2 Sketches 4 You - #41 - Merry Christmas!

Good Morning Everyone!

Happy Monday! Our monday morning is off to a snowy start and the harvested cornfields look beautiful covered in white winter magic :) Today over at 2 Sketches 4 You, Kazan has a lovely sketch for us to play with and this week's sponsor is g.c.d studio and the DT was so excited to play along using their amazing holiday collection of papers from the Christmas Sleigh Collection - and also with their beautiful buttons and brads! I loved the fact that this collection came with different textures of papers from clear acetate, to felted papers, to shimmery glitteriness of the different papers! We were so excited to use these papers that we all made 2 cards this week - one with Kazan's awesome sketch #41 and another one from whatever layout we liked. Here is my card using Kazan's beautiful sketch:

I attached the clear acetate paper to the DP with some Zip Dry in the corners and added some rhinestones in the corner. I used the chipboard and used the lovely wreath stamp from Verve that I cut out and then popped up on dimensionals on the piece of chipboard:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: g.c.d studios: Christmas Sleigh Collection

Inks: Lady Bug Memento

Stamps: Verve: O' Christmas Tree

Accessories: Zp Dry, Rhinestones, liquid pearls, brad, ribbon from stash, Bo Bunny candy cane and dimensionals.

Here is my second card that I made "just for fun" - I used the Holiday Button Bits from PaperTrey and I absolutely LOVED using this gorgeous red paper - it has "foil" in it and the way it shines is just beautiful!!!

Card Ingredients:

Paper: g.c.d studios: Christmas Sleigh Collection

Inks: Lady Bug Memento

Stamps: PaperTrey Holiday Bits

Accessories: Whirligig buttons, EK Success punch, Sakura White gel pen, brad, ribbon from Taylored Expressions and dimensionals.

I absolutely loved playing along with this lovely sketch! And a huge thank you to g.c.d studios for their generosity! The winner this week will get their hands on the yummy Christmas Sleigh Collection!!! So check out all the yumminess right here at 2 Sketches 4 You!!!

Can't wait to see all the yumminess that the rest of the DT have cooked up!!!

Happy Monday Everyone!!!

Big Hugs!

Sankari :)

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #58 - Roman Holiday

Good Morning Everyone,

Today is Saturday, which means that it is time for another Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge, where I am SOOOO excited because this week, we are featuring one of my FAVORITE movies: the 3 time Oscar winning movie: Roman Holiday - starring two of my FAVORTIE actress in the whole world - the one and only: Audrey Hepburn who stars with Gregory Peck who is one of my FAVORITE actors in the whole world (but of course - you KNOW that Johnny Depp - will always be #1!!!!) ---- can you tell that I LOVE this movie!!!??!!! I don't know what it is about Audrey - but she just makes me smile - and so I had SOOO much fun making cards for this movie!!! I couldn't stop at one - I actually made two! THe challenge requirement this week was to use pearls - (that could mean liquid pearls, pearl bling, pearl brads - etc.)

Card #1 - The VESPA inspired card :)

My first card is inspired by the scene where Audrey and Gregory take a ride around Rome in the Vespa scene - I LOVE this scene because of the pure happiness on Audrey's face as she lets down her "princess" role and becomes just a "girl" for the day - Isn't this picture of pure happiness on her face - just the loveliest!!!!

And I a-d-o-r-e this picture of Gregory Peck and Audrey holding each other - SOOO sweet:

I used the Mojo Sketch #112 from the awesome Juleeeee Tilman - I love this sketch and I couldn't wait to use Julee's beautiful stamp set: Wishing You for this card - and choose to pair the "Wishing you" part of the sentiment with the sentiment: "a day filled with happiness" - because it just perfectly captures the feeling of the beautiful day that Audrey and Gregory Peck spend together - my favorite scene is the "Mouth of Truth" scene - soooo cute! I loved the Vespa scene - I downloaded this Vespa image and then I matted it and added dimensionals to give it some pop :) Here is my card inspired by all of those elements:

I made the embellishment on the ribbon by punching out a mini circle in black cardstock and then adhering some pearls on it and then in the center - I put some turquoise bling and then on the sides I added some liquid pearls (in green) - it was a fun way to give the ribbon a little "pop" :)

