Black Butterfly card

Hello Everyone,

This is card quick quick quick (did I say quick?) card that I made for the Fabulous Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge and for the color inspiration challenge hosted by the Amazing ladies at the Color Throwdown. And even though we are going on our 2nd summer roadtrip - I had to make a card first :) We are heading out of town in about --- oh - 3 hours - and I haven't packed = aie!!! 

Why haven't you packed - you ask? well - first I had to do laundry and then I thought -I might as well make a card while I make a card - love Julee's Mojo Monday's and I love the Colors that are being thrown down - and to leave town and not make a card seemed wrong - so I HAD to make a card.....

But, the only thing is - I am not sure if I like how it turned out... this was made so quick - like less than 20 minutes - it would have been sooner - but I had to figure out which stamp I wanted and then I had to find it.... but anyhoo - what I was saying - is that it was so quick that it kinda surprised me - but I am still not sure about the end result - and since I have already cleaned up my scrap corner (it really is literally a corner :) I can't adjust things - and even if I wanted to adjust things - I have to pack -- which brings me to the conclusion that I need to finish my blatherings and just post this :)

If you made it this far in reading this - I thank you and ask you to pardon my early morning ramblings. We are off to Minneapolis today (!) and will be spending time with my in-laws and our friends up there - going to the CM convention, going up to the cabin by the lake and definitely walking around Lake Harriett :) Sooooo I can' wait - just hope the little ones do well on the road :) I  hope that all of you are doing well and are enjoying your thursdays :)

I will try to post some pics and some cards this weekend - so hope you come back for a visit :)

Alright - off to pack!

Thanks for coming over :)

Sankari

BFF!!! Blogging Friends forever

My friend Julia just sent me this Blogging Friends Forever Gold Card!!! Thanks so much Julia - you are so sweet and its been so much fun to visit your blog !

So The Rules that come with this award (there's always a catch right!?!?!) :

1. Only 5 people allowed.
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. one has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. you must link back to whoever gave you the award.

I have chosen the following people who are gracious enough to check out my blog and leave me nice comments!

1. Brooke - She is one awesome, hot pink toe-nailed, amazingly talented stamp artiste with a great taste in the best movies, great songs and great style (Cards and all!!!! 

2. Savitri - She is one amazing stamping, scrapping, digi-twinkle fingers genius :) only thing is I don't understand why she doesn't like buttermilk (i had to throw that one in there you know :)

3. Christiane - I am officially calling you technique queen - She always introduces me to new techniques and is just the sweetest person ever.

4. Maria -Her blog is where my whole blogging addiction began :) She is so sweet and uber talented and full of amazing sketches and cards! And she just survived an earthquake! Maria totally inspires me - because of her integrity and sweetness and of course her beautiful card making abilities :)

5. I know that this "rule thing" said I had to limit this to five people, but I can't.... its too hard.... sooooo I would like to also pass this onto Mackenzie (whose blog I just found and adore - she's got great style (I mean whoever makes a "Stamp Naked" card in the shape of a t-shirt - is rockin' the style tip!), Maria G. (I love that she does all the same sketch challenges that I love and makes those sketches come alive) and Christine (who is SO sweet and makes incredible cards - just stunningly gorgeous!) and my Fairfield blogging buddies Heather, (who is lyrical Venus herself!) Ananda (who is Bliss incarnate) and Kristen (who gets to live with La and Lu!!! Two little bliss balls!!!) :) ( I am not good at following the 5 only rule - huh?)

Thanks to everyone who comes to this blog for a visit - and also to all those who leave a comment - thank you for all of your sweet words and comments they  have really brightened up my day :)

Hope all of you are well 

Sunny smiles and hugz to all :)

Sankari

2 Cards for Taylor's Sketch Challenge

Hello All, 

Two posts in one day!!! Three cards in one day!! Woo-hoo!  These two cards are made fromTaylor's Cupcake Challenge Sketch. I really loved this sketch - so I had to make two cards. They were both so much fun to make. Since we are leaving tomorrow to go to Minneapolis for a week - I wanted to get these cards made. The birthday card is for my cousin, whose birthday was last weekend (sorry Padmini :) but I am sending it today!!) and the Season's Greetings card is for the challenge from the amazing ladies at the OCC, whose challenge this week was to make a Christmas in July Card. 

