Hey, crafty friends! It’s Heather here to kick off the 13th Birthday Challenges from the TE Creative Team! We paired up the designers on the team and had them come up with creative challenges for each other and all of you. We have four challenges happening, the first of which starts today from Taylor and me! Create along with the challenges for a chance to win a TE Guest Designer Spot (for a future release) or a $25 gift certificate to the TE webstore (13 will be drawn from all challenge entries).

Once you create your challenge card, upload it to the appropriate photo album on the Fans of Taylored Expressions Facebook Page. You may create as many cards as you’d like for each challenge and we ask that you use TE stamps/dies/stencils if possible. The deadline to upload all of your projects is 11:59PM Central Time on Friday, September 17th. Winners will be announced here on the blog and on Facebook on Monday, September 20th.

In addition, the cards that have been designed by the TE Creative Team for their specific challenge will be auctioned off! Yes, that’s right, you have a chance to get a card from one of your favorite designers! And not only that, but all of the proceeds from the auctions will benefit the charity Heifer International. Two auctions will launch each morning at 9am starting today through September 12th over on the Fans of Taylored Expressions Facebook Page. You’ll also notice that all of the cards created by the TE Creative Team give you a sneak peek at the new products that will be coming your way next week!

Alright, are you ready for your first challenge? It probably comes as no surprise that we’re combining Heather’s love of Toffee cardstock and Taylor’s affinity for rainbows in this challenge. Create a card that combines Toffee cardstock (i.e. Kraft) along with a rainbow palette of your choice! We used Lollipop, Candy Corn, Pineapple, Lime Zest, Blue Raspberry, and Jelly Donut, but you’re welcome to use the rainbow palette of your choice!

Click below to upload your project into the Toffee & Rainbow Challenge album on the Fans of Taylored Expressions Facebook Page:

Now, let’s take a look at the cards that Taylor and I created for this challenge!

Taylor LOVES all things rainbow, but rarely uses Toffee in her projects (I won’t tell you how much she moaned about creating with it for this challenge…!) She stenciled the cake onto the Toffee cardstock using Sugar Cube ink before stenciling the rainbow of colors over the top. Using white ink as a base really helps dye ink color pop on a colored piece of cardstock. I am sure you spotted the rainbow of tiny gems that are adorning the cute cake… we can’t wait to share more with you about those next week! Didn’t Taylor’s card turn out cute? I am loving her Toffee and Rainbow combination!

I, on the other hand, LOVE using Toffee cardstock whenever I can, but tend to use a much more neutral color palette when I create. It is a challenge for me to pull out all of the bright colors, let alone use them all at once. Taylor, can’t I just use Avocado with Toffee? Please??? Instead, she threw six bright colors at me to use, including Lollipop which is one of my least used colors! I bit the bullet and blended the rainbow of colors onto this card full of fun party hats. And you know what? I love the results! I even added tiny Lollipop gems to the brim of the party hat that I used with the sentiment!

Taylor will be live today on the Taylored Expressions Facebook Page at 10AM Central Time to talk about the challenges and card auction for our 13th birthday celebration at Taylored Expressions! We hope to see you there – come join in the celebration! (Don’t worry, if you miss the live you can always watch the saved broadcast afterward!)

Stop back again here tomorrow for the next challenge that is coming your way from Noriko Fairchild & Kavya. I can’t wait to see what you all create, I definitely see myself spending lots of time scrolling through the challenge albums on the Fans of Taylored Expressions Facebook Page!

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