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WOWZAS! There is a lot going on here today. It’s the first Saturday of the month, so I have a new Designer of the Month to announce and it’s also the Taylored Expressions 1 year Birthday Bash! I just have to say how happy I am for Taylor for making her dream come true. Now it’s one wonderful year later…way to go, Taylor!

Let’s start at the Designer of the Month biz-ness…

Please welcome the wonderful and talented Gretchen Belknap of Happiness Is…

A little about Gretchen in her own words…
I was so shocked to get an email from Jen, one of my “stamping idols”,
asking me to be her September guest designer for a Sketch For You To
Try! I love her sketches and participate often because layouts seem to
be my weakness. I jumped out of my chair and gave a little squeal! Me,
really?! Woo Hoo! So here I am honored to be asked and in such great
company!

I am a SAHM of 4 school aged children and a daycare provider for
preschoolers during the school year. I have been stamping for over 10
years now- mostly making scrapbooks for my kids- but when I discovered
SCS and the blog world in 2007, my whole love of stamping got a much
needed jump start! I have met some fabulous “cyber friends” and even a
few IRL. I love this hobby and I am so excited to share my creations
with you!

Here’s this week’s sketch…

My card using Sweet Celebration from Taylored Expressions…

This set, along with Frightful Night and Trick or Sweet are 40% to celebrate the One Year Anniversary/Birthday of Taylored Expressions. These were the 3 original sets and I can remember seeing them for the first time like it was yesterday. Be sure to check out the other Taylored Expression DT alumni that are playing along this week…

Jami, Monika and Stephanie.

Here is Gretchen’s awesome sample…

Want a few more samples? Check out my Sketch For You To Try Sisters…
Amy Rohl
Amy Sheffer
Kelly Lunceford
Susan Liles

I’m off to shop for now. I hope that you all will play along with the sketch. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use the keyword “SFYTT.”

I have been a busy lil’ bee prepping for preschool, but I couldn’t forget to make a card for Ellie’s new teacher…Ms. Julie. She seems sweet as pie and I am so happy that Ellie is in her class this year! I actually have a few Taylored Expressions stamps that have yet to see ink {EEEK!}, so I pulled one of them out and made this card…

Detail shot of the main image panel…

The main image is from the A Year of Sweets 3. Yep, there are 3 “A Year of Sweets” sets. These are made for calendars or cards for each month of the year. They are basically broken up into quarters. The set that I chose contains September {Back To School}, October {Pumpkins/Halloween}, November {Turkey Day} and December {Christmas}. I might just have to make a full set of cards for a lil’ giftie!

I stamped the image on Neenah white cardstock {OH MY!…this stuff is WON-DER-FUL!!}. The DP on the bottom is from Creative Imaginations. I am not sure the name of the line, but there are tons of great school themed prints. I got it Michael’s a few months back. I knew I would find the perfect use for it! I actually had school bus paper, but it turned out to be much to busy for this card. I am much happier with the subdued look of the monochromatic print set off with a punch of red.

See ya tomorrow with some fun pics of my classroom and my new stampin’ space.

I have been trying to make more birthday cards to have on hand and to sell lately. When this set, For the Love of Cupcakes, came out I figured this would be a good time for me to stock pile some birthday cards. This is one of the designs that I came up with on Friday…

This card also uses supplies from the Cupcakes Key Ingredients kit. I think that I mentioned this before, but I LOVE this color of glitter! Here is a close up shot of the glittered cupcake…

Hope you have a great Sunday! I’m off to brunch with Joy & Daisy from eP and a bunch of other great SCSers.

As promised yesterday, I have a couple more Bella cards to show you. Before I get to the cards, I want to let you know that I am co-hosting a Bella ATC swap and hope that you will play along. All of the info can be found in the Bella forum HERE.

This first card is my Bellarific Friday card from last week. Except for the card base, everything on here is from the Bella store. Can you tell that I LOVE that Bella Blvd. pink DP? LOL!

This next card that I made using one the newer {to me, at least} chichiboulies {love this line!}. There’s that Bella Blvd DP AGAIN!!! Sorry for the bad lighting. I forgot to photo this the other day and now there is a thunderstorm {the 5th in the last 14 hours from my count} and I can’t get any natural light to help me out…

Here is a peek at what I have going on at the Stamp A Sweet Impression blog; check it out {after 8am PST} …

It’s day 2 of the Taylored Expressions sneak peeks. The release is tomorrow at 8 am PST, so you don’t have that much longer to wait {YAY!}. Today I am showing 2 cards using 2 different sets.

This first one features Cuppie showing off his surfing skills from the Beach Bum set…

All of the paper, stickers and embellishments are from the Beach Bum Kit. The set and kit can be purchased separately, or as part of the Beach Bum Bundle {say that 3 times fast!}, which also includes Brown Sugar Sparkle Fluff {for creating a sandy texture} and Assorted Summer Brads.

This next card is uses the set For The Love of Cupcakes {I just love that name!}. There are 3 separate cupcake images that can be used alone or with each other, as well as several other “sweet” images and sentiments. I chose to do a single cupcake image to create this card {which is one of my fave cards that I have done for TE}…

Detail shot of the frosting, which uses glitter from the For The Love Of Cupcakes Key Ingredients kit. I LOVE this color. I am so not a colored glitter person, but this is sooo pretty!!

Like the Beach Bum stuff, the For the Love of Cupcakes set and kit are also available in a bundle that also includes Confections Brads, Glitter Stickers {I used the photo corner stickers} and Maya Road cupcake chipboard.

Tomorrow is release day and it’s supposed to be ABC Friday here on my blog. I am not sure if I will have an ABC project {I know, I know!!}. If I don’t, I will make it up to you…promise

ETA:
I am so sorry that I forgot to post the links to my other DT members. Here they are, click on the names to see more samples of the 2 sets (3 if you missed yesterday).

Ana
Charmaine
Denise
Jodi
Laura
Karen
Dawn
Donna
Laurie
Karen
Sankari
and, of course, Taylor