Pursue Happiness!

Hi Everyone,

Is your week slightly "extra full" as we approach Thanksgiving? All I can say is that things here went from busy to crazy busy! Lots of running around, making lists, crossing off items from said list, grocery shopping and last minute gift shopping! Whew! But the best part of all, is when I have a chance to sneak down and create a little something in my craft nook :) and last night I was so thankful that my DH put the kids to bed so I sat down and this gorgeous set called Discover Your Wings  from Taylored Expressions was totally calling my name. I love the sentiment "Pursue Happiness" - it was so apt this week that in the midst of the hustle and bustle, the main goal is to remember everything that we are thankful for and to share  precious moments with friends and family. 

I used Taylor's awesome sketch from the Friday Sketch Challenge #134  and paired it with papers from my August Key Ingredients Kit. If you aren't familiar with the Key Ingredient's program that Taylor offers, you can read about it here - it is a fantastic way to make cards really easily because it is filled with a ton of DP, coordinating cardstock and ribbon and accessories and embellishments that make it a cinch to make one or a bunch of cards.  - Taylor has a Key Ingredient's Gallery for all of the monthly Key Ingredients, so that when you get yours you can check out samples that have been created with that month's kit for ideas! Here is the link for the August Key Ingredients Gallery. I was inspired to make a couple of cards with the beautiful butterfly from this stamp set and kept it pretty simple so that I could make two at the same time. 

Here is a close up of the card - The butterfly is paper pieced and the layers are outlined with just a wee bit of liquid pearls :) I also added some glazed dots in the back ground and popped the smallest oval with some dimensionals:

It was so much fun to create these cards and I can't wait to make more! 

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Green cardstock,  Echo Park:  A Walk in the Park

Stamps: Discover your Wings from Taylored Expressions

Ink: Memento Ink: Bamboo Leaves and Rich Cocoa

Accessories: Brown and white stitched ribbon, Inkessentials glaze, Corner chomper, Spellbinders (oval nesties and scalloped ovals), Dimensional pearls (adirondack Lettuce), dimensionals

Thank you so much for stopping by today! 

Hope that you are having a wonderful day and wishing for you lots of happiness!

Big hugs,

Sankari :)

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #60 -Chronicles of Narnia

Good Morning Everyone!!!

I am SOOOO happy that its Saturday!! Not just because its Saturday - but because the Cinema Saturday Challenges have started up again!!! woo-hooo!!! As some of you know, Brooke and I took a little holiday break in December from doing the challenges - but as promised ;) we are back with our 60th Challenge!!! WOOT!!! We wanted to start of with a bang - so we picked an amazing Oscar winning movie (that many of you have been requesting!!!) The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe!). Please check out the Cinema Saturday blog for more links on reading up on this amazing movie!!!

One thing that we are also introducing in the Cinema Saturday blog is a little something know as the Cinema Saturday Inspiration Corner. We have heard back from some of you that sometimes its hard to know where to get started - so we are hoping that this is a starting point to get your mojo flowing! Let me know what you think and if you like the idea of the inspiration corner.

And speaking of mojo - my inspiration came from the fact that when the wardrobe is opened - it takes the children into a different world - beyond their wildest imaginations!!!

So I thought for my card that I would create a little wardrobe that opened up into Narnia :) (this is made for one of my dear friends who adores this series of books - I can't wait till she opens it!!). I knew just the sentiment that I wanted to use - the beautiful sentiment "See Beyond" from the Discover Your Wings Stamp Set from Taylored Expressions! I simply love this sentiment - it is totally something that puts everything in perspective and inspires one to remember the "Bigness" of it all..... For my card, I used Taylor's lovely sketch TESC #96 (love that big circle!)

I was inspired by the colors of the fawn Mr.Tumnus (click on link to see him) as he is in the snow (hence the colors: red, brown and blue (for the snow). I decorated the wardrobe with some punches and when it opens up - you see this picture of Narnia with Aslan and the children - ready for adventure. I love these colors together! And I have to say the image of Mr. Tumnus holding parcels and an umbrella in the falling snow - is one of my favorite images from the movie. (and for those of you who haven't read the book - I didn't read it until this past year! And it is so good! I always feel the book is better than the movie - but in this case - I have to admit - they did an incredible job with the costumes, make up, sets and characters for this movie! Simply beautiful!

The challenge element today was to use someIridescent Sparkle to your card - so I added some crystal stickles to the inside of the card for it to sparkle when the wardrobe gets opened up. It really does sparkle but its hard to capture that in the pic...

Here is a close up of the door (in the movie the Wardrobe has a beautiful tree with swirls in it - but I didn't have a small swirly tree stamp so I just did some quick swirly embossing:

Here is a close up of the beautiful sentiment - I love how versatile it is:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Prism Cardstock Blush Red Dark and Frosted Teal , Bazzil Basics Java

Stamps: Discover Your Wings from Taylored Expressions

Ink: Memento Expresso

Accessories: dimensionals, circle cutters from CM, corner rounder, Sakura Gel Pens, scorer, Bling from K & Co., satin ribbon and EK Success punches

Thanks so much for visiting me today!!!

