Happy Holiday Monday :)

Good Monday Morning Everyone,

The days are getting colder here and it feels like winter and the holidays are just around the corner! Its really been great to be part of the Christmas Stamping All Year Long group where we have been making cards since the beginning of the year - but somehow with the winter holidays approaching, I still feel way behind! lol! This week, Debbie from the Paper Garden, challenged us to use the paper piecing technique in our cards. This is one of my most fave techniques to use -its just fun to make the DP part of the image. I used Karen Giron's sketch that she created for Taylor's Birthday Bash celebration (check out all the deets here) to make this card:

Card Details: 

Paper: Basic Grey

Ink: Adirondack Expresso

Stamps: Season's Sweetings from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: Corner Rounder, spellbinders, copics, bling from K& co, brown grosgrain.

This has always been one of my fave images - little cuppies with holly on them - so sweet :) This is such a fun challenge - and I hope you join us this week for some paper piecing fun! Check out what awesome creations the rest of the DT have created with this challenge at the Christmas Stampin All Year Long blog!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Hugs!

Sankari :)

Holiday Mondays - Eyelet Challenge

Good Monday Morning Everyone,

Its Monday and that means its time for another holiday card challenge from the Christmas Stampin All Year Long Blog and the challenge today comes from Debbie who challenged us to use our eyelets! I always forget what a fun embellishment eyelets are - and I wanted to share that ALL the eyelets on my card were hammered in by my son who is four (I thought for sure he was going to hammer my fingers - but he did a good job with them eyelets! ! He calls them eyeballs though :) (my favorite thing he said was - "I think we need to put more eyeballs on your card"  :) ha!

I had a lot of fun making this card and feel so happy to be part of this awesome blog where we knock one more holiday card off our "to-do" list so that we can enjoy the holidays without the pressure to make a zillion christmas cards two days before the 25th - (yes - that is what happened to me this year - and I am psyched that halfway through this year - I have a nice stack of holiday cards ready! yay!) I am never this organized!

Card Details: 

Paper: K&Company, Martha Stewart and stash

Ink: MOre Mustard from SU!

Stamps: Beary Special from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: Ribbon from K & Company, eyelets from stash, spellbinders dies, corner rounder, sponger, dimensionals, vellum, gold stickles for halo and platinum stickles for ears, Kaiser Rhinestones, Crystal Effects.

Technique - Paper Piecing and sponging'

Show watched while crafting: The Agatha Christie Hour on Youtube - I am HOOKED!

This is one of my favorite images from Taylor's new stamp release Beary Special from Taylored Expressions - and I have to say - that I have been itching to make a holiday bear card as soon as I saw this set. I paper pieced his little teddy pear paws and after adding some stickles to ear and halo  - I also added some crystal effects to nose and eyes and couldn't help adding some to the paws - man that stuff is addictive!!

If you have a chance to play along with us that would be awesome!! Its really a great motivating factor every week to be part of a holiday stamping group through the year! Check out the rest of the awesome merry and bright  creations at the Christmas Stampin All Year Long blog!!

Thank you all for visiting my blog!!! Stop by later as I have another post with some special treats coming up later!

Happy Monday!

Hugs! Sankari :)

Create a Holiday Card with Numbers!

Good Monday Morning Everyone,

Happy June 1st!!!! Can you believe its JUNE!!!! We are half way through 2009 and I am psyched to have almost 20 holiday cards - thanks to Maria's inspiration to start a blog where we do different challenges every week to make holiday cards all year long: known as the Christmas Stampin All Year Long Blog!

Today is Monday and that means its time for another card from the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog - where today - I am your hostess!!! I thought for Challenge #19! to mix it up a little and have some fun with numbers :)!!! So the challenge is to create a card where you use numbers (either in the embellishment, stamps, paper, etc) as the main focus of the creation :) As soon as I thought of that and sent it to Maria - our awesome blog coordinator /creator/genius :) I suddenly panicked and thought... Uh-Oh, I don't think I want to play along in my own challenge :) because suddenly it felt a little hard to figure out what to do with numbers - 

 but I tried by playing around on my computer and came up with this card that is for Season's Greetings All Year Long (24-7-365 meaning: 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week, 365 days in a year). I downloaded a calendar for December from this site and flourished it up with a little blue flourish and added a little pinkish red dot on the 25th of December for accent. The Tree is a craft stamp and paper pieced and is a Tara Reed Design from Janlynn. Oh and by the way - I just found out that Janlynn is having a HUGE blowout sale - I mean huge!!! Check it out!!

