Verve Plain Jane Release

Hi Everyone,

I have been so very lucky to be on the Verve Design Team for the last couple of years - I adore Julee and I adore the Design Team (not to mention the amazing stamps and dies!). This year I have been facing numerous challenges from health related issue in the beginning of the year to an increasing workload in my professional life in the last few months. I don't want to leave Verve stamps but am stepping  from the Verve Design Team to the Verve  Inspiration Team which will still allow me to stay with my Verve family :) Thank you Julee - I am so happy to be part of Verve :)))))

Today over at the Verve Stamps blog - the Divas are doing a little hop to showcase some pretty awesome Plain Jane stamps from Verve Stamps.

If you are hopping over here from Julee's amazing blog - then you are on the right track - or you can start at the beginning of the hop over at the  Verve Stamps blog . Julee will be giving a $30.00 gift certificate to a random commentator so leave a little love when you hop around!!

 I love these sentiments - they couldn't have come at a better time in my life - especially when you feel like you are being tested in so many areas of your life and have to find the balance to stay sane! I especially like this sentiment:

"Grace meets us where we are, but does not leave us where it found us."

 Isn't that beautiful! I don't usually do muted earth tone-ish colors - but there was something about these papers that inspired me to mute my colors a little :)

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Simple Stories(Fabulous series (Girl))

Stamps: Grace Plain Jane Stamp from Verve Stamps
Inks: Memento Rich Cocoa

Accessories: Nestie #20, Scallop border punch (EK success), twine, butterflies ( MS punch), silver mettalic paint, bling, liquid pearls, glue dots and dimensionals. 

I kept the layout simple - hand cut some die shapes and then stamped the sentiment and cut it out with Labels 20 from Spellbinders. I used some scallops as a pennant and tied some twine at the ends and added some vellum punched out butterflies that painted with some silver mettalic paint and added a bit of bling to the center of each butterfly.

This is such an inspiring sentiment - and I can't wait to use it and make more projects with it! Next up on the blog hop is the amazingly talented and holymolywow-y artist: Sony  

Thank you again for stopping by today --!
Big hugs,
Sankari :)

JustRite stamps: Be Strong!

Hi Everyone,

There is a beautiful stamp set that JustRite has come out with, which to me is an amazing set - it is called Be Strong and is filled with sentiments and images to inspire, give hope and strength for anyone battling a chronic illness - or for someone who needs a lift. This stamp set also has different ribbon sizes and I choose to paper piece my ribbon and chose pink to support one of my friends who is overcoming breast cancer. I usually love colors - but somehow, I tried to go soft on this card - and also to go CAS (or try to go CAS - this is the hardest technique for me!). I do love how this card turned out - it feels so lovely and sweet - just like my friend.

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Be Strong from JustRite Stamps

Paper: scraps and cardstock from PTI

Inks: Memento Rich Cocoa and Rose Red ink

Accessories: Swiss dot embossing folder, Oval nesties (beaded), butterfly from MS, ribbon from stash, scallop punch from EK success, dimensionals and chunky glitter.

I stamped the frame and then cut it out with my oval nestie (love how all the stamps work with my nesties!) and then cut out the sentiment with a smaller oval and popped it up over the frame. I popped this frame up over the beaded ovals and covered them with glitter - and added some glitter to the scallops and some bling to the center of the butterflies - and embossed the bottom of the card with some sponging for texture.

There are some cards that you just love making - and this was one of those cards - the sentiments in the Be Strong stamp set are so sweet and so lovely and fit into all the gorgeous frames so perfectly - please check out the whole stamp set (here) at the JustRite stamps store!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Be Strong!

Big hugs,

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions Special Release

Hi everyone,

Today we have something exciting and totally awesome over at Taylored Expressions: A Mid-month Release! Woo-hoo!!! The stamps, dies and papers that were released earlier this month were so lovely and today there is MORE!- we are sneaking peeks from 3 stamp sets today - all of which also coordinate with Spellbinders dies! AND the best part is that it is available for purchase: TODAY!!! 

