Monday, August 10, 2009

School Days are almost here!


Good Morning Everyone,

Can I just tell you something so awesome I have been giggling in excitement to myself !!?!!! I am excited to join 2 Sketches 4 You as their newest Design Team member!!! Here's how I feel inside:  :)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so honored and grateful to join this team. I have always loved Laura and Kazan's  sketches and I had so much fun participating in the first annual Ultimate Card Showdown that they hosted in celebration of the first birthday of their sketch blog! I love that there is so much room for interpretation of the sketch and how sweet Laura and Kazan are with all of the people who play along! It always feels like a little world family to come and visit their blog every monday morning!!! And more than anything, I am so excited to be able to work with these two fabulous artists and the fantastic Design Team!!! 

This week, Laura has an awesome sketch to play with and the sponser this week is The Cutting Cafe which has an awesome selection of cutting files and templates that you can download and print out or cut out! I used the pencils and sentiment from the School Days printable stamp set and printed out a few of the pencils on different color cardstock and popped out one pencil and glitterized it :) 
Card Details:
Paper: the pencils are printed on colored cardstock from stash, the background paper is from My Mind's Eye (Dotty Dude)
Stamps: Cutting Cafe's School Days Printable stamp set
Ink: printer and Martha gray
Accessories: Ribbon from Martha, Spellbinders, Circle cutters from CM, Bazzil Embroidery thread, K&CO bling, glitter from Martha (Crystal Coarse), Stickles (Cotton Candy, Frosted Lace, Crystal, Orange Peel, button from stash, liquid glaze and dimensionals.

I really enjoyed working with this stamp set - it is totally perfect timing as both the kids are starting school this year and they both have teachers who are new to the school and who both are my friends - so I wanted to make a something for them and can't wait to make another one of these cards so I can have two for the both of them :)

Check out the amazing creations from the fantabulous DT and play along! Can't wait to see your wonderful creations with Laura's sketch!!!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog!
Wishing you a wonderful Monday and a great start to your week!!!

Big Hugs and sunny smiles!!
Sankari :)

Happy Holiday Monday :)

Good Morning Everyone,

Today over at the Christmas Stamping All Year Long Blog, one of our DT members Vicki of Summerthyme Studio's challenged us to use the spotlight technique where you highlight part of the image by stamping it twice and layering it (here's a great Tutorial to show you how). So I decided to pull out a stamp that I have only used a couple of times and has been sitting at the bottom of the pile - for 2 years (hanging my head down in shame!) 

Everything in the card is from my stash. The stamped sentiment is from Taylored Expressions and the tree stamp is from (hmm...? I will go and check on that!) Check out the rest of the cards in the spotlight over at the Christmas Stamping All Year Long Blog and play along if you have a chance! Its been a great way to not only get a jumpstart in the christmas card making insanity - but also to try out some new techniques :)

Hope you are all having a great Monday - I will be back in a little bit later today with some exciting news! 

(no - I am not pregnant- LOL!!!)

Thanks for visiting!
Happy Monday!
Sankari :)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #44 - The Thief Lord


Good Morning Everyone, 

And Welcome to another Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge, where we pick a movie and create a card based from it. This week's movie is the 2006 release called the Thief Lord which is based on a German book. I hadn't seen or heard of this movie before and watched it last night. It was very sweet and the touching part of the whole movie to me was the relationship of the two brothers. 

So since this movie is so much about brotherly love and affection and the bonds of friendship etc. - the Challenge Requirement for this week is to make a card for a brother or sister - or - if you don't want to do that or don't have a sibling (like me) to make a card for - you can make a friendship card.

Here is my card and I used my fellow Paper Craft Planet DT member Tammy Hersberger's awesome sketch for this week's PCP Saturday sketch challenge. If you have a chance hop on over to Tammy's blog and give her some love - she is one of the sweetest, nicest people I know! 

You can check out the rest of the gallery for the sketch challenge here! 


Card Details:
Paper: Basic Grey and Bazzil
Ink: Printer
Accessories: eyelet, dew drops, ribbon from stash, spellbinder's die cut.

