Cinema Saturday #74 - UP!!

Every Saturday, over at the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge blog, we feature a different movie from which we create a card, layout etc. inspired by some element in the movie. This week we are featuring the 2 time Oscar winning and "UPlifting" 2009 Pixar movie called UP. This movie also won 38 other awards (check out all of the wins and nominations here)!!! The beauty of this movie is that its not just for children, but really in a way - its for everyone. Children love this movie and the adults really embrace the heartfelt themes of life and love that are beautifully brought out in this movie! If you haven't seen it yet - you must - the animation, humor and sweetness will touch your hearts! This week's challenge requirement is to use balloons in a way that was inspired by the movie.

When I was making the challenge banner for this movie - my son was sitting next to me and was so excited as to what card I was going to make - so I made this card for him - in the spirit of adventure. I used Taylor's Friday Sketch challenge #108 to make this card, which I absolutely had so much fun creating! One of my favorite parts of the movie is when the house takes off - WOW! How beautifully they animated that part and the music to that part is just perfect! It gives me a thrill every time I watch it! My other favorite part is when Mr. Fredrickson puts the special pin on Russell at the end - what a sweet moment (and can I just say, that Russell is one of the CUTEST little boys! I LOVE his spirit of adventure and his sweetness! and his slight lisp :)))
I used 5 different stamps from Taylored Expressions to create this card:

• The house is from the Frightful Night stamp set
• The clouds are from the Branching Out Coordinates stamp set
• The birds are from the Wings of Joy stamp set
• The balloons are from the Beary Special Accessories stamp set
• The sentiment is from the Places You'll Go stamp set

It was so much fun combining all of these stamp sets to create this card:

Here is a close up of the sentiment. I love this sentiment by Dr. Seus! It has so much spiriti of adventure in it!

And I loved making this card with all the ballooons carrying the house, just like he wanted :) I attached some embroidery floss to the balloons and attached them to the house.Here is a close up of the balloons and string:
I wanted to give some whimsy to the card (because a house being carried off by balloons wasn't whimsy enough :) lol!!) So I added some birdies to the mix, here is a close up of a birdie flying by :)

I LOVE how this card came out - I added a little glaze and some stickles to the card and called it a late late night...errr.. day :) Hop on over to the Taylored Expressions blog to see more details of this beautiful sketch and also hop on over to the Cinema Saturday Blog - we have three wonderful guest designers joining us this week, and you can see their gorgeous and inspiring samples and play along with us!!!

I promise it will be fun to play along - putting balloons on anything makes it fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!
Hope you have a beautiful weekend!!
Big hugs,
Sankari :)

Birthday BLog Hop for Nancy!!!

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Hope you had a fantabulous weekend! There are a few posts going up this morning - the first one is a special one - this morning, there is a very special birthday blog hop in honor of the one and only amazing designer, mom, card maker, person: Nancy McKinney! Taylor asked Nancy to design for Taylored Expressions earlier this year - and Nancy has just spun out the most amazing magic with her beautiful designs - simply perfect! You can check out all of her beautiful stamp sets that she has designed for Taylored Expressions under the stamp line called: Whimsical Wishes (you can check them out here - the Whimsical Wishes stamp set are all have a burgundy strip running on the bottom of the stamp set.). So today in honor of Nancy's birthday, we are doing a bday blog hop!

Happy Birthday Dear Nancy!!!! Happy Happy Birthday Happy Happy Happy Birthday Nancy!!!

Nancy has created soooo many beautiful images that it is hard to know which one to pick to created her brithday card - but I had to go with the stamp set entitled Beary Special (and also used the Beary Special Accessories set) because these sets are very special to Nancy's heart. When Taylor released this stamp set earlier this year in June - these two stamp all the proceeds of this set went to help the organization that is very dear to Nancy's heart called: The Hospital for Sick Children (also known as Sick Kids). On Nancy's blog - there is a link to how this hospital helped her son Henri. I adore these beautiful and adorable teddy bears and so I used this set and its accessories along with Taylor's sketch challenge for Friday (can't believe we are already on sketch 91!). I used the papers from the Sept. 20th Key Ingredients for this birthday card :)

I loved coloring in this sweet bear with my copics and then paper piecing his paws and the hat and the ballons (which were also touched with a little liquid glaze.

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Sept 20th Key Ingredients

Ink: Memento Expresso

Stamps: Beary Special (and also used the Beary Special Accessories set)

Accessories: corner chomper, liquid glaze, dimensionals, spellbinders, ribbon, glaze, sponge dauber, button, ribbon from stash.

Nancy, Thank you so much for being an amazing designer and creating such fabulousness in your beautiful designs and for everything that you do! Wishing you a birthday full of surprise, wonder, laughter, giggles, fulfillment, peace, deep contentment and all your dreams come true!!!! YOU are AMAZING!!! Sending you and your beautiful family all love and happy wishes!!!!!!

Please check out all the beautiful creations and birthday wishes for Nancy:

Karen Motz: Paper Playhouse

Dana White: Dana's House of Cards

Michelle Leishman: Miche L. Designs

Janet Rossi: Corrosive Creations by Janet

Wendy Bond: Bond Girl Bliss

Jodi Collins: Stamping A Latte

Donna Baker: Serenity in Stamping

Karen Giron: The Sweetest Thing

Charmaine Ikach: Oodabug Alley

Laura Fredrickson: Scrapnextras

Thanks so much for stopping by this morning! Will be back soon with more!!!

Big hugs to all!!!!

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions - Day One of Sneak Peeks!!!

Good Morning Everyone!

