For my friend Kristen and her beautiful family :)

Happy Thursday Everyone :)

First of All - I canNOT even begin to express my gratitude to all of YOU!!!  Thank YOU - the hugest thank you that I can say - to all of you who left comments on my blog during the 2Sketches4You card showdown - I can't even express - HOW grateful and thankful I am for all of your lovely beautiful comments! I am still in shock to have won!! I can't believe it and have had to pinch myself a few times this week!!! It was such an amazing journey and I am so grateful for everyone's congratulatory wishes and a big huge thank you to Kazan and Laura. all the judges - all my fellow participants and all of you! Thank you from the depths of my heart!!!

I am sorry to be quiet on the blog front - we had to deal with some family issues and along with that - i also burned part of my finger (right hand ) so was unable to craft or even type till a day ago - thankfully everything is better now and my finger is doing better - but the side and pad of my finger are still painfully blistery - but luckily it was only that and not more... Last night I was psyched to finally sit down and craft a little bit finally! I made some layouts and card for my lovely friend Kristen who is visiting Iowa from Seattle. 

These layouts and card was made for Kristen (isn't she beautiful!). Kristen asked me if I could help her make something for her husband Matt for his birthday and also something for her grandfather's birthday (he is turing 85!!) - and I was totally psyched to help! She and Matt are one of my fave couples and have the cutest little girls ever - adorable!!! She has a wonderful blog where she chronicles their adventures  (all of these pictures are from her - except the bottom right one which I took last week when they were visiting Iowa :) and then created a little 8 x 8 layout using the March Key Ingredients kit from Taylored Expressions.

 I used the colors from the Color Throwdown this week for this layout. I love the colors that these lovely ladies throwdown and have missed playing along in their challenges :) I also used the stamp set: Love is Sweet from Taylored Expressions to detail the leaves and used American Craft Thickers for the sentiment: 4 Ever. The best part of this? was seeing Matt and Kristen hold it and say that they liked it :) I love the picture of M and K from their wedding and the other picture of them was taken by their little daughter!! So Cute! I love the pic of Matt holding his girls - look how cute his littlest daughter's expression is - SO cute!!

Here are some close up shots:

Here is a closer shot of the happy pics:

Layout Details:

Paper: March Key Ingredients from Taylored Expressions 

Stamps: Taylored Expressions: Love is Sweet sentiment

Accessories: Butterfly punch from Martha Stewart, bling from K&Company along with embroidery thread and pattern, buttons from Hall Pass Bag o Buttons from Taylored Expressions

This second layout is a 6 x 6 that I made for Kristen to give to her grandfather for his birthday -  where he can see his granddaughter and great grandaughters  - these were made using Jen's sketch from Paper Craft Planet and using the Easter Key Ingredients from Taylored Expressions. I ADORE this picture of Kristen and her beautiful girls - they are truly the sweetest!

Layout Details:

Sketch: By Jen Tapler for Paper Craft Planet

Paper: Easter Key Ingredients from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: Butterfly stamp from Martha Stewart, bling from K&Company, threading punch, circle cutters from CM, American Thickers letters

And lastly - here is a card that I made for Kristen's grandfather's 85th birthday (the colors for his birthday party are navy blue, cream and gold) - so I used those colors for the card and followed Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday sketch (which is being guest hosted this week by my darlin' Sarah Jane Keller :) yay SJK!). Initially the card was kinda close to the sketch but then I don't know what happened :)  probably because - I have to say that it is beyond hard to make a man card - I am not a man card kinda girl - it seriously always ends up swirly whiry girly - but Kristen liked it and so I was psyched :)

Card Details: 

Paper: Paper Company 

Stamps: Celebrate is from Taylored Expressions and the happy birthday is from stash and 85 is from the American Craft Thickers

Accessories: ribbon - K and Company, star and circle from CM 

I had such a fun visit with Kristen  - she is truly an angel and it was so much fun to make these personalized gifts for her - somehow that is when craft making becomes so special and fun - when you know who you are making it for and to see them hold it and love it makes the journey complete :)

Here is a picture of my two little children playing with Kristen's little ones - I absolutely love this picture - it feels so very summertime-ish  :

Hope you are all enjoying your summer moments! I am trying to savor it because it is flying by quick!