I had fun making my card - and then I thought its too simple - I should start over again and do something else - but as that point was a few hours ago this morning - I am just going ahead with this card.

I hope you play along - its very very simple! Just a card for a sibling or a friend based on this movie!!! And you could be our next guest designer - just by playing along with this challenge!!! So cmon' and play - you can check out more details at the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge blog! 

Thanks so much for popping on over here!! 
Big hugs to all!!!
Lots of sunny smiles!
Sankari :)

Friday, August 7, 2009

Birthday Wishes


Good Morning Everyone, 

Can ya'll believe its Friday? Seriously? Where did this week go -- (hmm, I think I say that alot because these days are just flying by!!!) I am so thankful for Friday - excited to see some friends, hang out and just veg out and *chillax* ;) !!

 I am so glad that I could play along with the awesome ladies at the Color Throwdown and their Basic Grey "Ambrosia" inspired challenge - I love these colors and I adore the Ambrosia papers so I had to use them in this card. And I 
loved Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch #98 this week -  as always! I also loved the Just Pleat it challenge from SCS this week - so I used it all to create this bday card for a dear friend of mine which is full of birthday wishes!

And here is how it turned out :


I had a lot of fun making my card - especially the pleats - and I fell more in love with BG - yum!

Card Details:
Paper: Basic Grey Ambrosia
Stamps: Verve
Ink: Stazon Black
Accessories: Grey ribbon from stash, bling from Martha, Nesties, K & Co bling, black glaze pen from Sakura

Do you guys have any fun weekend plans? I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!! And also - if you want to play a guessing game - hop on over to the Cinema Saturday blog today (friday) and take a peek at the sneak peeks posted there and see if you can guess the movie for this week's challenge!! 

Thank you SO much for visiting!!!
Big hugs and sunny smiles from the heart!!!
Sankari :)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

RELEASE DAY -at Taylored Expressions!!!!!!!

Good Morning Everyone,

Well - the day is finally here!!! It's release day at Taylored Expressions - where Taylor is releasing 2 new stamp sets: Berries and Cherries and Chillax - along with a new coordinating Key Ingredient Package called the Berries and Cherries Key Ingredients (complete with coordinating DP, Cardstock, strawberry brads, ribbon, etc) and she has a whole LOT of new stuff at the store (Check out the Section: Fresh Out of the Oven) and now you can get your Copics at Taylored Expressions as well!!!! How exciting is all of that???!!! 

Well - before you head out shopping at Taylored Expressions - here are a few more samples from newest release - I seriously SERIOUSLY LOVE LOVE LOVE these new stamp sets (okay - I know I say that about all the TE stamps - but I adore these fun images and sentiments!)

MARGARITA MADNESS!

Here is a fun Margarita Madness card "Cheers" using the Chillax stamp set and using the SCS Sketch 40 . I loved stamping these fun Margaritas and coloring in the different flavors and then adding some clear glaze to make it all glass-y. 


Here is a close up of the glasses and the bling and the rub ons:

Card Details:
Paper: Doodlebug, Bazzill basics
Ink: Stazon' Black
Accessories: K&Co rub ons and bling, ribbon from stash, circle cutter from CM, EK success punch, orange stickles, dimensionals, spellbinder's die


THANK YOU BERRY MUCH GIFT PACKAGE

If you haven't tried Taylor's Perfect Packages - you have to check them out - they come folded flat and have strong magnetic clasps for closure and are a snap to decorate - and you can put whatever you would like in them like: giftcards, chocolate, knick knacks, etc. I went with the chocolate route - because.... well.... its chocolate!!! I used the papers in the Berries and Cherries Key Ingredients to decorate it along with the sweet flower and strawberry image in the Berries and Cherries Stamp set:

Here's what it looks like when you open it up --- yum!!! 
(Maybe I should give myself the present! ha!)

Details:
Ink: Stazon Black
Accessories: Spellbinders, bling, dimensionals, ribbon from stash, color pencils and of course Chocolate!

Check out the  perfect packages  and also all the different favor and treat boxes and bags that Taylor has - its really such a great thing to have on hand and decorate when you need a quick thank you or birthday present, etc.

