Blast From the Past Blog Hop #6 from Taylored Expressions

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the 6th Blast from the Past Challenge from Taylored Expressions, where every month customers and fans of TE can sign up for a blog hop where we create something from previously released stamp sets!  This month the theme for the Blast From the Past challenge was to create a card with a theme that is either Autumnal or Thankful. I decided to use the gorgeous stamp set from Taylored Expressions called Celebrate Life . I used the sketch provided for the challenge. 
I wanted to create a card to a special friend with whom we won't be able to spend Thanksgiving with this year, so I used the lovely sentiment: "Thinking of You" in the center and stamped the gorgeous leaves in this set around the image panel. After stamping and coloring the pumpkin, I stamped it again and popped it up on dimensionals. I used the October Key Ingredients (you can read more about the Taylored Expressions  Key Ingredients here, where you can get a monthly kit full of coordinating cardstock, DP and ribbon & embellies  - its simply awesome!)) for all of the papers and ribbon for this card. 

Here is a close up of the sentiment and leaves. I alternated glazing the leaves  and popped up the sentiment with some dimensionals. I cut a green mat for the circle and curled it around the pumpkin image panel.

Card Ingredients:Paper: October Key Ingredients from Taylored ExpressionsStamps: Celebrate Life from Taylored ExpressionsInk: Memento LadyBug Red, Tangelo, Cantaloupe, Rich CocoaAccessories: Spellbinders, twine, liquid pearls (lettuce), corner chomper, glaze
Thanks so much for stopping by today! I loved making this card - especially because its for my dear friend (and somehow making it got me very excited for some pumpkin pie!)
Check out all the amazing creations on this November Blast from the Past - and Taylor will be drawing one random hopper to receive a FREE Taylored Expressions stamp set of their choice and will also be choosing another creation to be featured in an upcoming TE newsletter - if you didn't have a chance to play along in this hop - no worries - just stay tuned to Taylored Expressions to here more about how to sign up for the next one!!
Happy Thursday!Big hugs,Sankari :)

Center of Attention Product Spotlight - Smooch

Good Morning Everyone,

Today I am pscyhed to be part of the Baker's Dozen's first debut of the Center of Attention Product Spotlight - where this month Taylor is featuring the awesome product Smooch.

This is my first time using the Smooch Product and I love how quickly it gives the image an awesome sheen and texture and it. Its way different than Stickles or anything like that because the color almost blends in with the image and makes it look all shiny, pearly and sheeny - almost like its part of the image and not glitter added on. Its so simple and easy to use and dries so quick and I love the fine tipped brush that's able to get in the nooks and crannies :)

I used it on three different projects today - the first one that I used it on was on the image of this house for a thinking of you card. I love this cute little house from the Frightful Night stamp set from Taylored Expressions and cut out the clouds from the Year of Sweets I . The sentiment is from a Year of Sweet Sentiments I colored the house with some copics and then applied the Smooch product over it for some sheeny yumminess :) I didn't have a chance to take a before and after picture for this one - but I hope you can see the pearlyness of the smooch:

Card Details:

Paper: Prisma Color Cardstock from Taylored Expressions

Stamps: Frightful Night for the House and Year of Sweets I for the Clouds fromTaylored Expressions and sentiment is from: Year of Sweet Sentiments

Ink: Ruby Red

Accessories: Scallop Punch from SU!, Circle punch from CM, copics , corner rounder, liquid pearls, dimensionals and Smooch in the color: Pool.

I love this blue Smooch called POOL and immediately thought of putting it on water - and used the Places You Will Go Stamp Set for this card using the SCS sketch for this week: SC246. I loved using the Smooch for this product - it was just the perfect little touch:

This is a before and after picture of the water with and without the SMooch:

and here is a picture of the whole card:

Card Details:

Paper: Patterned Paper from Taylored Expressions

Stamps: The Places you Will Go stamp set from Taylored Expressions

Ink: Bravo Burgandy from SU

Accessories: Spellbinders, copics , corner rounder, liquid pearls, dimensionals, ribbon from TE and Smooch in the color: Pool

The last card that I made uses the same stamp set and uses Taylor's awesome sketch from last week: Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #82 and this time use the Smooch product with a mask for an edging for the paper. This was a really fun way to create an edge with the same layer.

