).  Here’s a photo of the Copics I used along with the ink - Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate.  I love the pearly finish, but be sure to allow enough dry time - or heat set it.  Don’t ask me how I know this!  *eye roll*  The shaped end of the tag was cut with an old-school pair of Fiskar corner scissors.  Can’t remember the last time I pulled those out!

Belly bands were wrapped around the candle and the tin.  The one on the tin easily slides on and off.  The one on the candle would slide off also, but it doesn’t have to.  If you look closely, you will see that there is a tea light in the top of the square candle.  I like to do this when I am giving any type of decorated candle as a gift.  It takes a little bit of time, but it’s easy to do and makes the candle last longer, plus it’s safer.  To make the hole for the tealight begin by taking a metal tealight cup with the candle part removed.  Turn it upside down and twist it in the middle of the large candle.  This gives you a template for where you want to remove the wax.  Then burn the candle for awhile - checking it frequently.  Once a nice pool of melted wax has formed I take a small metal measuring spoon and scoop out the melted wax as well as much softened wax as I can being careful not to damage the top of the  candle.  You may need to light the candle a few times to get the proper sized hole needed.  Once the hole is formed just cut out the wick and drop in a tealight.  With my gift set the recipient will be able to burn the tealight already in the candle and have 6 more to replace it with so it can be enjoyed throughout the Christmas season.

While your blog hopping please be sure to check out the SASI blog where we’ve posted yet another opportunity for you to win a prize if you’d like to help TE/SASI Spread the Sweetness!  Wow!  This almost too much excitement for one night!  I can hardly wait to hear what you think of the 3 new sets and the Christmas Key Ingredients.  Don’t forget - the stamp sets are unmounted deeply etched PINK rubber that stamp like a dream and come on a full color index storage panel!  And hey - Taylor has added quite a few new things to the store recently so be sure to browse around so you don’t miss anything!

Thanks for stopping by - I’ll be back tomorrow with the Friday TECC.

Ever since the SU Convention in the Summer I’ve been seeing photos here and there of bookmarks made with Hodgepodge Hardware.  I thought they were really cool and decided they would be a great project for my November Christmas projects class.   I was excited that SU has offered a bulk buy to Demonstrators of one of the hardware pieces I would need to do the bookmarks - and it’s in the Vanilla finish which I just love.  After asking some questions of people who were at Convention I got a better idea of how the bookmarks are made and I set to work creating one myself using the info I had gleaned.  The first sample I made was *ok*, but when I actually put it in a book the image was upside down.  But I knew pretty much how I wanted to make my next one.

My friend Lisa has a birthday coming up on Saturday and since she’s an avid reader the bookmark seemed like the perfect little gift.  Here’s what I came up with

And here’s what it looks like in a book.

So I was meeting Lisa at a Bible Study yesterday afternoon and planned to take the bookmark and a birthday card…but I was trying to think of a quick and pretty way to package the bookmark.  I decided to combine the card and bookmark into one and I think it turned out really pretty!

I had to snap these pictures really quickly as I was on my way out the door so the color is not the best.  I used Baja Blue, Old Olive, Cameo Coral and Very Vanilla.  The vanilla and coral panels were embossed with my cuttlebug.  Card is 4.25″ square so when I put it in a standard envelope there was room for the ribbon hanging down.  I cut 2 slits on the inside of the card for the ribbon to slip through and hold the bookmark in place.  Here’s a photo of the inside of the card.

I whipped up the card super quick in the morning morning (maybe about 20 minutes or less) and now that I have the bookmark figured out they will be very quick and easy to make.

I’ll be back tonight with my project for the SASI release at 9pm PST (midnight EST).  In the meantime, the Bakers Dozen Rotating Team members - along with Taylor - have more sneak peeks for us all to enjoy.

Carol Halvorson

Donna Baker

Jen del Muro

Laurie Schmidlin

Sharon Harnist

Terri Dodd

And don’t forget - you have until 6pm PST this evening to enter the drawing on the SASI blog for our SASI Sweet Treats give-away!  Don’t be shy - we want everyone to enter!  Thanks for stopping by - see you tonight I hope!

It’s almost time for the Stamp a Sweet Impression Holiday Release at Taylored Expressions.  All will be revealed and available for purchase tomorrow night at midnight EST (that’s 9pm for us West Coasters)!  In the meantime Taylor and  the Bakers Dozen Senior Design Team have some sneak peeks to whet your appetite.