Thank you all for visiting my little corner - you make the sun shine!

Sunshiney smiles and hugs!

Sankari :)

Mini Bookcase with Drawers - project

Good Morning Everyone,

Have you checked out the Stamp a Sweet Impression Blog? This is a blog that showcases some of the amazing stamps and products at Taylored Expressions - its really amazing to see all the creations on this blog - as well as a place to find lots of tutorials on how to create something sweet - and recipes too for creating something sweet for your sweet tooth :) You can check out the blog and subscribe on the right hand side when you click here - so that you don't miss out on these great inspirations and ideas!

Today was my turn to contribute to the blog - so I create a little mini chest with drawers. Here is a mini sneak peek :)

I made this project with boxes and a mini drawer shelf for some projects that Paper Craft Planet was hosting. I got a few questions on what the dimensions were for the box holder - so I thought I would make a little tutorial on that... 

If you hop on over to the Stamp a Sweet Impression blog, you can see the tutorials and the full project here! 

Please check it out - its kind of my first tutorial (the kind with measurements and stuff :)

Thank you so much for coming over to visit today! This is the last day of march! Do you have any April Fool's tricks ready up your sleeve??  I am going to have to watch my toes around here tomorrow!!!

Have a wonderful day!

Sankari :)

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #60 - You are a good egg!

Good Friday Morning Everyone!!!

Happy First day of Spring!!!

You know I am always excited about Fridays!! One of the many reasons is because Taylor does her cupcake challenges on Friday and if that weren't reason enough to make today exciting, this Friday there is some big exciting news from Taylored Expressions.

You might have already seen this at Taylor's blog, but if you haven't --- Taylored Expressions is offering something new that you are definitely going to want... a subscription to her popular Key Ingredients kits! The kits will be shipped straight to your doorstep each month so you'll never miss out! Be sure to check out this post on Taylor's blog for all the details!

This Friday, half of the Baker's Dozen Team is going to be featuring the Key Ingredients for the month of March and you can't miss it!! These women are simply divas! You can check them out here and also take a peek at the possiblites with this awesome Key Ingredient subscription plan! You can check them out here:

Charmaine Ikach
Donna Baker
Ana Wohlfahrt
Karen Giron
Jodi Collins
Laura Fredrickson

The Key Ingredient's Kit that Taylor offers is really awesome! As you probably have seen, I have been loving using the Easter Key Ingredients set (which comes with cardstock, designer papers, brads, ribbons, flowers that all coordinate together). I have been using these papers and kit to create a scrapbook for my daughter. And I love them so much, because everything coordinates together and you can get a card or scrapbook page come together sooo easily! 

Everything on this card for Taylor's sketch challenge this week is made with elements from the Easter Key Ingredients kit, using the newly released set called: Sweet Spring! What a perfect stamp set to use to celebrate the first day of Spring!!!

I loved making this card so much, that I had to make a little basket also - the sentiment says "You are a good egg!" I filled it with lots of yummy Robin looking candy eggs.

And here is the card and the coordinating basket (as you probably saw from yesterday, I am still addicted to making these baskets lol!!! I am literally becoming a basket case :)

Card Details:

All Papers, ribbon brads, flowers are from the Easter Key Ingredients set
Stamps - Sweet Spring
Ink: Regal Rose SU!

Check out all the ladies on the Cupcake Crew for more inspiration!!!

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jami Sibley

Lynn Mercurio

Monika Davis

Sherrie Siemens

Vicki Chrisman

Ana Wohlfahrt

And a big congratulations to my girl!!! Jen Tapler on being the featured Cupcake Sampler this Friday!!! yay Jen!!!!  Check out her awesome card here!