Both stamp sets are made of deeply etched red rubber on EZ cling mount - already trimmed and ready to get stamped! Here are the sweet stamp sets that we are releasing today:

1. Labels of Love - which coordinates with the Ribbon Tags Trio 3 from Spellbinders. 

2. You're My Type Upper/Lower along with the Nested Pennants/ Lacey Pennants.

GET WELL SOON:

The first card that I did today uses the Labels of Love stamp set - which I totally have fallen in love with! This stamp set was designed and illustrated by Taylor as part of the "te" collection and is a full sized stamp set featuring 31 images (WOW!) and has 7 frames, 6 flourishes and 18 sentiments for every occasion and frame styles that can coordinate with the sentiments within this stamp and also with the stamps that you already have! These dies coordinate perfectly with the Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio 3 and cuts out 2 die slits at either end to slide the ribbon through! Here is an example of one of the Tags - and how to slide a ribbon through:

This makes it super simple to have a sentiment sit ontop of a ribbon and also to tie a bow at the end of the tag. For my first project today, I paired the the Labels of Love sentiment: "Get Well Soon" with the bottom die from the Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio 3 . I used the Brand spankin' new April Key Ingredients that are filled with soft colors and super sweet embellishments (you can read all about Taylor's Key Ingredients feature and this month's Key Ingredients HERE). I stamped the label in Rose Bud ink and then stamped the sentiment in Bahama blue  in the middle. It is so quick to line up the coordinating tag and then cut it out. I ran the Leafy Branch die through and then added some roses from the KI kit and finished it off with a little butterfly from the Butterfly trio dies that I adorned onto a die cut square:

Here is a close up of the butterfly, the label and the leafy branch dies (i hand cut the innter oval and popped it up a little more and added one of the many flourishes to the center of the sentiment:

Card Ingredient:

Stamps: Labels of Love

Inks: Rose Bud, Bahama Blue from Memento

Spellbinders: Ribbon Tag Trio 3, Lacey Rectangles

Accessories: roses and ribbon are from the April Key Ingredients kit, liquid pearls, dimensionals, pearls, Butterfly trio dies from Taylor, Leafy Branch die


Taylor is also offering a Labels of Love Bundle with the coordinating Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio 3 die - you can check it out here!

CONGRATULATIONS

The second project today features the super awesome You're My Type Upper/Lower along with theNested and Lacey Pennants. The You're My Type Upper/Lower : are 2 separate Mini Stamp sets (mini means that each stamp is on a 4.75 square sturdy storage full color panel). 

Both the Upper and Lower sets includes 26 images from A-Z - the Lower set has another additional 10 sets which include the numbers 1 -0 for a total of 36 stamps!!!.  These stamp sets work perfectly into the Nested and Lacey Pennants - and are beyond awesome for personalizing messages, names, events, and so many more occasions! They are a wonderful size and such a fun font! They coordinate perfectly with the 1/2" circle punch - but I used the 1/2" square punch and matted it onto the 3/4" circle punch - so how ever you want to do it - its the perfect way to create your own sentiments - whether punching them out individually - or stamping them out as a lined sentiment! love the versatility!

For my second project, I wanted a slightly different shape and so I used the Grand Nestabilities Labels 1 with my Grand Calibur - which I have to say is just awesome - I love that it can cut the large die shapes and at the same time you can also run all of the regular die shapes in them all at once!


Here is a picture of all the nesties that I used for this project and a pic of the mini sets and how easily all of them can go through the Grand Calibur:

I used the  Grand Nestabilities Labels 1 and sandwiched it and ran it through:

After running this through - I cut the Labels 1 in half - I wanted to use this half shape on my card and can save the other half for a future project :)

It's also easy to run all the dies (you can stack so many dies and run them all together) and so it made creating a pennant much easier/faster. I wanted to tweet my "Congratulations" to two of my friends who decided to finally get engaged over the weekend (yay!) - so I stamped the word congratulations using the You're My Type Upper, You're My Type Lower stamps and then punching it out with a 1/2" square and matting it onto a 3/4" inch punched black circles and popped them up onto the nested and lacey pennants that I strung into a little banner and tied little twine ribbons at either end. In the middle I put a little heart and used the the sweet little birds from the Tweethearts stamp set in the middle. 

