You are not alone....

Good Morning Everyone,

I love making cards with the person I am making cards for in mind, but this card was hard to make because it is for my friend Shannan who lost her best friend and husband last week. Shannan is such a sweetheart, an amazing mother, a wonderful artiste and has a beautiful heart. She is a fellow design team member of Verve and a sweet inspiration to me. I wanted her to know that during this delicate time, she is not alone - so I created this card for her:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Bo Bunny

Stamps: Up, Up and Away and Here for You by Verve

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: cotton candy and stardust stickles, MS punch, Kaiser pink pearls, white gel pen, satin ribbon

I hold her and her family in my heart with all prayers and love....

Thank you so much for stopping by today -

Wishing you a blessed day...

Sankari

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #66 -Clueless

Good Morning Everyone and welcome to the 66th Cinema Saturday Creative challenge!! Every week over at the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge blog, we pick a different movie from which we base as our inspiration for creating our cards. Well, this week we picked the movie: Clueless (1995). This movie is loosely based on Jane Austen's novel Emma, set in modern time (you can read more about the comparisons on this site ). Our challenge requirement for this movie was to use a touch of plaid (there are so many plaid outfits in this movie!).

I think one of my most favorite memories from watching this movie was remembering how popular it was to use the phrase "whatever", or "as if.." which kinda came out of this movie :)

I always thought that Alicia Sliverstone was just perfect for the role of Cher (which is really the role of Emma from Jane Austen). She has such a sweet heart and I just adored the way that her heart opened and she was able to see the bigger picture. I loved watching this movie again and seeing all of the fashions of '95 and just loved all of Cher's purses and accessories. So my inspiration was to create a gift set for my niece's birthday with a few essential fashion items (some make up, chocolate and lotions :) using the Carolina's awesome purse box template. I used Taylor's beautiful sketch for her 100th sketch celebration (can you believe that?! a 100!! wow!). I used the sketch on the "purse":

And here is the coordinating card: The sentiment and purses are from the Downtown Diva set, the label stamp set is from the Luxurious Labels stamp set - all from Taylored Expressions:

Here is the purse giftset: The sentiment is from the Sweet Indulgence stamp set. It fits a nugget box perfectly and I also added a little make up kit for my niece for her birthday :)

**** Notice that I didn't take a picture of the nugget box with some sweet treats in it - that would be because I ate it while making this project (hanging head down in shame! will have to get more to replenish her little bday present :)

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Bo Bunny and Bazzil

Stamp sets: Downtown Diva, Luxurious Labels and the Sweet Indulgence stamp set all from Taylored Expressions

Inks: Memento Rich Cocoa

Accessories: spellbinders, bling, dimensionals, punches, eyelets, ribbon and ek success punch

I had so much fun creating this fun little purse for my niece (who isn't into the "girly" colors, so I had to create something that wasn't too pink - hope she likes this :). You can stop by the Cinema Saturday blog for more cinema inspired creations and the inspiration corner for more information and details on this movie challenge! Can't wait to see your cinema inspired creations! And stop by Taylor's blog to check out all the deets on her special sketch challenge celebration!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Big hugs!

Sankari :)

Gina K Previews and Blog Hop!

Good Evening Everyone!

Have you been seeing all of the gorgeousness that Gina K has for your stamping pleasure for February!! I have been just in awe of all the beauties that have been created and am so excited to be part of tonight's previews where two new stamp sets are going to be previewed - the gorgeous Spring Florals stamp set and the adorable Dream Birds stamp set! These two stamp sets, along with the rest of the stamp sets will be available for purchase at the Gina K store on Thursday night (Feb 11) after the release party!

For a limited time, a free Card Kit will automatically be included with each purchase of the Spring Florals stamp set which is illustrated by Gina K. The entire kit includes the stamp set, a binder sheet, the instructions and materials to make 3 complete cards for $19.95. For more details on the card kit, please make sure to visit Jessica Fick's blog! I loved stamping these gorgeous flowers - and created this birthday card from this set:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Cosmo Cricket and Deep blush Prism paper

Stamps: Spring Florals by Gina K

Ink: Memento Ladybug Red

Accessories: SU! scallop and circle punch, EK succes punch, Kaiser bling, sponger, corner rounder, copics, white gel pen, fiskar's square scalloped punch, kaiser pearls, dragonfly hardware, ribbon from Gina K (pure luxuary gold-lined ribbon)

The second card uses the Dream Birds stamp set illustrated by Aslea Hopkins - these birdies are BEYOND cute and the sentiments are so inspiring! I loved this sentiment especially: "Don't lose hope, when the sun goes down, the stars come out" - how true that sentiment is! To create a night time feel, I stamped this on a gray piece of paper and then colored the tree branch and the leaves with my Sakura metallic gel pens and then colored and cut out the sweet birdie, the stars and the flowers:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Black and gray construction paper and grass from K&Co.

