Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek 3: Grumplings, Peek-a-Boo and Watercoloring

It's day 3 of sneak peeks for the October release from Taylored Expressions!!  There's another fun variety of products today.  The Grumplings are back with their take on Christmas!!  Then there's a new peek-a-boo die and Christmas stamps that work well with it.

Be sure to check all of the other designers starting on the Taylored Expressions blog because there is just too much for one designer to show off in just a few days.

All the products that I have used are linked at the bottom, but remember that new products aren't live until Thursday, October 1, 7 a.m. PST.



Taylored Expressions is celebrating Release Week with some fabulous giveaways! Visit the TE Blog each Sneak Peek Day this week for details on how you can enter to win.







I am a Christmas grinch. I admit it. It's not Christmas itself; when Christmas Eve finally comes around, it's glorious! I sob throughout Christmas church services for the sheer joy of it all.  But I'm not a fan of the fact that the Christmas decorations are in the stores already. And I don't love the expectation that we have to be merry all of December.  There's just too darn much to do in December!  I just want people to leave me alone and let me make my holiday cards with Christmas music playing in the background.  As you can tell, I definitely embrace the Holiday Grumplings set.

TE Holiday Grumplings

I'm sure many of you have become fans of all of the past Grumplings and you know there are a variety of grumpy animals with sarcastic sentiments. From this Holiday set, I used the grumpy cat and because of his hat and scarf, I added the snowman sentiment. (Although my favorite sentiment from the set says "I'm only jingling half way" - hah!!)

Another new release item are the frame sets - Picture Perfect Vertical and Picture Perfect Horizontal.  I realized that grumpy cat is most definitely not merry so I scrounged through my stash to find a question mark. 

TE Holiday Grumplings Close

With two teenage boys and a fairly grumpy husband, all of the Grumplings set have been a lifesaver for me.  My family has gotten Grumplings for Valentines, birthdays and Halloween. I know their expectation will be Grumplings for Christmas and I'm not going to disappoint them!


Christmas cards can have so many different "looks" - red/green, wintery, elegant, cute etc. I realized that one I haven't done for this release is "rustic" so when I started looking at the Peek-a-Boo set, I decided to coordinate with some patterned paper and enamel dots that you can also find in TE Store - Echo Park The Story of Christmas.

I love the variety of stamps in the Peek-a-Boo Christmas set.  You see ornaments, a tree and a present on my card, but there are also snowflakes, a stocking, a gingerbread man, a reindeer and so much more. The stamps work perfectly with the new Peek-a-Boo Squares die.

TE Peek-a-Boo Christmas

I love the stitching on this die - it nicely frames each little square.

TE Peek-a-Boo Christmas CloseUp

Taylored Expressions is also releasing a new and very exciting type of product. I'm sure you have experienced it for yourself, but experts are saying that coloring for adults has stress-relieving benefits. Definitely something all of us need is a way to step away from the stress. The other thing you might have noticed is the growth of watercoloring amongst cardmakers. TE has put these trends together and created a Christmas themed set of Watercolor Panels!


Each panel is 3" x 4" so works perfectly in many ways - on the front of a card, as a tag, for pocket scrapbooking, etc. 

I have to admit, that until this product came out, I had avoided watercolors. Last week, I sat down with a online class and a set of watercolors and decided I needed to give it a try. The class took me from the very beginning - literally how to hold a paint brush - and then through various ways of applying the watercolors from single color washes, to multiple colors and how they blend, to coloring details and much more. I really needed this basic class because I have no true artistic ability - I can't even draw a stick figure that looks right! 

I definitely started out a little nervous, but I have to say - I ended up loving it.  Part of it the joy was sitting at my desk with a palette of watercolors to the side, as they progressively got messier, paint splatters on my blotter, and a strong memory of happy times in grade school with my Crayola watercolors at my side!  But part of it was just realizing what watercolors can do.  I love soft looks and watching the watercolors move around and create a misty blue background was sheer joy!

TE Watercolor Panel: Joy to the World

Another huge advantage to watercoloring is that it's a very forgiving medium.  A little too much color - just pick it up with a brush.  Too little color - add more. Outside the lines - oh well - it's the look of watercoloring!

Check out the wonderful details on this panel - all ready for you to color!!

TE Watercolor Panel: Joy to the World CloseUp

I have to show you one more Watercolor Panel. It was a practice panel, but I really like how it came out. I made this one into a tag. I like having a stash of tags. You can put a gift into a plain kraft gift bag, tie on a beautiful tag - and it's a wonderful package and you had fun doing it!

