Well, today is a very exciting day…it’s release day when all of the stamp sets and products you’ve seen this week are available in the Taylored Expressions store. But it’s also because I’m celebrating a year of illustrating the Whimsical Wishes line and working with Taylor! We started with Branching Out, which is still one of my favourites. I thought I’d post a challenge today with a terrific prize, which you can read about at the end of this post.
First, here are a few projects showcasing a new download you can purchase and one very special limited-edition digital set you can earn free with purchase this weekend. I printed the Eggstra Special Image Sheet on transparency for the window in my Easter Egg Hunt box and included the sentiment from Favorite Peeps. We love our Cadbury mini eggs in our house—I can’t tell you how many we’ve already eaten and it’s not even Easter! I used PTI’s timeless template For Keepsake but resized it 110% before printing, then cut the egg opening in both the lemon tart and hibiscus cardstock pieces. The butterfly is cut from the same Basic Grey urban prairie / patchwork quilt patterned paper I used for the lid and the lower trim.
My next project turned out just the way I imagined. A box of fresh note cards for each season. You’ll notice I added one of my favourite images from Favorite Peeps by masking in my Spring card. The box is a Silhouette download (horizontal heart gift box by Loni Stevens) but I removed the heart in the template before cutting with my silhouette. Then, I cut the window with my nesties (Labels 1) instead to coordinate with the note cards, stitched around the outside and inserted a transparency panel that I printed for the occasion.
I coloured all of the images with prismacolors and gamsol to coordinate with the Prima Marketing Just Corina / Dude Collection / playful paper I used. Paula, how did I do? I feel much more confident laying on the colour after taking Paula’s class on last Sunday at Stamping Bella.
With any purchase in the TE Store through Monday, March 8th, you'll receive a FREE Whimsical Wishes Image Sheet - Whimsical Wishes Throughout the Year that includes these 4 never-before-seen seasonal images and 4 coordinating sentiments. But wait, there’s more… the first two sets released in the Whimsical Wishes family last year were Branching Out and Branching Out Coordinates. For the Anniversary Sale, these 2 sets are on sale for 25% off only through Monday, March 8th. Since these two sets were originally part of the TE Giving Tree charitable program, they come in sheet form attached to EZ Mount. You will need to trim them out when you receive them.
Are you ready for some fun? In a year’s time, I’ve illustrated 22 sets. I have little teasers for 10 of these sets but not necessarily shown at exact size—that would be too easy! Can you guess which ones? Do you own them? I’ll either use the random integer thing or I’ll draw out of a hat or something allowing a chance to win for anyone who correctly matches each picture with its name (you’ll find the names at Taylored Expressions). Taylor is giving a free Whimsical Wishes set of their choice to the winner!! You might not see your comment appear--don't worry, I had to moderate comments today because some of you are just too smart (or have all of the Whimsical Wishes sets!). Please check back on Sunday when I close the contest at 7pm. Here goes…
If you haven't already seen what the TE Baker's Dozen has cooked up today, you don't want to miss them: Alex Maldonado, Carolina Buchting, Charmaine Ikach, Donna Baker, Jackie Pedro, Jeanie Witmer, Jodi Collins, Karen Giron, Karen Motz, Melissa Sauls, Sankari Wegman, guest designer Amy Sheffer and Taylor Van Bruggen
~Nancy
Alex Maldonado, Carolina Buchting, Charmaine Ikach, Donna Baker, Jackie Pedro, Jeanie Witmer, Jodi Collins, Karen Giron, Karen Motz, Melissa Sauls, Sankari Wegman and Taylor Van Bruggen
Thanks for stopping by! Now go and see how the Baker's Dozen rocked this set...
Alex Maldonado, Carolina Buchting, Charmaine Ikach, Donna Baker, Jackie Pedro, Jeanie Witmer, Jodi Collins, Karen Giron, Karen Motz, Melissa Sauls, Sankari Wegman and Taylor Van Bruggen
It's hard not to get caught up in the excitement of these Winter Games and Canada's success. I created more images yesterday to celebrate and you'll see some of them on Dana's and Karen's blogs hopefully today. 
I'm heading to Bellaland for Linda's copics class and Paula's prismacolours tomorrow and I thought I'd create a patriotic cup sleeve for the trip. 
I was so inspired by yesterday's Waltzing Mouse customer blog hop that I made my way back to my little happy stamping zone. I loved Julie Masse's 'got green?' card and this is my take on it using a Martha Stewart heart punch, Julie's colour combo, the dotted label from the WM Very Vintage Labels No. 4 (Nestie friendly) stamp set and Jen's Sweet Sunday sketch. Can I really call it my own? I used the Martha Stewart hydrangea edge punch to create a shamrock look for the lower strip of old olive cardstock. The stem for my main shamrock is stamped using the bottom portion of the dandelion stem from my TE Celebrate Life set. Love this sketch, Jen! To tie in the black from my sentiment "Wishing you the luck of the Irish," created using Echelon font, I embossed the same size spellbinder label in black and cut around the outside edge (I found this easier than tracing), added checked ribbon and stitched around the card edge in black.
By April I had already illustrated several stamp sets in the Whimsical Wishes line—Branching Out, Branching Out Coordinates, Fresh Flowers and Boys Will Be Boys—so I smiled when Daniela Hendea {PurpleD} wrote her comment: Adorable card! You should start designing your own stamps! :-) Taylor visited my blog too and emailed me about it: I just loved that cute donut you did with the "everything is better with sprinkles" sentiment. I thought it would make an adorable stamp set …Maybe it could be a mini set?
I wish I had a better picture to share but I'm still debating over cameras, the Nikon or the Canon Rebel. Any more thoughts???
Although Dana is soaking up the sun in Cuba right now, I know she'll return to frostier weather. I wanted to warm her up with a little Flopsey and hot cocoa for her birthday. My daughter Morgana and I have been making pillow ornaments using fabric, stamps and a touch of glitter so I thought I'd make one for Dana too with the same image as the card (actually, it was the other way around--I made the ornament first). Colours are inspired by the Basic Grey urban prairie weather vane paper I used--Sorry Karen, I forgot about the pumpkin...one of Dana's favourite colours. Ooops. 
I've chosen 'Celebrate' and matched it with 'Happy Birthday with a cherry on top!' and the mini ice cream sundae included in the 14-image set. I used a previous TE sketch (TECC59) to get the juices flowing. I need more colourful cards for the kids occasions in my stash, so this one is perfect. Henri probably talked me into buying this fruit-infused, patterned paper--it's quite a departure from my usual style! I pulled green, purple, pink and black from the paper for my colour scheme and coloured the image with copics to coordinate.
A little while ago I created a Get Well card for my best friend's mom. She passed away in November just a few weeks ago and this is the card I made for my friend. Again, the silhouette is from Discover Your Wings; the sentiment is one I created just for this purpose. The card is simple--writing inside was not. But I now have the perfect stamp set for difficult times. I also see myself creating cards of encouragement and celebration too, as my kids 'discover their wings,' or just when I need a beautiful card for a gift or thank you. I know I'll be using resist with the silhouette and maybe a little bleaching technique too!! The day I started this set, I couldn't resist the urge to work with butterflies, the symbol for other charities too. I think I can safely say that Taylor was thrilled with the set with a little tweaking and has chosen a worthy charity for this time of year. Can't wait to see what the talented Design Team has for us! Although you're just getting sneak peeks today, Discover Your Wings will be available for purchase Friday, December 4th at 8:00 am PST.
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