Verve Diva Inspiration - September 2014

Hi Everyone,

Today is the fifth day in a week of birthday cards on my blog as a way to celebrate my birthday which was on Wednesday :) AND today is also Verve's September Diva Inspirations Hop. It's the 5th of the month and that means it's time for the Divas to serve up some fresh inspiration with their Verve stamps! Leave some comment love along the hop spots for a chance to win a prize, then grab some stamps and play along with our September inspiration challenge for another chance to win!

This month's challenge is entitled Sweet September:

Sugar-high! Get sugary sweet with pastels, cupcakes or candy. Create a calorie free confection to delight the senses! Feel free to use the graphic as inspiration or not.

I decided to kind of use the graphic as inspiration and incorporated the pastel colors to create a rainbow of sugary sparkley cake birthday tags using the Big Wish stamp set and the sentiment from the Small Phrases sentiment from Verve stamps. Here is my rainbow array of birthday tags:

I stamped the tag stamp from the Sweet Treats stamp set in 5 different colors and then created a mat using some kraft cardstock. I stamped the sentiment with the same colors and then cut out the sentiment using the Charming Banners dies from Verve.:

The cake is from the Big Wish stamp set - I colored it with copic markers and then glitterfied them and added liquid pearls to the edging of them and then adhered them to the circles of white and kraft cardstock. I then mounted the whole cake and onto the Sweet Scallop die from Verve, added an eyelet and then added ribbon and bling. I love all the sparkly goodness - here is a close up peek:

Here is a close up of one of the tags - I added some stickles to the candles and some liquid pearls to the edges:

Here are the tags in all the different colors:

Card Ingredients:

Stamp set: Big Wish stamp set for the cake, the tag stamp is from the Sweet Treats stamp set and the sentiment is from the Small Phrases stamp set from Verve stamps.

Cardstock: Kraft and Choice White from TE

Inks: Memento: Angel Pink, Soft Sky Blue, Lilac Posies, Bamboo Green, Dandelion yellow and copic markers

Accessories: Circle Spellbinders, White gel pen, Charming Banner dies  from Verve stamps, (set of 2) and Sweet Scallop die from Verve Stamps, eyelets, white ribbon, colorful bling, chunky glitter.

I loved making this fun birthday cake tags - perfect to add to a little present for a friend! Need a little inspiration? Check out the blogs linked below to see what the other Divas did with the challenge! It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats, we've got a prize for one lucky commenter along the hop! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize info and deadlines!
Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Hugs!
Sankari :)

	1. Julee	7. Sarah
	2. Amy	8. Sony
	3. Anya	9. Susan
	4. Betty	10. Maureen
	5. Karen	11. Stacey
	6. Sankari	12. Marisa

We've got some sweet savings in the store with all of our brand new releases marked 10% off and some of our sweetest stamps & dies from releases past marked 20% off!

Wish Box: Words of Wisdom stamp set from Verve

Hi Everyone!

One of my dear friends moved away recently and life has felt so different after her move - all the little things as just popping by to visit, or morning coffee cafe chats and just hanging out is suddenly no more and it makes me miss her presence and friendship acutely! For a recent birthday, my friend and I decided to  put together a care package and I decided to decorate a cigar box from Cosmo Cricket that I have been hoarding saving :) for a special occasion and thought that I would make a special box of wishes for her. 

I decorated the box with some delicious My Mind's Eye papers and used one of my most favorite Verve stamp set: Words of Wisdom - I seriously ADORE this stamp set - it is the most inspiring and encouraging stamp sets - and the font is just absolutely striking! I stamped the sentiment: Nothing is Impossible on the center and on the bottom - one of my most favorite sentiments: "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams"... 

