Wednesday, November 2, 2016

TE Sneak Peek Day 3: Prayer Chalkboards

It's the third day of sneak peeks for the November release from Taylored Expressions. I jumped way out of my comfort zone for this one and I had so much fun!!

Yesterday, we introduced the Initially die series with all the letters of the alphabet and I showed you the single letter "S" on a set of masculine notecards.  But these sets have large letters too and I wanted to show them off too.

TE Prayer Chalkboards

Before I share more details and pictures, when you are done here, be sure to head over to the TE Blog. Taylored Expressions is celebrating Release Week with some fabulous giveaways! Visit the TE Blog to answer Taylor's Question of the Day for a chance to win a prize from the latest release.


I have two charming young nieces -  Natasha is 10 and Karina is 7.  As young as they are, they understand the power of and the need for prayer.  As I was pondering how to show off the big letter dies, I thought through a variety of ideas.  I thought about decorating notebooks for my friends, then thought about prayer journals.  Then I realized how fun it would be to do journals for my nieces in bright, cheerful colors - and from there, I went bigger with these prayer chalkboards!!

TE Prayer Chalkboards

TE Prayer Chalkboards

Luckily, Taylored Expressions has fabulous 100% Wool Felt in a rainbow of colors.  They have large flower dies - I used Bloomin' Stacklets 3 and Bloomin' Accessories. And they have cross dies - I used the simplest die - Old Rugged Cross. I got the chalkboards at Jobby Lobby. Here they are up close.

TE Prayer Chalkboards

My little photo booth set up for cards didn't quite work for these large chalkboards.  So one morning, on the work, I stopped by a local park right on our Main Street.  I got some funny looks carrying these boards around the park on a very chilly morning - but it was fun.  It's late fall so there aren't flowers and even the fallen leaves are fading, but we do have an old-fashioned gazebo that worked well!

TE Prayer Chalkboards


As you are pondering your purchase of Initially, check this out.


Tomorrow's the big day!  One more peek and all of these products will be available for purchase!

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The links include on to all of the wool felt colors so you can see the rainbow, and then individual links to the colors that I used.

Freshly Made Sketches: Celebrate

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


Recently, I realized that my sentiment collection was a little dated.  I love all the cards right now that are all about the sentiment.  A big bold sentiment with just a hint of embellishment - or a splash of watercolor.  So I set out to update my collection.  Here's one I picked out with a big word die and coordinating stamps - and it's perfectly sized for the sketch.

FMS Celebrate

I'm not sure the stars were necessary on this card, but when I got the sentiment, I threw that die in my cart too so had to pair them up.  Plus any celebration needs some sparkly stars!

FMS Celebrate CloseUp

I hope to see you playing along this week.  There's the perfect center panel for images or sentiments or dies or anything else that works!!

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Tuesday, November 1, 2016

TE Sneak Peek Day 2: Masculine Notecards

It's the second day of the sneak peeks for the November release from Taylored Expressions!!  A fabulous new addition to the Taylored Expressions array of dies is a series called Initially Yours - a set of dies for each letter of the alphabet and "&".  There's a big letter die (I'll have more on that tomorrow) and a smaller upper and lower case in each set of dies.

The dies work perfectly for personalized notecards (what great timing for gifts for the holiday season!)  Also new this month are is the Noteworthy stamp set which gives many options for notecards, and the Noteworthy Belly Band die which wraps the notecard nicely inside a Clear Card Box.

TE Masculine Monogram

Before I go into details, I am excited to tell you that Taylored Expressions is celebrating Release Week with some fabulous giveaway! Visit the TE Blog to answer Taylor's Question of the Day for a chance to win a prize from the latest release!


My cards are going to my soon-to-be 21-year old son.  If I've taught him nothing else over the years, it is that there are many good reasons to send thank you notes.  I couldn't make frilly notecards for him or they would never be used, but I still wanted to add interest.  Here's one of the set.

TE Masculine Monogram

I used the circles from the Noteworthy Belly Band die set to cut the ring for the sentiment. Obviously the letter "S" is the focal point. I used a chevron die from Build a Tag 4 to cut right into the card front, then filled just a few spaces with colored chevrons.

TE Masculine Monogram

The frame around it all is actually inset.  I cut a rectangle using the Stitched Rectangle Stacklets right out of the card front.  I adhered a piece of Oreo cardstock on the inside of the card. Then I trimmed down the rectangle about 1/8" on each side - basically I just trimmed off the stitching and plopped it right back on the black center leaving a frame around the edge.

Since I had a black piece on the inside of the card, I took advantage of that and added a sentiment from Noteworthy in white.  There's still room for my son to add his own words, but the sentiment stands out.

TE Masculine Monogram


Here's the rest of the set.  All that I did was change the order of thecolors.

TE Masculine Monogram TE Masculine Monogram

TE Masculine Monogram


I went masculine with my monogrammed set, but there is fabulous alterative for more feminine notecards or other projects - the Garden Party Background stamp.  Check out the rest of the design team - all listed on the TE Blog - to see other notecard sets.  This is a great deal for this release!


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Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Felt

It's time for a new challenge at the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Felt.

positivelysplendid.com

I love the soft and warm look of felt - especially as we move into the crisp, cool days of autumn. I followed the inspiration fairly closely with two felt leaves, a pop of blue, and a neutral background.  I love brights blues on autumn cards.  I had intended to totally mirror the inspiration and do a blue leaf. but I only had blue scraps of my favorite felt and couldn't quite fit a leaf.  (It's funny that today's Curtain Call challenge was "felt" because I have a big felt project ready to go for one of tomorrow's post - I've used a lot of felt this week!)

CC Felt

I do send a lot of Thanksgiving cards and I am thrilled to say this one finishes my card list!!  But I adore autumn and Thanksgiving cards so you will see more.  I don't have a single extra card right now to take up to the church card sales racks and that's my excuse to continue on. (As if I need an excuse!)

Be sure to pop over to the Curtain Call blog for more inspiration.  And we do have a guest designer this week that you need to check out:

Jenny at Owl Be Crafty

I'm looking forward to seeing how you are inspired.

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