Card Ingredients:

Paper: black cardstock from stash, green prism cardstock, turquoise cardstock

Stamps: Wishing You from Verve Stamps

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: liquid pearls, pearl accents, blue accordian ribbon, corner chomper, Sakura pen black glaze, dimensionals, Vespa image downloaded: , circle punch

I absolutely loved making this card as I watched the movie - and couldn't wait to make another one:

Card #2 - "Let Your Light Shine" :)

For my second card - I used Lori's sketch from PaperCraft Planet (please use tag: Sk111409 (which is today's date) to upload). As much as I loved seeing Audrey as a princess at the end - (because she truly is a princess in my eyes - no one has her grace - and no one makes a crown and bling look SOOO good!) but more than seeing her loveliness as a princess - I loved seeing her let down her hair and not be bounded by all the rules of being a princess - and so this next card is inspired by the way Princess Anne let's her inner light "shine" and I used Julee's beautiful stamp set: StarStruck from Verve (and just a sidenote: my card started like the sketch - but then it kinda became something a little different... :) I had so much fun making this card (I loved making this card while scrapping with Michelle over at From the Heart! ;) and was inspired to use Tiffany blue by Maureen and had to add a little yellow to bring some shine :)

Card Ingredients:

Paper: black cardstock, Black and White DP from Bo Bunny, turquoise cardstock

Stamps: StarStruck from Verve Stamps

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: pearl accents, organdy ribbon, corner chomper, 2 1/8 circle punch and scallop punch, dimensionals

I love this movie and hope that you have a chance to play along! There are so many parts of this movie that can create inspiration for a card for you - from the costumes, to the dialogue, sets, characters, events, etc.! Make sure to check out the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge site for more inspiration and details and to see how you can be our guest designer!!!

Can't wait to see your Roman Holiday inspired Creations!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by - hope the start to your weekend is a beautiful one!!!

Hugs!!

Sankari :)

2 Sketches 4 You - #36 - Swan Song

Good Morning Everyone,

Today brings another awesome sketch from Laura of 2 Sketches 4 You - I LOVE this sketch with the dots and the scalloped bottom.) I couldn't wait to play along!!!!and this week's sponsor is Sakura of America. I ADORE their glaze pens - they are simply the best - so quick, easy and smooth and they give the image a nice glazed and raised look. I also love the way that it adds a whole lot of shine to the card - and since its a pen - you can use it in very small areas. If you haven't tried their awesome products - you have to check them out here.

I loved this sketch and the scallops reminded me of waves and that immediately reminded me of the beautiful Verve's Swan Song set and so I stamped the sentiment in two shades of Memento ink and then glazed them over with the orange and blue glaze pen with some dots from the yellow glaze pen. I then stamped the swan and colored the swan in with copics and then glaze it with the clear glaze pen:

Here is a closer peek at the areas that I used the Sakura glaze pens - you can see the shine on the waves and on the lines - i LOVE how smoooooooooth they are :)

Card Details:

Paper: Kaiser Off Shore Collection

Ink: Memento

Stamps: Swan Song from Verve

Accessories: pearls from Kaiser, spellbinders, Sakura of America liquid glaze pens, ribbon from stash, sponger and dimensionals

I hope you play along with us over at 2S4U and don't forget to check out the awesome creations by rest of the DT over at 2 Sketches 4 You!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

hugs and happy Monday!!!

Sankari :)

Some Exciting News! (No, I am not pregnant!!)

Hi Everyone :)

School is finally getting into a groove for my little ones and I am finally sinking into the realization that I actually a moment to myself in the mornings! I have some exciting news to share! Julee (one of my idols and heros :) asked me to join the Divahood by becoming part of the Verve Design Team!!! OMGosh - I can't even tell you how loudly I whooped in pure joy!!! I have always admired Julee, her lovely sketches - her amazing designs and more than anything, how she  is always uplifting and encouraging! Thank you SOOO much Julee for this total honor!!! And a HUGE congrats to Teresa Kline and Mercy Kerin who are also joining the Divahood!!! Woo-hoo!!! Check out this sweeeeet welcome by Julee here! Thanks Juleeeeee! :) (seriously - I am still pinching myself!!!)