The holiday card was made with cardstock with unknown origins - it has been in my scrap pile forevah... the buttons are from my button stash - they have been sliver stickled :) and the sentiment is a rub on from I don't know where (these were bought pre-bloggin days when I didn't keep track of where things came from). I added the textured dots by painting them in and finished it all off with some Crystal Stickles.

The birthday card has the same situation where I don't know where anything comes from - except that the brads are from American craft (i love that the cherries are brads) and dots behind the cupcakes are crystal stickles. The cupcakes and sentiment are from Clear Stamps (?) and they were stamped three times onto white cardstock, colored, cut and stacked ontop of each other. The gold dots were painted on as an afterthought - I tried to keep this card dot free - but I couldn't help it - I think I have become a dot addict... help!!! :) LOL! Well, what can I say - I love Faith's cards - and suddenly I feel like its not complete with dots :)

Okay - we are now off to the post office and the park and where ever else the road may take us - perhaps for a little Radiance dairy ice-cream!!! YUM!

Thanks for coming over to visit!

Ciao for now,

Sankari

PS - Oh my gosh! I just noticed that these cards are ribbon-less!!! Gasp!! How could I have let something like that happen :) !!!!

Dragonfly Card for 2 Sketches 4 You!

Hello All,

Here is a fun card that I made forLaura's Sketch challenge #5 - from 2 Sketches 4 You. I love this sketch and wanted something bold and bright for it... so I went with the black, white and red theme. 

The sentiment "Thinking of You" is stamped is embossed in red and is from the SU! Little Hellos set. The dragonflies are from Clear Stamps and the smaller ones are stamped in silver and the larger one is stamped in black on red cardstock and then cut out and attached with a brad from Spare Parts and lifted out of the page for dimension. The ribbon is from Offray and the black square brads are from Spare Parts. There are black stickles (!!!!! i {heart} black stickles) going around the black cardstock. I loved making this card because it came out just like I had in my head and it was just fun to use bold colors! 

Can you believe it's Wednesday already! Whaaaaat???? How did that happen?! We are heading out to Minneapolis tomorrow to see my in-laws and also this weekend is the CM Showcase Convention, which also happens to be in Minneapolis ( how conveeeenient :) I can't even express how many things have got to get done before we can head out on the road, but first things first - I wanted to post this card :)

Hope all of you are enjoying your Weds. and enjoying the summer sun 

(can you believe its almost August!! Gasp!)

Thanks for coming over for a visit,

Ciao for now ;)

Sankari

Hang in There Card

Hello All, 

I getting ready to go to the post office yesterday to mail a card for Mackenzie's Aunt (if you would like to make a card for her please click here), but then I wanted to make a card for Mackenzie herself since she is also going through some roughness during this time. So I made this quick card using the SU! Mini Mates set and I followed the fun fun fun sketch that you see in the top left corner, provided by Jen dM from "i {heart} to stamp". I love her fun sketches!

 

I really loved this little guy hanging from the tree - he is so cute. I colored him and stickled him and then layered him on the 

alternating pink and brown cardstock. The ribbon is from Offray, the buttons are from my box of random buttons and the Prima flowers have brads from Spare Parts. The dots are from Martha's Craft Paint and I scalloped the pink cardstock with my corner rounder. 

I hope Mackenzie enjoys it as much as I did making it for her :) I really enjoyed this sketch - it was fun way to include color and break up the visual space

I can't believe that today is almost done - where did the day go? I think when you have kids running around - time just flies - and then all of the sudden the day is over and here I am cleaning up again for the umpteenth time - sheesh!

Hope all of you are well

Thank you so much for visiting me, 

Have a good night :) 

Sankari

Happiness Always Card

Good Monday Morning Everyone,

Our county was in a flash flood warning last night here in Iowa as we had a major storm system pass through... we had water leaking in through our doors and windows  so fast - it was unbelievable... I don't know how many towels we used to soak everything up.... but everything is okay and today looks like its going to be a bright sunny day.

I just wanted to share a quick card that I made for Mackenzie's aunt, who has been suffering from MS. If you would like to make a card for her aunt, please head on to her site by clicking HERE. Her aunt Joan loves dark purple and flowers and so I made a card with my favorite SU! set Happy Harmony. The background is made up of 2 different purple cardstock and the stamped sentiment and flowers were embossed in bronze ink on white cardstock and layered onto purple cardstock, gold cardstock and the really pretty Golden Meadow Cardstock from ProvoCraft and was finished with a purple ribbon from Offray. I also had to add some stickles onto the dandelions for a little sparkle. I really love the purple/gold combination and feel inspired to use this combo more often. 

