Verve Sneak Peek - Dream Big

HI Everyone!

Have you been checking out all the gorgeous peeks of the upcoming August Verve Stamps Release over at the Verve Stamps Blog?! All I have to say is that Julee has outdone herself this release - every.single. image and sentiment in every single set is so beautiful - Gorgeous images, gorgeous fonts and all full of Verve-y yumminess!!! Today the Divas are peeking the beautiful stamp set called: Dream Big!

I love all the flower images and sentiments in this stamp set - scallopy wonderland I tell ya!! This set comes with three solid sized flowers and so I stamped them in different ink colors, cut them out and then popped them up on each other with a little button and bling in the center. I then stamped the leaf images twice - once onto the DP and the second one on white cardstock which I then cut out and popped up over the leaves.

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Echo Park Summertime, Prism cardstock

Stamps: Dream Big from Verve Stamps

Ink: Memento: LadyBug Red, RoseRed, Tangelo, Dandelion

Accessories: buttons, bling, ribbon from stash, Adirondack Liquid Pearls, butterfly punch from CM, dimensionals

I added some liquid pearls to the flowers and border and then stamped one of my favorite sentiments from this set: "Leave no words unspoken". Isn't that sentiment simply beautiful? It can mean so many different things to different people - it can mean to always say how much someone means to you, it can mean to never regret not saying something, it can mean to always speak from your heart... I love this sentiment so much.

It actually hits a little close to home. One of my uncles passed away two weeks ago very tragically - it was completely unexpected - he was in good health, good spirits, - but he passed away in an awful car accident. We were all shocked to learn of this tragedy and ever since then - I have always called my parents every day to say goodnight, I tell and show my DH and kids every day what they mean to me - and so when I was creating for today's Dream Big stamp set peek - I wanted to make this card for my parents to let them know what they mean to me. We were visiting them last week out East and I treasured every single moment that we shared as a family - it is so precious!

I love each of the sentiments in this set and can't wait to see how the Divas have used them in today's sneak peek of this gorgeous stamp set! Please hop with me and check out their creations below:

Julee

Shannan

Lynda

Mercy

Charmaine

Jen T.

Sony

Laurie

Teresa

Amber

Maureen

Michelle

Wishing for you all to Dream Big and that all your Big Dreams come true!!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs,

Sankari :)

Sweetest Blessing - Gina K Blog Hop!

Hi Everyone,

I love this sweet little stamp set from GinaK called: Sweetest Blessing which is filled with the cutest little tasty treats and sweet sentiments - ready for birthday and other friendship kind of cards! And for a limited time, GinaK is giving a card kit free with purchase of this stamp set - filled with these beautiful bright colors of pure luxury cardstock - I LOVE the turquoise mixed in with the chocolate and pink colors! I created a little birthday card for a sweet friend of mine with this sweet Sweetest Blessing stamp set:

I can't wait to see what all these amazing designer have created with this card kit and sweet stamp - please check out their links to see more samples with the Sweetest Blessings stamp set.

Jessica Fick

Bev Gerard

Colleen Schaan

Jennie Harper

Then, check out this discussion in the Idea Center to view the card kit that Jessica designed to coordinate with this adorable stamp set! It's free with purchase of the Sweetest Blessings stamp set until August 26th! The StampTV gallery is also filled with lots of ideas that you won't want to miss. Here's the link: sweetestblessings

Wishing each of you a week filled with sweetest blessings!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs,

Sankari :)

TE August Key Ingredients: Fancy Flight :)

Hi Everyone,

I love love love being a subscriber of Taylor's Key Ingredients Kit - where every month you get a beautifully package of DP, coordinating cardstock, embellishments and coordinating ribbon in a sturdy plastic storage container - it makes card making so easy, organized and fun! This month for the August Key Ingredients, Taylor challenged us to use the Key Ingredients to create something that incorporates the outdoors in a "Fancy Flight challenge" - so anything having to do with the sky, butterflies, being outside etc.