And Julee is just the sweetest! Check this out! In celebration of the addition to her DT, Julee is offering to YOU a 10% discount at Verve - from now through September 8th Tuesday! All you have to do is type the gift code: "SankariRocks"  (how cute is that - that she personalized the giftcodes!!! Julee you SO Rock!!!) 

And in addition -  something special! Tomorrow is my bday :) Woo-hoo :) I am giving away a $20 Gift Certificate to VERVE!!! So please leave a comment here and tell me about your favorite birthday!!! 

Here are two cards from Party Time stamp set that I had created a while ago to celebrate the news :) 

and I love this sentiment (the sketches are from Julee's Verve Release sketches from August)

I always get a little shy and nervous before my birthday - and its always a time of retrospection and setting goals for this year - More than anything, I feel this deep gratitude for the everyday blessings that are sometimes taken for granted. AND I am grateful to all of you who stop by and ready my blog and to all of you who comment and leave such sweeeet encouraging comments!!! Thank you from the heart deep!!!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today! Huge thanks to Julee!!!!

And don't forget to leave a comment to win the $20 gift certificate to Verve and also you can use the 10% discount with the giftcode above!

Have a fantastico evening!!!

See you in the morning :)

HUGS!!!

Sankari :)

Musings from my Closet (oh - and some stamping too :)

Good Morning Everyone,

So, I saw that Julee is having her Verve Sketch challenge (5 sketches) to celebrate her June release of stamps and I had to join - as of yesterday evening, I had planned not to -because of all the things that I have to do - but then I decided last evening that I just had to... I couldn't pass up this challenge :) So here are my 5 cards for the Verve challenge all done in my closet (we are having guests and my craft corner had to come down).

Since my closet is on the teeny side - I grabbed my June 20th Key Ingredients pack (which has all the ribbons and paper, etc), a craft tote, my fave stamps, and 1 spellbinders dies, my Big Shot and sat and crafted on the floor. I was determined to make 5 cards in 2 hours... and it took a little longer (like 45 minutes longer - but that's because of point number 3 in my list below:)

So here are the musings and lessons learned from crafting in my closet:

1. don't sit next to the dirty hamper

2. make sure to stretch every 20 minutes - otherwise 3 hours later - you will hear creaks from the knees

3. don't try on clothes from college days when you are taking a break and then get depressed that things just don't fit the way they used to.... because it will lead to point #4

4. don't stash a secret stash of yum-yum's in your closet that you will reach for after getting depressed after trying on clothes that don't fit from your college days...

5. wonder if clothes really matter - maybe the whole closet can be transformed into a stamp space :)

Anyhooo - after all the musings - here are the 5 cards all using the June 20th Key Ingredients for Julee's Verve Sketch challenge:

Here is the first card from the first Verve sketch that is also doubling as the Mojo MOnday 92 sketch:  The stamps set is the Hundred Hearts set from Verve.

Here is the second card from this same stamp set and papers set using the second sketch challenge:

Here is the third card based on the third sketch using the Faith and Hope stamp set from Taylored Expressions and the June 20th Key Ingredients set. 

Here is the fourth card based on the fourth sketch and it uses the Wishful Elegance flower from Verve, the June 20th Key Ingredients and a button from the Summer Bag o Buttons from Taylored Expressions.

And here is the last card using the little Critter that I have named Harold holding a cupcake for the last Verve Sketch. This little guy just cracks me up everytime I stamp him (or in this case - paper piece him :)

Well, I am psyched to have finished all five - and now am going to clean up the scraps from my closet floor :) and also go and make a chiropractic appointment for my back after all this closet scrapping!

Thank you so much for visiting me today :) 

Big Hugs,

Sankari :)

PS - thank you for all of you for your sympathy for the crashing of my computer... well - its official - its all gone and can't be salvaged - so make sure you guys are saving things on back ups of back ups! I am just going to try to be positive about this whole experience...

PPS - Happy Friday!

Beauty and the Beast - and a chance to win some Verve blog candy!