I am off to the post-office to mail this card - it always amazes me how happy I feel when I make a card for someone special - its almost like you are sending them a little beam of sunshine from your heart :)

Hope all of you are having a wonderful Monday,

Thank you so much for visiting :)

Ciao for now,

Sankari

Happy Birthday Julee (My Mojo Owl with a Color Challenge Oops!)

Good Morning Everyone,

I combined the Color Throwdown Challenge  for this week with Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch challenge (#47), but since I made this card in the wee hours of this morning - I don't think I saw the colors quite properly --- Oops! For the color Throwdown, we were supposed to use Ruby Red - but I ended up with something that looks like a soft pumpkin color - but totally looked like it matched the color swatch in the wee morning hours. I think I must get a better desk lamp  - I can't believe I made such a color faux pas .... aww shucks! I didn't realize my mistake until ---- oh about 3 minutes ago when I was uploading the swatch for the colors this week.... well.... what can you do? 

Anyhoo - I would like to dedicate this birthday card to the amazing Ms. Julee Tilman of Poetic Artistry , who every week supplies us with Mojo-licious Sketch Challenges. Since yesterday was her birthday - I decided to use the Sketch challenge from last Monday for her birthday card - using the colors from the Throwdown this week. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULEE!!! hope you had a great day!

The sentiment and this little cute owl is from Clear Stamps and she (I am officially calling her Julee :) was stamped with Martha's brown ink onto the owl cut by my CM oval cutters - I used Martha's scalloped circle punch  for the scallops around the owl and finished her off with some cinnamon and platinum stickles. The ribbon is from a gift my friend gave me (i love saving ribbons) and everything was rounded with my corner cutter.

I really loved making this card and this little owl is just the cutest.... I am loving all the rounded corners in this little card and can't wait till monday for the next sketch from Julee and wednesday to see the colors that the girls are going to be throwing down.

Don't you just love the term Color Throwdown - everytime I write it, in my mind I hear the word throwdown on loudspeakers. It's just a fun word. And when you have a fun word with making cards -then you automatically have fun-ness sprinkled into your life.... hmmm there I go making up words again.... it might mean that I have been up just a wee bit early thanks to my two little wonder darlings. 

Hope all of you are enjoying your Saturday!

Thank you for visiting,

Ciao for now,

Sankari

A New Look

Hi Ya'll,

I just changed my blog header picture... what do you think?

 

I was just playing around on the computer.... and then all the sudden - there I am changing things around..... hmmmm -  I am still getting used to it - still not sure....but I was itchin' for some change...I got a case of the change-itis....

I think when I start making up words like that, its time for me to go to bed :)

Hope you are enjoying your Friday :)

Nite!

Sankari :)

Kazan's Sketch challenge for Caardvarks

Hi Everyone,

How crazy is this - two posts in one day! Say whaaaat?!?? I know - I am a little shocked myself. Everyone here is napping - so I had a chance to play some more - whoo-hoo! 

I say: "Let the dishes wait"!!!!  On the left is an awesome  sketch from Kazan that she made for Caardvarks. Sheesh! do I love sketch challenges! Here is a quick quick card that I made (since everyone is asleep - everything has to be quick). 

For the center square, I adhered this really pretty turquoise paper with the flowers (they are embroidered) - that my friend Caty got for my birthday last year and I have been hoarding it - but no longer - its just too pretty to keep in the closet. The sentiment is from SU! and is stamped in Martha's silver ink, the Prima flowers make up the photo corner, the ribbon is from Offray and little diamond stickles cover the dots in the scallops. I did some faux dry embossing with purple circles on the bottom and I had to use some Faith dots on the card and on the flower that I created on the bottom left corner (from a 2 different size circle punches). 

Now, its time for me to head out and make lunch!

Hope all of you are well

Thanks for coming over to visit!

