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 :)