Gratitude, Xmas, Cupcake and Cocoa cards!

Good Morning Everyone,

First of all - can I just say that you guys are awesome!! Seriously - I am so grateful for all of your sweet comments and for the inspiration that you give to me - you are all just the best!

These few weeks have been a bit busy with my teaching schedule - so I apologize for being a bad blogging friend - but things are looking a little lighter for this week's lesson planning - so I hope to have more of a chance to blurf and craft! yay!

I feel - like I have been so far behind in my blogging - so this post is an attempt to catch up a bit... so here goes!


Sketch Challenges from PaperCraftPlanet

The first two cards come from the sketch challenges at PaperCraftPlanet. Have you guys check this site out?? It is such an amazing site created by Susanna Boyd for those who are serious lovers of all things craft related - you have to check it out and let me tell you - you won't believe all the different things that are available out there to do.... no chance at ever being bored - total place to find your mojo!!

The design team over at PaperCraftPlanet host a weekly sketch - and I can't even tell you how honored I am to be part of this amazing team of ladies - sometimes, I wonder what I am even doing on this DT - these ladies are seriously amazing. Last week's sketch challenge was brought to us by Wendy P. The theme for November at PaperCraftPlanet is "Gratitude", so my card of gratitude inspired by Wendy's sketch (check out Wendy's sketch and her amazing card here) and used the colors from Stacy's Jewelry Color Inspiration:

The sentiment reads: "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." by Cicero. I loved making this card - it brought so much joy in the process of making it. I created the flowers on photoshop and spent ages cutting the flowers and leaves while chatting with my in-laws over some chai. After cutting - there was some corner rounding, a little crimping, some half back pearls and a piece of ribbon put together - all of which took less time to do than the cutting of the flowers - LOL! :)

The second sketch challenge at PaperCraftPlanet comes from this week's challenge which is hosted by the amazing Tammy H. I had to use my new set from Gina K. Designs for this card - I absolutely love this set and her luxury cardstock - is just absolutely amazing - seriously - stamping and coloring on this paper was unreal - you have to check it out! You can find Tammy's awesome sketch for this week here and more info. about Gina's amazing company here.

I had to tweak the sketch a little bit for my card... and I have to say - its one of my fave xmas cards so far - because the little boy looks like my son all bundled up... (and every single time I bundle him like that - he always has to go to the bathroom - even if he has just gone... what is up with that????!!) Here is a little close up of the coloring and snow details:

So - don't laugh when I tell you this... but I was looking to color this image - and I couldn't find my Prisma color pencils... in cleaning up last week - I cleaned up too well and now I can't find anything... so - I had to use my son's Crayola color pencils and Crayola markers... I actually raided my 3 year old son's "art supplies!" - how pathetic, I know.... I wish I had Copics.... I have been eyeing them Fo-Evah!!! but maybe Santa will check "mostly nice" in his list and drop some in my stocking :)

And while you are on PaperCraftPlanet - make sure you come over and say hi on my page there.


Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenges (#42 and #43)

My second set of cards are inspired by Taylor's blog. Since the time I found her blog - I have been hooked! Check out her 12 day's of Christmas projects - she is one amazing Artiste! I have been hooked to Taylor's Friday Cupcake challenges (you don't have to use cupcakes - but if you have em, why not!!). Last week I posted my card for her sketch challenge #42 l to Splitcoast and didn't have a chance to post it here - so I thought that I would post last week's challenge and this week's sketch challenge together: Here is last week's challenge - I loved the squares on the side and HAD to use Taylor's Stamp a Sweet Impression (SASI) stamps. I am seriously in love with these images and all things cupcake --- (by the way - guess what I made for snack on sat.? - yup, cupcakes! yummmmy!!!) Check out Taylor's store for more details here. For this sketch, here is what I came up with:

This card is mainly paper piecing and stickling... I stamped the cupcake image 6 times and paper pieced the bottom and top halves together...I created the holly leaves and then cut them out and applied Waterfall Stickles and added a little pink bling for the holly. The scalloped edging was done with a corner rounder.


The second card for Taylor's challenge, is this week's cupcake challenge. This week's sketch from Taylor is totally fun - well, every one of her sketches are just fun and lovely! I had play along - even though I should have been doing my lesson planning for the week... but I had to take a break to play along!. I had so many ideas since I saw the sketch challenge on Friday - but, since I was short on time - I didn't have a chance to play till last night and made a quick (relatively quick :) card that didn't have any stamping. The only "ink" that it has is some Martha copper on the edges of the hot cocoa cup panel. The paper is from K & Co. and the brown cardstock is from the Paper Company (metallic brown). For this card, I adhered the wintery embellishments from Making Memories onto white cardstock with the copper edge tones. I added a little Crystal Stickles for the steam from the hot cocoa. I adhered the DP onto some cardboard for added depth and then tied some baby blue ribbon and tried to do the ribbon Donna style - and it never ceases to work - how Donna ALWAYS creates these amazing bows and even with a tutorial - I can't quite do it -- but I will keep trying!! I really love how this card turned out --- its much more glittery in real life... and it totally makes me want to have some hot cocoa... which sounds so good right about now!

Okay... have your survived reading this post so far... phew! I am exhausted - but feel somehow a little more caught up :)

All of you who made it this far - totally deserve some blog candy!!! For more details, check back tomorrow!!!

Hope you are all having a fantastic start to your work week! Happy Monday to all!!!
Thanks for coming over to visit!!

Ciao for now,
Sankari :)