Taylored Expressions Thank you Cards

Hi Friends

 

Happy Monday!  I wanted to share a couple of Thank you Cards I made with some of my Taylored Expressions stamps. 

This card uses the super cute set Tea-riffic (and it comes with a  coordinating die)

 

This card I used the Best Nests set which I just adore.

These are both pretty clean and simple, but do incorporate some coloring which is one of my favorite stress relievers. I love to stamp out some images and just sit in front of the tv and color.  It helps me relax so much.  And I always need thank you cards, so these come in handy (and actually both are already accounted for and soon to be sent).

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs and blessings

Nette

Taylored Expressions January Studio Challenge

  

I'm really excited about today's post. This is my first time participating in the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge. This is a monthly opportunity for us to share what makes our stamping studios hum. Each month, we have a fun, crafty question, so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more.

This month's question is....

Helpin' out a newbie!! It's so exciting when a friend discovers the joys of stamping. But do you remember how overwhelming it was to decide what to get when you were new to the craft?

You have a {hypothetical} friend who started stamping less than a year ago and she is loving it! She some Christmas money burning a hole in her pocket, and she has seen your fabulous TE creations, so she is asking for your advice on what stamping supplies to purchase. So let's hear your sage advice!

I just love this challenge.  I mean how many of us wish we had a guiding hand when we started?  When I thought of this challenge, I thought of my best friend, Kris, who loves the hand made cards. So I am more than happy to help her spend some of her Christmas money in the Taylored Expressions store. 

Kris is active in her church, and she loves to send cards to friends for all occasions.  Thus, I thought that the Faith in Bloom set would be perfect for her. It's one of my favorite "go-to" sets. I just love it and so would she.

For those of you who have visited my blog, you might expect me to recommend that she invest in some Copics. As tempting as this is, I also remember how overwhelming that was, and decided to hold off on advising her to go that route.  Copics are wonderful, awesome, and I love LOVE coloring.  It's a great stress reliever, but I'm not going to suggest Kris invest in these yet until she's ready. Plus, I think it's nice to see that you can make some really nice cards without all the fancy markers (as awesome as those are...)

I'm going to suggest that Kris invest in some pretty patterned paper, like say the fun Dear Lizzy Fifth and Frolic

And I am going to recommend she get the versatile Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad

I'm also going to suggest that she get some Choice White card stock, some Want 2 Scrap White pearls

Mini Glossy Accents

I am going to suggest that she get one Copic marker, YG03

In the meantime, I know that Kris has a variety of colored card stock to get started with.  So now where do we go? 

Well, the reason I suggested these items to her, I wanted to suggest that she do some paper-piecing. It's such an easy technique (stamp, cut and adhere to card).  And it creates an impressive looking card, especially when you add some fun embellishments, like pearls and glossy accents.  Here are some ideas:

Here's a little close up of some of the flowers which I crinkled up to add some texture. Then added some Glossy Accents and pearls.  (I love texture on cards, I think it's such a nice touch)

I hope you can see how easy it is to make a variety of cards with just a few key supplies.  I think that clean and simple cards are really suitable for beginners (and for people like me who've been doing it for awhile--wink).  

There are some great blogs that have sketches to help with ideas for lay-outs.  I love going to those to get a jumping off point.  Some that I really like are OWH, Clean & Simple, and Retro Sketches are just three that come to mind. But there are tons of challenge blogs to get inspiration.. .color challenges, inspiration challenges, all sorts of ways to get inspired (and win some fun prizes).

Let's just see how much money I had Kris spend to get her started on her card-making path... 

I had Kris buy the following items:

Faith in Bloom                      $23.95

Dear Lizzy Fifth and Frolic     $5.95

Memento Ink                         $5.19

Choice White Card stock       $4.50

Meant 2 scrap pearls              $1.50

Mini Glossy Accents               $2.49

Copic YG03                          $5.95

Total                                   $49.53

(Not too shabby, I don't think)

Be sure to check out the other design team member's blogs to see their creative ideas for this studio challenge, I am sure you are going to be inspired.

• Carole Burrage
• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Kerri Michaud
• Lynnette Kauffman (you are here)
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Tammie Edgerton
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a fabulous day

Hugs and blessings
Nette

Lawnscaping Challenge #51

Hi Friends,
Happy Monday! I hope you enjoyed a fabulous weekend. Today we are kicking off a new challenge at the Lawnscaping blog.  This challenge is embracing winter. So we are asking you to make winter themed projects.

Lawn Fawn is sponsoring this challenge and will give the winner a stamp set of their choice. 
My project posted above uses one of my favorite Lawn Fawn sets, Making Frosty Friends.  I adore this set. And I love red and aqua together. 
I hope you decide to play along, be sure to check out the Lawnscaping blog to see the details of the challenge and the projects made by the design team.

Seasons of Givings Winner

Hi Friends

Thanks for all the nice comments and participation on the Seasons of Givings blog hop.  I was overwhelmed at how many people hopped along.  I had 466 comments on that blog post which is  a record. 

Sorry that it’s taken a while to post the winner. I was traveling until 11 January and had planned to pick a winner and post it on 12 January as I had stated on the original post. However, I was exhausted from traveling and didn’t get it done.  So, anyway, without further delay, here is what random number generator came up with:

which means that our winner is:

Jen said... Happy new year and thanks for the opportunity to win some crafty goodness!