The hole in the middle of the box, I replaced with a clear acetate strip that I embossed and then put the sentiment on top of it - I layered some liquid pearls around the box and added a flower to the bow and some punched out hearts that were glazed and had a bling added to one side at two areas of the box. This picture shows the box kind of opened to show the translucent center of the box:

I decorated the inside top of the box as well as the bottom with the same papers and created some tags with sentiments from this set:

Here is what the top of the inside of the box looks like - I stamped the sentiment: "You Matter" across in a strip and attached it over the frosted acetate (because there is a strip on both sides of the acetate, you can't see the glue between the sentiments). I added a border edge and some hearts and a velvet ribbon across the edge:

I decorated this box with two special tags with some of my favorite sentiments. My friend and I wrote special birthday wishes on the back of these tags before we sent our care package to our friend for her birthday. I love both of these sentiments: "Triumph over fear" and "speak the truth, even if your voice shakes"... so inspirational - and so from the heart. I mixed up the sentiments with a variety of shapes that I layered over the chipboard tag and added the velvet ribbon the the tag :

Project Ingredients:

Stamps: Word of Wisdom stamp set from Verve stamps

Papers: My Mind's Eye (assorted)

Inks: Memento Black, Chalk ink (Dark brown)

Accessories: cigar box from Cosmo Cricket, chipboard tags, cork sheet, jumbo eyelets, dimensionals, roses from prima, circle and die cut shape punches from EK success, spellbinders, velvet ribbon, heart punch from Martha Stewart, bling from stash, glaze, liquid pearls, acetate, embossing folder from Tim Holtz, red tacky tape, gray grosgrain ribbon, crop-a-dile, 

Each of the sentiments from the Words of Wisdom stamp set are simply spectacular.... so inspiring and so from the heart - Julee is simply an amazing designer! Please check out all the new Verve stamps here and all the VLV sketch challenges here with a chance to score some free Verve yumminess!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!
Big hugs,
Sankari

Taylored Expressions Tag Hop

Welcome to the Taylored Expressions Black Friday Tag Hop!!!  We're celebrating the biggest shopping day of the year with a Tag Hop and a HUGE SALE!

• Hop around for tons of inspiration for your holiday tag making. Link list below.
• One lucky customer will win a set of 10 tags (one each of the tags featured in today's hop.)  Everyone who places an order at Taylored Expressions Friday - Monday (11/25 - 11/28) and writes"I want those tags!" in the comments section of the order form will be entered to win.  The winner will be announced on Taylor's blog on Tuesday 11/29.
• Introducing Tags & Tag-a-longs so you can quickly and easily create your own tags inspired by today's samples.
• Black Friday Sale - enter coupon code BLACKFRIDAY2011 on any order Friday through Monday to save 10-30% off your entire order!  HURRY! The earlier you shop, the MORE you SAVE!  Details on the TE Store homepage.

Hi Everyone, 

Hope you had a special and lovely Thanksgiving! We are on our way to spend time with some very special friends for Thanksgiving and I am so looking forward to some down time. Today we are doing a Tag Hop where we got together to create some tags - perfect for some holiday making fun! And Taylor is making it super easy to get started on your holiday tag making and card making with some amazing deals!!

I used the Sparkle and Cheer stamp set - one of my all time favorites to make my set of tags:

I used the Cosmo Cricket mini deck 6x6 Social Club collection for my tag and used the sweet little dove from the Sparkle and Cheer stamp set with the lovely sentiment: Celebrate the Season. As some of you know, I am a huge fan of liquid pearls (it is an addiction!) and I was so excited when Taylor started to carry the Viva Decor Pearl Pens because they are just like liquid pearls, but the ends are just fabulous and they are much easier to hold and control the speed of applying dots or color to your project. I used the Magenta Viva Decor Pen to add some dimension to the leaves that the dove is carrying and also on the red paper. Check out all the Pen colors here!

I love making tags - they are just such a great, quick and fun way of personalizing a gift and check out HOW easy it will be to get your tag making on with this awesome Tags & Tag-a-Longs kit! Each set of tags comes with color coordinated ingredients to create your own personalized tags - Check out all the details on Taylor's blog - this is one super awesome deal!!

Along with this awesome set of kits of tags, there are huge deals in the Taylored Expressions store today!!! Perfect and in time for your holiday card making!!!

Check out all the beautiful tag creations that these amazing ladies have created for today's hop!