Well, I love summer - and as I am typing this - we just finished a mini vacation back east and had a chance to swim in the Atlantic Ocean and lay out in the beach. Sigh... love every single moment of being outside (except the 100 degree days - but those are great because then its time to hit the malls and shop till you drop! but I digress..!) So in thinking about "Fancy Flight" I immediately wanted to use the newly released Tweethearts stamp set with the beautiful bold colors in this month's KI. I used Taylor's Friday Sketch #123 for this card and had so much fun doing some quick stamping (no coloring) with these cutie stamps. I LOVE this blue polka dotted ribbon and the little red sticker flag tag - (the KI kit this month comes with tons of letter stickers and flag tags):

I seriously couldn't stop using the KI kit - So I reached for my Summer Afternoon stamp set and quickly stamped another card and used the sentiment "Praying for You" is from the Care & Comfort stamp set. This card is for my aunty who is battling cancer - I wanted to send her something bright and cheery. This kit comes with these super cute and adorable butterfly dies that match the cardstock and so everything coordinates so easily! I added some stickles to the butterfly and popped them up a bit. There are a ton more butterflies in the kit and I love how the coordinate with the papers in this kit!

For those of you who are not familiar with Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients Kit - these kits are a great way to receive an amazing collection of designer paper, card stock, coordinating ribbon and accessories on a monthly basis all at a great value! All the work is already done for you - so no stress in finding that perfect ribbon to coordinate! You can read more about the benefits of the Key Ingredients kit on the blog here! I love the fact that you don't even have to worry about the KI kit once you subscribe - it automatically shows up at your door every month - like Christmas every month :) (and Taylor always sends out a reminder email before the kit ships and reminds subscribers of the 10% discount that they receive at the store with FREE shipping with the KI included! You can subscribe HERE !!

Every KI kit also has an inspiration gallery - so once you are a subscriber - you can see all the different ways that you can use the kit! Speaking of Inspiration, check out what the amazing girls from the Baker's Dozen have created with the kit this month:

Taylor Van Bruggen

Alex Maldonado
Carolina Buchting
Jackie Pedro

Jeanie Witmer
Karen Motz

There is so much yummy crafting goodness all in one kit - and I love the fact that I still have so much leftover!Don't forget to subscribe to the TE newsletter and you can also become a fan of Taylored Expressions over on Facebook!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Hope you have lots of outdoor summery fun before fall starts to creep in!

Hugs,

Sankari :)

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #91: Gandhi

Hi Everyone,

I had a little blog-cation - as we went on vacation - and so am sorry if I haven't been to your blogs - but promise that I will come around and say hello soon! I missed doing my Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge the last two weeks and am excited to start back with our 91st Cinema challenge -where every week we pick a different movie from which we create a card,etc. and this week we are featuring the 8 time Oscar winning movie (including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a leading role..) released in 1982: GANDHI.

Since August 15th (tomorrow) is the celebration of the Indian Independence Day from British Rule and the day that India was born as a sovereign nation - we thought it would we could honor this celebration by featuring this movie that follows the life of MK Gandhi and shows how he was transformed from a lawyer in South Africa to become a national leader in the move for Independence and a national treasure. This movie is beyond inspirational - it shows the multi-level complexity in the struggle for Independence - but more than anything it shows how the simplicity of truth and conviction in one person's heart - changed a nation forever. "Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth."- Einstein

There are so many lovely and inspiring quotes in this movie (not just from Gandhi-ji) and so we thought for our challenge requirement today - we could "Quote it Up" . Use a quote that is inspired from the movie in your creation! If you haven't seen this movie its a definite must!

I remember the first time I watched this movie was sitting in between my parents at the historic Senator theater in Maryland when the movie came out. I was almost 9 years old at the time (way too little for certain parts of the movie where there is fighting) but watching that movie with my parents and a whole theater full of Indian people on Independence day left a deep impression. I watched my parents cry, I heard those around me sing with certain parts of the movie and clap when Independence was announced and at the end of the movie - we all stood as one and applauded. I have watched it again and again since that early age of 9 and every single time I have been moved in a different way. The courage and conviction to stand against the might of the British Empire - in the most simple way - to not raise arms and fight - still gives me goosebumps and inspires me.