This a before and after picture of the Smooch on the Balloon:

And here is a picture of the whole card:

Card Details:

Paper: Patterned Paper from Taylored Expressions

Stamps: The Places you Will Go stamp set from Taylored Expressions and the cloud is from the Branching Out stamp set from Taylored Expressions. Check out all the stamps here.

Ink: Old Olive

Accessories: Spellbinders, copics, corner rounder, liquid pearls, dimensionals, buttons from TE and Smooch in the color: Pool

The one tip that I would have when using this product is to just put a thin layer first and let it dry and then put on a second layer - this way it dries faster. i can't wait to use it more and am excited to use it on some scrapbook pages. The only thing that I wish they could add to this product is a coordinating nail polish color so that you can match your Smooch as you craft :)

Hope you had fun getting "Smooched" today - and make sure that you check out all the smooch-a-licious projects from the Baker's Dozen:

Taylor VanBruggen
Dawn Easton

Denise Marzec
Karen Motz

Jackie Pedro
Laurie Schmidlin

And guess what - for a limited time - All Smooch products will be on sale with a 15% discount on our I Want It All New Smooch item - you cah check out all the details here!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!!!

Big hugs and smooches!

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 :)

Color Throwdown - 2 Cards - 2 Sketch challenges

Hi Everyone,

Have you guys seen the yummy colors over at the Color Throwdown? The color challenge this week is purely pomegrante, tangerine tango and kiwi kiss - aren't they just beautiful together?

The ladies at the Color Throwdown have some beautiful samples and I couldn't wait to play along. I used Julee's beautiful Mojo 

Monday Sketch challenge #79 for inspiration. This was such a beautiful sketch and a yummy color challenge!

The only thing is that I made this card last night... and what looked like a color closer to purely pomegranate... turned out to be more purple in the light of day... oh well.. 

 

I absolutely love Taylor's newest stamp set Branching Out - and so I pulled it out and went a little whimsy on it :) The tree bark is embossed with Versamark and Polysparkle EP on a magenta-ish cardstock. I put little dots for the tree as though leaves with Orange stickles. The birds are paper pieced together with a little bit of stickles on their wings. The sentiment reads: Your friendship is a blessing.

I have to say, that I loved making this card - it was just so much fun to paper piece, emboss and cut out that tree... it is definitely therapeutic to craft....

Here is a close up of the tree and birds -- you can see the embossing of the tree better and also some of the polysparkle EP :)

Card details:

Paper: K & Company for the green, DCVW for the magenta and the orange is Ambrosia (Basic Grey)

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Versa Mark (polysparkle EP)

Stamps: Branching Out stamp set from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: Orange stickles, liquid pearls, Crystal Stickles, ribbon, corner rounder

2nd Card using these same yummy colors from the Color Throwdown

I loved these colors so much that I created a second card. Seriously - I love these colors so much - they just look delicious!! There is something about the orange and the green and the pomegrante colors together ... I guess it kind of reminds me of India - just bright and fun colors!

For the second card, I used Laura's awesome sketch #22 from 2 Sketches 4 You. I loved the small box on the side and wanted to made it a half circle. I used the same stamp set as above and went more pomegrante than purple on this card. I just adore this stamp set - it was fun to go whimsy and create different colored trees and birds and scenes.... the best thing was that it was so much fun to create. I cut out a half circle, added some grass from DP and then created the sky using Pebbles Chalks (pearlescent chalks).

 

Here is a close up  of the tree and the liquid pearls:

Card details:

Paper: K & Company and scrap stash

Ink: Stampin Up! Pumpkin Pie 

Stamps: Branching Out stamp set from Taylored Expression

Accessories: ribbon, liquid pearls, stickles, CM creative memories, Martha punch (mini scallop), markers, Pebbles Pearlescent Chalks

Thank you so much for visiting my little corner!
Hope you are all having a lovely day!

Ciao for now,

Sankari

Thinking of You Card

Happy Wednesday Everyone,

How are you all doing? I am as always excited about Wednesdays - because the weekend is within sight :) lol! Its been so long since I did a TCP challenge (The Cat's Pajamas) - this week the uber talented Jen del Muro is the hostess with the mostess and this week she has a color challenge for us (light pink, light yellow and light blue - with any shade of brown as an optional color).  