Stamps: Dream Birds stamp set by Aslea Hopkins

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories: corner chomper, white gel pen, yellow stickles, green glimmer ribbon

You might have already heard of the Hope is Faith stamp set that Gina has created to help Haiti - this is a beautiful mini stamp set will retail for $9.95 and was created to raise money for the Red Cross to help with the devastation in Haiti. $2.00 of every purchase of this stamp set will be sent directly to the Red Cross throughout the month of February. This is such a wonderful way to help out and support the Red Cross in all of their efforts to bring relief. This butterfly in this stamp set is in one word: gorgeous! I love how easy it is to use - just stamp it directly and color or you can paper piece it and cut it out - either way - it creates a gorgeous butterfly! I paper pieced it with MME's papers in this card:

Card Ingredients:

Paper: MME and black bazzil papers

Stamps: Hope is Faith from Gina K

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories: white gel pen, may arts ribbon, black spica glitter pen, W/S black pearls, circle punch and black glaze pen from Sakura and dimensionals.

I loved working with these gorgeous stamp sets! Please be sure to check out the amazing creations that each of these designers, illustrators and beautiful ladies have created:

Aslea Hopkins: Dream Birds Illustrator

Gina K: Spring Florals Illustrator

Theresa Momber

Melanie Muenchinger

Nina Brackett

Caroline King

Tami Mayberry

Cathy Tidwell

Lee Murphy

Lynn Mercurio

Kurtis Amundson

Donna Baker

Emily Giovanni

Erika Martin

Sankari Wegman (that's me!)

Valerie Stangle

Thank you so much for stopping by! To all my East Coast friends and family - stay warm! Hope you have lots of hot cocoa and marshmellows to melt away the winter blues!

Big hugs to all!!

Sankari :)

My last Monday as a 2S4Y DT member :( Waaaahhhhh!!!!!

Good Morning Everyone!

Its with a heavy heart that I write this post - today is the end of my 6 months with the 2 Sketches for You Design Team :( waaaaaah!!! I can't believe how fast my time on the DT has flown. A huge thank you to Laura and Kazan for all that they do to create such a wonderful community over at 2 Sketches 4 You - they truly are such sweet inspirations! To have been a part of the DT and to have worked with such wonderful team mates as been such an honor and a wonderful experience - I am truly honored to have been part of this amazing team and still can't wait for every Monday to see what the DT has created and what wonderful sketches Laura and Kazan will come up with!

Today, Laura has a wonderful sketch for us to play along with (Laura's Sketch #45) and this week's sponsor is Sakura of America. I wanted to make something special for this week's card sketch since it is my last one - so I thought I would make a thank you card - for Laura and Kazan and for all of you! I am truly so grateful to be part of this cardmaking community in blogland and just wanted to say a big thank you for all of you who read this blog or leave comments - thank you so much for all of your support, encouragement and sweet wishes!!!

For this week's sketch, I rotated the sketch and did a horizontal card with the sentiment: I'm so grateful"

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Prism paper and BG Lime Rickey

Stamps: Up, up and Away and Thankful Hearts from Verve

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Lady Bug red

Accessories: dimensionals, Sakura clear, white glaze and metallic pens, copics, dimensional pearls, corner rounder, spellbinders and kaiser bling.

I used the uber cute stamp set: Up, Up and Away and the wonderful stamp set Thankful Hearts from Verve. I love all the different sentiments - but this one that says "I'm so grateful" really was the perfect one to describe how I am feeling.

A HUGE heart hug to my dearest 2 Sketches 4 You Design Team members and dearest Kazan and Laura for everything - you guys have no idea how much fun and joy I have had being on the DT and creating cards with your amazing sketches!! I truly adore you both and can't wait to ALL hang out together!!!!

Hop on over to 2 Sketches 4 You and check out all the wonderful creations by the DT with this week's awesome sketch!

Big hugs to all - I am so grateful for all of you!!

Much love,

Sankari :)

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #65 - Sleepless in Seattle

Welcome everyone to our 65th Cinema Saturday Challenge - where we pick a movie every saturday and then create a card with that as our inspiration! This week for Valentine's Day, we picked the Oscar Nominated movie: Sleepless in Seattle. I have seen this movie so many times and yet - can still watch this movie and get nervous that she is too late at when she is running to get to the Empire State Building!! LOL!

