Verve January Release - Day 2 of Sneak Peeks!

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Did you catch the start of the sneak peeks on the Verve Blog?! Julee has created some amazingly beautiful stamp sets for the release this Friday!!! Yesterday, the Divas kicked off the sneak peeks with some amazingly gorgeous samples! Today, we continue the sneak peeks with samples from the stamp set: Accent Notes! Check out the Verve Blog to check out what yumminesssssss Michelle, Tosh, Shannan have created for your viewing pleasure!!! I totally adore every stamp in this beautiful stamp set and here is my card using the Accent Notes set:

You know me and sunshine - I can't get enough of it (especially with all the weather that we have been having!) The background of the card is stamped with one of the beautiful filigree stamps that Julee has designed. I stamped the circle motif and spellbinded it out (can that be a new verb? lol!) and then popped up the sentiment on a circle that I had punched out. I created little rays with just some strips of yellow paper attached with glue dots - and then created some stripes on the bottom with a copic and a gel pen :). And for the final touch - a bit of bling, a strip of ribbon and some liquid pearls :)

I can't even tell you how I loved making this card! The release party for all the stamp sets that Julee will be releasing will be happening on Friday Night!!! And you could win some awesome Verve-y goodness too!! We have 5 challenges lined up for you - all you have to do is to complete a challenge and upload it (you can check out the Master thread for more info!). You can also do all 5 to be a Verve Champion! Here are all 5 challenges:

Challenge 1 :

Chipboard challenge brought to you by Michelle (upload with key word: VSJAN10A)

Challenge 2 :

A Valentine Favor challenge brought to you by ME!!! :) (upload with key word: VSJAN10B)

Challenge 3:

A color challenge brought to you by Amber (upload with key word: VSJAN10C)

Challenge 4:

A sketch challenge brought to you by Teresa (upload with key word: VSJAN10D)

Challenge 5

Anything but an A2 challenge brought o you by Tosh (upload with key word: VSJAN10E)

My challenge was to create a Valentine Favor Box! I created a cake slice favor box stuffed with Lindt Chocolates :) (which as Maureen was mentioning is a hard thing to make especially when you are trying to save enough chocolates for the picture you are going to take! lol!) I decorated a cake slice favor box that I had - but you can create one of your own with this template. Here is my favor box with a super sneaky sneak peek (more on this stamp set later this week!) from the stamp set called: Love's Flower which will also be released on Friday!

Here is a picture of the cake slice box from the side:

From the other side:

From the top:

And then when it is opened to reveal all the yummies within it :)

(see, I didn't eat the whole thing! (just most of it :)

I hope you enjoyed all the sneak peeks today! You can check out the Verve blog here for more information - and check out this Master thread on the SCS forum for more details as to how to play along!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!!!

Big sunshiney hugs :)

Sankari :)

2 Sketches 4 You - Top 10 - Sending you Sunshine

Happy Saturday Everyone,

I can't even express to you how utterly -utterly honored and grateful I am that my card from last week was chosen as one of the Top 10 in the Ultimate Card Showdown that Kazan and Laura are hosting over at 2 Sketches 4 You in celebration of the one year anniversary of their blog. A huge thank you to Laura and Kazan, to the wonderful panel of judges, to all my fellow sketch challenge players in all the rounds and to all of you for your encouraging words and sweet comments - it is truly appreciated from the depths of my heart.

I was psyched when I saw this sketch that Kazan gave us for the Top 10 round. This card is dedicated to all of YOU because you bring sunshine into my life with all of your sweet comments and for coming over to visit - that I wanted to send some sunshine right back to you as a thank you! It is especially dedicated to a good friend of mine "C" ;) - thanks for being my sunshine :).

I had so much fun creating this card - really it was such a joy to sit down and craft this card - its amazing sometimes how much joy you get from creating something from your hands :) (and for this card - I didnot make it in my closet as I have been doing :) - but actually worked on a table!). Here is the front view of the card:

The vertical element in the card I thought could be the sunshine on the ocean - and so I did that with yellow paper with orange waves on the background of the popped out waves with sheer yellow ribbon weaving in and out of the wave like the sun's reflection: Here is a picture of the ribbon being weaved in and out of the waves:

I wanted to decorate the inside of the card also - but still keep it simple enough that you could still write on the top portion of the inside - here is a peek at the inside of the card:

Here is shot of the card lying flat - opened and closed: 

The inside "ocean" is layered and the fishes are jumping in and out of the water too... you can write your message on the space in the top half of the "sky/sun" .

It was fun to decorate both the inside and outside of the card - and still have it kinda lay flat :) 

Here is a close up picture of the sun and the metal clip that is attached to it from which the sentiment hangs. The sun was made with different size circle punches on different colors of orange and yellow papers. 

The sun rays were made from the Fiskars punch: Fleur de Liis - which also has an embossing function. The rays are alternating dark and light yellow, with little Kaiser blings adorning them. The center of the sun has a star punch from Martha Stewart along with a yellow eyelet and is topped off by a soft bling. The metal loop is also attached to one of the layers of the sun so that the sentiment can hang off it (which is tied to a ribbon). 

I love sunshine - and making this sun was pure therapy from this week's busy-ness :)

This is a close up shot of the sentiment: "Sending You Sunshine"

All the fishes in this card were stamped onto different colors of ink and then cut out and glitterized and then stuck in between the

 waves at different angles. The waves are also blinged out a little. This card was so much fun to take pictures off - and I didn't want to overwhelm with too many pictures - so here is a little collage of them: You can click on the photo to see it bigger: or click HERE

Card Details:

Paper: K & Company ( and from stash

Ink: For the fishes: from Stampin Up!: Cameo Coral, Garden Green, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard and So Saffron - also for the sentiment: StazOn Black and Adirondack expresso

Stamps: Sentiment: Year of Sweet Sentiments from Taylored Expressions and fish from K & Company

Punches: Martha Stewart Star Punch, Creative Memories circle punches (4 sizes), Stampin Up 1 3/4" punch and Scallop punch, Fiskars: Fleur de Liis embossing punch

Accessories: Sheer yellow ribbon, stickles, Bright Smooth Bling, eyelet, clip from the May Key Ingredients, hole punches, dimensionals

I had so much fun making this card  - I think that is part of the reason that I love doing these lovely sketch challenges - within the elements of the sketch are infinite possibilities waiting. 

Just again wanted to thank you all for your sweetest encouragement and a big thanks to our judges for all the hard work that you have been doing! And of course to Laura and Kazan for creating these lovely sketches for us to dive into our creativity and for bringing us together into a global family :)

Thank you for visiting my little corner :)

Sending you all Sunshine :)

Big hugs!

Sankari :)