Welcome Everyone to our 36th Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge! WOW! Has it been 36 already?! Today we are so excited to feature the Oscar winning movie by Disney: Beauty and the Beast! And along with Amy Park our Audrey winner from last week, we also have special guest designer: Julee Tillman of Poetic Artistry and creator of the Mojo Monday Blog and the creator/designer of the beautiful stamp company Verve!

I was totally thrilled! when Julee said she would be our Guest Designer! I am a huge fan of Julee's Mojo sketches and love getting my Mojo on with her sketches and love the beautiful vibrancy of her Verve stamps! AND Julee is offering a $30 gift certificate to shop at the VERVE store - so hop over to the Cinema Saturday blog and get more details about this challenge and check out Brooke, Amy and Julee's beautiful designs!

I was excited to do the movie Beauty and the Beast - and I remember reading the story of Beauty and the Beast long long ago in a far away land of childhood - and seeing it acted out in my mind's eye. So I was so happy when the movie came out (definitely a different take then the book) but so beautiful - and after watching this movie countless times - I totally knew each of the songs by heart! I love the Gaston song, the Be Our Guest song - but especially the song: Tale as Old as Time- sigh - love that song! I think that my favorite lyrics of the song are: " Ever just the same, Ever a surprise, Ever as before, Ever just as sure, As the sun will rise...." Aren't those lyrics just lovely!?

I love the last scene where Belle pulls him up over the castle wall - and as they both realize their love for each other and - so here is my castle wall, the yellow ribbon is for Belle's ball gown dress - and there is a little quilled rose on the sentiment symbolic of the Beast's learning to love and be loved.

I used Julee's beautiful stamp set: Fairytales and her Mojo Sketch week 70 from January. What was funny is that I wanted to make a small part of the castle and thought to use the cardboard from an empty toilet paper roll for it - but of course there weren't any empty ones!! (then I thought about Carol's lolli-art story about how she needed a lollipop stick and had her daughter eat it so she could us it in her card and totally cracked up laughing :). Well, I couldn't just use the whole toilet paper roll in one evening! So I unwound it and kept it folded up in a little container in the bathroom :) - the things you do to make a card!

Card Details:

Paper: DCVW, toilet paper roll that I covered with gold paper from the Paper Company, tissue paper for the flowers

Ink: Pink Passion and Adirondack Expresso, Martha Brown

Stamps: Fairytales from Verve Stamps

Accessories: Making Memories brads, ribbon stash, pearls, xacto knife and dimensioanls

I really loved making this card - and naive as it is - I totally believe and cheer on fairytale love stories - and also understand that behind every fairytale - is some hard work - to make sure that it always has a beautiful ending :)

Please check out how you could WIN $30 in Verve stamps from Julee!!! All you have to do is create a card inspired by the movie: Beauty and the Beast! Check out the details here!!!!

Thanks so much Julee for this awesome chance to win some Verve candy!!

Thanks for visiting my little corner :)

Big hugs!

Sankari :)

2 Sketches 4 You - Verve colored Happy Birthday Card

HI Again! :)

Are you tired of me yet? 

2 posts in one day!!????!! I know - I don't know what has come over me!!  I came home a couple of hours ago and was soooo happy to be done this week - what a week it's been! I was so happy to be home, that I made a cup of chai and had a chance to sit at my craft table before the dinner rush starts (which it will in about 15 minutes - so I will type fast!!!) 

I loved the color challenge that Julee has for her Verve color challenge for the April release and I love Kazan's Sketch #24 that she has created for the 2Sketches4You challenge blog. I love Laura and Kazan's sketch challenge and their DT is just amazing with the samples that they come up with each week! Talk about inspiration city! They are currently having a DT call for the summer group - and you can check out the details for the DT call here!

One of my dear friends is having a birthday party on Sunday and I wanted to make a birthday card for him... and I thought these colors were so perfect for a masculine card... and who doesn't like cupcakes for their birthday card??! But try as I might, I think my card ended up kinda girly and swirly... (I don't think I can ever realllllllly make a masculine card because it never really looks very .... hmm.. what's the word??..... pretty! lol!!)  Oh, well - I gave up trying to make it look masculine at one point and just had fun paper piecing my cupcakes! Well, I hope he likes it anyway...  :) (Will let you guys know how it goes on Monday :)

Card Details:

Paper: From scrap stash (the only thing that I know is that the blue paper is handmade)

Ink: Chocolate Chip! SU!, Martha brown

Stamps: Downtown Diva set for the cupcakes and Sweet Celebration set for the sentiment from the Taylored Expressions store

Accessories: liquid pearls, corner rounder, button from stash, blinged flowers

Technique: Paper piecing

Well, I hope you are all having a great start to your weekend! Okay.. off to get dinner started! Hope you are all doing well!!!