How about a sweet Spring Treat? Taylor is giving away a FREE Tiny Twinkle to one random winner from among all the people who upload their sketch challenge cards to Paper Craft Planet using the same TECC60 keyword. So hop on over and upload your card at PaperCraftPlanet and you could be the winner of some cute twinkle bling! Its as easy as that!!! We would like to congratulate Lori McAree who was the winner of last week's Twinkle giveaway!!!!

Thank you so much for visiting my little corner :)

Hope your Friday is delicious and yummy!!!

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

I {heart} my homeies :) (some fun challenges from my buddies at PCPlanet :)

Good Morning Everyone,

I seriously don't know how this week is flying by - work has been so busy that it has been tough to find pockets to craft and I was also having no mojo these past few days. Anytime the mojo runs out - its always nice to do some challenges because its such a great way to get it back :) So I did a few of the challenges over at Paper Craft Planet created by some of my homegirlzzz :)

The first one was from the first 3D challenge over at Paper Craft Planet - this one was a challenge from Adela to create something out of a regular tin can (like a 8oz can of something)... I loved this challenge of taking something from your pantry and just altering it... so I cleaned out a can and peeled the sticky paper off and started to alter it. I totally LOVE the stamps that Melanie had released called the Best Things in Life. This is such a versatile set and is perfect for every occaision because you can mix and match the words to suit your every needs. Melanie's stamps are awesome - and at first I just couldn't decide what I wanted the sentiments to say - but then since I was working with a tin can - I went with the words: The Best things in Life are in a tin :) and decided to make a quick little spring basket full of treats and the person can later use it for something in their house :) 

This was SUCH a simple and quick project - it was no more than a 20-25 minute project. Just some pretty paper, some ribbon, ink and primas - and voila - a gift (filled with yummy gummy bunnys :) that can be used for other things after the bunnys are gone :) Check out this set and also Melanie's newest stamp sets also over at Gina K. (you have to check out all of  Gina's newest releases also -- talk about Ka-Ute!!!!). You can check out the gallery over at Paper Craft Planet with all the can-fabulous creations :) 

I love these 3-D challenge - it seriously gets me out of my box - and the challenge this week is from my homegirl Tammy - who challenged us to make this cute basket box. You can find all the deets over at Cambria Turnbrow's  page on how to make the box - You have to try this out (all you need is a 5 x 5 piece of paper). If you play along this week, please upload to Paper Craft Planet with the tag 3d4.  This first box was so much fun to make - I kept it simple because I loved the design of the paper. 

Then I couldn't stop... and tried it out with DP that has patterns on either side to see what that would look like... I totally loved that you can create two different boxes with the same DP - and still I can create two more boxes from the same DP!!! now that's awesome that you can create 4 boxes with one 12 x 12!!!

The next one I created as something just very simple - but then I saw that I had this leeeetle scrap of this pretty DP that I had in my stash - so I just adorned the sides of the box and made it my handle also.

it is sooooo easy peasy - and I bet you can't just make one --- I totally couldn't as you can see:

Next - I COULDN"T stop!!! These were waaaay to cute and sooo much fun!! and SO FAST!!!!  This time, I thought I could make a little drawer... so I made two boxes and punched out a little tab using a 1" punch. I made a bigger box using the same template to make the mini boxes and then decorated it with some papers, flowers and liquid pearls :) SO quick!!!  I made this as a little thing that could sit at my DH's desk at work. 

What is hilarious - is that I was trying to use some primary colors that looked more masculine... but see, I just can't do masculine... it always ends up with dots and flowers :) But, I am glad that he likes it :) You can fill it with all kinds of stuff, but I thought that since its sitting at his desk, I would fill it with some paper clips and some binder clips for him. 