I think one of my favorite parts of this movie is when Meg Ryan and Rosie O"Donnell are watching the beautiful movie: An Affair to Remember. If you haven't seen this movie - you MUST I love when they were quoting Deborah Karr - Oh! What an amazing movie (seriously - you will love this movie - it is so smart and witty, and romantic and brilliant!). It was hilarious when Rita Wilson was describing this movie to Tom Hanks character and she starts crying (I watched this with my MIL and we were both crying at the end... sigh, sob!) and then I love it because Tom and Bill Pullman's character describe the Dirty Dozen movie in the same way! LOL! I love when Meg Ryan writes that she will meet him on the top of the Empire State Building just like Deborah Karr did with Cary Grant -- so that was my inspiration for the movie - that and the elevator doors at the Empire State Building: here is my attempt to take a picture of my inspiration pic from the movie (as I am watching it!! lollol!!)

I love the way they talk about destiny and magic in this movie - and how the heart sparks in recognition when he meet your beloved :) So I created the sentiment: Love is Magical for my love card for my DH :)

I loved watching the little boy Jonah in this movie - how cute is he? -- sigh... The way they show the relationship between father and son is well done! And I love that Jonah is the one who likes Annie's letter - so sweet!

Well, we hope that you will play along with us this week!!! Its really simple this week - just create a card with a red heart on it inspired by Sleepless in Seattle!!! How easy is that!?! And then link your card to the Cinema Saturday blog!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Big hugs!

Sankari :)

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

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Today is release day over at Taylored Expressions - and today the Baker's Dozen will be showing you more of the Stamp A La Carte stamps that were a HUGE hit at CHA a couple of weeks ago! There are 8 different animals that you can purchase individually and along with this, Taylor is also releasing a coordinating sentiment stamp set that perfectly fits all of the animal images here in this adorable Animals in love set drawn by the UBER talented Nancy McKinney. Yesterday, I showed some samples with the elephants and super cute owlies! Today, I wiil be showing you some cards with the super sweet turtle and familingo sets!!!'

My first card is of these super sweet Turtles... I have always loved turtles and love the sentiment that goes with it is hilarious - "I Turtally love you!" Love it!!! I created a little card/giftset. I saw this cute little candy box in the store that was supposed to be a frog - but he looked like a turtle to me! So I added the sentiment "I Turtally love you!" to the side of the box and added a little sheer ribbon :) (and inside had some fudge covered animal crackers (which were DECLiCiOuS by the way!! lol!) -

Here is another view of the card , I love these sweet turtles and had fun creating this card - I added lots of chunky glitter and some bling and finished it with some adirondack pearls and faux stitching :)

Its hard to have a favorite because every single one of the animals are just adorable! I adore the flamingo images and the sentiment" "My Soulmate" is just perfect for any of the images - but I couldn't wait to use it with the darling Flamingos :) I wanted to have a card with more gold, pink, violet and red hues in it:

Here is a close up of the flamingos and bling - I added a little puffy heart embellishments to their sweet little hearts:

These flamingos also remind me of a t-shirt that I used to have growing up that was teal blue and pink with flamingos in the middle - so I created this card inspired by my t-shirt from when I was a teenger :) I used the scallop punch to kinda create waves:

Here is close up picture of the flamingos which are covered in lacquer and have a fine Raspberry Soda glitter sprinkled on them:

Each day the Baker's Dozen totally blows me away with their amazing creations and I can't wait to peek at what everyone has in store today!!! Check out these amazing ladies and their wonderful creations:

Alex Maldonado

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Laurie Schmidlin

Guest Designer: Jeanie Winter

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

I was so lucky to meet some of these ladies at CHA (Jodi, Karen M., Karen G, Jackie, Donna, Dawn and Taylor!)- and can't wait to meet the rest of the Baker's Dozen and all o f YOU! Here are two pictures from CHA of the crew:

I ADORE and miss these ladies!! Can't wait to hang out with all of them again and meet all of you !!! I {heart} blogland :))))

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Big hugs to all:

Sankari :)

Verve Project Parade!

HI Everyone!

For the last nine days over at the Verve blog, the Divas have been creating some awesome creations with the challenge to create something related to Tags, Treats and Tins. Today for my project for the project Parade - I created something more having to do with the "tag part" of the challenge......really big tags ;)......more like a banner (that's still kind of like a tag, right ;) ?). I love creating things for the house and my family and I love decorating the place up for all of the holidays - so for Valentine's day, I thought I would create a little banner right around the dining room area where we spend most of our days Here is a picture of the banner:

and here it is hanging on our dining room window (as you can see, we are covered in snow over here :)

I created three hanging treat boxes to hang down from the banner - two of them with a picture of each of my children and the middle one is a picture of them together :

I decorated the treat favors by using the adorable monkey and sentiments in the Love Monkey set to decorate each of the clear favor boxes, along with the Heart Notes stamp set to decorate the corners.

