October Release Day at Taylored Expressions!

Today’s release day at Taylored Expressions! You’ll want to get all of the details on Taylor's blog at 8am PST and visit the Baker’s Dozen for more inspiration. I have two more cards to share with you using several of my Whimsical Wishes designs in Hangin’ Out—At the North Pole, Sparkle & Cheer and Winter Wonderland. First, I created this one for this week’s Mojo Monday Sketch (159):

I printed the border on kraft cardstock, then cut out the inner square with nestabilities. My favourite whimsical reindeer from Sparkle & Cheer is stamped on the insert behind the window and then again on the top portion of the window. I covered the window with some scrap paper so the legs wouldn’t appear—just the antlers. It’s a fairly simple and quick card with no colouring...I used an EK Success edge punch below the sentiment, one of the fabulous new Winter Wonderland Snowflakes dies (which coordinate with the snowflake images in Winter Wonderland) for an embellishment, a rhinestone brad in the centre and some half pearls to adorn the deer.

I think this next one is my favourite. I was thinking about Karen when I brought out these non-traditional colours for the Holidays: tangerine, aqua/teal and black.

I paper-pieced my snowman’s mittens, scarf and nose from the same My Mind’s Eye paper and highlighted/shaded with copics and prismacolors with gamsol. I always think paper-piecing looks better with some shading. The background cardstock is Cosmo Cricket Aegean Mixed Dot Core’dinations sanded to reveal the white inner core. The felt snowflake is cut with another die in the Winter Wonderland Snowflakes trio being released today. I found this wooden snowflake at Michael’s (three in different sizes for just C$1.50). I used the same Momento tangelo ink that I used for sponging on the focal image, then lightly dry-brushed some white paint and sponged a hint of black ink. I've tucked a scrap of the striped SU ribbon behind the snowflake to tie it all together. Instead of stamping snowflakes, I added Taylor’s tiny twinkles in the air and on the snowflake embellishment. Of course, embellie gellie came in handy!

Here are the links to the fabulous Baker’s Dozen:

· Charmaine Ikach

· Donna Baker

· Danielle Lounds

· Jackie Pedro

· Jami Sibley

· Jodi Collins

· Karen Giron

· Karen Motz

· Melissa Sauls

· Regina Mangum

· Sankari Wegman

· Tori Wild

· Taylor Van Bruggen

Thanks so much for looking...

~Nancy

Holiday Frames-Day 3 of TE Sneak Peeks

I’m joining in again today with sneak peeks of one of the Whimsical Wishes sets the TE Baker’s Dozen is showcasing...Take Note Holidays. The frames in this set coordinate with the three Take Note dies released in August. I’ve used two of the frames; Take Note Die 1 and Take Note Die 2; and images and sentiments from Hangin’ Out—At the North Pole.

For my first, QUICK card I have to show you, I used the coordinating die to cut out the red frame and hand-trimmed the black inner frame. I sponged both (and each square background panel) with Distress Ink in antique linen, punched a tiny hole in the left bottom corner of the outside frame and strung thread to hang my little, copic-coloured mittens.

I think this next one is my favourite. I was inspired by what I saw already this week on the TE team blogs. Both Charmaine and Danielle teamed this sentiment with Santa’s suit, and Danielle also inspired me to try my liquid appliqué. I usually create late at night, but I waited until this morning to heat set the appliqué.

Amazing stuff, really! Of course, I torched it a little too long and achieved a toasty marshmallow look. I’m sure Santa wouldn’t mind, but I touched up the hat trim with my white Uni-ball Signo gel pen. Seemed to work. Again, I sponged the frame with Distress Ink in antique linen to tame down the white and match the toasted marshmallow! I’m loving the Bow Easy for these puffy, perfect bows.

Finally, one more today. It’s not actually part of today’s peeks, but rather yesterday’s... I just didn’t create it until last night. The Christmas bird and sentiments are from Sparkle & Cheer.