Here is a close up of the letters that I punched out with a square 1/2" punch and then popped up on a 3/4" circle that was then popped up on the pennant (nested matted onto the lacey pennants) and then popped up onto the cardstock (needless to say - this will be handed over in person :D)

Card Ingredient:

Stamps: You're My Type Upper, You're My Type Lower and Tweethearts
Papers: Schoolhouse from OA

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black and Colorbox Chalk Ice Blue and Colorbox Chalk ink Warm Red

Spellbinders: Grand Nestabilities Labels 1 

Accessories: 1/2" square punch, 3/4" inch circle punch, dimensionals, sponger, liquid pearls, ribbon from stash, heart punch from Fiskars, pearls from Want2Sxrap, EK success scallop punch

I hope you are as excited as all of us are about this month's Mid-month Release! There are seriously SOOO many options with all of these labels and sentiments and then the fact that you can create your own sentiments with the new type stamps!!! Please hop on over with me and check out the amazing creations from the Baker's Dozen with all of today's releases!!

Taylor VanBruggen

Charmaine Ikach

Danielle Lounds

Jackie Pedro

Jami Sibley

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Regina Mangum

Sankari Wegman

Tori Wild

Thank you so much for stopping by today!
Hope your day is filled with butterflies, birdies, sunshine and love :D
Sankari

Here are the Taylored dies that I used to create my card today:

Butterflies Trio dies from Taylored Expressions

 

Leafy Branch die

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 :)

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 :)

Verve Sneak Peeks are here!: Christmas in the Air

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Guess what!?! Its release week over at Verve Stamps and this month's release is absolutely amazing!!! Seriously, awesome! Julee has created sentiments and images for all kinds of holiday card making and beyond!!! If you haven't yet seen the sneak peeks over at the Verve stamps blog that have already gone up on Tuesday and Wednesday - make sure you check each mouth watering sample out here! And today, Jackie Pedro, Jen Tapler, Jen del Muro, Jessie Rone and I are sneaking some peeks from two stamp sets that we are peeking today: Christmas in the Air and Holly Jolly.

For today's card, I used Julee's awesome sketch: VSOCT09D (check out all 5 Verve sketches that Julee has created and how you could win some of these stamp sets by playing along!) I made today's card from the stamp set: Christmas in the Air. I love every single sentiment in this set - but I think this is my most favorite one: Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies - I love the font in this set and the snowflakes are divine. Since the sentiment was about butterflies and snowflakes, I decided to make a winter snowflake flower with butterflies that were emerging out of the designer paper...

Card Ingredients:

Paper: K&Company

Ink: Memento Aquamarine

Stamps: Christmas in the Air

Accessories: Inkessentials gel pen, candy dots, flower from BoBunny, Martha Stewart punch, rhinestones from Kaiser, ribbon from stash.

I stamped the four snowflakes and then colored them with copics and then glittered them and cut them out, adding dimensionals when layering them. I kept the colors monochromatic and simple so that the focus would be on the center of winter's snowflake flower :). I absolutely LOVE each and every single image in this set!

I am so not a winter girl (can't handle the cold) but I can't wait for some winter wonderland after using this stamp set!!! Hot cocoa anyone?? :) LOL! See you at the release party Friday night (9PM EST) for more details of the par-taay and how to win some of these AMAZING stamps - check out more details here!!!

Thanks for stopping by here and hop on over to the Verve Stamps blog for a whole lot of sneak peeks from the Divas!!!

Big Hugs!

Sankari :)

KW Color Inspriation #54 - Miracles

Good Evening Everyone,

As soon as I saw Kristina's challenge for her Color Inspiration Challenge #55 this week - I had to play - I literally dropped the piles of laundry and went right to my craft corner - (and really it wasn't that hard to drop a pile of laundry :)

These colors are so uber fabulous and I adore those shoes!! I love it! The inspiration for these colors come from Kristina's bosses skirt and her bosses shoes - (lovin' those shoes!)

