Day 7 of 12 Days of Christmas from Paper Craft Planet!

Happy Monday Morning Everyone!!!

Today is Day Seven of our 12 Days of Christmas campaign over at Paper Craft Design Team and I am your hostess! For 12 days, the Super Novas of Paper Craft Design Team will each show you some awesome and easy gift giving ideas, and you can play along and win prizes by participating in a scavenger hunt! Keep reading for a clue and chance to win!

Today, I am excited to show you a lunchbox ornament that can be hung on your christmas tree with a little surprise inside!! I found this lunchbox in the $1 aisle in Target a long time ago and thought it would make a fun ornament to hang up. I altered the front of it and loved that when it is opened up - there is a little surprise waiting for a special person :) Here is a picture of the ornament as it hangs on the tree:

And here is a picture of the ornament when you open it up:

Project Ingredients:

Papers: Prism Cardstock

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, LadyBug Red

Stamps: Verve - O Christmas Tree

Accessories: Corner rounder, liquid pearls, rhinestones, dimensionals, sponger, EK success border punch

Today's scavenger hunt is sponsored by My Favorite Things! You could win a GENEROUS prize if you can solve our clue...

"This little GIRL is PURE and sweet.

STAMPing with her is really a treat.

All of your cards will give you a thrill

'cause she's holding SNOWBALLS and throw them she will!

Can you find the answer? It's an easy one too!

Link it below and we'll be so proud of you!"

Find the product on the My Favorite Things website that fits the clue and you could be our winner! If you know what the answer is then make sure you hop on over to Paper Craft Planet and leave a comment HERE (don't worry if the comments don't show up - I have turned the visibility off so that people don't see other people's answers!!!) Remember - you have through the rest of today to find the answer!!

AND make sure you check the Paper Craft Planet main page every day through December 12th to play along! (You can visit the this LINK for past projects!)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Big hugs to all!!

Sankari :)

2 Sketches 4 You - #41 - Merry Christmas!

Good Morning Everyone!

Happy Monday! Our monday morning is off to a snowy start and the harvested cornfields look beautiful covered in white winter magic :) Today over at 2 Sketches 4 You, Kazan has a lovely sketch for us to play with and this week's sponsor is g.c.d studio and the DT was so excited to play along using their amazing holiday collection of papers from the Christmas Sleigh Collection - and also with their beautiful buttons and brads! I loved the fact that this collection came with different textures of papers from clear acetate, to felted papers, to shimmery glitteriness of the different papers! We were so excited to use these papers that we all made 2 cards this week - one with Kazan's awesome sketch #41 and another one from whatever layout we liked. Here is my card using Kazan's beautiful sketch:

I attached the clear acetate paper to the DP with some Zip Dry in the corners and added some rhinestones in the corner. I used the chipboard and used the lovely wreath stamp from Verve that I cut out and then popped up on dimensionals on the piece of chipboard:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: g.c.d studios: Christmas Sleigh Collection

Inks: Lady Bug Memento

Stamps: Verve: O' Christmas Tree

Accessories: Zp Dry, Rhinestones, liquid pearls, brad, ribbon from stash, Bo Bunny candy cane and dimensionals.

Here is my second card that I made "just for fun" - I used the Holiday Button Bits from PaperTrey and I absolutely LOVED using this gorgeous red paper - it has "foil" in it and the way it shines is just beautiful!!!

Card Ingredients:

Paper: g.c.d studios: Christmas Sleigh Collection

Inks: Lady Bug Memento

Stamps: PaperTrey Holiday Bits

Accessories: Whirligig buttons, EK Success punch, Sakura White gel pen, brad, ribbon from Taylored Expressions and dimensionals.

I absolutely loved playing along with this lovely sketch! And a huge thank you to g.c.d studios for their generosity! The winner this week will get their hands on the yummy Christmas Sleigh Collection!!! So check out all the yumminess right here at 2 Sketches 4 You!!!

Can't wait to see all the yumminess that the rest of the DT have cooked up!!!

Happy Monday Everyone!!!

Big Hugs!

Sankari :)

RELEASE DAY At Taylored Expressions!!!

Good Morning Everyone!

Today is the release of all the new Taylored Expressions stamp sets that you have been seeing in all the sample peeks this week!!! woo-hoo! You might have noticed that there was not a Key Ingredients kit for this release - well, the reason why is because Taylor is introducing something *NEW* called the: Taylored Card Kits!!! You are going to LOVE these kits - I know what I want to see in my stockings :). Each is card kit is $14.95 & will contain the following;

• 15 sheets of patterned paper cut to 4" x 5 1/4 " and there are 3 sheets of each of the 5 patterns
• 10 Choice Cardstock card bases (totally love this cardstock for coloring with copics or color pencils-they are so buttery smooth!
• 10 envelopes
• 20 sheets of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" Prism cardstock that will be a total of 5 colors total with 4 sheets of each color
• 1 package of Kaisercraft Pearls
• 8 sheets of Choice cardstock (cut to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" for images)
• 5 yards of ribbon (2.5 yards each of 2 different styles)
• 1 Perfect Package Card Box

Can you BELIEVE all of that in one kit!!! That is awesome!! Today the Baker's Dozen is showcasing how you can put together one of these cardkits that can make up to 10 cards by showing you a decorated a Perfect Package and 10 cards that will fit in there! Each card is an A2 size and comes with envelopes to match! I love that this box can hold all 10 A2 cards PERFECTLY!