6 x 6  CHILLAX-'in'  LAYOUT

I snapped this pic of my kiddies on the porch having strawberry popsicles after a hard day of riding bikes and swimming (oh the hard life of a kid!) - I loved this picture of them just relaxin and chillin' --- also known as CHILLAXIN' :) on the porch with their popsicles. I couldn't wait to use this sentiment from the Chillaxin' Stamp Set for my layout! I used the Scrappy Sunday sketch from Jen Tapler this week from PaperCraft Planet for this layout:



Here is a close up look at the sentiment and the details:


And then thing that I LOVE LOVE LOVE about making these 6 x 6 layouts is that they are simple and quick! AND that I can display them right away in our living room for all to see using Taylor's calendar stand. The kids love seeing themselves!

Layout Details:
Size: 6 x 6
Sketch: from Jen Tapler: Scrappy Sunday Aug 5th
Papers: black from stash, ki papers, Cardstock from Taylored Expressions
Accessories: bling, K & Co. rub ons, pink lemonade swirl ribbon from Taylored Expressions,


Taylor is also offering special Bundles on these two stamp sets: 
Check out the AWESOMENESS of these deals!!! :


I want 4 of everything!!!!! I am running over to do some shopping right now - so glad that I can do it in PJ's :)  But before you head out to check out all the deals and steals at Taylored Expressions  check out the Berry Sweet and Chillaxin' samples from the rest of the awesome Baker's Dozen:

I Brake For Stamps - Blog Hop - Humorous Seniors :)

Good  Morning Everyone,

There is an awesome sketch challenge that is going on at Paper Craft Planet and I couldn't be more excited to tell you more about this challenge which is being sponsored by I Brake For Stamps. Just by creating a card with this sketch - you might be able to score a $30 Gift Certificate to I Brake For Stamps!!!!!  They have generously donated this lovely gift certificate to one of our challenge participants!!! Woo-hoo!!! 
AND check it out - I Brake For Stamps is going to give a 15% discount for all orders from now through Saturday - the code for that is "PCPlanet" - how nice is that??!!!  

To play along, create a card using this sketch and
post your project in the Paper Craft Planet photo
gallery, and use the tag "PCPIBFS" -- all caps, please. (Here is a tutorial
on adding pictures to the gallery, if you need it.)

All of the SuperNovas at Paper Craft Planet created cards using the stamp line called: Humorous Seniors - this stamp set has awesome sentiments and colorful characters - you can check it out here. One of my fave fave fave images is Rear View Ruth - isn't she sooo cute!! Here is my card using Ruth and the sketch:

And here is a closer look at the sentiment: Isn't it hilarious!!! 

Card Details: 
Paper: a mix and mash: some are from MME, DCVW and some from stash
Ink: Adirondack Expresso for the sentiment, Stazon Black for the image
Accessories: towel and flip flop embellishment, bling for the earrings and for the hat - paper piecing the hat and the bathing suit and prisma color pencils for the rest. Ribbon from Taylored Expressions (green and white polka dot)

I had a ton of fun stamping Ruth and I stamped a few different kinds of bathing suits for her when I was trying to figure out which one to go with - I can totally see a bunch of cards with different outfits and accessories from this set!!!

Don't forget to check out what the other Super Novas came up with:

Can't wait to see what you create with this sketch!!!

Happy Wednesday - ya'll!!!!

Hugs :)
Sankari :)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks - Day 2 - Chillax




Good Morning Everyone!

 Welcome to the second day of  peeks of Taylor’s latest set called Chillax - which will be available tomorrow!! I just love the name of the set and love the coo sentiments and drink images that come with them. I couldn't wait to use the sentiment: if life gives you lemons make lemonade and I couldn’t wait to use the phrase: If life gives you limes, make margaritas!” – so I put those two sentiments together on this card and added some crystal effects for more of a glass look:

I used some frosted stickles to create a "margarita salt" look to the rim of the glass and also used a mix of papers from my stash - the cardstock and ribbon are from Taylored Expressions.