These colors reminded me of the Ambrosia papers from Basic Grey - so I pulled it out and made a quick card because I have still a ton of cleaning to do before we have a houseful of visitors tomorrow (literally 19 minutes - ) and snapped a quick pic - sorry about the quality of this picture - still trying to figure out nighttime photography (will take a better pic in the morning). I love the way that Jenn did the ribbons in this lovely card of hers - and totally wanted to try it! Thanks so much for the inspiration Jen :)

Card Details:

Paper: Basic Grey Ambrosia papers

Ink: Really Rust from SU!, Martha Stewart Grey

Stamps: Faith and Hope from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: Spellbinders, Kaiser pearls, Casa Collection ribbon, Butterfly punch from Martha Stewart, tacky tape

I am sorry that everything is so quick - I would love to play with these colors more if I have a chance. We are going to be having a lot of visitors coming in this weekend for the next two weeks - so I off I go back to those piles of laundry that I keep trying to ignore :) lol!

Thanks so much for visiting my little corner!!

Many hugs to all!!

Sankari :)

2 Sketches 4 You - Kazan's Sketch Challenge

Hello Everyone, 

Here is a birthday card that I made for my father using Kazan's sketch for the monday sketch challenge from 2S4U! What a great sketch and her card for this sketch is amazing - love it!  As I mentioned in the post below - the birthday season is upon me - so forgive all the birthday

 cards that might be getting cranked out this week :)  

I had so much fun making this card ----- I got lost in craft world, while making a left at Stamp Street and totally missed my exit to  Energy Tomorrow Town while driving past an early bedtime :) But I had so much fun. 

 

I love getting lost in craft world... and of course I have been in lost in blog land for months.... I think I have blog fog .... I can't think of anything that isn't blog related....  or feel an itch to blurf much more frequently then I would like to admit :) But isn't that great - I get to meet all of YOU!!! 

And that is how I found 2S4U and I have to say that as soon as I saw Kazan's Sketch - I was pysched because  I wanted to try to make an inchie forthe square in the sketch, so that is what I aimed for, but it grew - but it's not qute a twinchie :) 

The window in the card is supposed to be part of a brick building (my husband doesn't think it looks like a window or a building.... but I gave him a blank stare and ignored that "critique" and kept cutting out little bricks and pasting them on... boy, do my fingers hurt from cutting little bricks out!). 

Instead of scallops going around that part of the sketch... I made some shrubery. I sketched out some bushes and a shrubby kind of tree and painted it with few layers of acrylic paint and cut it to fit the space. I am not sure they really look like shrubs - they look a little like green flubberkins to me - but I hope it looks like a shrub or 4... :)  When you open the window, the sentiment reads: Happy Birthday Dear You!  I love that little sentiment - it's so cute and little and teeny too.

Are you the kind of person who buys things that are little - just because they are cute....? I think I fall into that category... I think I am a sucker for marketing... if it is little and packaged cutely - even thought it might not serve a function... I feel like I must rescue it from its lonely existence on the store shelf and give it a cozy home.. The latest teeny weeny purchase was one little cute spoon.... that's right -- just one.... it was so little and brown and wooden and cute... but it is SO cute that I can't bear the thought of using it - so it is safely being kept in our junk drawer :) LOL!

Anyhoo --- I digress.... and I digressed so much that I don't even know where I am .... I have a feeling that the blog fog just got thicker -- so I might have to go and throw some cold water on my face and inject some hot java :)

Thanks so much for visiting and if you made it this far - thanks for reading this crazy rambling blog entry!

Hope you all have an utterly fabulous Wednesday!

Ciao for now,

Sankari

Card Recipe:

Paper: DCVW (Brights), DCVW (The Stack 5)

Ink : Staz-on

Stamps: Stampin' Up

Accessories: Green Paint, Brush, Prima wildflowers, Making Memories Brads, Offray ribbon, Martha punch trimmed, Orange stickles

Show watched: Monk, Family Guy