Thanks for visiting my little corner!!!

Ciao for now!

Sankari :)

Thinking of You card

Good Morning Everyone,

Seriously! Where is this week going? Why does it seem that some weeks are super slow and some weeks are super fast? Maybe its the weather... its been getting so nice around here that we have been outside alot and suddenly the day seems over with..! 

Well, I am looking forward to the end of the week... things around here have been a little unsettled... but hopefully things will settle down this weekend. I am so grateful to have a little stamp therapy available to calm the nerves :) 

I loved this Verve sketch that Julee has created  and I also have been wanting to play along with my buddy Libby's challenge: From Courtney's Closet (an Inspiration Challenge) where she picks a cute little somethin from her cutie patootie daughter Courtney's closet as an inspiration for a card, etc. You can see this week's picture here (isn't her daughter soooo adorable?!) I loved that cute outfit that Courtney is wearing... and I wish I had some scotty stamps... but I don't ... so I went with the colors of the dress and created a little card based on the sketch. I used one of my fave new sets from Taylored Expressions for this card called Fresh Flowers.

I made this card for a special lady who is such an inspiration to me... the vase and flower were paper pieced and I created a little border of silver dots... because Courtney's dress had a cute little black and white border.

Card details:

Paper: Basic Grey (Ambrosia and Cupcakes)

Stamps: Fresh Flowers for the vase and flowers and Branching Out for the sentiment: Thinking About You" - both from Taylored Expressions

Ribbon: Red Organdy Swirl ribbon from Taylored Expressions

Ink: Ruby Red Stampin Up!

Accessories: Corner rounder, liquid pearls, silver marker, button from stash

I hope you all have a chance to try Libby's challenge and Julee's sketch! I was psyched to have a half day off today and so I don't have to run to work till lunchtime - so I am off to the exciting world of cleaning up and laundry... I know I know... its such a glamourous  task that I have ahead of me... kind of red carpet glamour... but in my case more like vacumming the red carpet in our living room  :) LOL! 

Hope you all are having a fantastic week so far!

Thank you so much for visiting my little corner :)

Ciao for now!

Sankari :)

Sweet Tooth Friday

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Hope you guys are ready for a long post - this post is filled with sugary sweets! I always look forward to Fridays for a few reasons - and one of them is to check out Taylor's sketch for her Friday Cupcake Challenge #50. Above is her sketch #50 and I love it it - what a fun sketch. Well, I got right on it - this morning as my daughter napped. Here is my take on her sketch: 

In my head the owls are both trying to get the squirrel to give them the cupcake - Who loves you? LOL! It was funny in my head - and that's when you know that you are addicted to stamps - when they make you laugh :)

I loved stamping up these cute little owls - and I am so grateful for my little daughter for taking a nice nap today so that mommy could get some stamp time in :) Maybe its because my New Year's Resolution was to stay away from sugary sweetness that I went nuts and made 4 more cards with cupcakes or cakes on them! I sooo wanted to eat a cupcake but instead I thought I would stamp them... All these four cards below are made for Julee Tilman's Verve Release: Looking For Love. This is a fantastic new release - that you have to check out. Julee challenged us to try to complete all 4 challenges - and I was up for the challenge to get my mojo going again :)

Julee's first challenge was a color challenge to use the colors of red riding hood, kraft and blush blossom. I had to try Lynn's technique this week over at SCS to use tack strips and glitter - boy, was she right when she suggested to make this card when you are not around kids or pets!! I got a ton of sparkles all over me - but hey - who doesn't love that!