This tree is part of a 7 tree cluster craft stamp called Joyful Trees but I just used one for this card and embellished it with some pink rhinestones. I had to use some liquid pearl (I tried my best not to... but I couldn't resist!!! lol!) and created a little half circle element with the liquid pearls and some glitter :)

Card Details:

Paper: Scenic Route (Sonoma) and 

Ink: Martha Steward Brown

Stamps: Joyful Trees (by the artist Tara Reed from JanLynn)

Accessories: RicRac ribbon from stash, silver marker, Kaiser Rhinestones, Martha Green Agate glittler, liquid pearls, dimensionals

Show Watched: Pride & Prejudice for the 400th time :)

I hope you play along! It's really been helping each week to add a card to my holiday card pile :) yay! I am psyched to be able to actually have cards to give out during the holidays :) yay :) unlike last year where it was just a last minute holiday shopping, wrapping, crafting frenzy ... ugh!

Check out all the fun numbered creations from the lovely ladies over at the Christmas Stampin All Year Long blog!!!

Hope your Monday is off to a great start!!!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!!!

Ciao for now :)

Sankari 

Happy Holidays

Happy Monday Everyone!

This week over at the Christmas Stampin All Year Long blog we had a sketch challenge from Maria for week 18 of our weekly holiday card challenge! I am still on vacation right now - but didn't want to miss out from being part of this awesome blog - so I literally scrapped together some paper - got a cute little christmas tree at the nearby craft store and borrowed my MIL's scrap tools to create this little card - luckily the craft store had some liquid pearls - so I felt set! Its hard to craft in a space that's not yours - but I had fun doing this card - sorry for the poor lighting - I took this picture sunday night and will have to take another picture when I get home :)

Don't forget to check out all the other wonderful creations over at the Christmas Stampin All Year Long blog - we would love for you to play along!

Happy Memorial Day to all! Hope you are all having or had a wonderful weekend!!
Will write more soon after getting home :)
Thanks so much for visiting my little corner :)
Sunshine smiles and Hugs,
Sankari :)

Let It Snow (but not today :)

Good Monday Morning Everyone,

Hope ya'll had a great Mother's Day weekend!! Ours was very sweet, simple and lovely! And today - its time for another challenge from the Christmas Stampin All Year Challenge group - and today Vicki Garrett of Summerthyme Studio - has a fun challenge for us to add some blingy bling to our Christmas cards! Who doesn't love a little bit of bling! I know I do!

I pulled out one of my new fave craft stamps that I just got from JanLynn created by the artist Tara Reed - aren't these snowmen just so cute and lovely! This is called Cheerful Snowmen - and they totally make me smile! I love how happy they look and I especially love the little guy holding up the little present I used Jen's Sketch for You to Try and after coloring them, I covered them in Crystal Stickles and then dusted them with coarse crystals from Martha Stewart and now they are sparkly sparkly. I created little snow drops with some liquid pearls.  I added a little bling on the side and used the Let it Snow sentiment from Taylored Expressions. 

I am totally lovin' doing these challenges - I am never this organized with creating Christmas cards so early! I don't know what I am going to do with all my spare time around the holidays - maybe actually enjoy the season without that much stress about creating a bunch of cards :) 

Hope you join us and create your holiday cards along with us! 

Happy Monday Everyone - have a great week!

Ciao for now!

Sankari :)

Season's Greetings Card - Christmas Stampin All Year Long Challenge #9

Good Morning Everyone,

It's Monday Morning - so that means another challenge from one of my favorite Challenge groups: Christmas Stampin' All Year Long. Each Week, there is a different challenge to help us create our holiday cards early - and I can't even tell you how grateful I am to be able to do these now.... for one thing its helping me use my stamps, paper and supplies. You can join in on the fun each week by doing the challenge with us (you can link your creation to the post in the challenge group - or upload to Paper Craft Planet with the key word CSYAL).