I have a sweet square card (5.25″ x 5.25″) showcasing two images plus a sentiment from Season’s Sweetings - one of three new SASI sets to be released.  Aren’t these cuppies just the cutest???  And tell me you can relate to this decorating scene - where one person is totally into it and humming caroles while the other one is just a tad less enthusiastic?  I swear you are going to love these sets!  Don’t forget - they are deeply etched pink rubber and stamp like a dream!  And wait till you see the Christmas Key Ingredients Kit!  So super yummy!  All the cardstock and designer paper and pink rhinestones and red pearls I used on this card are from the KI kit.  Aren’t these colors so fun?

Here are the Copics I used to color my scene.  I tried to coordinate with the dp colors as much as possible.  I used a clear glaze pen on the little tangled up Christmas lights, a Stardust gel pen on the star and a silver gel pen on the tinsel.  There are Red Rain Dots on the cherry on each cuppie (I highly recommend you add some of these to your next TE order!!!)  and red Kaiser Craft pearls adorn the tree as ornaments as well as the corners of the pink cardstock panel.  I pulled out a very old corner punch to create the scalloped corners.  The last finishing touch was the ticket corner punch with the Kaiser Craft pink rhinestones.

 Fellow Bakers Dozen member Denise (Peanutbee) has spurred me to decorate the insides of my cards more often - something I used to do, but had gotten away from.  I love that this set has so many wonderful sentiments along with the adorable images…and I LOVE the fonts!

Come blog hopping with me to check out all the sneak peeks today:

Ana Wohlfahrt

Charmaine Ikach

Denise Marzec

Monika Davis

Stephanie Hargis

And of course Taylor Van Bruggen.

Tomorrow there will be even more sneak peeks by the Bakers Dozen Rotating Team members.  You’ll be able to get all the links from Taylor tomorrow.  And Thursday night be sure to tune in to Taylor’s blog for all the release details!

Oh and there’s still time to sign up for the SASI Sweet Treats give-away on the SASI Blog.  I’ll be announcing the winner of the random drawing on Thursday night just before the release.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a sweet day!

Today’s the day for the October Dirty Dozen Alumni Gallery Reunion Challenge!  Our hostess for this month is my good friend Emily (WaterPixie).

 Challenge Focus: Create a Halloween card or treat holder.

Required Element: Googlie Eyes! We want to see those eyes jiggle!

Restricted Element: No pumpkins!

 To see what everyone created you can click here.  

I honestly can’t remember the last time I used googlie eyes and now I’ve used them on 2 posts in a row - weird, huh?  As soon as I saw the challenge I knew I’d be reaching for one of Anna Wight’s Whipper Snapper Halloween sets.  They already have *googlie eyes* of sorts drawn on - so they’re perfect!

I stamped the ghost on white cardstock and colored around him with a yellow and then gray Copic marker.  The stars are from the SASI set Frightful Night.  After the card was all put together I covered the ghost with Frosted Lace Stickles - he’s soooo super sparkly!

Cardstock colors are Basic Gray, Kiwi, Pumpkin Pie and the dp is SU.  I dug out my trusty old-school Fiskar’s decorative scissors to create the jagged borders - scallops just didn’t seem *scary* enough.  LOL!

This was a fun challenge!  Thanks for hosting Emily!

I have a post over on the SASI blog today too…lots of candy treats.  Click here to check it out and if you have time leave me a comment over there.  While you’re there don’t forget to enter in the SASI Sweet Treats give-away!  Thanks for stopping by!

If you want to know my BIG NEWS and/or if you are interested in blog candy you’ll have to read all the way to the end of this post.  And no fair cheating and scrolling down to the bottom first!

My class Friday night was such a joy!  Our Club hostess was Barbara was she brought yummy *Spider Bite Brownies* (OK - I *might* have eaten 1 or 2)  along with special treat bags for the whole class and a special gift for me.

She made a tag for me using the photo I posted last week of Curt and I on our get-away weekend!  Isn’t that so sweet?  I love it!!

For class we made three cards.  The first one is the tire swing card I posted a few days ago (scroll down to see it).  Thank you so much to Ali for helping me figure out where I had gotten the idea  (I couldn’t remember who’s blog it was on for the life of me).  It came from Karen Giron and you can see her origonal card here.

The second card we made was a Christmas card featuring Snow Burst and Many Merry Messages in Baja Breeze and Night of Navy.  I had reverse masks pre-cut using my Coluzzle so we could sponge and stamp for the Faux Frame effect.

