Gooood morning! Happy Monday and Happy August 1st! Can you believe it’s August already? The days, weeks, and months just keep flying by and tomorrow I’m officially 6 weeks from my due date. CRAZY! But before then we have more fabulous stamps and dies to share with you. I’m super excited about what we have up our sleeve this month so I better get started! Don’t forget to read through the August Release at a Glance where you’ll find everything you need to know about this month’s release, including how you can win some awesome prizes!

• We have sneak peeks to share Monday through Wednesday.  All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday, August 4th at 8am PST. You’ll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
• Join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets, as well as a SPECIAL Facebook GIVEAWAY, on Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST.
• Angel Bundle Prize Drawing: We’re very excited to be supporting The Angel Tree with Joy to the World, the newest set in the TE Giving Tree Program.  If you’d like to be entered to win our Angel Bundle Prize Pack (Joy to the World Stamp Set, Angel Kisses Taylored Card Kit, and the Musical Swirls Impression Plate) simply click over to the Angel Tree website and find the answer to this question: “Name the founder of Angel Tree.” (You’ll want to read the touching story of how Angel Tree got started while you’re there!)  E-mail Taylored Expressions with the answer in the subject line of your e-mail by Wednesday at 6pm PST.  The winner will be announced on Taylor’s blog at approximately 10 pm PST Wednesday night.

If you’ve been hanging around here at Taylored Expressions for long, then you’ve probably heard of our Giving Tree Charitable Program. Each quarter we introduce a new stamp set where a portion of the proceeds are donated to charity. Supporting local, national, and international charities is truly important to all of us at TE. Each quarter I get goosebumps as I see your orders come through and know that the money we are able to donate is supporting hopes, dreams, and life. This quarter I am proud to introduce Joy to the World, a beautiful stamp set illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes collection! For each Joy to the World stamp set sold through October 31st, Taylored Expressions will donate $5.00 to The Angel Tree charity. Please NOTE an important change: Giving Tree stamp sets are now pre-trimmed and ready to stamp as soon as they arrive on your doorstep!

The Angel Tree is a charity I’ve been personally involved with since I was child. I remember carefully choosing a name from the tree and going shopping with my mom to buy Christmas gifts for a child in need. Angel Tree is a program administered by Prison Fellowship whose Mission is to seek the transformation of prisoners and their reconciliation to God, family and community through the power of Jesus Christ.  Angel Tree invites churches to provide Christmas gifts to the children of inmates across the country.

We’d love to have you learn more about this wonderful charity and even how you might get involved.  So we have a special prize drawing planned! If you’d like to be entered to win our Angel Bundle Prize Pack (Joy to the World Full Sized Stamp Set, Angel Kisses Taylored Card Kit, and the Musical Swirls Taylored Impression Plate) simply click over to the Angel Tree website and find the answer to this question: “Name the founder of Angel Tree.”  Email me by 6pm PST on Wednesday night with your answer in the subject line of your email. We’ll pool together all of the correct answers and draw one name at random to win the prize pack. The winner will be announced at approximately 10pm PST on Wednesday night right here on my blog.

So are you starting to wonder if I actually have any sneak peeks to share today!? Well, here goes! I’ll start off with a set of Christmas cards that I created using the latest Taylored Card Kit. I know some of you are probably thinking “Christmas cards already!?” If that’s you then you’re probably making your holiday cards a few weeks before Christmas and hoping they arrive in the mail on time. I must admit I’m usually on the procrastination train, but with a new baby on the way I need to be working ahead as much as possible! Joy to the World and the coordinating Angel Kisses Card Kit gave me the perfect opportunity to start Christmas in July! The card kit (pictured below) includes the following supplies… enough to make at least 24 cards!

24 A2 Cream Envelopes
24 Choice Buttercream A2 Card Bases
24 Choice Buttercream Image Panels 4.25″ x 5.5″
24 pieces of coordinating cardstock 4.25″ x 5.5″ (4 colors, 6 sheets each color)
24 pieces of Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses patterned paper 4″ x 6″
6 yards of twill (2 yards each of Wine, Artichoke, Carnation)
1 package of Want to Scrap Maroon Pearls
1 package of Want to Scrap Green Pearls

And if you want to get even more than 24 cards (or create cards with more layers and embellishment) we’ll also have coordinating packs of ribbon, cardstock, and Copic marker matches available!

When you purchase the Angel Kisses Card Kit you’ll receive a set of downloadable inspiration sheets from the Baker’s Dozen! Today we’ve each created a card that can be easily mass-produced so you’ll end up with several ideas for your holiday cards along with instructions too. AND I saved the best for last…all of this is only $16.95!

I also wanted to show you that these gorgeous angels can also be used for non-holiday cards. I paired this angel with patterned paper from the new Authentique Uncommon 6×6 pad and a sentiment from the Care and Comfort stamp set to create a sympathy card. I stamped the image in Memento Rich Cocoa, paper pieced her dress with patterned paper, and color the rest of her with Copic markers. I also used my airbrush for the yellow glow around the around the outside of the image panel. I layered the image onto the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis die shape and also layered two cuts of the Cloud Border die along the bottom. The ribbon is carnation poly-twill and the little flowers in the corner are Cream Lotus flowers from Webster’s Pages.

This was totally a marathon post, but I hope you love what you’ve seen of the Joy to the World set so far! It’s one of my new favorites! Make sure you check out what our amazing team of designers has created using this set too and then I’ll see you right back here tomorrow morning for more sneaks!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Danielle Lounds
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Nancy McKinney
• Melody Rupple
• Melissa Sauls
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tori Wild
• Wanda Guess