This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and I have to say, that I love sketch challenges. This week looked like a long card - so I pulled out one of my favorite stamps: these happy snowmen by the artist Tara Reed. Tara is such a sweetheart - you can check out her blog here! I am always so happy when I use this cutie stamp - these snowmen just seem to be so jolly - they always make me smile :)

Card Supplies:
Paper: Cardstock from Stash
Ink: Versamark and White EP
Stamps: Snowmen image from Stamps Happen Inc. (Tara Reed Designs)
Accessories: Liquid Pearls for the snow, crystal glitter (Martha), sliver pen, markers, grosgrain ribbon
Show watched: Toy Story with my son :)


I love these challenges! Each week after I make my holiday card, I put it in a special litle container and its nice to see that container starting to fill up! Check out all the awesome inspiration for this great sketch at the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog! Hope you join in on the fun!!!

Thank you for visiting this little corner!!!
Ciao for now,
Sankari :)

Merry Monday Christmas Card

Good Monday Morning,

I love belonging to a wonderful challenge blog called Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, because it really keeps me motivated in making all my holiday cards ahead of time - rather than procrastinating and waiting till December to get started :). Each week Maria of Stampin' Inspirations creates a challenge for our cards: this week's challenge was to create something from your DP from a scene to an embellishment etc.... so I went with the idea to create a poinsettia flower... they are so pretty and festive - and seeing them all lined up at the store always brings back memories of highschool fundraising drives :)

This card is a total scrap stash card.... I have NO idea where any of the embellishments, ribbon, paper is from.... I am really trying to use up what I have so that I can get more :) I drew out a large petal and a smaller petal and traced it on some DP (I really am attacking this scrap stash - and yet - it still looks full?!!!) I cut out the petals and arranged them together and dotted with some silver marker --- i am really into a dotted phase right now... i think i could put a dot on everything :) . The Merry Christmas sentiment are rub on's and the cute little button I got a few years ago - and only have three left :( 

This was such a fun challenge and was a great way to use my stash items!!! I hope you can play along --- its really a great way to be ahead of the game!! Please check out the Christmas Stampin All Year blog and join in on the fun!!

Thank you so much for visiting me on this monday!!

Happy Stampin'!

Sankari 

Christmas Stampin All Year Long - Challenge #7

Good Morning Everyone - can you believe that its Monday (again lol!)

I am not sure what happened to last week - it flew by me! And this time change thing has really gotten me all tangled and twisted up... I like the fall time change better - the spring one always throws me off...

Speaking of time - its Monday and that means that its another challenge from the "Christmas Stamping All Year Long" blog, which I am so plum pleased to be a part of - Every week there is a challenge - from which we create Christmas cards - this is such a nice way to get motivated to get those Christmas cards started early - seriously - this last year - I completely procrastianted in making all my cards - so this year - I am starting a little ahead of time - like 9 months ahead!and this challenge blog is the best thing because it helps be stay motivated.

This week - the challenge was to create your own sketch and a card from your own sketch - which was actually challenging - so I went with the "less is more" approach and created a simple card (20 mintues) and tried to keep the layers and all down... (I have to take a pic of it in daylight - I apologize for the darker quality)




Card Details:
Paper: DCVW, stash
Inks: Ballet Blue SU!
Stamps: Penny Black
Accessories: Martha punch, Kaiser bling, Fiskar's threading punch, liquid pearls.

I actually enjoyed the sketch that I ended up creating for this challenge - it is super simple and easy - and might be one that I come back to later... :)

Hope all of you will play along !!!

Happy Monday!
Sankari :)

Lots of Cupcakes and Some Exciting NEWS!!!!

Happy Monday Morning Everyone,

Okay - apology in advance: This is going to be one, big long post! Ged ready!!!

Happy March !!! Just a quick shout out to my highschool buddy Lisa and my dear blogging friend and fellow PaperCraftPlanet DT, Tammy Hersberger of Stamp Happy Tammy - both of whom celebrated their birthdays yesterday! Happy Birthday lovely ladies!!! I have been a slacker in sending out birthday cards - I love making them - but its always hard to go to the Post Office with two kids - it always ends up the same - either one or both of them end up in a puddle of tears on the post office floor... and speaking of March - I suddenly wondered how is it suddenly March - time is just flying by! Speaking of time flying by - are you ready for a Christmas card?!! LOL! I am part of a group called Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, that was started by one of my dear blogger friends Maria Bell of Stampin Inspirations, where we create Christmas cards and projects weekly throughout the year. Maria sends us a sketch or a challenge requirement for the challenge and it is so much fun to not only make a card but see everyone else's beautiful cards! I love doing this because it allows me to avoid the Christmas insanity of making a billion xmas cards just before mailing it out right before xmas.

