Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients Blog Hop!

Edited to add: I've switched out the pictures of my project since the original post. They are still not the best, but better than before. This is definitely one of those projects that looks better in real life!

When Taylor asked if I'd like to participate in a special blog hop featuring the latest Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients Subscription Kit, I didn't have to think twice. Of course I would! As any of you who visit me know, I'm HUGE fan of TE Key Ingredients kits. They are my "secret weapon" when it comes to creating cards... everything I need to get started is right there, perfectly color coordinated and ready to go. I love Taylor's eye for design. She extends that to her kits, pulling together the most fabulous papers, ribbons and embellishments around!

The theme of our blog hop is the kitchen... anything to do with cooking or food. I must confess that I'm not much of a cook. The best thing I make for dinner is reservations (and I'm darn good at calling for take-out). In fact, my first thought was to make a decorative folder for all our take-out menus! Ha!

But I happen to have a friend who is as wild about cooking as I am about paper crafting. Her name is Laureen Pittman, and she has won many awards and prizes for cooking. Some of the highlights include being a finalist last year in the Pillsbury Bake-Off (and she is again this year), a contestant in the Ultimate Recipe Showdown on Food Network, and most recently a finalist in the Ocean Spray Ultimate Cranberry Recipe contest.

Laureen and I have been friends for nearly 20 years and I've long wanted to make something special for her. The blog hop theme got me thinking, and here's what I came up with... a recipe holder (of sorts) that features all of Laureen's award-winning recipes!

The vertical stand and page protectors were purchased from Taylored Expressions. Of course, this is still a work in progress... there was no way I could finish all of the pages in time for the blog hop... did I mention that Laureen has won MANY awards?... but you can definitely see where I'm going with this.

"Home for Dinner" is the name Laureen picked for her one-time catering business, and she told me that's what she'd name her cookbook.

This is one of the recipe cards...for Killer Baja Chili Rellenos Mariscos... one of the dishes Laureen cooked on the Ultimate Recipe Showdown. It's a rather long recipe, so continues on the reverse. I found a picture of a poblano chili on the web, printed it out in two sizes, cut them out and voila...a proper embellishment!


I plan to include photographs of Laureen at the various cooking events where her recipes were featured. This is more of a scrapbooking type of project, but it goes to show how versatile KI kits are... easily adaptable to either scrapbooking or card making... or any other papercrafting projects!

For my project, I'm mainly using ingredients from the January Key Ingredients Subscription Kit, which you can see on the BRAND NEW Key Ingredients website! Isn't it fun!? I LOVE the Gallery feature. What a great place to go for inspiration and a lot of great eye candy!

I've gotta tell ya, there's no better time to subscribe than now. You'll learn more on Taylor's blog, but highlights include:

* Limited Time Subscription Special. Purchase (or renew) a 6 month subscription on or before January 17th and receive a FREE Key Ingredients kit upon the completion of your 6 month subscription. This kit (a $23.95 value including shipping) will be an exclusive kit that will never be available in the TE Store!

* Beat the Price Increase. Increased shipping costs on both our shipments to you and the products we receive from manufacturers have forced us to increase the cost of our subscription. Prices will increase as of January 18th, to $23.95 per month for 6 month subscriptions and $25.95 per month for 3 month subscriptions. However, if you subscribe or renew by January 17th you’ll receive the current pricing of $21.95 per month for 6 months or $22.95 per month for 3 months. You can renew your subscription no matter how many months you have remaining on your current subscription. Your renewal will simply add 3 or 6 additional months. Remember you only get the FREE EXCLUSIVE KI with the 6 month option.

Another thing I LOVE about being a subscriber is that you get a chance to purchase extra items at a 10% discount (Hello!) AND have them sent with your kit at no extra shipping cost! I believe that links to other products in the store that coordinate well with that month's kit will appear on the new KI website. How cool is that?

Be sure to hop around and see all the other DELICIOUS things have been cooked up for your viewing pleasure:

Laura Leonard
Lisa Hjulberg (that's me!)
Lynn Mercurio
Randi Barrett
Sunghee Chon
Candace Mitchell
Kathie Bailey
Taylor VanBruggen
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Melissa Sauls
Donna Baker
Charmaine Ikach
Jeanie Witmer

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back tomorrow for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge. Have a YUMMY day!