I got a makeover! Well, my blog got a makeover :) Thanks to the creative genius of Nancy McKinney!! Nancy is also the designer artiste for the stamps that the Taylored Expressions Design Team will be previewing sneak peeks for today!

Today starts the first of the three days of sneak peeks! Can I tell HOW excited I am to be able to show you Taylor's newest stamp sets that will released this Friday, June 5th at 8am PST and will be available at the Taylored Expressions Store!!! Seriously - all of these June release stamp sets are beautiful and adorable!!!

Okay - so this is going to be a long post - so grab a cup of chai and a cupcake!

The set that we are previewing today is called Beary Special and the Beary Special Accessories stamp sets. These two sets are part of the charitable program called the Taylored Expressions Giving Tree. A portion of the proceeds from each stamp set will be donated to the Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) - which is a health care community dedicated to improving the health of children. You can check out more details on Taylor's blog post today - and also stop by our stamp designer (and blog makeover artiste extraordinaire!!) Nancy McKinny's blog today as well - and read how her family was directly helped by this amazing organization!

I absolutely ADORE this stamp set - seriously - I couldn't stop using it in projects... they are beary stinkin' cute!!!! These sets are so versatile - you can use them in every project :) and as you can see - I couldn't resist with just one sneak peek sample :)

1. Baby Shower Teddy Bear Gift bag with card:

This is made for a dear friend of mine who is expecting a wee little boy wonder soon! It was so nice to know that it is a boy (I could actually throw a little blue in the mix and not just the neutral green and yellow :)

Below is a sneak peek of the bag (a regular brown bag from the craft section). I love all these beautiful images of the different teddy bears and stuffed animals that are available as part of this stamp set - they are so cute!!

Here is a closer sneak peek at the card for the baby shower - It shows one of the bears from the set - holding a little sign from the set that says "sweet little one" - I love this jolly little teddy bear guy - so cute!! I used a layout that I saw on the lovely Jodi's blog for this card to make my card - but instead of Jodi's awesome piercings - I went with my addiction with liquid pearls :) lol!

Here is a closer sneak peek at my sneak peek :) I added some crystal effects to his nose and to the sign.

Card Details:

Paper: Martha Stewart

Ink: Stazon Black, Adirondack Expresso

Stamps: Beary Special, Beary Special Accessories (available June 5th)

Accessories: Corner Rounder, Kaiser Rhinestones, Buttons, Star punch, liquid pearls, circle cutters, Prisma Color Pencils, Crystal Effects, Crystal Stickles.

2. In Honor of Harold our Teddy Bear :)

Ever since our son was 2 days old - Harold has been there for him :). Harold is the cutest little bear that was given to us by Caty - one of our dearest family friends. My son adores Harold - he comes with us on all of our travels and has a special place on the bed. Here is a little layout of Harold and my son at 4 months and then at 4 years old. This is a 6x6 layout and fits perfectly into the Calendar stand that you can then display around the house:

I made this page using the March Key Ingredients set - which already comes with papers, buckles, ribbon, cardstock with coordinating design papers. The chipboard is from American Crafts.

I love this little bear and I love that the Beary Accessories Stamp set comes with a scarf!!! How perfect because it totally looks like Harold now with a matching scarf :)

Card Details:

Paper: March Key Ingredients

Ink: Stazon Black, Adirondack Expresso

Stamps: Beary Special, Beary Special Accessories (available June 5th)

Accessories: Corner Rounder, white gel pen, silver marker, everything else comes with March Key Ingredients kit.

3. Birthday Bear Card:

I simply love the versatility of this set. By pairing it with different papers - there are so many different looks that you can create :) Here is a little birthday card for a little boy using the Beary Special and Beary Special Accessories stamp set. I used the TECC69 sketch from Taylor - but kinda got carried away with adorning all the corners instead of one :) - couldn't help it - I had such a ball making this card and adding the glitter and crystal effects to the ballon :)

Everything in this card is paper pieced. The bear, the presents, the bows on the presents. The present is part of the Beary Special Accessories stamp set. All of it was paper pieced :)

4. Keep Truckin :

This week the 3D challenge at Paper Craft Planet was to create a truck - and I couldn't think of anything cuter than a little bear in a truck - (love the bow tie and hat that the Beary Special Accessories stamp set has!). You can check out all the details here about how to create this fun truck. You can attach a little gift card on the back of this truck - so its a little truck bringing a little present :)

5. Believe Bear Card:

Okay - really - how could I not create one more card when there is this sweeeeeet image of wings and wand - I couldn't resist!!! And when I saw that there was a sentiment that read: Believe - I knew that I had to use it with my winged bear - there are so many kinds of cards that you can make with this - something for a child, something for someone who is going through a rough time - something just to lift the spirits:

Card Details:

Paper: Martha Stewart

Ink: Adirondack Expresso, SU! Caramel

Stamps: Beary Special, Beary Special Accessories (available June 5th)

Accessories: Corner Rounder, rhinestones, glitter, crystal effects, liquid pearls, ribbon.

Wow - that was one long post!! Hope you enjoyed these peeks of this awesome stamp set! Because the purchase of this stamp set goes to help this awesome Organization - in order to save costs on manufacturing and to be able to donate even more to this foundation, these sets will have to be trimmed from the sheet of rubber.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Beary Awesome ;) creations from my fellow Design Team members:


Donna Baker
Jodi Collins
Jen del Muro
Dawn Easton
Laura Fredrickson
Karen Giron
Charmaine Ikach
Denise Marzec
Karen Motz
Laurie Schmidlin
Ana Wohlfahrt

and of course: Taylor VanBruggen

Don't forget to stop in tomorrow for some more sneak peeks!! And tomorrow's are extra sweeeeeeeeeet!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!
Hugs!
Sankari :)