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

Color me Cupcakes! 2 challenges in one card

Hi Everyone, 

Hope you are all having a great Friday. Things here are good - but have been a little slow on the stamp front because our little one has been a little sick. But I think today he is a little bit better - so I had a little time to make a card (wow, how many times did I just use little?!)  I have been meaning to make a card with the sketch from Taylor's Cupcake Challenge since last Friday - but did not have a chance. And even though its very late, I thought I would still make it because it is such a fun sketch. I combined the sketch challenge with a color challenge from the ladies at The Cat's  Pajamas  TCP Tuesday challenge. The colors were pink, orange and chocolate :

my FAVORITE colors all together.... and those colors totally reminded me of cupcakes and cakes - so it seemed like a great mix to combine the color challenge with Taylor's Cupcake Challenge! 

These colors are so much fun together - that I wanted to make a fun bright card, so I used the little critter image from Clear Stamps - isn't he so cute, holding a little cupcake in his hands :) I paper pieced him onto the orange and paper pieced the cupcake onto the pink cardstock and added stickles. I colored his eyes white and then added the black pupils. The circles were punched out and then cut in half and pasted with alternating colors. The ribbons are from Offray and the little Faith dots :) are done with some paint. 

This was such a quick, fun and simple card to make - so that means, I am going to be using all these elements again! I think I am going to make a bunch of these cards for my MIL's birthday present. 

But first, I must go and make breakfast :) 

Thanks for coming over for a visit,

Ciao for now,

Sankari

KW Color Inspiration Challenge #17, OCC Faux Emboss Challenge

Hello Everyone,

It's time for another KW Color Inspiration Challenge and a technique challenge from the ladies at the OCC. When I saw the picture of that Kristina posted for the inspiration below - I had to get started right away. The colors to use were  Regal Rose, Rose Red, Sage Shadow and Whisper White. And from the ladies at the OCC (Our Creative Corner) the challenge was to dry emboss - but since I don't have the tools for that, I did the faux dry emboss.

When I saw the dress - I fell in love - I love that dress!!! -it has a simple elegance to it and touch of soft spring. I think my card has a lot of white in it because after the last post of bright cards - I think I needed to shift from the bright spectrum to something softer. As I mentioned in my last post, I need to make a slew of birthday cards - so thought this might a perfect one for a friend of mine whose birthday is coming up at the end of this month. 

 

 The layout for the card comes from Jen's sketch Inspiration that I made a card for (click here) and I really loved that layout - so I decided to use it again for this card. The dress is a stamp from My Sentiments Exactly (I folded the dress to mimic the pleats) and the ribbons are from Offray. The faux dry embossing was made using the smallest Fiskar circle punch on white cardstock and layering the background of the dress with it. 

Alright, going to go make breakfast now (Waffles! here we come!!)

Hope all of you are having a beautiful day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sankari

2 cards from 2 Sketches 4 You!

Happy Tuesday Everyone,

I just only recently found this great blog: 2 Sketches 4 You,  that does sketch challenges created by the amazing Kazan Clark and Laura Davis. I was pysched to find this blog and have really enjoyed their fun sketch challenges. 

The sketches that they both had this week really caught my eye and I decided to make both of

 them at one sitting. I wanted to make them both with the same color scheme  -  sometimes its fun to see the same colors with different sketches and different themes. I picked some fuschia purple with some apple green and spring green (which looks flourescent in the pictures - aie!!!) Anyhow - I had a load of fun making these two cards and can't wait till next week's sketches! The above fun sketch challenge is from Laura, whose sketch is featured at Cardvaarks. I really like the big circle image on the left side. So I wanted to make something that was big, bold and bright - and here is what I came up with:

I really love how this card turned out. The stamped sentiments are from

 Clear Stamps - the butterfly was paper pieced and then embossed with polysparkle - and the background fuschia color was also clear embossed with the smaller butterfly from the stamp set. I created a little ribbon flower with the three different colors, added the little sparkle flower rhinestones to the punched circles, stamped the sentiment "Thinking of You"  in Martha's Copper Ink and added little dots with the craft pen from Martha. The butterfly is much more sparkly in real life - its hard sometimes to take a good picture.... For example, at the bottom of the card ( <--------- right there ) you can see the clear embossed butterflies - its more noticeable in real life, but I couldn't get a good angle to get it in the picture - if I moved it one way, then you could see somethings but not others - so I tried to get a picture that attempted to get most of the card details. Anyone have any tips in taking pics of cards?