Jen also has a wonderful sketch challenge (Sketch for You To 

Try). So, I thought I would combine her sketch with the TCP color challenge that she is hosting - its such a fun combination of spring colors - so I had to pull out Taylor's newest stamp release: Branching Out.

 I love this stamp set -it is so super cute - and thought I would try a little something different. I wanted to go for a spring blossom tree - so I stamped the tree onto Basic Grey Paper and then paper pieced all the leaves from pink cardstock. I then stamped the tree branch in Adirondack Expresso and then dotted the tree in pink liquid pearls for a kind of flowery effect and then covered the whole thing in stickles and coarse crystals from Martha Stewart. Its pretty glittery in the sunlight - but its hard to tell in the picture. This is such a whimsy set - and so its so much fun to let the imagination take flight and go all whimsy (sure, trees can have pink leaves, lol!!) 

Card Details:

Paper: Basic Grey (I don't remember which one), blue is handmade/tissue paper, rest is from stash

Ink: Adirondack Expresso, Staz-on Black

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Branching Out

Accessories: Brads (Making Memories), blue rhinestones, buttons from stash, stickles, liquid pearls, Martha Stewart Coarse crystals, dimensionals

The light blue paper is a really soft pretty handmade paper that is kind of like tissue paper - its so pretty that I have been hoarding it - but I am trying to be better these days about actually using all the paper in my stash (so that I can buy more! lol!). 

Well, I am off to finish cleaning up the house - we have had two sick little ones - and its amazing how quickly the house can go from "somewhat clean and presentable" to "national disaster zone". Hope you are all in good health and are enjoying your wednesdays!!

Thanks for coming over for a visit to this little corner :)

Ciao for now,

Sankari 

Kristina Werner Color Inspiration Challenge #27- Thinking of You!!

Happy Thursday everyone,

A quick card for KW''s Color Inspiration challenge - my daughter has been sick and I have been exhausted from cleaning up the throwup and bringing her fever down... and my DH was sweet enough to come home  early this afternoon to help with the kids - so I escaped to my corner to do a quick card - I have to say that I LOVE this pic of all the nail colors and loved that we could either make red the focus or pink the focus  -  so I went with red with a little pink thrown in there.... (is this the longest sentence or what?) :) I thought that the little drops of red liquid pearls looked like some drops of nailpolish - without the fumes :)

Do you notice something kinda interesting in the card? Its red bubble 

wrap!! :) I was cracking myself using this - but it was right next to my table and it was red  so I thought why not? It definitely adds a texture to the card and my son has really enjoyed popping what little bubbles were left. 

Anyhoo.... so I am off to go an snuggle my little bunny - hope all of you are keeping healthy and warm (it is so cold here!) and are enjoying your thursdays!!

Don't forget - that Sneak Peek Friday is around the corner for Cinema Saturday's Creative Challenge coming up this saturday!!! Come back tomorrow and check out the fun pick for this weekend!

Thanks for stopping for a visit!

Ciao for now,

Sankari

Thinking of You card - TCP & Mojo inspirations

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I have been slacking on doing some challenges - so today's post is actually three separate posts using 6 different challenges (how crazy is that!) But for the simplicity of listing the card ingredients - I am posting it all separately.

This card incorporates the colors from TCP Tuesday and Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch. I wanted to make a simple card and loved the blue and yellow colors together - so I decided to use the red for accent. (my colors are a little off - because I am trying to use only paper from my scrap pile - but I hope its still okay :) I really enjoyed this sketch from Julee it was totally fun and I have been loving doing circles lately - so this was perfect.

I know that Brooke is totally shocked as I am that there aren't any liquid pearl dots all around this card ;) (LOL!!!) I almost did but instead I went the paper piercing route. My hand kept itching to do it - and that's when it hit me: ..... that I am a liquid pearl addict! So I then I had to add some to the flowers... just couldn't help it! LOL!

Anyhoo - it is raining cat's & dogs here (where did that expression ever come from ??)

Thank you for coming over for a visit!,

Ciao for now!

Sankari :)

PS - if you need more challenges - please come back on Saturday morning for the all new challenge that Brooke and I are throwing called Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge! We just started last week - go on and check it out HERE!!! We would love love love for you to join!

Card Recipe:

Stamps: SU!