I couldn't resist and made another card using one of my fave images from this set – a cute little blender – so sweet! There are SO many possibilities with this blender but for this card I made a You're So Smooth card with a blender making some fun orange smoothies. 

I paper pieced the little smoothie cups and the blender with a mix of papers and added some bling and crystal effects. I also made an orange smoothie and used a little shot glass with a stem and created a little umbrella for it from papers in the card (1 3/4 punch with a bamboo skewer).

And there's one more little thing that I made using this set - and here is a sneak peek of it:

The rest of it can be found on the Stamp a Sweet Impression blog - and so please hop on over there and check it out - and let me know if you liked it :) 

Also please check out the Chillaxin' samples from the rest of the awesome Baker's Dozen:

Donna Baker
Jodi Collins
Jen del Muro
Dawn Easton
Laura Fredrickson
Karen Giron
Charmaine Ikach
Denise Marzec
Karen Motz

Laurie Schmidlin
Ana Wohlfahrt

and of course: Taylor VanBruggen

Thanks so much for visiting my little ole blog!

Come back tomorrow on release day to celebrate with some more samples from these awesome two new sets!!!!

Hope you are able to Chillax today!!!

Hugs :)

Sankari :)

Monday, August 3, 2009

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks - Day 1



Good Morning Everyone!

Guess What??? Today marks the first day of sneak peeks for the release of some “berry” special stamps at Taylored Expressions!!!! Woo-hoo! Today & tomorrow the Baker’s Dozen will be showing you some sneak peeks from the two new stamp sets, a new Key Ingredients Packet and some awesome favor treats/perfect package boxes – all of which will be available this coming Wednesday, August 5th!!!

Today, we are showing some sneak peeks from the stamp set: Berries & Cherries using the: Key Ingredients that coordinates for this stamp set called the Berries & Cherries Key Ingredients: I absolutely adore adore adore these papers – All the cards today are made with papers from this set of Key Ingredients (which comes with cardstock, coordinating DP and embellishments and matching ribbon – did I mention that I love love love love these ribbons and papers!!??!!!) 

LIFE IS A BOWL OF CHERRIES:

This first card is one of my favorite expressions: “Life is a Bowl of Cherries”– I used Taylor’s Friday Cupcake sketch #76 for this card and paper pieced the bowl of cherries from one of the papers in the Key Ingredients set (KI set). I paper pieced the cherries and flower and used my spellbinder dies to create the main focal point.

Card Details: Paper: All the papers are from the Berries and Cherries Key Ingredients set. Stamps: This set is called: Berries & Cherries Ink: Stazon-Black, Ruby Red from SU! Accessories: All the paper is from the Key Ingredients set, white gel pen, spellbinders Die, liquid pearls, and corner rounder for the scalloped edging.

THANK YOU BERRY MUCH!

I couldn’t stop at one – so I had to make another one – I love that this stamp set has an image of a pint of strawberries! AND my SIL let me borrow her vintage Strawberry Short Cake doll for the photoshoot! I grew up watching Strawberry Shortcake and Lemon Meringue and the whole crew - and was psyched that I could borrow her doll for a playdate with me :)

Card Details: Paper: All the papers are from the Berries and Cherries Key Ingredients set. Stamps: This set is called: Berries & Cherries Ink: Stazon-Black, Ruby Red from SU! prismacolor pencils AccessoriesAll the paper,ribbon are from the Key Ingredients set, spellbinders Die, bling from my stash and crystal stickles

STRAWBERRY PIN CUSHION GIFT SET

As soon as I saw these stamps, I knew immediately I wanted to create strawberry pincushions! So, the last peek that I created is another berry card and this one coordinates with a little gift that I created: a basket with a strawberry pincushion.