---------------------------------

 Onto Kazan's Sketch. This week Kazan came up with this really fun sketch. I  liked the small boxed area in the corner of the larger box area. I also wanted to use the same color scheme as the above 

card and so I created a birthday card. The stamped sentiment is from SU! and initially I had colored in all the presents (boxes) but didn't really like the way it came out - so I opted for a simpler look and instead of coloring the presents - i just covered them with stickles :) - When in doubt: Stickle!". I used my CM square punch and punched out 4 aquares and covered them with a strip of ribbon before laying the Happy Birthday sentiment on top of the boxes . On the background spring green paper, I created a swirly background using the 2 step flowers from SU! and embossed it with polysparkle powder - and also embossed the bottom flourish (from Clear Stamps) with the same powder. I punched a hole and then tied the ribbon in the corner. I have to say that it was a little challenging to tie the ribbon, because I didn't have much left, so I was trying to tie to small ribbon ends together

and kinda felt like I had 4 fingers all in one little knot trying to get it to work.  Phew!  

I realized as I was making this card that I need to make a whole lot of birthday cards - because there is a whole string of birthday's coming up....  this is a great sketch to use again and again!

Here is a funny quote from Steven Wright that made me laugh...

"Last week the candle factory burned down. Everyone just stood around and sang, "Happy Birthday".  

One great birthday tradition that we have here is that everyone lights a candle and makes a wish for that person - its very sweet to hear all the great wishes and to see the cake all lit up with wishes - I love birthdays!

Which birthday stands out in your memory? I think one of my favorite birthdays was when I was in Nairobi, Kenya and my fellow classmates surprised me with a party (I was tooootally not expecting that) and then my host family took me out that night to a  south Indian restaurant - oh my goodness - I was totally homesick for some good ole Idli & Sambar and so to eat that food was like the best birthday treat ever! 

Speaking of which I am off to get lunch ready! Hope all of you are having a bright and sunny (and not humid) kinda of tuesday!

Oh, almost forgot to show you the inside of the cards: Inside the thinking of you card there is a little purple rhinestone flower with a circle of white dots and inside the happy birthday card there is a little "present" box with the purple ribbon and a silver brad holding the bow (its not quite clear in the picture - sorry about that).

Thanks for coming over for a visit!

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

PS - will post Kazan's Cardvaarks sketch later :)

 

In Everything Give Thanks

Hi  Everyone, 

What an intense night it was over here - full of lightening, rain, downpour, hail and more rain. This morning, we were in a thunderstorm warning and lost internet for a bit. But now, its bright and sunny and H-O-T and humid - hard to even believe that it rained at all. 

Hope all of you had an enjoyable weekend. Ours was full of cleaning and housework (that is still not done) and also filled with going to the park, to a birthday party and an impromptu trip to a restaurant for dinner - (YAY! to spontaneity!). 

Anyhoo - I just wanted to post a card that I made for Jen's Sketch for you To Try - what a fun sketch challenge! I loved the off kilter image and had to try it when I saw it a few days ago - but couldn't get to it with all the built up laundry and housework  that have been neglected. And even though all of that is still not done - I took a break to make a quick card. I wanted to make a card for a fellow Virgo sistah of mine and so I opened the SU! Happy Harmony set: and got busy. 

The background paper is actually gift wrap (it was so pretty - I had to make a card out of it :), the brads are from Spare Parts, the Prima flower was dabbed in Martha's metallic bronze ink, the ribbon is from Offray and then the last touch was to dab some stickles (gold) on the flowers. The flowers were stamped in Martha's Silver ink and then embossed in Clear powder. I embossed with Polysparkle powder the swirls from the SU! 2 step flowers set onto the brown cardstock for a quick fun DP. The card measures 3.5" by 4.38" which is a really nice small size to work with. 

This was a really fun card to make because I was making it for someone special - those cards are so much fun to make. So now, I am going forth to finish off my extra long To Do (which is always being added onto thanks to my 2 wonder kids :). How are you all doing on this Monday?

Hope you are all having a great start to the week!

Thanks for dropping by for a visit :)

Ciao for now,

Sankari

TCP Tuesday - You Amaze Me card

Good Morning Everyone, 

Here is a little ditty that I made for TCP Tuesday this week. I really like the swatch from Michael Miller that was the inspiration for the challenge (on the left) and wanted to incorporate those colors and pattern into my card.... so I created my own background on photoshop. I printed it and then layered it with coordinating paper and added brads from Spare Parts and the ribbon from Martha. I dotted it with stickles and added stickles to the center of the little flowers on the background design. 

