Thursday, February 7, 2013

Taylored Expressions February Release Day: Butterfly Dies



Today is Release Day at the Taylored Expressions Store and the stamps, dies and other products featured this week are now available! Most of you know I illustrate the Whimsical Wishes line of stamps, but I also get to create wonderful dies to coordinate with my images too. Today I've played with the new Elegant Butterflies Overlays dies and combined them with dies Taylor previously released.

First up, I thought I'd work with this week's splitcoast sketch (422)

I've used MME 6x6 Indie Chick "Citron" paper for the background panel and sponged my focal frame (cut with Label Stacklets 2 and a nestabilities oval) with PTI aqua mist and SU baja breeze inks to get the right colour for the paper. I cut the base butterfly with my Elegant Butterfly die and sponged it too to give darker edges and a lighter centre, then layered the Elegant Butterflies Overlay. Sankari, Perfect Pearls scare me!—I'm always worried that I'll get a big blob where I don't want one—but I've added tiny beads to areas on the butterfly for elegant texture. The sentiment "for a special friend" is from this month's bouquet, Calla Lily Bouquet.


My second card came together quickly. My focal panel is cut using a large Banner Stacklets 1 die and then I created a negative die cut using the new Silhouette Stems 1 die.


The sentiment "let your dreams take flight" is from Make It Amazing. Again I played with rustic thread and other embellishments, but went for clean and simple with a line of stitching and a black button. Quick, lovely (I think) and very reproducible!


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Taylored Expressions February Sneak Peek: Easter Doodles


Today is the first day of TE sneak peeks for February! It's been so long since I've posted on my blog—life's been busy with holidays, teenagers, reconnecting with friends and designing. It's always so exciting to get a package from Taylor for the upcoming release and I'm happy to play along today with new Whimsical Wishes goodies. Taylor and her team have more inspiration using stamps and products that will be available to purchase at the Taylored Expressions Store on Thursday, February 7 at 8AM PST

I don't feel entirely ready for Valentine's Day—Henri and I have a lot of friendship treats to package up for his classmates—but Easter is the theme for today's sneaks. I've got two cards to show you using images from Easter Doodles


First, I love this little Easter guy, coloured him with copics and prismacolors, and tucked him in behind the doodle frame after cutting out the inner circle. He makes me grin!


Next up, a line up of chicks I masked and a fresh hatchling front and centre. I coloured the focal chickie with copics and prismacolors, then layered her and glazed her eggshell with Glossy accents. I played with the 'cracked' theme and added chevron borders I cut with my TE Chevron Border Dies and zig zag stitching on the tag sized banner from the Banner Stacklets 1.


And finally, I wanted to create a 5-10 minute card for moments when a friend needs you 'now' and you don't have an hour to create the perfect card. I've had too many of these moments recently and I just want a simple card so I can write, "I don't know exactly what you're feeling but you mean the world to me and I'm here...for you." 


I cut this fabulous flower out of my focal panel using one of the new Silhouette Stems dies and tucked a pretty piece of MME 6x6 Indie Chick "Saffron" paper behind, then stamped the sentiment "Thinking of You" from Embrace Beauty. I played with rustic thread, embellishments, patterned paper backgrounds, but decided on clean and simple.

Can't wait to see what the TE team has to inspire us with today...