Project Details: Paper: All the papers are from the Berries and Cherries Key Ingredients set. Stamps: This set is called: Berries & Cherries Ink: Stazon-Black, Ruby Red from SU! prismacolor pencils AccessoriesAll the paper,ribbon are from the Key Ingredients set, spellbinders Die, stickles, velvet red cloth material, green felt and fleece, yellow embroidery thread, Easter Basket Die Cut from Taylored Expressions, EK success punch and corner rounder

I found an easy template to make these pincushions on Martha (check out this link here) but I am neither nimble nor quick on the sewing machine – so I didn’t know how I was going to make it. But my dearest MIL came to the rescue and sewed up the edge of the strawberries. I then stuffed the strawberries, sewed it closed and then sewed the strawberry leaves on top with felt and fleece. 

Here is a picture of how the process of creating these pincushions – I used embroidery thread to create a look of strawberry seeds:

I can’t wait to give this to my MIL who is a seamstress extraordinaire, as a thank you present for helping me sew the seam! This basket (Easter Basket Die Cut) that I decorated is a favor box that Taylor carries in her store (check out this link). It is so easy to assemble – and even more easy to decorate (you can check out how to put these baskets together by checking out Taylor’s blog post here where she goes through it step by step!) Here is a picture of just the basket and the strawberry that I made with some pins:

And here is a picture of the card that I made for this gift set using the awesome Jen del Muro's Saturday Sketch from this last saturday: I paper pieced one of the stawberries in the set with some of the DP from the Berries and Cherries Key Ingredients set.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Baker’s Dozen DT members and their awesome berry creations:

Donna Baker
Jodi Collins
Jen del Muro
Dawn Easton
Laura Fredrickson
Karen Giron
Charmaine Ikach
Denise Marzec
Karen Motz

Laurie Schmidlin
Ana Wohlfahrt

and of course: Taylor VanBruggen

Thanks so much for visiting my little ole blog!

Tomorrow we have some special sneak peeks of the other new stamp set that Taylor will be releasing and trust me – its going to be a part-aaay! So be sure to check back!!!

Hope you have a berry special wonderful day!!!

Berry Hugs!

Sankari J

Happy Holiday Monday :)

Good Monday Morning Everyone!

Its Monday and that means its holiday time! I am so happy to be part of the Christmas Stampin All Year Long blog, where every week we create a card on Monday - each Monday there is a different challenge for your card (so you can always keep it fresh - I don't know about you but it is SO hard for me to make 50 xmas cards that are all the same). This week, Debbie from The Paper Garden challenged us to use this awesome sketch where the bottom portion of the sketch is patterned DP and the top portion is embossed. 

I was cleaning up a few days ago for our guests this weekend and found (or re-found, I should say :)  this Martha paper from last year hidden at the bottom of this pile that was behind another pile :) and was psyched to be able to use it - I LOVE this gum drop paper and thought it would go perfectly with this sweet gingerbread house from Taylored Expressions. 

The top really is embossed (in dotted snowflakes)
 but you can't see it come through because of the light on the picture).

I had so much fun making this card! Its officially August folks - so if you would like to get crafting on some holiday cards - check out the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog and play along - and check out the wonderful holiday merriment that was created by all the wonderful women on the DT for this week's sketch!

Please come back later this morning where I am SO psyched to be able to show you something "berry" special (wink!) 

Hope you had a fantastic weekend!
Thanks for visiting!
hugs!
Sankari :)


Card Details:
Paper: Martha Stewart
Stamps: Gingerbread house is from the Home Sweet Home stamp set from Taylored Expressions
Ink: Stazon Black
Accessories: liquid pearls (5 different colors), spellbinders dies, frosted lace stickles, candy cane stickles, crystal stickles, brad for the door knob, ribbon from stash

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #43 - Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl



Warning: This blog post is also known as: AN ODE TO JOHNNY DEPP :)


Ahoy Ye Mateys!!!

 Happy August! And what a great way to celebrate the start of a new month then featuring the hit movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, for our 43rd movie for our challenge this week! Every week, we pick a movie from which to draw inspiration from to create a card, scrapbook layout, altered creation... anything. And this week the movie is the first Pirates movie starring my main man, my girlhood crush/infatuation: Johnny Depp! Woo-hoooo!!! This movie almost went direct to video, but Disney decided to release it to the cinemas and good thing because according to Wikipedia, this movie which is the first of this series went on to receive 68 nominations including 5 Oscar nominations (one of which was for Johnny Depp for his leading role as Captain Jack Sparrow).  There are numerous curious facts, trivia, goofs and details at this link on Wikipedia, one of which is that the gold teeth that Johnny Depp had implanted in his teeth were real and were actually implanted by his dentist! Now that is true dedication!