What Gandhi-ji (btw- to add "ji" at the end of his name is a way to show respect - kinda like adding a mr. before a name) did was to show the inhumane-ness of violence when no one strikes back. I love the quote of his: " An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". But then I also love this quote: "Be the change you wish to see in the world." and was so excited to see it in rubber (from Unity stamps):

The ribbon is white twill that is inspired by Gandhi-ji's movement for home spun cotton so that it wasn't being imported from Britain and also for his simplicity of cloth, home and food. The hearts for me symbolize the love of a nation and the colors are more of an earth tone - the way that he was with Mother India. I loved making this card and loved watching this movie again with my parents before I made this card.

One thing that I will say is that there are some parts that are hard for me to watch - even now -but I thought that director Richard Attenborough really honored India and Gandhi in the making of this movie -and Ben Kingsley's portrayal of Gandhi is amazing!

Can't wait to see your quoted up movie creations!!! Hope you will play along with us this week! You can check out more details over at the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge blog!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Hugs Sankari

ReLEASE DAY -at Taylored Expressions!!!!!!!

Good Morning Everyone!

It's release day over at Taylored Expressions!!! woot-y-woot-woot! And today the Baker's Dozen are showing some more peeks from the two stamp sets that Taylor will be releasing today called Tweet Hearts and Take Note. I thought I would make a card using the Tweet Hearts set and used one of the Clear Circle favors (they come in a set of 10!!!) in the TE store to create this little bubble card. My friend is having her third baby in October and we are off to a baby shower this weekend - thought it would be fun to create this little baby shower card with three little baby birds in the nest :)

I love these bright and happy papers from the Garden Party Project Pantry kit. I started off sponging a little sky and then stamping the branch and leaves and then cutting it out with my circle nesties. After they were cut out, I stamped some leaves and then popped some of them up. The little wee birdies were stamped in three different colors of Memento Inks to match the papers. they were then nestled into the cute nest stamp (which you can also turn into a birdbath) and then I finally stamped the trio of hearts on the top. Here is a view from the side:

The congratulations was stamped and then cut out using one of Taylor's new Dies and then decorated with some liquid pearls. I love these dies - and Taylor is offering some special deals and steals over at the store today with these dies!!! Check out ALL these SUPA deals:

• Felt Trios: Taylored Expressions is proud to offer 9"x6" sheets of wool blend felt in lots of yummy colors. This felt works perfectly with our dies. We are offering 3 sheets in a trio of colors for $1.00 (Triple Berry trio, Fresh Veggie Trio, Winter Fresh Trio and Sundae Topping Trio) and 4 sheets (of 2 colors each) in the Marshmellow Creme Duo for $1.25. Taylor is also offering the "I want it Bundle" for $5.25!
• **Enabling Alert** - The TE store is going to be carrying the Cinch - along with all the coordinating accessories for all your binding needs (AND, everyone who purchases the Cinch, will receive a FREE Journal Kit to help get started with this Fun tool!)

All, I can say is that I can't wait to get shopping - don't forget to check out the "What's the Deal" section for items that have been marked down and are on sale! But first hop along with me and check out all the amazing creations that the Baker's Dozen girls have created today!!!

Alex Maldonado

Charmaine Ikach

Carolina Buchting

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Jeanie Winter

Jami Sibley

This month's guest designer: Stacy Schafer

our wonderful illustrator: Nancy McKinney

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

Thanks so much for stopping by today -

hope I run into you shopping over at Taylored Expressions!!

I will be the one in my pink pajamas ;)

Big hugs,

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks - Day 2!!!!

Good Morning Everyone,

I am so excited for round 2 of sneak peeks from Taylored Expressions, where today we are previewing a totally tweet stamp set that Taylor will be releasing tomorrow called Tweet Hearts that was designed by the gorgeous and sweet Nancy McKinney (who also has the most divine dimples!!!) This set is a total must-have - it has sentiments for all occasions and my favorite thing about this set is that it makes for some easy and quick stamping!

While we were at CHA, Taylor created a make-and-take that was super cute and quick stamping using the July Key Ingredients and so when I sat down to create my project for today - ALL I could think of was those papers and the fun clean lines of that cute make-and-take! I pulled out my papers and thought it would be fun to create some little CAS notecards that featured all the sentiments in this awesome set!