I need to make one for my desk and fill it with a secret stash of yum yums for crafting time :) I hope you can play along (it seriously only takes about maybe 7 minutes to make a box and then you have all the possibilities open to how to adorn it :) If you play along at PCPlanet - please upload with the tag 3d4. And guess what? Next, week its my turn to be the hostess of this challenge - so stay tuned next tuesday for another challenge over at the planet :)

The last challenge that I did was Jen's Scrappy Sunday challenge over at Paper Craft Planet. Every Sunday, Jen creates an awesome sketch to get scrappy with it :) I LOVE Jen's style and allows me to get my scrap mojo on so easily.  As you probably know, I am using Jen's sketch to create a book for my daughter - every week I use one of her sketches and use the same papers, style of photos etc, so that I can keep scrappbooking  - I am sooo excited that I have three pages already done!! YAY!

I LOVE these papers - these are from Taylor's Easter Key Ingredient's Kit! They are just awesome - and I LOVE these colors and embellishments. The kit comes with DP, coordinating cardstock, brads, flower embellies and coordinating ribbon! It makes doing these scrapbook pages so easy and fun! I also used the calendar stand that Taylor has at her store - which has been a fun way to display these pages, because every week, I am adding a new page and so it changes the home decor every week - and my kids love seeing themselves displayed :) This was a fun page to do for her - showing a favorite thing that they always do - sitting by the window playing and laughing....

I love this pic of the two of them together... I love watching them play and was so happy that I captured this moment between them, they were just sitting so nicely on the window sill, and were telling each other stories. I still don't like my handwriting, but I am trying to get over the fact that I don't like my handwriting on pages, by writing something on each page = on this page I wrote: My heart always melts when I see you both playing together, I love seeing you both laughing at your private jokes - May you always be best friends.

These sketches are so fun and quick! I have made all my pages 6 x 6 because I always get intimidated by the big space of a 12  x 12 - so these pages come together really quick! If you play along this week - then you can upload to the Scrappy Sunday album for this week with the tag: sb031509

If you are still reading this - then you totally deserve a medal!! lol! I hope you check out all the awesome challenges over at Paper Craft Planet and also that you check out Melanie's new release and all the awesome Key Ingredients and other products that are fresh out of the oven at Taylor's!!! 

Tomorrow is Taylor's Friday Cupcake Challenge (yay!) You could win a FREE set of Taylor's Tiny Twinkles - all you have to do is to participate in her sketch challenge and upload it to Paper Craft Planet - for more details - stay tuned to Taylor's blog tomorrow!!!!

Are ya'll excited that its almost Friday? You know I am!!! 

Thank you so much for visiting my little corner :)

Ciao for now :)

Sankari :)

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #59 - Basketful of Blessings and a chance for some Twinkles!

Happy Friday Everyone!!

I for one am sooo TGIF! And what a great way to celebrate Friday then with some cupcakes and a chance to win some Taylor's Tiny Twinkles!!! Here is this week's sketch from Taylor's weekly Friday Cupcake Sketch Challenge - you don't have to use cupcakes, but if you have them, why not use 'em! 

This week Taylor is offering everyone a chance to score some of her awesome Tiny Twinkles!!! Have you guys seen this cute little twinkles? In one container you will receive over 400 rhinestones!! They come in a round storage container that separates each of them perfectly by size and color. They can easily be applied to your projects with some liquid glue --- and they are the PERFECT embellishments to all your projects. 

All you have to do is to create a card with Taylor's above sketch - link it to her blog and upload it to Paper Craft Planet with the tag TECC59!!! That's it!!! The deadline to link to Taylor's blog and Paper Craft Planet for the chance to win some Twinkles is Monday at 8am PST. One winner will be drawn through Random. Org!  

Card Details:

Paper: Easter Key Ingredients set, Choice Buttercream cardstock

Ink: Martha brown, Stazon- Black, Water colors for the basket

Stamps: Sweet Spring

Accessories: Stickles, corner rounder, Fiskar's tag punch, Creative Memories Circle cutters, mini circle punch, liquid pearls

I had a lot of fun creating a card with this sketch! I used this cutie pie cupcake in a basket from Taylor's newest stamp release: Sweet Spring and also all the paper and embellies are from the Easter Key Ingredient Kit (which I love and adore - you can check out a scrapbook page done only with the papers in this kit here). The handle of the easter basket is adorned with Taylor's Tiny Twinkles -- aren't they so cute! 