The challenge this week is to use beads (like the beads strung on Captain Jack Sparrow's hair).

As maaaaaaannnnny of you know - I am a huge Johnny Depp fan - have been since I was in the 7th grade (which was a looong time ago :) I have simply adored him FOREVER - not only for his charming (okay fine, HOT!) looks - but also because of his incredible talent and his amazing skills as an actor - for how he picks the stories he wants to act in and how he brings that character out... truly incredible - I simply admire him and at the same time have some swoon moments with him (and also by the way - my DH is a total Johnny Depp fan as well - and my parents know so much about JD by now - they even bought me a bag with JD on it - which I take around with me ALL the time!!!!) - So hmmmm - where was I .... (its easy to get lost in JD land!)

Ah Yes - that I was psyched to do Pirates of the Caribbean for our movie challenge this week!! And I just wanted to send a huge shout out and thanks to the incredibly talented and utterly sweet Libby Harmon of Libby's Addiction (who is also a fellow Johnny Depp fan) who sent me this AWESOME card of the Deppster (man – I wish that would some day happen that it would rain JD! Thank you SO Libby – and I have meaning to send something back to you - hanging my head down in shame – i promise its coming!!!)

So there are a TON of things that I wanted to do for this movie – and I couldn’t pick just one and after making two different projects – I went with an idea I had – why not focus on my f-a-v-o-r-I-t-e  line of Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow from the movie: “But why is the rum gone?” OMGosh – the expression on his face is priceless- LOL! Dare I say, Brillant in fact! – I have watched it so many times! 

41 SECOND CLIP: Okay quick side note: here is a YouTube video of this line: (seriously - isn't he adorable! sigh!)

2 1/2 MINUTE REMIXED SONG: Okay - now this is ONLY for die-hard Johnny Depp fans (because this COULD be construed as annoying (not in my universe as I have watched it more than a dozen times :) but here is that same short snippet of a line made into a techno song - and then remixed - this totally cracks me up - but again - huge warning that this might be considered slightly annoying to non-Johnny fans - but is hugely popular in the Johnny Depp fan circles and also with those who are fans of    errr.... rum :)

Ahhh - sigh - I love this line --- and – so in honor of this line that always brings a smile to my face, I thought I would make a card that looked like a rum jug of old (inspired by this picture ) and have the sentiment on the bottle. I totally enjoyed watching this scene as I made this card and totally feel that JD completely made this movie rock! I used the Just Rite stamp system to create my sentiment, a 1 3/4 circle punch, I drew a rum jug and then cut it out of dark green cardstock (which I thought was black because it was  a late night craft thing here) and then painted it black with liquid pearls (when I found out that actually it was dark green paper that I had, lol!)  and then added beads from.... my daughter's old dress because --- i couldn't find my bead box at night and came up with this simple little jug o' rum:

Well, I had a ton of fun - and just realized that this must be one LONG blog post - sorry about that (I could talk ALL DAY about Johnny Depp - (sigh) ! It would be awesome if you could join us this week! Check out the Cinema Saturday Creative Blog Challenge for more details!!!

Can't wait to see your pirate inspired card!!!

A huge thanks to all for coming over to visit!

See you at the movies!!!

Sankari :)

PS - for those of you who want more Johnny D here are some links to YouTube collages of him - but for some you might want to turn your volume low or off if you don't like the song - personally I don't need any songs!: Tribute 1 (omgosh this one had SO many of the photos that i used to have of him from middleschool and highschool!), Tribute 2 (sigh!) and Tribute 3 and there are a ton more... but that could be a whole blogpost in and of itself - or even a whole blog!!! Alright and on that note - I am off to the glam world of picking up breakfast dishes!!! Oh yea! I lead the glam life!!! 

a p p y   W e e k e n d!!!