I thought it would be fun to hold all the notecards in a little birdhouse - so I altered this cute little birdhouse holder that I found on sale with papers from the July Key Ingredients kit (and can I just say that the amount of papers that comes in a KI kit is amazing! I still have so many papers left after everything that I made when I got this kit and after using it today! If you haven't signed up for the Key Ingredients program, you have to check it out). Here is a picture of the whole birdhouse:

Isn't that little birdie so tweet :) I used the die that we peeked yesterday for the main image panel. All of the Taylored Dies are manufactured in the US (made of American steel) and work in every die-cutting machine (Cuttlebug, Bigshot, etc.) and all the dies coordinate with the TE stamps to allowing perfect cutting everytime (even cuts felt, magnets, cork, etc!).

Here is a closer peek at the altered birdhouse. I LOVE the sentiment: I {heart} you !!! Awww!I created the roof with some scallops of alternating orange and brown colors (all from the July KI kit)

he embossed the sides and top front for a weathered look :) the front of the birdhouse is also decorated using the same Taylored Die and uses the Cloudy Background stamp set and I adorned some flowers by adding some half moon pearls. When you open the ribbon on the top - you can pull out the notecards and envelopes (5 envelopes, 5 notecards): Here is a picture of the birdhouse opening and of the notecards.

For my notecards today, I used one of my sweet little Taylored Die in my Big Shot and cut out 5 white shapes and then stamped them assembly line style. I love the fact that there is no coloring (don't get me wrong, I love me some copics!) but it was so much fun to stamp simply and be done quick! I sponged the edges in some blue ink. I stamped the flower border stamp and then added some papers from the KI for a border. I stamped all of the different sentiments on the bottom left hand corner and popped up the image panel in the center:

Here is a picture of each of the 5 cards with the different sentiments: You're so Tweet, Tweethearts, Congratulations, You Make a Good Day Better, and You Make me Smile! Don't you love all the sentiments (and the ones I used above in the birdhouse are just too sweet):

I love the sweet little heart trio stamp - I added a little but of stickles for a little glitz :)

Isn't that smaller little birdie so cute! I love those two tweethearts together!

There are three different shapes of leaves in this stamp set which makes it fun to create some quick whimsy :) I stamped the smaller of the two leaves in different inks randomly on the branch:
There are also different flower stamps in this set and I love the flower border and used one of the flower stamps to embellish the branch - stamped, punched it out and popped it up with a little bit of bling in the center:

This stamp set has soooo many possibilities and you can create lots of fun and quick cards for any occasion! I absolutely loved creating this little gift of notecards and birdhouse and can't wait to see what all the girls have created with this totally tweet set!!! :))) Come along and surf with me to their amazing blogs!!!

Alex Maldonado

Charmaine Ikach

Carolina Buchting

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Jeanie Winter

Jami Sibley

our wonderful illustrator: Nancy McKinney

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

Thanks so much for stopping by today -

Please stop in tomorrow for

all the release day festivities Taylored Expressions!!!

Big hugs,

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks - Day 1!!!!

Good Morning Everyone!

I am so excited because today starts release week sneak peeks over at Taylored Expressions! Woot! Taylor will be releasing all the yumminess of this month's crafting goodness this Friday at 8am PST!!!! This release is really special because it marks a very special and new product line that Taylor will be releasing: her very own dies - this line will be called Taylored Dies!!! Isn't that die-vine :) Taylor will be releasing 9 NEW dies that coordinate with the Taylored Expressions stamp sets - And what's to boot, is that today we are showing samples from an awesome new stamp set called Take Note (which is the concept idea of the awesome Jami Sibley!) which is THE perfect go-to stamp set for creating journals, notebooks, little gift notebooks etc. and comes with three brilliantly lovely die shapes - that coordinate with 3 die shapes that Taylor will be releasing!

This stamp set has all the perfect sentiments for all your different journal needs - you can mix and match sentiments and fonts and create your own specific journal title. I couldn't wait to alter a little notebook with these cute little stamps and awesome die shape and in trying to think of today's project, I decided that instead of giving something to someone else, I am going to create a little "to do" notebook to keep me on track! As summer starts to come to an end and school begins for me and the kids - my to-do list is longer than the virtual one in my head - so I altered a little notebook using the die-image from this stamp set and then cut it out with the coordinating Taylored Die - LOVE it!