When I see a really good idea in the SCS gallery I save it to my favorites for future reference and as I’ve said many times before I’m not too proud to CASE - especially when it comes to my class.  When there’s a great idea right in front of you, why re-invent the wheel?  My card is a pretty close CASE of this one saved to my favorites several months ago.  The poster made it in a class with her Demo Paula - so thanks Paula! 

ETA:  I just found out that original gorgeous card was posted by my fab friend JanTink - click here to see it.

The third card we made incorporated our featured technique of Clear Emboss Backgrounds.  For this card we embossed the background stamp Boho Blooms on a Handsome Hunter card base using Versamark and clear ep.  It gives such a cool textured tone on tone background - the photo doesn’t do it justice.

For extra fun I wanted to do some punch art and this little sheep is one of my favorites.  I had seen him a few different places, but when I went looking for instructions I found them by mh1016 in the SCS gallery here.  Besides the Hunter we also used black, white and Blush Blossom cardstock along with white taffeta and black gingham ribbon.  The hills were cut free-hand and then run across a white craft pad.  We punched our pieces out of the pre-cut layering pieces to avoid wasting cardstock. 

Here’s the punch guide I put out for the girls to follow.  This is a good tip to remember when using any type of punches on your card -  take your punch shapes out of layers where they won’t be seen.  Just be careful not to punch too clase to the edges.  This is especially helpful when making multiples of a card.  The punches we used are:

• Large Oval

• 1/2″ Circle

• Word Window

• Scallop Circle

• 3 Flower

• and both Tag punches for the sentiment

And now I’m gearing up for my November Class where I always do more *project* type things - either gifts or wrap or decor ideas.  I have several things brewing - let me know if you’re interested in coming.

In the meantime I’m getting super excited for the next Taylored Expressions Stamp a Sweet Impression release this Thursday night.  Everything is so stinkin’ CUTE!  And did you subscribe to the newsletter like I told you to?  If you did then you already know my BIG NEWS!  Taylor has asked me to join TE as the newsletter editor and help out some with the SASI blog!!  I am super excited about this opportunity!  Taylor is a wonderful friend and talented designer and has a bright future ahead and I feel so fortunate to have a small part in TE!  If you have not yet subscribed to the newsletter you can do it when you click the link below to go to the SASI blog.

Speaking of which - are you interested in blog candy?  Well we’re giving away a super cool package of SASI Sweet Treats over on the SASI blog (oh and I just happen to have a card posted there as well) - click here to get all the deets and get signed up for your chance to win. You’ll also want to read about the new blog feature Our Friday Friend and how you might get the opportunity to be spotlighted.

I hope you’re having a great weekend!  I’ve been on my own all weekend as Curt drives all the way to Mississippi with a friend to drop off a car to his friend’s son who is there in the military.  I’m really looking forward to his arrival home tomorrow evening.  In the meantime I’ve enjoyed some stamping yesterday and an awesome sermon at church this morning.  And I have more stamping to do…always more stamping to do!

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Friday!  Time for the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge - please come play - find all the details by clicking here.  And remember - cupcakes are NOT required to play!

 The sweet little froggy is hoping for just the right princess to come along and see his full potential!

The minute I saw the new Fairest of Them All Collection by Imaginesce I knew I had to have it!  Lucky for me we had a stamp day planned at my sweet friend Joy’s house and as one of the owners of eclectic Paperie I knew I’d have the perfect opportunity to shop!  Here’s a link to the whole collection - paper, rub-ons, clear stamps, brads and more.  Isn’t all just so cute and yummy???  It’s so me!  The really funny thing was that while I was oohing and aahing over the pink and sparkles and princess stuff, our friend Leann was having the same reaction to some dp with skulls and pirate stuff!

For today’s sketch I stamped the frog on the swirly green dp using Brilliance Starlight Black ink (it’s kind of a sparkly dark gray) and cut him out.  I went over his belly with an olive marker and over his crown with a blue sparkle gel pen.  The sparkly pink flower rhinestones are by Kaiser Craft and the stick pin is by Fancy Pants.  The sentiment *cloud* was highlighted with Frosted Lace stickles.  All of that is from eclectic Paperie.  SU supplies include the sentiment, blue taffeta ribbon, Pink Pirouette, Old Olive and Bashful Blue cardstock.

So let’s go see what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up:

  Time for me to get everything prepped for my class tonight.  It has been such a crazy month that I never even got around to sending out an e-mail about the class, so it’s just Club Members coming tonight.  I apologize to the rest of my customers.  I’m already starting to plan the November class and promise to get an e-mail out soon.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a fantastic weekend coming up!