Here is a picture collage of my Perfect Package Box , the front of it and how it opens up (I love the fact that it has a magnetic closure so that it shuts tight and is so sturdy!) and a group shot of all of my ten cards :) using the Crafty Cuppie stamp set and the Crafty Cuppie Accessories stamp set.

The Taylored Card Kit that I am used to make ALL 10 cards is the GIRL FRIDAY CARD KIT (Click on the the link and you can see all the papers, ribbon, pearls and cardstock that come with this kit ALONG with a Perfect Package Box!!! NOW THAT is awesome!!!) I adore Cosmo Cricket and I love the papers in this kit - so fun and bright and cheery!) Also what I love about the Crafty Cuppie Stamp set and the Accessory set is the variety and versatility of this stamp set - you can mix and match sentiments and images to create the perfect card for that special "crafty" someone in your life!!!

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CALLING ALL STAMPERS!

Here are some cards for that special crafty stamper in your life: I LOVE the sentiment Inky Hugs!!! :) So excited to be able to send some cards with this sentiment to my fave blog buddies :)

Or this awesome sentiment: "The worst day "Stamping" is better than the best day at work!! LOL! (there is a space in this sentiment so that you can choose which craft you want to substitute in (whether its quiliting, stamping, knitting, etc.)

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CALLING ALL KNITTERS!

Here are four of my favorite cards for all of my knitting friends! I am so excited to be able to make these cards for them!! :)

I LOVE this sentiment that you can substitute with different craft sentiments: "I *heart*... and in this case I put in "knitting" - I love the image of Cuppie knitting on this couch :)

Or this sentiment: "Knitting is Cheaper than Therapy" - and again you can substitute this with any other of the stamps in the set - so it can be "Quilting is Cheaper than Therapy, etc...." I love that versatility!!!

This sentiment always cracks me up: "Housework or Knitting? Guess which one I chose?!" hee!!! (and again you can substitute the word knitting with another craft) and if you know me - you know that I never really ever choose housework!!! LOL!!!

And my favorite substitution phrase: "I'd Rather Be..."and in this case - I put Knitting: but I love that I can use this phrase with any of the other sentiments!

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CALLING ALL SEWing LOVERS!

These Two cards below are for all the Sewing Peeps! out there :) I love the sentiment: "You're so Sweet!" sooo cute and just the fact that Cuppie is sewing just always cracks me up! I love the fact that you can paper piece the cloth that is being sewn to match your card:

Here is another one using the Sewing Cuppie Image with the sentiment "Housework or Sewing, Guess which one I chose?" How totally cute is that sentiment and this image :) I just love it!

One of my other favorite sentiments from this set (that the top of the Perfect Package Box is Decorated with) is the sentiment: "Do Something Creative Everyday": I LOVE how you can mix and match this sentiment with all of the images in this set or even with some of the accessory images as in the next card! LOVE that versatility! I totally ADORE this image of Cuppie painting - and I especially LOVE what he is painting!!! :)

And here is the last one - its one of my favorite cards (its the same way I decorated the front of the Perfect Package Box): is this card using the sentiment "Do Something Creative Everyday"

After creating ALL of these cards from ONE card Kit - I STILL have ribbon, and DP and cardstock and pearls left over for more!!! It is such an amazing new product that Taylor has put together!!

And GUESS WHAT?! She has 3 Taylored Card Kits that will be available today!!! Check out the Baker's Dozen Blogs today to see all 3 Card Kits: Girl Friday Card Kit, the Bloom and Grow Card Kit and the Pretty Please Card Kit!!! I can't wait to see - come and hop with me (LOL!!! I crack myself up with my rhyming skillzzz!!!)

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Jami Sibley

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Laurie Schmidlin

Sharon Harnist

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

I hope you have enjoyed all of the samples from this release and all of the card kits too!! I love the fact that it is so easy to coordinate making cards, and having the ribbon and cardstock, DP and even an awesome BOX to put them in!!! And to make it even easier - Taylor has a Copic Set for each Card Kit - Check it all out HERE!

Thanks for coming over to visit today - and thank you for all of your sweet comments this release - you guys are just the best!!!

Happy Friday and Weekend!!!

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks - Day 2

Good Morning Everyone!!!

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's blog hop to see everyone's lovely "Discover Your Wings" stamp set - well there is more awesomeness today as we show samples from 2 stamp sets will be rleased tomorrow at 8am PST at the Taylored Expressions store. Today the Design Team has split up in two teams - one team will feature creations from the stamp set called Sweet Occasions: and the other team show casing the stamp set called Crafty Cuppie (and accessory set). I have always loved cuppie - how can you not love cupcake - especially one as talented as Cuppie!!! This new stamp set and accessory set featuring Cuppie is something that is made especially for us crafters - You don't want to miss this one!!! I LOVe all the sentiments and this set because I have been looking for something that has sentiments that you can make for other fellow crafters & the fun thing is that with the accessory set - you can even custom make your particular sentiment (more on that later :)

Card #1 - Stamping is Cheaper than Therapy

My first card is one of my favorite - because it is SOOOO TRUE!!! The sentiment reads: "Stamping is Cheaper Than Therapy" :

Here is a close up of all the things on Cuppie's desk - how cute is this! There is Cuppie's own paper trimmer, a heart punch, ink pads, glue dots and designer paper!!! :)))) !! I was giggling while making this card!!! I even paper pieced the papers in the stamp with the designer paper in the card! lol!

