NOEL by Karen Motz

Happy Thanksgiving to all the US readers!!! Today is a day to spend with family and friends enjoying a wonderful meal, but tomorrow marks the official start of the Christmas Shopping season with Black Friday. So I created a project to help you get in the Christmas spirit.

I picked up these wood letters at my local craft store and I love that they stand up on their own. I gave them a few coats of white paint and once that was dry I misted each letter with Iridescent Pearls Maya Mist for a little sparkle and shimmer. To decorate the letters I used images from Wings of Joy and Holiday Wonder, both available at Taylored Expressions. I love how these two sets can mix and match.

I started by stamping the images with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White then I coloured them with copics. Then I started adding the little touches to really jazz up each image. The tree was decorated with Tiny Twinkles.

I coated the lights on the bird house with two layers of clear Glaze pen and added some sparkly snow to the bird house (white Liquid Applique topped with glitter before I puffed it).

The chipboard snowflake was coloured with a blue copic then I coated it with Waterfall Stickles and topped it with a button from my Whirligig pack.

The snowman received a hint of bling with a red Tiny Twinkle on his scarf.

I also made some quick paper trees to accent my word art. They were super simple...cut two triangles of the same size for each tree (my trees are 6, 5, and 4 inches tall). On one of the triangles, cut along the center line from the bottom to the mid-point. On the other triangle cut along the center line from the top to the mid-point. Then just slip them together...voila! No adhesive required and they'll fold flat for storage.

SALE ALERT!!!

Taylored Expressions is having a big sale this weekend in honour of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the two biggest shopping days of the year! The entire store is 15% off!!!! Just use the promotional code TEBlackFriday upon checkout to receive the discount. Also, Tiny Twinkles are buy 2 get 1 FREE, JustRite products are 50% off, and there are the sweetest new TE shirts and aprons!!!

So skip the lineups and save some time, money and gas by shopping at Taylored Expressions from the comfort of your own home this weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

2-4-6-8 Gift bag

Hi everyone, it's Laura, and I wanted to share with you a little gift idea I came up with for some of my friends and coworkers. It's quick and easy (my signature style LOL!), and really fun!

I love the idea of giving gourmet gifts to friends, but the problem is I don't do gourmet. Honestly, I can barely cook and baking...well let's not go there. So here's my solution for a fabulous "gourmet" gift. I purchased a large can of Tim Horton's French Vanilla Cappuccino, and I divided it into 6 Spa Bottles from Taylored Expressions. I added my own little touches for packaging it all up nice and pretty, and now I can give a little gourmet gift to each of them!

The bottle and bag were very simple. I used the stamp set Sweet Indulgence on both; the little coffee cup was just so perfect for this! For the bottle, I stamped the little coffee cup inside the round sentiment, and punched it out with the 1 3/4" circle punch. I coloured it with Copic markers and adhered it to the bottle. I added some ribbon around the neck and that's all.

The gift bag was super easy too! I modelled it after the wine bottle gift bags...because, don't the Spa Bottles remind you of little wine bottles? It's really a 2-4-6-8 box that is quite long! I measured a square that was 8 1/2" square, and scored a 2", 4", 6" & 8". The you turn it once and score at 2". Cut out the little 2"x 1/2" piece in the corner, then cut along the scoring lines up 2" to meet the horizontal score. I used red line tape to adhere it, and decorated it with snow flakes from Wings of Joy, and a strip of designer paper from the Christmas Key Ingredients kit. I added a little tag with the instructions to the little bag, so my recipent can start enjoying their little gift right away!

Of course I had to make a Christmas card to go with the set. I had started with the intention of working with Taylor's Sketch Challenge #92, but ended up centering "Joy" because I couldn't make it work since the image was quite large. The stamp set is Wings of Joy again, and it's stamped on Choice Buttercream and coloured with Copic markers. All the paper is from the Christmas Key Ingredients along with the satin ribbon. The image was cut to an oval with the large oval Nestability, and popped up on dimensionals. Quick and easy!

How fun is that? I love the little gift bag, it's so perfect for the potion bottle, and just makes it totally fun to give.

Merry Christmas Notepad by Jackie Pedro

Hi everyone! It's Jackie here with a fun project to get you a little organized for the holidays! I don't know about you, but I make a Christmas list every year but never seem to have it on hand when I need it most! Well, this year, I decided to make myself a little notepad that I can carry in my purse and pull it out whenever I need it!

I recently ordered some long notebooks and couldn't wait to make this project! The notebooks measure 2 1/2" x 8". For the notebook I cut a piece of cardstock 6 1/4"x8 1/4, scoring along the 6 1/4" side at 3" & 3 1/4". I used the darling whimsical tree from the new Taylored Expressions set Wings of Joy. It was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, colored in with Copic markers and cut out with Rectangle Nestabilities. I sponged some Pretty in Pink (SU!) ink on around the edges of the image before removing it from the die. Love the look of the white edge! The quilted block background was made with the new Eskimo Kisses DP from Basic Grey and a 1 1/4" square punch. I adhered them to a piece of Pretty In Pink cardstock and then used my sewing machine to give it a quilted look! The sentiment was masked and then cut out with the Tag Trio dies from Spellbinders. Again, I sponged a little bit of Pretty in Pink ink around the image before removing from the die. A little bling, ribbon and button and I was done! I just love this little notepad!

Here is a little bit different view!

Here is a picture of the notepad itself! The notebook was adhered to the inside with some red line tape. I can't wait to put this to good use! I hope I gave you some inspriration to make one of these yourself! They really are so easy!