Ink: Martha's Black

Paper - Scrapbasket cardstock (YAY! a little more from my scrap mountain is reduced! :)

Accessories: Martha's ribbon, cherry red brad from American crafts, paper piercing and paper piecing, Martha's mini scallop punch, CM cicle cutting system

Shows watched: Bones (season 1 on Hulu)

3 Color Throwdowns in One

Good Morning All,

I have been missing doing all the awesome color challenges at the Color Throwdown site with all the amazing lovely ladies who design absolutely beautiful cards every week. Last week I made a card - but didn't have time to post it - so I am posting it this week along with this week's throwdown colors. 

The colors this week were so pretty - baja breeze, chocolate chip and old olive. I loved the softness of the baja breeze and wanted to make a softer kind of card. The card was created on Photoshop and matted on the green and brown cardstock. I also added a liquid glaze on the brown bamboo - can't really see it in the pic though and also added a double bow with green and brown ribbon. This was made for a friend who had surgery last week and has been in our thoughts and prayers. 

This card was made for last week's challenge colors to honor 9-11. This card is really simple (I am sorry for the pic - but the light was not quite right for taking pictures) - the background is dry embossed, the sparkles and celebrate sentiment is from DCVW summer paper pack. I added red and blue bling to the sparklers, red and white paint, brads and ribbon. 

This last card was made for a color throwdown challenges from over 5 weeks ago! I missed doing this one when we were visiting family in Minnesota. I love these colors together - they look like sari colors. I have been trying to figure out some samples of simple christmas cards that can be mass produced - and this one came out kinda nice. It was beyond easy to make - this was a 10 minute card - no joke! The triangles were made from cutting squares in half ( I used my Creative Memories square punches in 4 sizes), the circles were punched out with my circle punch, the flower was punched out using my Creative Memories Medow Maker punch. Then I added some ribbon, some painted dots, a button with some stickles and handwrote the sentiment with a gel pen.... The size was a fun one to work with - it was a left over scrap - that looked to cute to go in the trash - I think I might be making a few more of these because they were so quick.

I can't wait to catch up on the rest of the Color Throwdown challenges that I have missed. They are really great challenges and I love looking at the design team's cards - they are all so inspiring. Hope all of you are having a wonderful Saturday and that you get to throw some colors down soon!!!

Thanks for visiting!

Ciao for now,

Sankari

A Cupcake Throwdown? (A Thinking of You Card)

Hi All, 

Here is another card for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #30 using the awesomely fun colors from the ladies at the Color Throwdown. I loved these colors together - they felt very soft and sweet and somehow nautical. 

So I started by creating one card ( a little card for someone special who lives across the ocean :) who I have been thinking about - but then ended up making two. 

This little message in a bottle card was made in Photoshop and then printed and cut about to create some layers on a 5x5 card and a 3x3 card. 

I did add a little bit of darker navy cardstock to the colors because it felt like it need a little bit of a stronger matte. Anyhoo - it was definitely some much needed card therapy that these two little cards provided for me. 

Hope all of you are having a great monday. 

Thank you for coming over to visit,

Ciao for now,

Sankari

Card Recipe:

Stamp: SU! Fresh Fillers

Paper: DCVW cardstock

Accessories: Making Memories Brads, Offray Ribbon, Crystal Stickles, Clear Embossing Powder

Dragonfly Card for 2 Sketches 4 You!

Hello All,

Here is a fun card that I made forLaura's Sketch challenge #5 - from 2 Sketches 4 You. I love this sketch and wanted something bold and bright for it... so I went with the black, white and red theme. 

The sentiment "Thinking of You" is stamped is embossed in red and is from the SU! Little Hellos set. The dragonflies are from Clear Stamps and the smaller ones are stamped in silver and the larger one is stamped in black on red cardstock and then cut out and attached with a brad from Spare Parts and lifted out of the page for dimension. The ribbon is from Offray and the black square brads are from Spare Parts. There are black stickles (!!!!! i {heart} black stickles) going around the black cardstock. I loved making this card because it came out just like I had in my head and it was just fun to use bold colors! 