I really hope that you have a chance to play along with us over at Cinema Saturday- to celebrate both our 60th challenge and our very first challenge for the New year (did I mention that there is BLOG CANDY involved to celebrate this!! The lucky winner will receive a $20 gift certificate to Taylored Expressions!!! :))))

Wishing each of you an amazing New year and a great start to 2010! Wooty Woot!!!!

Can't wait to see your amazing creations!!! You can leave a link on Mr. Linky over at the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge blog !!!!

Big hugs and Happy New Year!!!!!

Sankari :)

TESC #94 - A housewarming card and scrapbook page :)

Good Morning Everyone,

I don't know if you are feeling the holiday crunch - but things have definitely been busy in our household and I feel like a chicken running around, forgetting her lists of things to do and then adding more things on the list. I was in some major need of some stamp therapy last night and so I was so grateful that I had a chance to sit down at my craft corner and make some special things for my loved ones.

I used Taylor's awesome sketch #94 for these projects. I loved the simplicity of this sketch and found that it was perfect for both a card and a scrapbook page.

I made this scrapbook page for my children. Some of you might know that this last week has been a rough one for our family - we have been dealing with some issues that my son has been having to deal with and I wanted to make something for them, so I made a little 6x6 scrapbook page that I loved to display in our calendar stand. I absolutely LOVE this stand - and they love to see themselves displayed at the house too :)

I got a little weepy making this page - I absolutely love love love this picture of my kids (and it always melts my heart when they are giving each other hugs and kisses and doing special things for each other - such a nice change from sibling rivalry!).

I love this moment that I captured of them laughing together at a joke. And I love the quote from Helen Keller which is in the Discover Your Wings stamp set that simply describes this moment perfectly: " The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."

I wanted to write to them something special - It is hard to see them growing up and knowing that I can't always protect them. As they grow up - its almost like each day - I am slowly letting go and watching them learn to sail by themselves... and its both heartbreaking and heart fulfilling... sigh...

Here is what I wrote for them on the page - I hope you don't mind me sharing :)

To the dearest loves of my heart: "As I felt you grow inside, my heart was filled with gratitude and wonder, you both are the sweetest blessings, the apples of my eye. You are what makes me try to be the best mom I can be. Whether near or far, I am always with you - always loving you - always praying for you - always cheering you on. I feel our hearts are one. Always know that I am here - loving you!"

Page Ingredients:
Paper: MME (Oooh La La) and Cosmo Cricket, Girl Friday
Ink: Memento Black
Stamps: Discover Your Wings Stamp set from Taylored Expressions
Accessories: corner rounder, flowers from Making Memories, bling and ribbon from stash, Sakura yellow gel pen, calendar stand and EK success punch

It always amazes me how therapeutic it is to stamp and create something - especially when it is for those whom you love! I loved showing them this page this morning and I love displaying it in our house. I think that's one of my most favorite features of this calendar stand - that it can display your pages and they don't have to hide away in a book somewhere on the shelves :) Also, my kids LOVE pages about them! I think I want to paint the stand and decorate it up - but I am still filling it up right now - so I think I am going to wait till its all done and I can figure out what I want for a color scheme!

This next project is a card that I made using the Sweet Occasions stamp set that was Jami's orginal idea! My dear friends are having a housewarming party this weekend and I wanted to give them something special. I love that this stamp set has so many multiple uses stamp set - it makes it so versatile! LOVE that!!! I used the congratulations stamp set with the cute house on it and then underneath I used the sentiment: on your sweet new home - and I LOVED that it fit perfectly underneath the house image!

And my favorite part of the card was creating a little patterned paper out of the stamps in this set - like this mini cupcake or mini sundae set! So cute! I loved coloring them in!

And it was so much fun to decorate and color this house - I added a little sun for a bit of whimsy :)

Card Ingredients:
Paper: MME buttercream and snow white choice cardstock from Taylored Expressions
Stamps: Sweet Occasions stamp set from Taylored Expressions
Ink: Memento Brown
Accessories: Corner rounder, sponger, threading punch from Fiskars, dimensionals, ribbon from stash and tombow, Martha punch, sakura gel pens.

I loved making these projects and feel so grateful for my family and my friends - both IRL and in blogland - you guys have no idea how much you mean to me - your support, love and sweetness always makes me feel not alone!

Thank you for all of your sweet words! And thank you so much for letting me share this with you today!

Sending each of lots of sunshine!!!

Hugs!

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks - Day 1

Good Morning Everyone!!!