Did you know that Taylored Expressions has a monthly newsletter? It's so easy to sign up! Just head on over to the Taylored Expressions Website and enter your email under the "join our mailing list" icon and that's it! You will be informed of any new releases and and all of the new "Fresh From the Oven" products in the store!

Joy Christmas Planner - by Laurie Schmidlin

I don't know about you, but I need all the help I can get when it comes to staying organized...especially around the Holidays!! I kid you not, last year I had over 15 different lists in my purse...which I couldn't always find when I needed them! LOL! I decided that this year I would do things differently! So, when I saw these CUUUUUTE stamps in the new Wings of Joy set, I knew I wanted to make some kind of book/planner especially for all my Holiday "lists"!

I wanted to use some lined 3 x 5 index cards as my filler pages, so I created a cover and back slightly larger than those cards ( 3 1/4" x 5 1/4").

Here's a close up shot of the focal image on my book. I stamped the "Joy" image (from the Wings of Joy set) onto Choice Snow White cardstock using Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and then colored the images in with my Copics. For some extra sparkle, I added some Stickles to the bird's hat (Frosted Lace) and some to the Holly berries (Christmas Red). The chipboard snowflakes (included in the Christmas Key Ingredients kit) are painted with white acrylic paint and then covered in glitter. If there ever was time to add tons of bling to your projects, then Christmas is the time!! :-)

I added three "dividers" to the inside of my book (just read pieces of Prism c.s. that I cut to the same size as the index cards (3 x 5) and added oval "tabs" to.

I labeled my dividers family, friends, & home. That way, not only are my lists all contained in one place but they are even organized by section! Woohoo!!

Another way to get some wonderful ideas (both for gift giving and organization) is to sign up for the Taylored Expressions Newsletter! It's completely free and full of inspiring ideas!! Just enter your email address in the sign up box on the Taylored Expressions home page!

Stamps: Wings of Joy (Taylored Expressions)
Paper: Choice Snow White c.s., Patterned paper (S.E.I.), Prims c.s.
Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink
Accessories: Copic marker, Nestabilities, Fiskars punch, Sewing Machine, Stickles, Chipboard snowflakes, Oval punch, Ribbon

Popping in with a Yummy Treat! - by Karen Motz

When I thought about what to do for my project today I knew I wanted to do something with a Christmas theme. I thought back to my childhood and remembered sitting in the family room stringing popcorn with my brothers while my dad set up the tree. Half the popcorn ended up in our tummies instead of on the tree, but we sure had a great time!

So I decided to do a popcorn themed project. It started out in my mind as a "Tree Trimming Kit" (just add needle and thread) but it evolved more as a wonderful hostess gift. You could easily personalize this by replacing the 'JOY' with a specific person's name. Wouldn't it be fun to start a family tradition by giving each child their own bag of popcorn to string?!?

I started with a plain Kraft Bakery Bag as my base. I wanted it to be bright and cheery so I pulled out my Christmas Key Ingredients. I cut the pink cardstock to the size of the bag but I didn't want to fiddle with cutting out the window exactly as it is on the bag so I used my Labels 3 Nestabilities to create the opening in the pink cardstock.

The images are from Wings of Joy...I just love this set! I stamped them with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Buttercream and coloured them with copics.

The chipboard snowflakes were fun to alter. First I coloured the red one with a red copic then I covered it with Rockstar Red Sparkly Fluff (from the Christmas Key Ingredients). For the blue one, I coloured it with a blue copic then covered it with Waterfall Stickles. I layered them together and added a pink button from my Rhonna Christmas pack.

Of course you could use these bags for cookies, chocolates, even a small gift! How would you embellish a Kraft Bakery Bag? I'm sure we can brainstorm plenty of fabulous ideas. :)

Don't forget to sign up for the TE Newsletter if you aren't already a subscriber.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Christmas Gift Tags

I have a quick little project to share with you, using both Wings of Joy and Holiday Wonder and the Cosmo Cricket "Jolly by Golly" papers, which are available as part of the Christmas Key Ingredients kit and the Very Merry Christmas Bundle.

Now if you know me, you know I prefer quick projects. It can take me hours just to decide what I'm going to do, so once the decision has been made, I avoid adding even more hours in production. So these little gift tags are perfect and you can "code" them by image or colour to the gift recipient.

Christmas gift tags are one of my favorite projects, and I even love to do with my kids, because they are small and don't require a lot of design work, and my kids love to colour! They like to make their own tags that will go on the gifts to them...it makes keeping track much easiere LOL! Gift tags are also a fabulous way to use up those scraps, because let's face it, you are just not going to want to use this year's designer paper next year. And while I do love to design and embellish, I try to hold back with gift tags, because they are just going to get ripped off and tossed without a second look.

For this group I used an old punch by Emaginations, that I'm pretty sure is no longer available. However, there's good news! Taylored Expressions has gift tags available, only 10 for $1.00. That's a pretty easy add on when you pick up one of these fabulous stamp sets.

All of the tags use the "Jolly by Golly" designer paper, and all images were coloured with the Copic Marker Christmas Kit To embellish I simply added some detailing with Sakura Glaze and metallic gel pens. The images were cut out and popped up with pop dots. The "to - from" stamp I borrowed from a retired SU set.

The string is embroidery floss from my stash and that's all there is to them!

You know, if you haven't already signed up to receive Taylored Expressions newsletter, you can easily do so by adding your email addy to the link on the upper right. Then you'll know when all the cool new items that arrive in the store!

Thanks for letting me share these little tags! The images from Holiday Wonder and Wings of Joy work perfectly on these small tags as well as on a card or scrapbook page. They are a quick fun project and a great way to get in some quality Mom and me time!