You can check out this tutorial that Ana Wohlfahrt did on these tiny twinkles here. I hope you all try this sketch challenge and upload to Paper Craft Planet with this tag TECC59 for a chance to win these Tiny Twinkles!!!

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

Thank you so much for visiting my little corner :)

Sankari :)

Scrappy Sunday - Challenge #3

Hi Everyone, 

Can I just tell you that I am LOVING doing these scrapbook sketch challenges that my dear friend Jen Tapler is creating over at Paper Craft Planet's Scrappy Sunday group! I used to scrap all the time, but haven't really done any scrapbooking in sooo very long - so its so nice to use these awesome sketches and get some scrappy mojo going. I seriously, love Jen's style - it is just perfect and fun and bright and cheery - and not only is Jen uber talented, she is also just the sweetest too! She always brings a smile to my face - and her love for Tom Selleck is just epic ;) 

Well, I was hooked from the very first sketch challenge that I did (you can check it out here) and I couldn't wait for this week's challenge. This week Jen has used a digital template from Kelleigh Ratzlaff as the basis for the sketch (you can check out Kelleigh's store Digichicks and also purchase the template if you want to get digi with it :). 

The greatest thing about this challenge is that it is helping me create a scrapbook for my daughter and so each week, I am using the sketches that Jen provides to create a little book for my wee one. I also absolutely love love love the colors and patterns from the Easter Key Ingredients that Taylor has and so I decided to use this key ingredients set in my each of my layouts for the scrapbook challenges - so that I can create a book where each page is coordinating with the next one. 

Taylor has these awesome calendar stands in her store - and I lOVE this product - each week after I do my sketch, I just simply slide it into the plastic protector for this stand and voila! instant home decor! And its so great to display it around the house and my daughter just loves it -- she actually loves anything with her picture on it :)

For this week's sketch, I wanted to try something a little different. In photoshop, I played with the colors so that the whole picture is black and white, except for her pink hat, mittens and boots... it was kind of nice to highlight her little pink accessories and also added some mist effect to the snow that she is holding in her hand - so that it looks all sparkley and glittery :)

I simply love this picture... she was sooo curious and in wonder about snow -- she kept wanting to hold it, lick it, eat it, roll in it, look at it, slide in it, jump in it -- anything to do with it - she was all about it!

I totally dislike my handwriting in my scrapbook pages - because I feel like it detracts from the page itself - but, I had to succumb to the fact that my handwriting is not perfect and just do it anyway ... I wrote: "..i loved watching you discover snow - it was magical to see the world through your eyes." It really is such a wonder to see the world through your children's eyes and see the wonder and beauty of the world around us - which I so easily forget in the hustle and bustle of trying to get the kids to school or go off to work... its so wonderful to be around children and just be able to enjoy the simple innocence of snow, or mud or digging for buried treasure and swinging high in the air trying to touch the sky :)

Layout Details:

Sketch: Scrappy Sunday #3 - Kelleigh Ratzlaff digi template

Paper: All of the Paper here is from Taylored Expressions: Easter Ingredients Kit - I absolutely adore this kit with all the papers, cardstock, DP, choice white cardstock, brads, flowers and ribbon - it is just yummy!

Ink: Martha brown - to brown the edges

Accessories: Martha snowflake punch, silver pen, corner rounder, magenta pen from Creative Memories and edging scissors, ribbon is from the Easter Key Ingredients kit, Calendar stand and Plastic Protectors

 I was always intimidated by the 12 x12 pages, so these pages for the challenge are all going to be 6x6. Well, I hope you can check it out and play along. This week, Jen is doing the first Scrappy giveaway (deadline for the project ends this Saturday at midnight) and Don't be afraid to get scrappy with it! You can check out all the details of the giveaway here and also check out all the amazing entries to the Paper Craft Planet Scrappy Sunday Album here. 

Hope you guys have been having a great week! Are you as excited for Friday as I am!?!!!!

Thank you for visiting my little corner :)

Ciao for now!

Sankari :)