I am so excited because of the stamp sets that Taylored Expressions will releasing this Friday, December 5th at 8amPST and all of the yummy sneak peeks of those sets that are starting from today on! Every 3 months, Taylored Expressions introduces a new stamp set in the TE Giving Tree Program, where a $7 from each stamp set will go to a particular charity. This is one of the reasons that I love being part of Taylored Expressions because it is so wonderful to know that I am helping to make a difference by supporting these charities and also by getting more awareness to the wonderful works that these charities do.

Today - all of us will be showing samples from the beautiful stamp set Discover Your Wings (designed by the awesome Nancy McKinney) and a percentage of the proceeds of this beautiful stamp set will go to benefit the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep organization also known as NILMDTS. This amazing foundation is a charity that administers a network of almost 7000 photographers in the US and 35 other countries who volunteer their time to gently provide a helping hand and healing heart to famillies who have suffered the loss of an infant by offering gentle and beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitve manner. NIMLDTS is there for parents and famillies to help them in thei healing, bring hope to their future and to honor their child. They belive that it is through rememberance that a family and truly begin to heal. Taylored Expressions is honored to help support the work of this wonderful charity, I encourage you to go to their website and learn more of their wonderful work.

This is an organization whose work went right to my heart for many reasons - most of which are hard for me to talk about - and maybe I can in the future - but for right now - all I can say - is that I am so happy to support and organization that supports families to heal after an infant has passed away - what an amazing treasure they are giving that family and what a beacon of hope they are to help in this way. In the Sioux Falls Hospital where Taylor's SIL works, their neo-natal hospital gives cards with a dragonfly on it to famillies who have lost their children at the hospital as a sign of hope. Taylor will also be sponsoring a card drive for anyone who wants to send anything dragonfly related to donate to this hospital. Knowing this - that the dragonfly symbolized hope - I made this card for today's sneak peek - I love the dragonfly stamp and covered the wings in chunky glitter.

I wanted to create a matching ornament/ hanging diorama to go with this card - so I created this from this cutie patootie metal tin - which can be pierced with a crop-a-dile and then you can insert an eyelet and this allows you to thread a ribbon through and hang it up....

I covered the bottom of the tin with some Flower Soft and loved the feel of a meadow of flowers that this sweet butterfly is flitting about in :)

Here is a picture of the card and tin together as a gift set to give to someone special - for me the most important thing is to always dream - to have goals - to work towards them and to always know that dreams do come true....

Card Ingredients and Project details:

Paper: Kaiser Kraft and coordinations cardstock for the base

Ink: color box chalks, Memento Grape Jelly, Pear Tart and Desert Sand

Stamps: Discover Your WIngs

Accessories: dimensionals, stickles, chunky glitter from Martha, flower soft, metal container from my amazing friend, ribbon from stash, spellbinders, brad from Kaiser Kraft, bling from K&Company.

I loved making this hanging diorama and so I had to make another ornament with the beautiful sentiment: See Beyond - and loved embossing this gorgeous butterfly - I am hanging this right near my desk where I can always see it - and always remember that there is a Greater Beyond in this journey of life and to always remember the preciousness of this life:

Project Details:

Paper: American Craft

Stamps: Discover Your Wings

Ink: Memento Lilac Posies

Accessories: frame, ribbon from stash, EP bridal and bling from Kaiser

My last project - is something a little different - it has some Kraft in it (I am a total Kraft newbie :) I love these papers called Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts Girl Collection - that Taylor has in the store - and couldn't wait to emboss this gorgeous stamp image that is in this set of the flower silhouettes - I CASED this gorgeous card that Taylor made for the last TE sketch challenge #92 using these papers. The butterfly is paper pieced and I have to say that I love how this card turned out:

Here is a view from the side - the embossed images are actually quite sparkly - but it is a little hard to tell - love the feeling of embossing:

Card Details:

Paper: Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts Girl Collection and Prism Cardstock

Stamps: Discover Your Wings

Ink: Memento Aquamarine ink

Accessories: Sakura white gel pen, Spare Parts curly q's, circle punches, corner chomper, dimensionals, embossing powder, bling from Kaiser Kraft

The sentiments in this set are so inspiring - they can be for encouragement, for sympathy, for a thinking of you kinda card and I love how all of the different card making techniques that are also possible with this set like embossing, emboss resist, paper piecing, coloring, water coloring - and I can't wait to make more...

Speaking of making more - please check out the awesome creations from the Baker's Dozen this week - I know that they will amaze you!!! And Guess WHAT!!! You can WIN this stamp set!!! All you have to do is to leave a comment on each designer's blog for a chance to win!!! One lucky winner will be chosen at random and will be announced on Friday morning on Taylor's Blog!!! You have until 6am PST on Thursday to enter you comments!!!

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Donna Baker (at the Stamp a Sweet Impression Blog)

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Jami Sibley

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Laurie Schmidlin

Sharon Harnist

Nancy McKinney

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

Thank you so much for stopping by my little ole corner today!

Please stop by tomorrow for Day 2 of sneak peeks!!!

Hugs!

Sankari :)