(The papers are from DCVW, Glitter from Taylored Expressions, red grosgrain ribbon, SU stamp (not sure from where, buttons from stash, crystal stickles, corner rounder and dimensionals) Below is a card made for the second sketch challenge - I loved these cupcakes and cute little birdie from Hero Arts. I started out with one cupcake (I loved these three colors and paper and I pieced three to figure out which combo I like - but ended up liking all three...so I just ended up stacking them all :)

(The DP is from K&CO, cardstock from DCVW, liquid pearls, sponge, corner rounder for scallops). This next card was made for the third sketch challenge and for this challenge, I made this Let It Snow cuppie from Taylor's stamps - I realized that this little guy had not yet been inked - and that is just not right!!! This cute little cuppie is from TayIor's Season's Sweetings set . I created a little scene for cuppie with some threading and liquid pearls. Both the dark and light teal cardstock are super glittery and so this card is very sparkly IRL.. (the papers are from DCVW, the ribbon from K&CO., Martha Stewart snowflake punch, bling from stash, liquid pearls).


This is last card made for the fourth sketch and can I just tell you that I just adore this image - from Taylor's Love is Sweet set, I mean .. two cuppies smooching -- toooo cute! LOVE it! I made this card using Stacy's Jewelry Color Inspiration #18. The colors for this week's challenge was to make a card using apricot appeal, chocolate chip, pink passion, pink pirouette and certainly celery. If you haven't checked out her blog - please go over for a visit! Loved these colors! I paper pieced the cuppies,  added a little stickles on her cheek and added a little liquid pearl accent on the bottom. (paper from DCVW and stash, ribbon from stash - and the brad is been in my possession for 2 years - so glad I finally used it!!!)

hmmm... its official - I love stamping with cupcakes :) Actually, anything with cupcakes is just adorable!!

 As our son says: "Who doesn't like cupcakes?" !!! (I know, right!??!!) Here is a cute little pic of some pajamas that my MIL bought for our daughter.... love the little frosting by her lips - the shirt says: I love cupcakes! Speaking of which, I am off for a little walk with my two little cupcakes :) 

Another reason I love Fridays is that we do our Friday Sneak Peeks over at our Cinema Challenge blog - see if you can guess which movie we are going to pick for tomorrow's cinema inspired card from the sneak peek that is posted there!!!

Have a wonderful Friday my friends!!! May it be filled with cupcakes, cakes and all sorts of sweet wonderfulness!!!

Thanks so much for visiting!!!

Ciao for now, 

Sankari :)

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge # 5 - Memoirs of a Geisha

Good Morning Everyone,

This week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge showcases the Oscar winning movie: Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). It is a movie that I have wanted to see and that Brooke has wanted to see - so we picked it for this week's challenge. What a great way to watch a movie - to be able to talk about it with your blogging buddy and then create something from it that was inspiring - I had a really great time this week making this card.

I created two cards for this challenge. I (actually made 5 cards in total from these papers - the whole set is at the end of this post. Here are the two cards for this week's challenge:

The inspiration piece really came from this part of the movie, where the geisha's perform and are wearing this beautiful pink, purple silk with flowers flowing from their hair.


The card that I made came from the scene above. I used Julee's holiday blitz sketch #4 for this card. I beaded silk flowers with pink, champagne, lavendar color beads that I then attached to a golden color knitting needles. The papers are from Yosumato and are origami papers, the stamps are a gift from my dad (from last year that was inked finally) and then it was embossed with gold EP. I love the sentiment: Fortunate" because Chiyo was so fortunate to have someone to help her in a world where no one could be trusted. This is doubling as a birthday card for a friend - and is wishing that she is always blessed with good fortune.


This second card that I made is inspired from when Chiyo is practicing the art of dancing with these golden fans. Its really quite amazing and beautiful. I wanted to incorporate the red and black colors that are painted in a geisha's face (the striking red lips, the striking black eyebrows and hair). And the sentiment of friend and joy - that having a good friend brings a great joy to the heart. This card uses Julee's holiday release sketch #5 from the

These cards were so much fun to make - I thoroughly enjoyed working with these beautiful papers and beading for this project.
Don't forget to check out Brooke's awesome card for this challenge! I hope that you have a chance to check out our movie challenge over at Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge.

Come on over and play with us!!!

Thanks for coming over for a visit!!
See you at the movies!
Sankari