Can you believe it's Wednesday already! Whaaaaat???? How did that happen?! We are heading out to Minneapolis tomorrow to see my in-laws and also this weekend is the CM Showcase Convention, which also happens to be in Minneapolis ( how conveeeenient :) I can't even express how many things have got to get done before we can head out on the road, but first things first - I wanted to post this card :)

Hope all of you are enjoying your Weds. and enjoying the summer sun 

(can you believe its almost August!! Gasp!)

Thanks for coming over for a visit,

Ciao for now ;)

Sankari

2 cards from 2 Sketches 4 You!

Happy Tuesday Everyone,

I just only recently found this great blog: 2 Sketches 4 You,  that does sketch challenges created by the amazing Kazan Clark and Laura Davis. I was pysched to find this blog and have really enjoyed their fun sketch challenges. 

The sketches that they both had this week really caught my eye and I decided to make both of

 them at one sitting. I wanted to make them both with the same color scheme  -  sometimes its fun to see the same colors with different sketches and different themes. I picked some fuschia purple with some apple green and spring green (which looks flourescent in the pictures - aie!!!) Anyhow - I had a load of fun making these two cards and can't wait till next week's sketches! The above fun sketch challenge is from Laura, whose sketch is featured at Cardvaarks. I really like the big circle image on the left side. So I wanted to make something that was big, bold and bright - and here is what I came up with:

I really love how this card turned out. The stamped sentiments are from

 Clear Stamps - the butterfly was paper pieced and then embossed with polysparkle - and the background fuschia color was also clear embossed with the smaller butterfly from the stamp set. I created a little ribbon flower with the three different colors, added the little sparkle flower rhinestones to the punched circles, stamped the sentiment "Thinking of You"  in Martha's Copper Ink and added little dots with the craft pen from Martha. The butterfly is much more sparkly in real life - its hard sometimes to take a good picture.... For example, at the bottom of the card ( <--------- right there ) you can see the clear embossed butterflies - its more noticeable in real life, but I couldn't get a good angle to get it in the picture - if I moved it one way, then you could see somethings but not others - so I tried to get a picture that attempted to get most of the card details. Anyone have any tips in taking pics of cards?

---------------------------------

 Onto Kazan's Sketch. This week Kazan came up with this really fun sketch. I  liked the small boxed area in the corner of the larger box area. I also wanted to use the same color scheme as the above 

card and so I created a birthday card. The stamped sentiment is from SU! and initially I had colored in all the presents (boxes) but didn't really like the way it came out - so I opted for a simpler look and instead of coloring the presents - i just covered them with stickles :) - When in doubt: Stickle!". I used my CM square punch and punched out 4 aquares and covered them with a strip of ribbon before laying the Happy Birthday sentiment on top of the boxes . On the background spring green paper, I created a swirly background using the 2 step flowers from SU! and embossed it with polysparkle powder - and also embossed the bottom flourish (from Clear Stamps) with the same powder. I punched a hole and then tied the ribbon in the corner. I have to say that it was a little challenging to tie the ribbon, because I didn't have much left, so I was trying to tie to small ribbon ends together

and kinda felt like I had 4 fingers all in one little knot trying to get it to work.  Phew!  

I realized as I was making this card that I need to make a whole lot of birthday cards - because there is a whole string of birthday's coming up....  this is a great sketch to use again and again!

Here is a funny quote from Steven Wright that made me laugh...

"Last week the candle factory burned down. Everyone just stood around and sang, "Happy Birthday".  

One great birthday tradition that we have here is that everyone lights a candle and makes a wish for that person - its very sweet to hear all the great wishes and to see the cake all lit up with wishes - I love birthdays!

Which birthday stands out in your memory? I think one of my favorite birthdays was when I was in Nairobi, Kenya and my fellow classmates surprised me with a party (I was tooootally not expecting that) and then my host family took me out that night to a  south Indian restaurant - oh my goodness - I was totally homesick for some good ole Idli & Sambar and so to eat that food was like the best birthday treat ever! 

Speaking of which I am off to get lunch ready! Hope all of you are having a bright and sunny (and not humid) kinda of tuesday!

Oh, almost forgot to show you the inside of the cards: Inside the thinking of you card there is a little purple rhinestone flower with a circle of white dots and inside the happy birthday card there is a little "present" box with the purple ribbon and a silver brad holding the bow (its not quite clear in the picture - sorry about that).

Thanks for coming over for a visit!

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

PS - will post Kazan's Cardvaarks sketch later :)