And here is a close up of the bottom half of the card - I stamped the word "Stamping" on a tag and then popped it up with dimensionals onto the label die. I know just the person who this is for - someone who gets my addiction of all things cardmaking :))

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Basic Grey: Marrakech collection and Choice Snow White cardstock

Ink: Memento Lady Bug Red and Aquamarine

Stamps: Crafty Cuppie

Accessories: Spellbinders, dimensionals, Fiskars ribbon threading punch and scalloped punch, Sakura glaze pen (both clear and red), copics, ribbon from stash and button from Whirligig.

Card #2 - I'd Rather Be Quilting

The second card that I made today is for my MIL to give to one of her quilter friends - I love this sentiment and was loving the papers from the card above so I kept going with the same papers as above in making this card because as soon as I saw that the Marrakech collection had paper that looked like mini quilt squares, I knew that I had to use it!

Here is a close up of the details - I love this stamp with the little cross stitching pattern - sooo cute and I had to paper piece what Cuppie was stitching - which just totally made me giggle more :)

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Basic Grey Marrakech collection and Choice Snow White cardstock

Ink: Memento Expresso and Aquamarine

Stamps: Crafty Cuppie

Accessories: Spellbinders, dimensionals, Fiskars scalloped punch, Sakura glaze pen (both clear and white), copics, ribbon from stash and buttons from Whirligig (I {heart} these buttons :)

Card # 3 - You Color My World

For my third card - this one is made for my sweetest little man - just in the last couple of months - my little DS has become quite the artiste - he LOVEs to draw and to paint and last week he was upset with me because I made a card for his sister and I didn't make anything for him - lol - so this card is made with him - I LOVE this sentiment: "You color my world" - what a gorgeous sentiment! I chose the little cuppie who is painting and thought that I should create an easel card - since the cuppie is after all.... painting - so I followed the directions from SCS on the easel card whose illustrations and text was created by Penny Wessenaur and the original card concept is by Deborah March. Mary Beerman has a great video tutorial that you can follow along with - and I made my base cardstock 4x4 - but you can alter it to any size to fit your stamp or the envelope.

I used the same papers as the above card and love that with the easel card - he can display it in his room (and the thing that TOTALLY touches my heart is that both of my kids display the cards that I make for them in their room - it is just the sweetest thing ever - and not only that - they keep track of how many cards the other has - so I have to make sure that the next one I make is one for my daughter - otherwise I will be "hearing" about it :)))

Usually there is one button right in the middle that is there to keep the card flush as it stands up - and in this card - its more like a line of the buttons. I love that it can easily fold down and lay flat as well (sliding it into an envelope will depend on the card and embellishments and dimensionals):

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Basic Grey Marrakech collection and Choice Snow White cardstock

Ink: Memento Expresso and Aquamarine

Stamps: Crafty Cuppie

Accessories: Spellbinders, dimensionals, Fiskars scalloped punch, Sakura glaze pen (both clear and white), copics, ribbon from stash and buttons from Whirligig

I love alllllll of the little crafty things that Cuppie is doing in this set and know that if you are a crafter of any kind - you are going to love this set and all the versatility of the sentiments that you can interchange and create to tailor/taylor ;) it to your crafting needs :) To see more Crafty Cuppie fun-ness - check out what the following amazing designers created:

Taylor VanBruggen

Charmaine Ikach

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Donna Baker

And please check out the awesome new stamp set Sweet Occasions (concept from our very own Jami Sibley!!!) from these amazing designers:

Jami Sibley

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Laurie Schmidlin

Sharon Harnist

Dawn Easton

Stop by Everyone's blog and leave some LOVE because one lucky commenter might win a Sweet Occasions stamp set!!!! How awesome is that!!!!! All the winners will be announced tomorrow!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!!!!

Please stop by for more and more fun treats here tomorrow as we celebrate the release of all of these wonderful stamps!!! You don't want to miss it!!! :)

Hugs!

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks - Day 1

Good Morning Everyone!!!

I am so excited because of the stamp sets that Taylored Expressions will releasing this Friday, December 5th at 8amPST and all of the yummy sneak peeks of those sets that are starting from today on! Every 3 months, Taylored Expressions introduces a new stamp set in the TE Giving Tree Program, where a $7 from each stamp set will go to a particular charity. This is one of the reasons that I love being part of Taylored Expressions because it is so wonderful to know that I am helping to make a difference by supporting these charities and also by getting more awareness to the wonderful works that these charities do.

Today - all of us will be showing samples from the beautiful stamp set Discover Your Wings (designed by the awesome Nancy McKinney) and a percentage of the proceeds of this beautiful stamp set will go to benefit the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep organization also known as NILMDTS. This amazing foundation is a charity that administers a network of almost 7000 photographers in the US and 35 other countries who volunteer their time to gently provide a helping hand and healing heart to famillies who have suffered the loss of an infant by offering gentle and beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitve manner. NIMLDTS is there for parents and famillies to help them in thei healing, bring hope to their future and to honor their child. They belive that it is through rememberance that a family and truly begin to heal. Taylored Expressions is honored to help support the work of this wonderful charity, I encourage you to go to their website and learn more of their wonderful work.