Jen has a fabulous blog, you should check it out here. Jen, please contact me at lkauffmanatgmaildotcom so that I can make arrangements to ship out your goodies.

Thanks again for all who played.  I hope to do more giveaways in 2013.

Hugs and blessings

Nette

Taylored Expressions Moka Betty

Hi Friends

I hope you enjoyed a very wonderful weekend.  They always go by so fast. For those of you fortunate enough to attend CHA, I hope you got tons of inspiration. I’m excited to see more photos coming from people who attended.

Today, I am featuring a cute little stamp from Taylored Expressions, Moka Betty.  For those of you who know me, I love to bake cookies, so this stamp was  great fit for me. 

I think this would be such a fun card to send to someone with a package of home-made cookies.  Yum!! 

I stamped her with Memento ink and colored with my Copics (my people coloring skills need some work I think).  I combined her with some patterned paper by Dear Lizzy (Fifth and Frolic) 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a blessed day!

Nette

Taylored Expressions January Spotlights: Cupid's Arrows

Hi There!

I'm here with another feature from the upcoming Taylored Expressions release. Today, it's a project featuring Cupid's Arrows

I used some stuff from the new Valentine's Day Pantry Kit (Bo Bunny Love Letters paper, and ribbon). I colored the images with my Copics and cut them. I used Banner Stacklets for the sentiment panel.

This is such a great release, there is so much good stuff.  Remember to go to the Taylored Expressions blog to see the details on the release.

Hugs and blessings
Nette

Taylored Expressions January Spotlights: Valentine Doodles and Stuck on You

Hi Friends


Happy Wednesday!  I'm here to share two more projects from the Taylored Expression release.

This set features Valentine Doodles:

I used the stamps with the Bo Bunny Love Letters paper collection (that is included in the new Valentine Project Pantry Kit. I also used the new 3x3 scalloped notecard die.  I colored with my Copics, added some twine and enamel accents to the eyes on the puppy.

Next up: Stuck on You

I colored the images with my Copics and used the new Taylored Expressions Hearts cutting plate.  I also used the new Banner Stacklet where I stamped the sentiment.  The buttons are from Buttons Galore.  I also added enamel accents to the eyes and noses).

Be sure to check out the Taylored Expressions Blog for more details!

Thanks again for stopping by!

Hugs and blessings

Nette

Taylored Expressions January Release Day: Love Trees Die

Hi Friends

I hope you are having fun seeing projects featuring the new releases from Taylored Expressions.  Today, my project features the new die "Love Tree".  Here is my sample:

I die cut two of the tree and colored one with my Copics in various shades of browns (or earth-tones).  Then I colored the hearts on the second one, cut them out and attached to the brown tree base.  I colored the love sentiment with my Copics (R27) and then put some lace Stickles over it. The shimmer doesn't show up too much in the photo, unfortunately. Then I put the tree on with some pop dots on the Bazzill Basics card stock where I had edge punched with a scallop punch.   I added some Washi tape and May Arts ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check out the Taylored Expressions blog for the details on the release.

Hugs and Blessings
Nette

Taylored Expressions January Sneak Peek: Oh What a Holiday and Bless Your Nest

Hi Friends,

I'm so happy to share with you my first posts on the Baker's Dozen Design Team.  It is such a privilege to be part of this company and design team which is so talented.

Today, I am sharing two sneaks that will be released.  The first is from the new set, Oh What a Holiday:

 

I used the St. Patrick's Day image and sentiment.  I combined with some Bazzill Basic paper, Copics, twine, Fiskars Cloud punches, and highlighted it with my Signo pen.

For the next project, I used the new Bless Your Nest stamp set. 

Pretty simple design, but I love the pop of the red bird. This card would be easy to mass produce.  I used Stampin' Up paper, Copic markers, We R Memory Keepers Corner Rounder, and May Arts ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by. These stamps will be available in the Taylored Expressions store.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for more sneak peaks!
Hugs and Blessings
Nette

Lawnscaping Challenge #49

Hi Friends

It’s time for a new Lawnscaping Challenge.  First one of the new year! Happy 2013.  Since it’s been 2 years since the start of the Lawnscaping Challenge, we are celebrating by having the challenge focus on Party projects.  Here’s what I came up with:

This challenge is being sponsored by the fabulous online store, Simon Says Stamp.

I hope you decide to play along, we can never have too many birthday cards on hand

Hugs and blessings

Nette

Some exciting news

Hi Friends,

I have some really fun news to share with you today.  I am now part of the Taylored Expressions "Baker's Dozen" Design team.  I still cannot believe it.  When I received the email from Taylor inviting me to be part of her design team, I was floored.  It was a no-brainer, of course, I said yes.

If you've visited my blog before, you know that I am a huge fan of Taylored Expressions. They have such cute designs, and I especially love the selection of scripture they have.  Their stamps are super high quality, and now they are doing dies!

I have a card to share today that showcases one of Taylored Expressions sets, it's called Love Grows Here.

I put it with some papers by My Mind's Eye, and colored with my Copics.  This set is super fun, there a trees for every season, I just love it.

Be sure to go to the Taylored Expressions blog for the official announcement of the new design team.  Eek so exciting!!

Hugs and Blessings
Nette