Taylor VanBruggen
Jami Sibley
Charmaine Ikach
Jen Shults
Jodi Collins
Lori Craig
Melody Rupple
Danielle Lounds
Sankari Wegman

THank you so much for stopping by! WIshing you a wonderful Black Friday and sweet weekend!

Big hugs,

Sankari 

Tags with pocket for a Business Card:

Hi Everyone,

One of my dear friends has a home business and I have wanted to support her venture and thought that it would be fun for her to give her business card in a little gratitude tag. This is something that she can tie on to her customer's purchase or hand out after an event - it was fun to create these tags and she picked out the perfect sentiment: "with gratitude" from the Thankful Accents stamp sets from Verve stamps. I love this stamp set, especially the font! So lovely!

Her business cards are brown and green and so I created these tags (4.5" x 3") that have a pocket where she can insert her business cards. I punched the edge of the folded part of the tag with a border punch and then stamped the beautiful sentiment and popped it up onto the folded tag pocket portion:

I wanted to keep this really simple because I am making around 30 of them for her - and wanted to keep the production line/assembly line a bit on the simple side :) I love that she loved how it turned out - and it looks perfect with her business card in it (not pictured). Here is what one of the tags look like:

 Tag Ingredients:
Paper: PTI
Stamps: Thankful Accents from Verve Stamps
Inks: Bamboo Leaves
Accessories: EK success border punch and wavy die cut shape, circle punch from EK success, liquid pearls, Jumbo Eyelets, paper crimper and ribbon from stash.

One 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper will make three of these tags with a little bit left over - and the Thankful Accents stamp set is really the perfect set for showing appreciation - LOVE all of the beautiful sentiments! I am not used to making things so simple - I want to add butterflies, bling, hearts and all kinds of ribbon trim and buttons - but since this is for her business - it has to be simple and clean cut - so here is my attempt - although every single inch of me wants to add a 100 things more!! LOL!!!

Weel, I am off to make more tags!
Thank you for stopping by today and hope you are having a fabulous friday!
Hugs,
Sankari :)

Unity Tags of Merriment :)

Hi everyone,

A while ago, the fabulous and lovelyAnglea of Unity Stamps created this darling video for making some quick Christmas tags! I am all about quick and I love the look she created and I so wanted to CASE her, but don't think I could ever create "Angela cuteness" :) but I tried :) Using the super cute new co-brands that Unity is carrying - I used the Snowflakes Fall from Heaven stamp set from Jilibean Soup and the Peace.Love.Joy stamp set by Lisa Hetrick. Somehow, I was going to make just a couple of tags, but once I got started, I couldn't stop creating tags :) Here is a pic of some of them:

And here are some individual shots - I love the sentiments and had fun palying around with the sentiments and snowflakes and of course a well bit of stickles bling :)

I attached a little snowflake that I punched out of kraft and adhered onto the tag and decorated each one with some liquid pearls in the center:

It was fun to create some vertical tags too! On the back of each of the tags, I wrote "To and From" and can't wait to dress up my gifts with some of these tags :)

Here is one gift that I created and its hard to see in the picture, but I stamped some snowflakes onto the box as well in a light brown ink with some white - fun and simple!

Who knew tags could be so much fun to create! So happy to get them done and now off to finish my Christmas shopping! Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you are having a happy holly jolly kind of day!

Hugs, 

Sankari :)

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #58 - Sentimentaly Spring

Good Sunday Morning and Happy Spring Forward!!!

I don't know about you guys - but the Spring time change (springing one hour ahead - always throws me off! I woke up today and wondered - wait a minute how is it already 8am ... where did the time literally fly off too??! 

In celebration of the Spring forward time change and also the fact that it must mean that spring is on the way (thank goodness! winter in iowa is not the easiest of seasons!) I made a little Happy Spring card! Here is another awesome sketch from Taylor from her Friday Cupcake Challenge #58. It's been one year since Taylor opened her store Taylored Expressions and in honor of that - Taylor is celebrating with party favors, prizes and gifts - go on and check it out!