This is an organization whose work went right to my heart for many reasons - most of which are hard for me to talk about - and maybe I can in the future - but for right now - all I can say - is that I am so happy to support and organization that supports families to heal after an infant has passed away - what an amazing treasure they are giving that family and what a beacon of hope they are to help in this way. In the Sioux Falls Hospital where Taylor's SIL works, their neo-natal hospital gives cards with a dragonfly on it to famillies who have lost their children at the hospital as a sign of hope. Taylor will also be sponsoring a card drive for anyone who wants to send anything dragonfly related to donate to this hospital. Knowing this - that the dragonfly symbolized hope - I made this card for today's sneak peek - I love the dragonfly stamp and covered the wings in chunky glitter.

I wanted to create a matching ornament/ hanging diorama to go with this card - so I created this from this cutie patootie metal tin - which can be pierced with a crop-a-dile and then you can insert an eyelet and this allows you to thread a ribbon through and hang it up....

I covered the bottom of the tin with some Flower Soft and loved the feel of a meadow of flowers that this sweet butterfly is flitting about in :)

Here is a picture of the card and tin together as a gift set to give to someone special - for me the most important thing is to always dream - to have goals - to work towards them and to always know that dreams do come true....

Card Ingredients and Project details:

Paper: Kaiser Kraft and coordinations cardstock for the base

Ink: color box chalks, Memento Grape Jelly, Pear Tart and Desert Sand

Stamps: Discover Your WIngs

Accessories: dimensionals, stickles, chunky glitter from Martha, flower soft, metal container from my amazing friend, ribbon from stash, spellbinders, brad from Kaiser Kraft, bling from K&Company.

I loved making this hanging diorama and so I had to make another ornament with the beautiful sentiment: See Beyond - and loved embossing this gorgeous butterfly - I am hanging this right near my desk where I can always see it - and always remember that there is a Greater Beyond in this journey of life and to always remember the preciousness of this life:

Project Details:

Paper: American Craft

Stamps: Discover Your Wings

Ink: Memento Lilac Posies

Accessories: frame, ribbon from stash, EP bridal and bling from Kaiser

My last project - is something a little different - it has some Kraft in it (I am a total Kraft newbie :) I love these papers called Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts Girl Collection - that Taylor has in the store - and couldn't wait to emboss this gorgeous stamp image that is in this set of the flower silhouettes - I CASED this gorgeous card that Taylor made for the last TE sketch challenge #92 using these papers. The butterfly is paper pieced and I have to say that I love how this card turned out:

Here is a view from the side - the embossed images are actually quite sparkly - but it is a little hard to tell - love the feeling of embossing:

Card Details:

Paper: Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts Girl Collection and Prism Cardstock

Stamps: Discover Your Wings

Ink: Memento Aquamarine ink

Accessories: Sakura white gel pen, Spare Parts curly q's, circle punches, corner chomper, dimensionals, embossing powder, bling from Kaiser Kraft

The sentiments in this set are so inspiring - they can be for encouragement, for sympathy, for a thinking of you kinda card and I love how all of the different card making techniques that are also possible with this set like embossing, emboss resist, paper piecing, coloring, water coloring - and I can't wait to make more...

Speaking of making more - please check out the awesome creations from the Baker's Dozen this week - I know that they will amaze you!!! And Guess WHAT!!! You can WIN this stamp set!!! All you have to do is to leave a comment on each designer's blog for a chance to win!!! One lucky winner will be chosen at random and will be announced on Friday morning on Taylor's Blog!!! You have until 6am PST on Thursday to enter you comments!!!

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Donna Baker (at the Stamp a Sweet Impression Blog)

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Jami Sibley

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Laurie Schmidlin

Sharon Harnist

Nancy McKinney

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

Thank you so much for stopping by my little ole corner today!

Please stop by tomorrow for Day 2 of sneak peeks!!!

Hugs!

Sankari :)

2Sketches 4 you - Laura's Sketch #40 - Silent Night...

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend - ours was really so very sweet - it was filled with lots of slow moments - you know those kind of moments that seem to last forever - we had such great weather this weekend and so the kids were able to play outside and ride their bikes and it was such a delight to just to "be"... I went to bed so early every night - and woke up ready for the day - and I am actually so excited it is Monday - because this is a going to be a super fun (albeit busy) week! So I got my cup o' decaf joe ready in one hand and my calendar planner in the other - and I am ready to check off all of things in my "to do" list!!! woot!

To start us off - here is today's awesome sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You (this is Laura's sketch) and this week's sponsor is Starving Artists: DoodleFactory stamps and my card features the lovely "Navtivity" stamp set" - I flipped the sketch to make this card:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: all from stash (I am trying to use up all of my scrap papers - these are mostly Bazzil papers)

Stamps: The sentiment and scene is from Starving Artists: DoodleFactory stamps and the star is from Verve: Star of Wonder stamp set

Inks: Memento Aquamarine and Chalk ink: Chestnut Roane

Accessories: Martha Stewart lace punch, corner chomper (1/2"), Adirondack liquid pearls (terra cotta), spellbinders, cuttlebug swissdots, ribbon from stash, Kaiser bling, dimensionals and copics.

I stamped the "scene" twice, and on one I sponged heavily with a few different blue inks and then I adhered the scene on the other page onto the sponged one. I colored it in with copics and added a little liquid pearl for the sand dune look :) - I love the sponged look and it feels so good when you create a card that you really love :)

A huge thank you to Starving Artists DoodleFactory this week for being our sponsor!!! I hope you will check out all the amazing samples that the DT has made and play along with the sketch this week over at 2 Sketches 4 You!!! You could win some amazing yumminess!!!

