Happy ninth birthday!

Happy September! I can't believe it's already back-to-school season and Labor Day weekend. Where did the summer go? But I love autumn, so I'm ready for it.

This month, Taylored Expressions is celebrating its ninth birthday (woohoo!) and, as part of the festivities, is hosting a birthday sketch challenge. Nine participants will win a prize pack of Taylored Expressions products, and one person will be chosen to be a guest designer with the Creative Team for the October Release. How awesome is that?! I had other crafty projects I wanted to finish this weekend, but this challenge moved to the top of the to-do list. So far I've created one card, but I'd like to finish at least two more. I'll share them in separate posts, so here's the first one:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Make a Wish (Taylored Expressions), Geo-Graphic (Paper Smooches)
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Tempting Turquoise, Hello Honey, Basic Black, Baked Brown Sugar, Flirty Flamingo, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White card stock; Brights Collection Designer Series Paper (DSP) Patterns Stack
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Build-A-Scene - Trees dies (Taylored Expressions), Stitched Shapes Framelits dies, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, 1/4" hole punch, Streamers embossing folder (Taylored Expressions), iridescent sequins (unkown), Brights enamel shapes, google eyes (Inkadinkadoo), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), Dimensionals

This is definitely a bright, busy card -- not quite my usual style -- but I think I can get away with it since this is a kid's birthday card.

My favorite part of this card is the focal layer with the three Muppet-like characters. I made those little guys ages ago and put them on a card, but I decided I didn't like that card, so I pulled them off to save for later. This was the perfect opportunity to let them shine.

The sketch for Taylored Expressions's
birthday challenge

Here's a little secret about those characters: They're made with a set of tree dies (Build-A-Scene - Trees) and a couple of circle punches! Crazy, right? I kept looking at the dies for the treetops and seeing heads and hair for Muppet-style characters. So I went with it and created these three fun guys, using a couple of small circle punches to make their mouths, enamel dots for the noses, and of course googly eyes.

The rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory. I stamped a background on the Rich Razzleberry card base, embossed a festive pattern on the middle layer, and used a strip of tone-on-tone polka dot DSP to make the banner piece. To finish off the card, I added a few iridescent sequins and enamel stars in Daffodil Delight and Tempting Turquoise.

I'm not sure yet who will be the recipient of this card, but I hope it make him/her smile! I'll be back this weekend with more cards for the challenge. Until then, thanks for stopping by!