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.
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.
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.
I love the stitching on this die - it nicely frames each little square.
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!
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!!
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!
The back side of this tag uses new stamps from Special Delivery.
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.