I printed the frame on kraft cardstock leaving room for the sentiment. My frame seemed a little large for the focal image, so to fill the space I used the lattice die, which was actually too big for the frame. To fix this, I cut a piece away from the centre and covered up the seam with the image and the half crystals. Can you tell?

Enjoy the wonderful creations the talented Baker’s Dozen have for you today:

· Charmaine Ikach

· Donna Baker

· Danielle Lounds

· Jackie Pedro

· Jami Sibley

· Jodi Collins

· Karen Giron

· Karen Motz

· Melissa Sauls

· Regina Mangum

· Sankari Wegman

· Tori Wild

· Taylor Van Bruggen

Tomorrow all of the goodies you’ve seen this week will be available at Taylored Expressions! Thanks for looking...

~Nancy

Sparkle & Cheer-Day 2 of TE Sneak Peeks

Today Taylor and her Baker’s Dozen are bringing you sneak peeks of two new Whimsical Wishes sets, Winter Wonderland and Sparkle & Cheer. I’ve used my favourite image, the whimsical reindeer, from Sparkle & Cheer:

I designed the sentiments to mix and match and have combined ‘MAY YOUR HOLIDAYS’ and ‘BE FILLED’ to introduce my ‘Sparkle & CHEER’ sentiment shaker box. To work with the colours in the Basic Grey Jovial patterned paper, I used silver and gold seed beads in the shaker. I brought out my SU soft sky ink to sponge both the sentiment and focal image.

A little stitching, a little glitter...and another Christmas card done!

Enjoy today's sneak peeks...

· Charmaine Ikach

· Donna Baker

· Danielle Lounds

· Jackie Pedro

· Jami Sibley

· Jodi Collins

· Karen Giron

· Karen Motz

· Melissa Sauls

· Regina Mangum

· Sankari Wegman

· Tori Wild

· Taylor Van Bruggen

I'll have more Whimsical Wishes peeks again tomorrow. Thanks for looking...

~Nancy

Hangin' Out at the North Pole-Day 1 Sneaks at Taylored Expressions

I’m excited to be part of today’s sneak peeks of Hangin’ Out—At the North Pole, one of my newest Whimsical Wishes sets being released on Thursday at Taylored Expressions. Taylor’s got a sleigh load of sets and goodies for you this month. I’ve used 10 of over 20 images in this set on the cards I have to show you today. Hmmm...which one to start with? Well, OMGolly! Here’s a snowman I hope you’ll love. I certainly do, especially teamed up with the Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather 6x6 paper.

I tried to break free from my typical square cards with this next one. I think Santa’s a little exposed! I drew the borders around the three images, and coloured them with copics/prismacolor pencils with gamsol. The border is created with the Scalloped Eyelet Border Die, a Taylored Expressions exclusive. The plaid paper is from the Basic Grey Jovial 6x6 Paper Pad.




Finally, I always think of Karen and Jami whenever Taylor asks me to add a bird to a set. I perched this sweet thing on one of the stockings. Back to square, I kept this card simple with no sewing or embossing. I’ve used the Scalloped Eyelet Border Die again and Take Note Die 3.

Enjoy the sneaks Taylor and these talented Baker’s Dozen gals have for you today:

· Charmaine Ikach

· Donna Baker

· Danielle Lounds

· Jackie Pedro

· Jami Sibley

· Jodi Collins

· Karen Giron

· Karen Motz

· Melissa Sauls

· Regina Mangum

· Sankari Wegman

· Tori Wild

I have more Whimsical Wishes peeks to share with you in the next few days. It’s so great to get a start on my Christmas cards!!

Thanks for looking...
~Nancy

Sale over at my Etsy Shop, CheekyDIGs

I just realized that several of my digi stamps and digi stamp sets are about to expire in my Etsy Shop, so...