Can't wait to see your creations!!

Big hugs and Happy Monday!

Sankari :)

Some Exciting News: Three Letters: C H A !!!!!!!!

Good Morning Everyone!!!

I am so excited to actually say that I am going to CHA it up this year! CHA stands for Craft & Hobby Association and is a manufacture trade show where new products are revealed and retail stores have an opportunity to place their initial orders. This year Taylored Expressions is going to be exhibiting at the CHA Craft SuperShow in Anaheim, CA and will have a booth there this year! While the tradeshow is more for retail stores, the CraftSuper Show (Jan 22-23) is for all us crafters! It is open to the public and will be filled with hands on educational experiences with all the different modes of craftmaking (Scrapbooking, stamping, beading, knitting, etc.) as well as make and takes and of course s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g!!!

This is where Taylored Expressions will be exhibiting! And there are lots of fun things planned during this time including: an opportunity to shop at the TE store, do make and takes all day and there will be a whole lOT of the Baker's Dozen girls to meet (I know I can't wait to meet them all!!) including: Taylor VanBruggen, Jodi Collins, Jackie Pedro, Jami Sibley, Karen Motz, Karen Giron, Donna Baker, Sharon Harnist, and Dawn Easton and ... me too!!! (somebody PINCH ME!!!!)

For more information on the event, please check out Taylor's Blog and also click here! Discounted tickets are available for all Taylored Expressions customers and friends! Just click on the image to the left to purchase your tickets and be sure to enter the promo code CRAFT15 to receive the discount!

If you are going - give me a holla! Would love to meet you!!!

Will be back soon with a sketch challenge card!!!

Big hugs :)))) Sankari :)

Verve November Release Thankful Hearts Blog Hop!

Hi Everyone,

Its me again :) Have you been enjoying all of the fantastic sneak peeks and challenges over at the Verve blog today during our Thankful Hearts Blog Party?!! Check them all out over here - there are 5 challenges (here they are listed - click on each one to take you to the specific challenge on the Verve blog:

Challenge #1 - Color Challenge
Challenge #2 - Sketch Challenge
Challenge #3 - To embellish with V-E-R-V-E
Challenge #4 - To create a mini pizza box :)
Challenge #5 - To create a gift card

and lots of prizes - check out all the beautiful samples and details here on the Verve Blog!

Since today is the release of all the new Verve Yumminess we’re topping off our Thankful Hearts Blog Party with a blog hop featuring three new sets that just released, all focused on thankfulness. If you’ve been hopping and arrived from Teresa’s beautiful sunshiney blog , then you’re right where you should be. If you’ve just happened by, then you’ll want to hop on over to Julee's Blog: Poetic Artistry to start from the beginning! And to make this hop even sweeter, we’ve got a special treat hidden along the way for one lucky commenter. So if you see something that makes you smile, be sure to give a little shout-out in the comments for a chance to win our entire release!

I created three thankful samples for today's blog hop party :) The first uses Jen dM and Susan's awesome challenge to create a Mini Pizza Box (which is challenge 4 of the five challenges on the Verve blog that you can play for a change to win some yummy Verve stamps!). I used the Celebration of Thanks stamp set to create this Pizza Box - I adore the font on this set - it is so elegant and beautiful!

Card Ingredients:
Paper: Graphic 45, Ink: Memento Lady Bug Red and Tuxedo Black, Stamps: Celebration of Thanks from Verve, Accessories: spellbinders, dimensionals, sponger, liquid pearls, ribbon from stash

The second card I made uses Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #108 and the stamped sentiment from the set Heartfelt Accents stamp set: I love making thank you cards to give after the holidays to thank everyone for their beautiful gift (and its a great way to use up all the holiday paper!) :
Card Ingredients:
Paper: Graphic 45, Ink: Memento Expresso, Stamps: Heartfelt Accents stamp set Verve, Accessories: spellbinders, dimensionals,flower from Bo Bunny, liquid pearls, ribbon from stash

The last card I created was one of my favorite ones - it was made for a very special person in my life: my daughter (who we also call Lollipop as a nickname :) She wants every card I make to be a card I make especially for her - so this time I did - here is my little Lollipop's card with the sentiment that I love because it totally fits her sweet cute little self :) :) This card also uses the stamp set: Heartfelt Accents:

Card Ingredients:
Paper: Prism Cardstock Ink: Memento Rose Red and Aquamarine and Color Box chalk, Stamps: Heartfelt Accents stamp set:, Accessories: spellbinders, dimensionals, , liquid pearls, ribbon from stash and bling from Kaiser.

THank you so much for hopping over here!

Next up on the blog hop party circut is the awesome Jen del Muro - so hop on over and check out her beautiful creations!

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!!!
Big heart hugs :)
Sankari :)

Verve Challenge #5 - Jen & Sankari's Gift Card Challenge :)

Happy Friday Everyone!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Have you been checking out all of the happenings on the Verve blog today?!!! Today, Julee will be releasing some amazingly beautiful sets over at Verve Stamps at 9pm EST! - but every hour on the hour today, there is a post that will be revealing different peeks and different challenges which you can play for a ton of prizes!!! Right now, Jen Tapler and I are up with the last Verve Challenge for the night (Challenge #5) which we are calling the Gift Card Challenge!