This card is made for one of my good friends who completely amazes me. I am so grateful to all the amazing friends in my life, whose love and kindness makes my heart smile. 

That being said, now I am off to do a house pickup....hope all of you are well and happy.

Thanks for stopping by,

Sankari

Kristina Werner Color Inspiration Challenge #16

Hello Everyone,

Yay! Its time for another color inspiration challenge from Kristina Werner. This time the inspiration came from Martha Stewart (Colors are: Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Soft Sky and Certainly Celery) check out this sweet pic:

I love baby shoes - both my children had such adorable little booties - but that only lasted for about 2 minutes because then inevitably we lost one of the shoes and then couldn't find it till 6 months later - by that time the  shoe was too small for the feet - sigh! but at least we got the important Kodak moment before losing the shoes. 

 Anyhow!! I digress - my point being - that I really loved the colors when I saw this inspiration and since the inspiration came from Martha - in honor of that the paper and ribbon are from Martha Stewart crafts. I also just got my first Stampin Up! Catalog (yes, I am a newbie to the stamping world) (the SU! stamps that I have were given to me by a friend who doesn't craft anymore). Anyhow - when I saw the catalog, I was just blown away - and I mean blown away - I think I just sat on the couch for like...EVER with my mouth open taking it all in!! Wow - I am in love with EVERYTHING! 

 (Do we really need a college fund?!! Just kidding Keith! (to my husband who subscribed to my blog! how sweet is that!!!)

 Anyhow - where was I??? Ahhh, yes the card! I really quite enjoyed making this card after a busy day running around yesterday- phew! it was nice to sit down and enjoy some cutting and stamping! As soon as I saw the colors, I knew I wanted to make a baby card and I knew which stamps I wanted to use and just when I was trying to figure out the layout - I got the SU! catalog in the mail! Perfect timing! I loved the card on pg. 84 and got inspiration from that card to make this one:

I embossed the little clothes onto the different colors and then cut and pasted them onto the card. I also cut a little slit for the ribbon to slide through so that I could tie the bow on the side. I was going to sew the ribbon in - but I am so tired and have no idea where the thread box is - soooo I just decided to slap on some adhesive and call it a day :)

So now I am off to go get breakfast ready and welcome Friday!!! YAY!!

Hope all of you are well,

Ciao for now,

Sankari

--------------------------------

Stamps: Clear Stamps (Brenda Walton), Paper: Martha Stewart, Ribbon: Martha Stewart, Other Materials: VersaMark and Clear Embossing Powder, Button, Corner Rounder, Circle Cutter and Chocolate :)

Happy Anniversary Card (2 in 1 Challenge)

Hello All, 

Just a quick post today - this is a card that was inspired by the Ladies at the OCC (Our Creative Corner) and also from Jen's Sketch For You To Try. The inspiration challenge for this week at the OCC was to make a card from this beautiful dining set and the sketch from Jen was really a great one incorporating a square and a 2 half circles:

   

I loved the warmth of the colors of the dining set and I also needed to make an anniversary card and when I saw Julee's card over at Verve - I was totally inspired to make this card. The rose sentiment was embossed in gold and its hard to see its full sparkle power - but it really makes the card kinda fun. I took the photo in the bright morning sun light - so its hard to read the sentiment (Happy Anniversary), but I didn't have time to take another pic - oh well. 

Since I have to make this a quick post (there are a ton of errands and paper work in store for me today! aie!!!) I will post the card details later. 

Hope all of you are well, happy and healthy!

TTYL,

Sankari

Make A Wish Birthday Card

Hello Everyone,

What a great day today has been! We have had great weather today, I had a chance to pick up the house a little, my daughter had a playdate (she is one) and it was very sweet to see the little ones playing together and now both the kids are in bed - so that means I get to craft a little - woo-hoo! yay!! 

Since today was a bright and sunny day - I was inspired to make a bright and sunny birthday card for my neighbor's daughter who is turning 5 on Saturday. I was inspired by the sketch at the awesome Mother's & Daughter's Creations Challenge Blog and had to try that sketch for this card. 

I really liked that the pink part of the sketch was off center a bit. I wanted to make a fun card and so this is what I came up with.

The background DP is from DCWV. The stamped sentiments are from All Night Media and colored in by Prisma pencils, the ribbon from Offray and the brads are from American Crafts. Although you can't see it, I used some paper glaze on the cake stand and on the candles and lots of Crystal Stickles on the teal cake layer. 