I've lowered the prices on these items, which include Sharkie, my frappuccino sets, the rainy day umbrella and my 'give a friend a lift' hot air balloon. I've reduced the older sets to $3.50 and the individual images to $1 or $2. You can grab the Canadian beaver and donut set for just $0.75. If there's something you'd like to see, please let me know. I had questions about cards I posted on my blog and I'm happy to design unique digis and handmade cards by request. Just ask!!

~Nancy

Monsters in my backyard!

Yes, that's right...I have little monsters 'reeking' havoc in my backyard. I'm not talking about my kids. There's a skunk out there and my dog has had a too-close encounter. She didn't actually get skunked but has a faint musky odour probably from rolling in stink—why do dog's do that? Anyway, this and the red squirrel who torments me out my window as I work have inspired some new images and cheeky sentiments. I just posted them in my Etsy shop. I created the sentiments to fit with the QuicKutz speech bubbles die I picked up yesterday and made this card for a birthday I'm sure to forget...

Here's a peek at the complete set at CheekyDIGs:

Thanks for looking! I'd love to hear what you think of my backyard monsters and my little Etsy shop.

~Nancy

SSSC86-You're A Superstar!

So here's my card for Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch today. I think I've actually been fairly true to the sketch for a change--it helps that it was a square sketch!! Instead of using patterned paper for the horizontal strip, I embossed a portion of the background cardstock and sanded it to reveal the white inner core of the paper. Both Henri and his little friend who is having her birthday party today were in yesterday's triathlon. They didn't know this in advance and were even in the same wave! So I've used my swirl embossing folder, a wheel-style sticker embellishment and a stitched wave in the background to represent the swim-bike-run event. The heart is for their friendship. Hope you enjoy the sketch and a very sweet Sunday. We're off to a birthday party!!

~Nancy

Last of the napkin sketches...

I’ll have at least one card (I actually have a few ideas on the go) for today’s Sweet Sunday sketch in a second post a little later today. I just don’t have the energy left to stay up, and yes, I do create most of my cards very late at night. I’m also fighting a cold and have to give in. Why? All three of my kids—my 11-year-old twins and 6-year-old—plus my niece were in a triathlon today. Very exciting!! But it’s exhausting running from one transition to another and keeping up with their energy!

I did snap some good photos so I’m working on a scrapbook card with this sketch—after a good night’s sleep that is. Here are two of them at the finish line:

Hope you’ll check back to see. For the Sweet Sunday stampers’ take on the last of the napkin sketches, start with Karen and check out...

Jennifer Tapler

Joanne Basile

Karen Motz

Laura Fredrickson

Lynn Put

Sarah-Jane Kale'

Vicki Burdick

~Nancy

SSSC85-Three Guitars

Sorry to be a little late for Karen’s Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge this week. I had my card ready but I was in Niagara Falls for my son’s soccer tournament. Karen’s got another napkin sketch for you and I think it’s one that can be used for almost any occasion! The additional challenge this week was to create a birthday card and mail it to Operation Write Home who will then send our cards on to men and women serving in the armed forces to share with their loved ones. We weren’t supposed to use glitter but I hope glossy is okay. I wanted to create a birthday card that would be ideal for either a girl or boy so I used You’re My Hero, one of the Whimsical Wishes stamp sets I designed. I repeated the flame guitar in momento black ink on different patterned papers in the same grungy We R Memory Keepers teen angst collection then covered each guitar head with layers of crystal effects. Here's my card:

The Sweet Sunday Stampers have treats for you...

• Karen Giron
• Jennifer Tapler
• Joanne Basile
• Karen Motz
• Laura Fredrickson
• Lynn Put
• Sarah-Jane Kale'
• Vicki Burdick

Thanks for looking...

~Nancy

Sweet Sunday Sketch-SSSC84

It’s so great to playing along with Karen’s Sweet Sunday Sketch! I’m challenging myself to use the stamps and goodies that I bought at CHA so they don’t sit unloved.

