Hey there! I hope you’re all having a fabulous Labor Day! Even though it’s an official holiday we’re ready to get our 4th Birthday Bash started! I can hardly believe it’s been four years! We wouldn’t have made it this far without our wonderful customers and I’m so thankful for your support throughout the years! This week is all about the party and everyone is invited! We have our biggest release to date with 17 new stamps and stamp sets, 7 new Taylored dies, and some super sweet special offers! All of the new products will be released on Thursday at 8am PST. Stay tuned throughout the week for tons and tons of inspiration before the big release!

My first project uses A Little Slow, one of our four new Belated Birthday a la carte stamps. We’re adding to the original seven belated birthday stamps released 2 years ago. Who doesn’t forget to send a birthday card occasionally? These are the perfect solution to put a smile on your recipient’s face!

I used patterned paper from the Echo Park This & That Charming collection. I paper pieced the turtle shell, popping up some of the pieces on foam tape and covering everything with a layer of glossy accents. I colored the rest of the image with Copics. I also used the new Circles Big Background stamp and new linen ribbon to finish it off. Here’s a look at the four new and seven originally released belated birthday stamps all together:

One of our super sweet deals this month is that orders over $50 will be able to choose one FREE Belated Birthday A la Carte stamp (new or old)! Check out the Current Specials page on release day for all the details!

My second project uses You Take the Cake! It’s the first ever ‘sampler’ at Taylored Expressions where each of our five artists contributed birthday themed images to this one adorable set!

For my project I started with Jen’s Deconstructed Sketch #67. The patterned paper is from Doodlebug Candy Dots & Nifty Notions. I added white liquid applique and glitter for the frosting and finished it off with some white and red polka dot ribbon.

In conjunction with the release of our first ever TE sampler set, we thought it’d be fun to host a little contest with a big prize! The sampler set contains artwork from each of our illustrators: Doug Applegate (Apple Doodle Ink), Emily Burger (Embracing Grace), Nancy McKinney (Whimsical Wishes and Moka), Jessie Oleson (Stamp a Sweet Impression/Cuppie), and Taylor VanBruggen (*te*). Rather than tell you which artist contributed each image, you’re going to have fun guessing!

Each person who follows the contest directions below and has 7 or more correct answers will be entered into a drawing for two free stamp sets of your choice!

Each image has been assigned a number 1-9 (see the graphic above). Check out the different stamp collections in the TE Store and compare them to the images above. 
Then get your guesses in.  HURRY!  This contest is only open for a
limited time! 

Contest Rules:

• All submissions must be received by Wednesday 9/5/12 at 6:00 p.m. PST.
• One entry per person.
• The winner will be announced Friday 9/7/12 on Taylor’s blog.
• E-mail your entry to contest@tayloredexpressions.com
• Title your e-mail “Guess the Artist”
• Copy the following format into the body of your e-mail and fill in
  ALL of the answers.  Please indicate the name of each artist (just the
  first name is fine) after the number of the image as seen in the graphic
  above. Note that some artists contributed more than one image.

              
                  YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME:
                  E-mail address:
              
                  Artist for Image #1:
                  Artist for Image #2:
                  Artist for Image #3:
                  Artist for Image #4:
                  Artist for Image #5:
                  Artist for Image #6:
                  Artist for Image #7:
                  Artist for Image #8:
                  Artist for Image #9:

Can’t wait to see your guesses! And if you love the images in our first sampler set, it will be available on Thursday morning FREE with any purchase of $150 or more in the TE Store.

Thanks so much for stopping by on the first day of our birthday bash! The Baker’s Dozen & friends have been hard at work on some more amazing projects so make sure you keep hopping along to see all the eye candy:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jami Sibley (DT Coordinator)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess
• Carolyn King (Guest Designer)