I think, I like making birthday cards best because they put me in the festive mood - and festivities means that there will be cake- and that is always awesome !

Hope all of you are doing well and are excited for all the promises that await you tomorrow!!!

Sunny Smiles :)

Sankari

PS - Thank You to all the awesome people who left comments today! That totally made my day! You guys all inspire me!

Color Throwdown Week #2

Hi All,

How are all of you today? Here things are bright and sunny  - and so that calls for a walk in the park with the kids! But first, a little card that I made for the second Color Throwdown (I just love saying "throwdown" - its so much fun to say!). The wonderful ladies at Color Throwdown have come up with a great set of new colors for this week's challenge. The colors are Pumpkin Pie, Cool Carribean and Barely Banana. 

This was such a nice combination and I was trying to think of what to do and this is what I came up with. I made panels from the light yellow paper (why, I don't know :) and then adhered the cat image on top. The stamped sentiments are from Clear Stamps and the image was embossed in white onto the orange paper. To contrast the colors a little I xacto knifed the tail so that some of it would show up on the blue.  I added a little white prima flower with a little button brad on the cat and a few brads on the corner for color. I didn't have any ribbons in those colors, so I just went with a simple white ribbon simple ribbon. 

I really enjoy these challenges because they make use colors that I might now have thought about putting together - and I love seeing what all the amazing crafters have been up to. Thanks so much ladies for organizing this! Can't wait till next week!

I am off to organize our park outing - hope all of you are having a sunny day!

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

90% Going Green

Hi Everyone,

Here is a quick card that I made -seriously quick (I love it when that happens). When I was on Julee's site I saw this  card and loved the layout - and I had to try it. This is a layout that Deb Albright made for Julee (check it out here). Almost all the materials in this card were from recycled products - the papers are from K & Company (4x6 recycled mat) in the Earth tones. 

These papers are really pretty - my photo of the card is not a great pic and doesn't really do them justice - but I love these new papers. The Prima flowers and brads (from Spare Parts) are recycled in a way - because they were on a card that I made for my friend, but my one year old daughter got to it before I could put it away and so I reused the elements that I could salvage... that's kind of recycling right?? and it also teaches me the valuable lesson of cleaning up my area after crafting). I punched the squares out with my Creative Memories Square punch and the assembly was so quick I couldn't believe it was all done. The ribbon is from Offray. 

So it was really only the ribbon and main cardstock for the card that was not part of any recycling process - so this is a mostly green card. Fun and good for the environment!!  ;)

I can't believe today is only tuesday - it feels like it should be friday again! The last two days have been so full of activity - it feels like its been a week.

Hope all of you are enjoying your day!

Ciao for now!

Sankari :)

A Two in One! Cupcake Challenge & Verve Divas Challenge

Hello All,

Just wanted to post a card that I made for 2 challenges. One is for the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge (#24), that is created by the awesome Taylor Vanbruggen. I have really enjoyed the cards that have been made for these challenges in the past and have always wanted to try, so tonight was the night. And the other is for the first Verve Divas Challenge, by the awesome Shannan Teubner.  I just discovered Verve, through doing the Mojo Monday challenges and can't wait to for some Verve stamps to Verve up my life!! 

The challenge from Taylor was to create a card/layout etc. most closely resembling the following sketch:

And the Challenge from the Verve Divas Challenge was to incorporate the following colors in your card. Since I as of yet, still don't have any SU! papers, or Verve stamps (yet!) - I just went along with what I had.

 

So this is what I came up with. A simple birthday card, with a cute little cupcake from Jolee's Boutique. The stamped sentiment is from All Night Media and the ribbons are from Offray. I made the dots with my white craft pen from Martha Stewart Crafts and added a little Diamond stickles dots around cupcake layer. This is in tribute to Faith - whose dots leave me amazed and wanting more!

This was a great sketch - and a great color swatch - my favorite colors together with a yummy cupcake! Mmmmm!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Ciao for now,

Sankari

Raspberry Picking

Happy Sunday to all of you,

Just wanted to share some yummy pictures from when we took the kids raspberry picking yesterday. The weather was perfect and the berries were beautiful. I am making some raspberry cake today with the raspberries, but have to remind myself not to eat all of them as I make it.... nothing like freshly picked berries!

 

Hope all of you are enjoying your weeked!

:) Sankari