I stamped the Die stamp image in Versamark and embossed it in clear EP on the Summertime Project Pantry Kit that Taylor released in July, and then cut it out with the die. I arranged the words and stamped it and then sponged it with some Dandelion Ink over the Cosmic Swirl stencil template and popped up the square over the die. The butterfly is embossed and is from the Discover Your Wings stamp set.

I added a little trail of bling, some liquid pearls (Terra Cotta) and finished it with a little ribbon embellishment on the wire spiral. I can't wait to use it and hope that I can at least cross of the hundreds of things that I forget to do everyday! :)

I love how crisply these dies cut - and used one of my Taylored Dies to cut some brown felt material that I had - it cuts it so nicely and creates such a great texturized feeling to the card. I created this Summer Song card using the Summer Afternoon stamp set along with the Take Note stamp set. The brown die image is cut out using the Taylored Die on brown felt and then on top of that I layered a second die image from theTake Note stamp set with the sentiment on it:

Here is a closer peek at how yummy-ly this die cuts felt and I love the detail of the dots around the other die stamp image:

Here is another view of this card :

I can't wait to see what all the girls have created with all of these new dies and this awesome stamp set!!!! Come along and surf with me and check out these amazing creations that all of the wonderful ladies have created!!!

Alex Maldonado

Charmaine Ikach

Carolina Buchting

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Jeanie Winter

Jami Sibley

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

Thanks so much for stopping by today -

Please stop in tomorrow for more sneak peeks at

Day 2 of the Release Sneak Peeks from Taylored Expressions!!! Yayayay!

Big hugs,

Sankari :)

Happy Anni-VERVE-Sary blog hop!!!!!

Good Morning Everyone!!! Today is an exciting day because its the day that Julee Tillman launched VERVE - home of all things Verve-a-licious and awesome! To celebrate this Anni-VERVE-sary, Julee has invited all Verve fans for a blog hop - filled with prizes and fun! So get ready to Verve! If you have hopped over from the awesome blog of the creatively amazing Verve Diva LYNDA B. then you are at the right place - or if you are starting here (a big hello and a wave!!) and you can also start at the beginning of the hop over at Julee's gorgeous blog: POETIC ARTISTRY! There is a very special prize for one lucky commentator and some yummy hidden prizes along the way!!!

First of all, I can't even begin to thank Julee for allowing me to be part of the Verve DT - thank you so much from the bottom of my heart Julee - you are so amazing and to celebrate this amazing day with all the Verve fans out there is sooo beyond special!!! I wanted to create a Happy Birthday card since Verve is 3 years old! So I pulled out the awesome stamp set Happy Days (Which you can win!!! more details at the end of the post!!!): and started stamping away! I love the center circle wave-y graphic and inside it I stamped the sentiment "Have a Happy..." in two tones of green and then picked out the sentiment "birthday" and stamped that in Taken with Teal. I love that you can create your own image sentiment by doing that! I love these colors from My Mind's Eye's: O La La collection - and of course had to stop myself from o la la with my liquid pearls addiction:

Here is a close up of my image:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: My Mind's Eye (O La La)

Stamps: Verve Stamps: Happy Days stamp set

Ink: Memento Rosebud, Ladybug Red, Cottage Ivy, Pear Tart and SU! Taken with Teal

Accessories: Spellbinders, Adirondack's liquid pearls, pearls, dimensionals, ribbon from stash, die cuts from the MME paper pack

Isn't this stamp set just awesome!! AND GUESS WHAT???!! Julee is going to give away this stamp set as a gift to one lucky commenter!!! So please leave a comment below before Weds. August 4th (@11:59pm) and YOU could be the winner of this stamp set (isn't Julee just beyond generous and sweet!).

I can't wait for all the eye candy that is out there in blogland today as more than 80 fans of Verve have joined in for a blog hop extravaganza!!! So hop on over to TAMI's blog as we hop along the Anni-Verve-sary blog hop route!!!

And if for any reason the blog hop chain gets broken - please head back to the MASTER LIST (click HERE) !!!

A huge huge congratulations to Julee and Mr. Verve for this amazing company that they have created and for their generosity and sweetness!!! Wishing you continued success and joy always!!!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Big hugs,

Sankari :)