During the holiday season, we often want to thank so many people around us for all of their service and hard work all year long (like the mailman, the hair stylist, etc.) and its nice to have some gift card holders on hand! So our challenge to you is to create a gift card holder of your own. You can create a gift card holder for birthdays, as a thank you, for anniversaries, for the holidays - whatever theme you would like! We are enclosing some links to some gift card making tutorials to help get your mojo going!

Gift Card #1:

I made two sample gift cards for this challenge: The first one is an A2 card with a top note die cut that I folded in half and attached to the front of the card. I made a little pocket in it and created a detachable note that can hold a gift card). These lovely sentiments are from the stamp set called: Thankful Hearts:

When you take the note out of the folder you can open up the inside of it to reveal the gift card (do you know what is kinda funny - I didn't have a gift card to put in my own challenge so I was going to use my library card (lol!) but it looked kinda tacky - so I covered it up with some cardstock :) - can't wait to put a "real" gift card in my little holder (I don't think they would be too excited with my library card!!! LOL!!!!!)

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Prism Cardstock, DP from American Crafts Stamps: Thankful Hearts from Verve, Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Rose Red and Aquamarine, Accessories: Spellbinders, eyelets, sakura glaze pen, ribbon from stash and dimensionals.

Gift Card #2:

This was such a fun and easy card and I couldn't wait to create another one :) This gift card is a die cut of a trifold card that has a half a heart on either side that when closed looks like heart. I created a little pocket inside for the gift card and decorated the outside with one of my fave sentiments from this set called Thankful Hearts: "You Touched My Heart" -

here is a view of it and when you open it up - on the inside of the heart it says "You are too Kind" and on the inside of the card there is a little pocket for the gift card:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Prism Cardstock, American Craft DP Stamps: Thankful Hearts from Verve, Ink: Memento Expresso, Accessories: Ribbon from stash, dimensionals, 1"circle punch, corner rounder, Martha lace edge punch, liquid pearls and Kaiser rhinestones.

There are so many different ways to create a gift card holder and we can't wait to see what kind of gift card holder you create!!! If you need some ideas on how to make one: are some tutorials from SplitcoastStampers: Gift Card Tutorial 1, Gift Card Tutorial 2. Can't wait to see your creations soon!

Check out all of the challenges and Sneak Peeks and Stamp Set Reveals over at the Verve Stamps Blog !!!

And stay tuned to the release of all of these beautiful stamps at 9PM EST followed by a wonderful blog hop all of which are coming up soon!!!

Big heart hugs :)

Sankari :)

Perfect Package Blog Hop!

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! We had a lovely time celebrating with dear friends and are still stuffed from all of the yummy food! We are staying away from all the Black Friday sales in the store - and rather, I am shopping online for Black Friday magic :) Speaking of which Taylor has an amazing sale going on at Taylored Expressions today!!!

In honor of Black Friday and Cyber Monday (the two biggest shopping days of the year!), Taylored Expressions is offering 15% off everything in the store! Just use the promotional code TEBlackFriday upon checkout to receive the discount. You don't want to miss up to 50% off all JustRite products, Buy 2 Get 1 Free on Tiny Twinkles, and the new TE Shirts & Aprons!

Today, we are also having a totally fun blog hop showcasing the beautiful and AWESOME perfect package boxes that Taylored Expressions carries. I LOVE this product - it folds flat and then it pops up into pace in a snap and has a magnetic side to close it shut. It is totally sturdy and now Taylor has two sizes and this one fits a bunch of A2 cards perfectly (which is a great way to give some cards as gifts for all of your dear friends!). But it can hold other items, not just cards - here is a little christmas present that I made for one of my nieces who loves make up and everything makeup related. A little make box holder :

I loved using the Winnie's Walls Key Ingredients paper that Taylor has in a limited supply at her store (which was part of the Fabulous Fall Key Ingredients. I LOVE all the rub ons in this set - makes it so easy to decorate! I used the new stamp set: Sweet Indulgence with one of my fave sentiments: "I;m good enough, I'm sweet enough, and doggone it, people love me!!! (love the SNL reference!!! :) I decorated all four sides with matching cardstock and then added some rubons to the side:

Here is the inside of the Perfect Package box - you can see the rubons, bling :) I created a little compartment in the perfect package to house all the wonderful make up products in:

Project Ingredients:

Paper: Fabulous Fall: Winne's Walls

Inks: Ladybug red and Tuxedo black from Memento

Stamps: Sweet Indulgence from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: bling, spellbinders, ribbon from stash, perfect package box, dimensionals

I had a ton of fun making this perfect package and can't wait for Christmas to give this away to our niece!!! Check out all of these AMAZING stampers and the gorgeous perfect packages that they have decorated!!!

Alex Maldonado
Amy Rohl
Beate Johns
Bev Gerard
Charmaine Ikach
Cindy Haffner
Debbie Olson
Donna Baker
Jami Sibley
Jen del Muro
Jen Tapler
Jenn Balcer
Jennifer Buck
Jessica Diedrich
Joan Ervin
Joanne Basile
Linda Duke
Lori Craig
Rose Anne Reynolds
Sankari Wegman (that's me! :))))
Sharon Harnist
Sherry Cheever
Taylor VanBruggen

Thank you so much for stopping by today!!! I hope your Black Friday shopping brings you great deals!!! I am excited to sit in my PJ's and do some online shopping!!!

Big hugs and thanks to all!!!