So today’s card uses Papertrey’s Enjoy the Ride. Four of my nieces are getting close to driving age (a few are on the road already), so this is a late birthday card for one of them. My MIL drives a VW bug so we could see a young driver behind the wheel. Scary!

I’ve changed up the sketch a little (maybe more than a little), but when Karen showed me the original cocktail napkin I think the elements are there, Baby!





I found a digital tire tread and printed it before cutting with the nestie label. The curved edge on the patterned paper and black mat are just randomly cut with my X-Acto retractable pen knife—love that thing! Other similar knives haven’t really compared for me. The car is stamped in SU summer sunshine rocked with Memento cantelope, then overstamped with the outlined image in Memento tuxedo black. Couldn’t resist the “Student Driver” mini label for the license plate! I stamped first—duh—so I had to cut a template with the bug die before placing the die over the image and everything worked out just fine. I added dots of liquid pearl (for Sankari) and glazed the back window and lights with crystal effects. With the die and solid stamp, this was a quick card!!

I think a few of the Sweet Sunday Gals might not be bloggin today, but start with Karen and enjoy the hop!

Hey, thanks for looking!

~Nancy

Celebrate Halloween!

Today’s the last day of sneak peaks for this release and you can now fill up your cart! I have two projects to show you first.

For my card, I couldn’t resist working with my witch from the Hangin' Out Wicked Wardrobe set again. Lots of paper-piecing here and colouring with copics too. I’ve used SU kiwi kiss and purely pomegranate cardstock, which I think is a yummy colour combo. The sentiment is just a portion of the ‘celebrate’ border in Borderlicious and I’ve reverse masked my Whimsical Wishes a la carté tree, used Take Note Die 2 to cut the shape, then sponged the edge with kiwi kiss ink. Wondering what that border is? It's a Silhouette cut file I created yesterday when I was playing. ;)

Next, I wanted to create a quick Halloween treat bag topper, so I used the cat with attitude in the set and a combination of nesties and TE Take Note Frame 1 to whip this up. Very quick and easy—I could actually make a class set of these without going bonkers!

Can’t wait to see what enticing goodies the Baker’s Dozen has for us today...

• Charmaine Ikach
• Donna Baker
• Jackie Pedro
• Jami Sibley
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Karen Motz
• Melissa Sauls
• Sankari Wegman
• Regina Mangum
• Tori Wild
• Danielle Lounds, and
• Taylor Van Bruggen

Thanks for stopping by!

~Nancy

A Wicked Wardrobe!

I'm excited to be playing along again today as the Baker's Dozen shows sneaks of Hangin' Out Wicked Wardrobe. This may be my favourite Whimsical Wishes set yet!! I have two cards today and another to share with you tomorrow. I designed the set so the witch's dress could hang on a line or be combined with the sweet witchy head, satchel and hat to create an adorable witch. So... I had to use her in my first card! I coloured my witch with copics and prismacolors/gamsol and flocked her trim and hat with Martha Stewart flocking powder in ladybug, which I hope shows up if you zoom in. I wanted to keep the layout simple but add texture with tulle.

For my next card, I created a lamppost with the arrow, swirl and lantern. The border is a new Martha Stewart edge punch (Spiderweb) for me and the top border is cut from Cosmo Cricket's Haunted: Eerie paper, then lightly dry-brushed with white acrylic paint and sponged with black ink (that would be Memento in tuxedo black, Melissa!). I coloured the lantern and cat eyes with copics and applied crystal effects to make them shine. I couldn't tell which was the better picture, but you'll see the original version and a little later with extra half pearls on the border and glitter glistening in the spider web.

Can’t wait to see what Taylor’s team has cooked up with Hangin’ Out Wicked Wardrobe today...

• Charmaine Ikach
• Donna Baker
• Jackie Pedro
• Jami Sibley
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Karen Motz
• Melissa Sauls
• Sankari Wegman
• Regina Mangum
• Tori Wild
• Danielle Lounds, and of course
• Taylor Van Bruggen

Thanks for looking...

~Nancy