I made a card for this challenge using Taylor's sketch and her color challenge from Thursday. I love these colors together - it reminds me of a fruit sorbet medley. I made this Happy Spring card for one of my friends who I am going to see later on today for a little girl's afternoon out!

I made a little mini library card style holder for each ofthe square elements in alternating colors from the challenge that Taylor had posted on Thursday (all you have to do is create a card with the colors from this post, upload it to Paper Craft Planet with the keyword tecolorchallenge and you are eligible to win the Birthday Boy Key Ingredients set - which is a wonderful set of heavy duty cardstock, beautiful and bright DP and coordinating brads and glitter ). Who doesn't love a chance to score some free DP and paper and embellies!!

 

In each of the boxes I put a little sentiment from Taylor's stamp sets punched with a Fiskar's tag punch. I thought it would be fun to have an interactive kind of card. The main kind of theme that I was going for - was a celebration of Spring card --- just because :) 

The square elements were punched out and folded in the alternating colors from Taylor's color challenge. I inked the sentiments in SU! Rose Ted with the top and bottom sentiments reading: Celebrate and the middle row reading: just because (this sentiment is from Taylor's newest stamp set - Branching Out - I love this set and this sentiment - because sometimes you need a "just because" kind of card :). The very middle sentiment reads: Happy Spring! Yay! I can't wait for Spring! I am so excited to get out of all these layers of winter clothes!!!

The sentiments read: Celebrate (from the Year of Senitments) and Just Because (from the Branching Out set) and in the middle square element it reads: Happy Spring (from Year of Sentiments). I thought it would be kind of fun for her to pull out the little sentiments.

  

Card Details: Paper: Paper from the scrap stash

Ink: Rose Red (SU!) 

Stamps: Year of Sentiments (Celebrate stamp and Happy Spring) and Sweet Spring: (Just because) 

Accessories: Liquid Pearls, silver pen, bling, hearts from K & Company, Guva Grosgrain Ribbon (Taylored Expressions), Fiskar's tag punch. 

Hope you are enjoying your weekend! Don't forget to check out Taylor's awesome birthday bash!!

Thank you so much for visiting my little corner,
Ciao for now,
Sankari :)

Thank You Box with Note Cards

Good Morning Everyone,

Its hard to believe that its Thursday! Where is this week going (gosh, I feel like I am saying that alot these days - I can't keep up with everyone's schedules, the birthdays, the approaching holidays, laundry, housework and work on top of everything else  - that's why it was so great to carve out some very needed crafting time. 

I loved Julee's sketch for this week's Mojo Monday and the top half circle immediately reminded me of the opening of an envelope. I also needed to make a gift for a friend, so I thought I could use this sketch as a top cover for a box that could hold some blank cards that my friend can use.

 I loved Kristina's color picks this week for her Color Inspiration Challenge- very soothing and used her colors to create the top of the box and the cards inside as well. The theme over at PaperCraftPlanet is Gratitude and so I thought this was perfect for this months theme. If you haven't visited yet - you have to check it out - it is an amazing place to find inspiration, friends and all kinds of paper crafting tips and techniques. 

In making this gift box, have to say that I was kind of excited to create a box.... my first real box that I have made :) I have no idea of the dimensions and didn't really use a template... since I didn't really know what I was doing,  but in general - I wanted to make a rectangle box to hold the cards that I was making, so I started 2 rectangular pieces of cardstock (thick) and I scored at about 1" on all four sides for one piece and scored at 3/8"  for the  other piece. I cut and pasted the corners and voila a box was created . 

After creating the box, I started the top portion using Julee's sketch. The inside note cards are all very simple. The lines of the different colors (one of which has a scalloped edge from a corner rounder) I adhered on the bottom and lastly finished it off with some liquid pearls on the scalloped edge. 

The sentiment reads: Thanks for being you. The box has an envelope that opens and reveals a little thank you tag to write a note for the present and then the box opens up to three blank cards that they can use.  

Well, I am off to get lunch going and then off for a whirlwind of errands and working - hopefully the kids will co-operate with today's crazy schedule :)

Hope you are all well!

Thanks for visiting!

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

will post the deets after work tonight - sorry about that ;)