Sankari :)

A Just Rite Peek and a Pirate Cupcakes :)))

Good Morning Everyone!!

What a busy time it is right now!!! Do you find yourself running errands and then forgetting what you were supposed to do even though you have a list? lol! I think that's a sign of things being too busy! Well, I am so excited today to share 2 things with you - a card and peek!

The first one is a birthday card that I created for one of my son's best friends - who turned 5 a few days ago and had a pirate themed birthday! Here is a cute little cupcake card using the cutest little cupcake pirate I know! I LOVE this sketch #91 from Taylor (I think I have made three or four cards from it - LOVE it!!!) The cupcake is from Trick or Sweet I and the sentiment is from For the Love of Cupcakes from Taylored Expressions:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Halloween paper stash and other cardstock from stash

Ink: Navy blue Aquamarine

Stamps: Trick or Sweet I and the sentiment is from For the Love of Cupcakes from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: Black glittered ribbon, corner rounder, cuttlebug Swiss dots folder, liquid pearls, circle cutters from Creative Memories and circle punches, blue sakura gel pen and dimensionals (and copics :)

I loved coloring in the little cuppie pirate - totally perfect for a pirate birthday party!!! And the best part was that my son's friend loved it :)))

And guess what - its Day 2 of being a Guest Designer for Just Rite stamps!!! I LOVED making these little "oval" creations" because I think I am "oval challenged :)". I also am vintage challenged - so I challenged myself to create some oval vintaged projects :) Here is a peek of my project - the rest you will find on the Just Rite Blog - you can click HERE to see the rest!

Tomorrow for the Just Rite blog - I am showing a project that involves, socks, snow and butterflies!!! Intrigued? Come on back tomorrow!!! :)

Hope you are all having a fantastic day!!!

Sending ya'll big hugs!

Sankari :)))))))

Just Rite Guest Designer - Day One!

Good Morning Everyone,

I am so excited to be the Guest Designer for the Just Rite Stamp Company this week!!! I have some fun projects coming up this week that I hope you will enjoy! Here is peek of my sample for Day One:

Hope you liked the peek!

You can check out more project details over here at the Just Rite Stamps blog! And this week Just Rite is the wonderful sponosr over at 2 Sketches 4 You - you can play along for a chance to win some yummy stamps - the sketch for this week along with my card for the challenge is in the post below this one :)

Hope your Monday is going fabulous!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs!

Sankari :)

2 Sketches 4 You - #40 - Have a Sweet Holiday!!!

Good Morning Everyone,

Today is Monday and that means its time for another yummy sketch from the lovely ladies at 2 Sketches 4 You - where this weeks sponsor is the Just Rite Stamp Company. If you are not familiar with the Just Rite stamps, they are rubber stamps on wooden mounts that can have interchangeable borders and sentiments, along with individual letters with different typeset fonts that allow you to create your own sentiment!! For my card, I used the yummy Bo Bunny papers to create this card with the sentiment: Sweet Treats using the Just Rite stamp: Something Sweet Borders and Centers Round 2 3/8".

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Bo Bunny Christmas and Choice White cardstock from Taylored Expressions

Inks: Memento Aquamarine, Color Box chalk brown

Stamps: Something Sweet Borders and Centers Round 2 3/8".

Accessories: corner chomper, Inkessentials white gel pen, Adirondack Liquid pearls, martha stewart snowflake punch, dimensionals, circle punches and corner rounder, ribbon from stash, cuttlebug folder waves, bling from Kaiser and dewdrops.

A huge thank you to the Just Rite Stamp company for being the sponsor over at 2 Sketches 4 You and one lucky person will get some YUMMY Just Rite stamps - hop on over to the 2 Sketches 4 You blog and see all the yummy creations from the DT and all the details on how to get some Just Rite stamps!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!!

Sending you all lots of sunshine and hugs and wishes for a "just rite" ;) kinda day!!!

Hugs!

Sankari :)

Home For the Holidays: Day 12

Good Morning Everyone!

Have you been checking out the amazing creations over at the Verve Stamps Blog!!?!!! The challenge that all the Divas were given is to create holiday decor and home accents for under $10.00! I have been loving peeking at all the amazing and gorgeous samples that the Divas have been making every day - and they maybe under $10 - but they look a million bucks to me!!

So for Day 12 of the challenge of creating home decor and accents for under $10 - I created a little hanging chipboard star mobile to hang from our light fixture in the dining room. We are always hanging around the dining room table - whether it is for meal times, snack times or craft time with the kids - I thought it would be nice to decorate that with a starry mobile :) The total cost of 4 chipboard pieces were $2.99 and each of the ribbons were only 50 cents - bringing up the total to a grand ole: $4.99 (plus tax) - gotta love that!

Each star measures approximately. Each one was colored in on the edges and then I traced the star shape onto the Jolly by Golly paper pack from Cosmo Cricket (there are 8 star shapes from each paper pack for the stars and then I adhered the paper onto the stars with some zip dry. . I absolutely LOVED making this project and love that we can use it every year! I LOVE all of the wonderful sentiments that Julee has in each of her stamp sets along with the gorgeous images! It totally makes it a breeze to create a project like this! The first star has one of my favorite sentiments: "Snowflakes are winter's butterflies" and this sentiment and the two snowflakes are from the set: Christmas in the Air.

On the back of this star is this gorgeous sentiment from Blessed Christmas: "Have a blessed Christmas and a Prosperous New Year".