TE Watercolor Panels: Merry Christmas Tag

The back side of this tag uses new stamps from Special Delivery

TE Watercolor Panels: Merry Christmas Tag back

Be sure to head over to the TE Blog to see what all of the designers have done today, and don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win!


SUPPLY LIST

The links for new products will not work until the release tomorrow!

Holiday Grumplings




Peek-a-Boo Christmas

The coordinating enamel dots for the patterned paper are also in the Taylored Expressions store.




Watercolor Panels

I also added a dot of Yellow Stickles in the middle of each starburst to give it some sparkle.


Freshly Made Sketches: A Flurry of Wishes

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Linda Callahan.


I very definitely have Christmas on the brain as I recently realized I hadn't done a card since January. That's a problem.  I don't send hundreds of cards but I do try to do unique cards for each recipient.  So when I looked at the sketch - it looked like snowflakes!!

FMS Flurry of Wishes

I love these snowflake stamps.  I used them on Monday on this post with a rainbow of colors. When I envisioned snowflakes for this sketch, I decided to use the same set but in a more elegant way, and I definitely wanted to use one of the lovely sentiments that comes with the set. I think Lost Lagoon is a wonderful color and I just don't use it enough - so I came up with this monochromatic snowflake card.  The top snowflake is stamped in Lost Lagoon, the next in white ink, and the bottom one in Versamark to give some variation.

FMS Flurry of Wishes Close


I hope to see you playing along with Freshly Made Sketches.  Definitely pop over and see what the other designers did with the sketch.  And if you want even more cardmaking inspiration, check out Linda's blog, Stampin' Seasons.

SUPPLY LIST

The silver glitter paper is from Michaels.  It's a little thinner than Stampin' Up's glitter paper.  I love Stampin' Up's, but I had just put a new blade in my paper cutter and did not want to dull it with their heavy paper!



Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek 2: Penguins and Winter Scenes

It's day 2 of sneak peeks for the October release from Taylored Expressions!!  There's a quite a variety today.  Wait until you see the Roly Polys!  There are four fabulously fun dies - I'll show you the penguin.  On a different note, I also have an elegant winter scene to show you.

Be sure to check all of the other designers starting on the Taylored Expressions blog because there is just too much for one designer to show off in just a few days.

All the products that I have used are linked at the bottom, but remember that new products aren't live until Thursday, October 1, 7 a.m. PST.



Taylored Expressions is celebrating Release Week with some fabulous giveaways! Visit the TE Blog each Sneak Peek Day this week for details on how you can enter to win.








You are going to love the Roly Polys!!  There are four sets: a penguin, a snowman, Rudolph and Santa.  Check out out how cute they are!!

TE Roly Poly - Penguin Diecut

The dies that come with each Roly Poly work with the Stitched Circle Stacklet. I used my Roly Poly Penguin on a card but I can easily see him as a tag.  The banner was my addition, but you could use his belly to add a "to/from" from the new set Special Delivery (I probably also should have made a tag to show you this set!)

I embossed the background with the new Nordic Holiday Embossing Folder. He's standing on the "pond" from Build a Scene - Central Park (more of this on the next card.)

The sentiment is from In & Out Christmas!! These In & Out sets are so handy to have because you don't have to worry about matching the sentiments on the front and on the inside!  I decorated the inside with the new Little Bits - Penguin die.  My family saw this card and immediately laughed about how much weight the Roly Poly Penguin loses when the scene pulls back and you see him from afar on the inside!!!  (This is much better than their usual "too much bling" comment when they even look at what I am doing!!)

TE Roly Poly - Penguin Inside


And now from cute to elegant. I was looking at the Season's Greetings Banner Die and realized that just like with so much of this release, it could easily be bright and cheerful or it could be elegant. I decided to give it a little frost and pair with with the Build a Scene - Central Park die which includes a wide variety of elements to build a scene. That sweet little deer is worth the entire set!  Not to mention that I have used the pond as a pond here, but also as grounding for my roly poly penguin on the first card.

TE Season's Greetings in the Woods

I framed the scene with the previously released Frame in Frame Cutting Plate but I moved backwards so that the bottom layer is topped with the scalloped frame which is then topped with a piece of light gray that has the scalloped frame removed. I embossed the panel with the new Holly Embossing Folder.  Of course, I had to add a few snowflakes from Little Bits - Snowflake Confetti.  

TE Season's Greetings CloseUp


Be sure to head over to the Taylored Expressions blog to see what the other designers are doing with these products, and be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win!

SUPPLY LIST

Links to new products will not work until the release on October 1st.

Roly Poly Penguin




Season's Greeting Banner