This week's challenge was a sketch challenge and also a requirement challenge where we were supposed to use at least 3 "eyelets" as the main embellishment - (no ribbons, no brads, no primas, nothing else) with the sketch. I am so happy that this was the challenge - because truth be told - I am not a big eyelets fan - its just so much easier to put a brad through... but after I make a card with an eyelet - I am always like -- hey - I should use these more often! LOL!

Here's Maria's awesome sketch:


And here is my card based on the sketch and challenge requirement (I kept wanting to put ribbon on the card and had to actually resist the impulse a few times to keep within the challenge requirement of only using eyelets for embellishments).

I totally loved every single second of making this card. I had sooo much fun - my DH took the kids out and I cranked my fave mix and stamped away! This stamp set is from Taylored Expressions... and as some of you know - I am in love love love with her stamps - they are just too cute!

This image comes from Taylor's Year of Sweets 3 set and the paper is from her Christmas Key Ingredients. This cute cuppie was stamped with Stazon-Black onto water color paper (thanks to my friend S. who recommend which kinds to buy ;) I painted everything (created a little scene for Cuppie with a wall, table, and a candle on the mantle) and then paper pieced the rest - there are a lot of dimensionals (on the letter to Santa, cookies) for a bit of depth. The sentiment is from the set A Year of Sweet Sentiments. I put the eyelets as hooks for the stockings.

Join the fun by making your Christmas card based on the sketch/requirement challenge and link your blog to the post on the Christmas Stampin All Year Round site, where your card will be also posted in the group's photo album.

So now for some really exciting news - I am just so excited! Seriously - I have been on cloud 9 or cloud 99!!!!! I almost dropped on the floor and fainted when Taylor VanBruggen asked me to join her Baker's Dozen Design Team!!!!!!!!!! I had to pinch myself a few times! I have totally been in love with Taylor's company and her Friday Cupcake sketch challenges and all her cute Cuppie stamps and so it was just a dream come true!!! And I couldn't believe the Design Team that she has assembled - these ladies do amazing work and I am so honored to be part of this wonderful company and team!!! Thank you so much Taylor!! (I still have to pinch myself!!!) Please check out all the members of the Baker's Dozen Design Team here.

Taylor is releasing her newest stamp sets this week! And trust me they are just tooooo cute!!! Tuesday starts our preview fiesta where all the ladies on the Design Team will be showing some sneak peeks from the new release!!!

I wanted to show some more of her cute cute cute cupcake stamps and realized that I haven't yet posted all the cupcake cards that I made for her one year anniversary where she had a challenge for us to do 9 sketches - so I thought I would post them here. The funny thing is that I was trying to get them done before the deadline in January - but the deadline was the day that we were to leave for Florida - but did I pack instead of stamping? No way! Not when there are cutie cupcakes involved!!! LOL! I got it done just in the deadline - and then went off to hurriedly pack! In the middle of travelling and vacationing - I didn't post these - so here are my 9 cuppie inspired cards - you can read more about Taylor's One year Celebration of the Friday Cupcake Challenge here.

HOlly day cupcakes using Jackie Pedro's sketch

Sweet Friend card Using Donna Baker's sketch

Love Muffin card Using Monika Davis's Sketch

Love is Sweet Card Using Stephanie Hargis's sketch

Happy {Heart} Day Card Using Sherri Siemen's sketch

Happy V day card (sentiment from TE) Using Jami Sibley's sketch

Love is in the air card Using Ana Wolfhart's sketch

These two cards below I have already previously posted - but I thought I would keep all 9 together -so here they are again :). This one I already posted here and it is from Taylor's Friday Cupcake challenge #52.

This little guy I aready posted here using Vickie Chrisman - but had to post him again :)


Are you hungry for a cucpake yet? I totally am! Nothing like a cupcake and chai for breakfast --- now, all I have to do is get out of my pajamas and make some!

Thank you so much Taylor for this awesome opportunity! Please check out her awesome company Tayored Expressions and her simply sweet blog and check out all the awesome ladies in the Baker's Design Team!

Thank you all so much for visiting my little corner in the cyber world - I am so happy to be blogging again (after almost a month of being away from home) and its so great to meet so many new friends and catch up with all my awesome blogging friends!! Thank you all for always inspiring me!!!!

Cupcake hugs and sunshiney smiles :)
Sankari :)