The second star's design comes from the beautiful set: Holly Jolly: The holly leaves are stamped 5 times and cut out and then popped up on dimensionals and I love the sentiment: "Have a holly jolly Christmas" :)

On the back of this star is the sentiment "Christmas Blessings" from the stamp set: Blessed Christmas. For this star,I created a little pocket so that my children could write all things that they are thankful for and what they wish for their friends, family and the world (my son's wish for everyone is always that everyone gets to have a monster truck! :)

The third star is one of my faves - I love this little winter scene created from the gorgeous set Christmas in the Air.- where I paper pieced the Christmas tree and then created a little snow scene with some crimped snow, popped up trees and some little buttons to the side.

On the back of this star, I used the sentiment "Let it Snow" from the stamp set: "Let it Snow" and I cut some of the hats and mittens out of the paper to create a little scene.

The last star has on the front a little coffee mug (which I am imagining is some yummy hot chocolate!!!) from the set "Delightful and Delicious which is also the expression in the sentiment:

And on the back of the star is a wreath that I stamped and colored with copics and is from the set: O Christmas Tree and in the middle of the wreath is the sentiment "Merry Christmas" that fits perfectly in the middle of the wreath. I decorated with some bling and some liquid pearls :)

Here is how this star looks hanging on the dining room light fixture:

I hope you liked this project - its fun to make and its so nice to see something like this on the dining room area where wer are always together all the time :)

So, now it's your turn! We'd love for you to play along with us and show us your homemade goodies for the upcoming giving season! Verve stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em, why not use 'em? Please hop on over to the Verve Stamps blog for more yummy details for this challenge!!! AND one lucky commenter during the course of the parade (which is there for 3 more days!) will win their choice of any Verve Set!!!!!!

Check out all the details here!!

Thank you for visiting today and I hope you are having a lovely weekend!!!

BIg hugs!

Sankari :)

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #59 - Shakespeare in Love

Happy Saturday Everyone!!!

We thought that we could kick off the celebrations into Thanksgiving with the 7 TIME Oscar Award Winning Movie: "Shakespeare in Love" (It won 7 Oscars for: Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Costume, Best Music and Best Art-Set Decoration!!!). and if you haven't yet seen it - you can watch an edited version of the whole movie on Youtube (start with this link and then click on the next ones for subsequent links for the movie). Since in the movie - Viola goes out of the box to play a male role - we thought - we could have our challenge be to create something that is out of the A2 box: sooooo, the challenge requirement for this movie is to create a card that is not an A2 (a typical card is A2 (measuring 4 1/4" by 5 1/4") - but if you would like - have fun to create a "shape" card - meaning, it could be a circle, a square, anything at all that you would like!! Or - it doesn't have to be a "card" at all!!

This movie was the first movie that my DH and I saw together way back in the day - and I remembered that I like the movie very much - and wanted to see it again but didn't have a chance to see it till this week!!! :) You can click on the link on the paragraph above for a Youtube link to see the movie online :) My favorite thing about the movie is how they give you references to how Shakespeare got his inspiration - some of it is hilarious - I love the fact that in the movie they suggest that the famous play "Romeo and Juliet" was actually going to be called: "Romeo and Ethel The Pirate's Daughter" (LOL!!!!!)

For my card - what I was really inspired by was Viola's daring to go forth and express her love for the theater by acting - something that women were not allowed to do - and so she disguised herself as a man. Just the fact that she wanted to do something soooo very badly that she was passionate about - regardless of what society told her was acceptable is very inspiring to me - and so for my card -

I created a "Dare to be You" card that is inspired by Viola's Daring but is inspired by Queen Elizabeth's (played by Dame Judi Dench) dress.

Here is my card based of this dress and Viola's daring :). I used the awesome sentiment: "Dare to Be You" from this beautiful Verve set and the lovely flower in the middle (inspired by Dame Judi's pendent) is from the Beautiful You stamp set from Verve and is colored in with copics and then cut out and popped up on dimensionals. I cut out a square card with red cardstock and then cut out a circle with my CM circle cutters on part of the square (not the whole way through) and then traced a similar circle on another piece of cardstock and then layered it like so . The strips of paper are copper colored thick carstock that is held onto the red cardstock with brads. I then went over the whole thing with my fave embellishment: Liquid Pearls :)))

I had so much fun creating this - and am going to give it to one of my friend's daughter's who is becoming close to a teenager for her birthday (so that she can always remember that even in the highly pressured years of being a teenager - the "coolest" thing that she can do - is just dare to be herself! I have a little box that I am going to put the card in (you don't want to squash this one into an envelope :)) - I hope she likes it :)

I think the reason that I LOVE doing these cinema cards - is because I make things that I normally don't make and that inspiration is all around us - in so many different forms and that always gets me excited and gets the mojo flowing :))

So are you ready to play along this week!!!!!! Well, all you have to do is to create a card, layout, altered project etc that is inspired by the movie:Shakespeare in Love! Your inspiration can come from the costumes, the dialogue, the music, the themes, the characters, the colors - anything at all from the movie! The only requirement this week is that it shouldn't be an A2 card - so go out of the box and play along!!!!!

Please check out the CInema Saturday blog for more inspiration and more creations from this movie!!!!

I had fun with my out of the box A2 creation and can't wait to see everyone's Shakespearean creations!!!

Hope you are having a lovely Saturday!!!!

Big hugs!

Sankari :)