Here is an example of one of the treat favor Boxes - I used the sentiment "My little love monkey" which perfectly describes my son :). The other sentiments used are "You've stolen my heart" and "My heart is yours". The back side of these can be filled up with some little treats. They of course love things with their pictures on it - so they were excited to see these little hanging treat boxes :)

In making the banner, first cut out as many panels as desired out of chipboard and cover with papers of your choice (I used papers from the Sweet Love Collection from Yellow Bicycle). I then punched out holes and added eyelets at the tops of the chipboard and typed out the word "love" and cut it out and covered it with a healthy dose of the pink sugarcoating glitter :) I used the Love's Flower stamp set for both the awesome sentiment and the beautiful flowers (all paper pieced) in decorating this first pennant and the Be Mine plain Jane and the Heart Flutter was used on the second pennant:

I used the Heart's Desire sentiment and the flower from Love's Flower for the third Pennant and the Sweet Valentine stamp for the fourth:

I stamped "Be Mine" all over the paper in the 5th pennant and also used the Heart's Desire stamp set for the sentiment and on the sixth one, I paper pieced the Love's Flower stamp and then added a little pearl accent in the middle of each one:

I had a lot of fun creating this Valentine Day Banner for the "Tag" part of the challenge. Julee has so many ways that you can win some Verve stamps of your own! Please hop on over to the Verve Stamps blog and check out all the ways - you can win some Vervey goodness of your own!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Big hugs!

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks - Day 2

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Today marks Day 2 of Sneak Peeks over at Taylored Expressions, where today the Baker's Dozen will be showing you another exciting development at Taylored Expressions:.... drum roll please!!..... Stamps A la Carte! Taylored Expressions will now be offering you a single serving of sweetness in the same top quality deeply etched pink rubber you love! For February we have 8 irresistible Whimsical Wishes Animals in Love! There is also a full sized sentiment stamp set that coordinates with all of these different animals and probably with other stamps that you might already have! The sentiments are perfect for Valentine's day - or any other occasion!

What that means - is that you can buy which ever of the 8 animals in love stamps that Taylor will be releasing on Friday - individually, a la carte - along with the sentiment stamp set that coordinates with all 8 animals in this set. Love that flexibility!

Today I will be showing off the cutest little elephants and owls in love :) This first card uses the elephant stamp set with the sentiment "Big Love":

Here is a closer peek - I LOVE all of these hearts coming out of the elephants - and love that you can color them in different colors or just monotone colors (I covered mine in a glaze) :

The second card that I made with these sweet elephants uses the fun bright colors of MME papers - it had a fun carnival feel and I loved adding some puffy heart embellishments to the center of the hearts:

Here is a closer peek at the hearts and the lacquered elephants :)

The second set of projects today involve the cutest little owls ever!!! I mean seriously - these owls have such a sweet feeling of love between them - love it! - and there are so many sentiments that you can mix and match with this set. I made this card using the owlies and then for the background tore some paper to resemble bark - I love the different possibilities with this sweet little set :)

I think my most favorite sentiment - is "Owl Always Love You" - these owls are sooo cute and they reminded me of my two cuties when they snuggle :) We had finished story time - where we all snuggle on the couch and when I went to get another story - I saw my two little wee ones snuggling with each other - so I had to quickly get a picture - its one of my favorite moments - and I LOVE how it goes with the two owlies snuggling up with each other.

I used the On the Grape Vine chipboard that Taylor has in her store to create this frame. I sponged the chipboard and then I doodled over the sponging with a gel pen and then added the elements in the center of it... I love how it turned out - and the best part was seeing their faces when I showed it to them this morning :))) I hope that they will always be close with each other - always take care of each other - I can't believe how big they are getting - makes me feel weepy!

I put it in a frame to hang up in our hallway and can't wait to make more - I love the verstatility of these stamp sets that they can be used with scrapbook pages, valentine's day or everyday kind of projects!

I can't wait to surf around to the Baker's Dozen blogs this morning to see all of these cute animals in love!!! These ladies are absolutely brilliant and fantastic!!! Check out the amazing creations that these amazing ladies have created!!!

Alex Maldonado

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Laurie Schmidlin

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

Tomorrow is RELEASE day and there is more cuteness around the corner - so please come on back tomorrow!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!!

Big hugs to all,

Sankari :)

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks - Day 1 - Bakery Business and Window Shopping

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Its release week over here at Taylored Expressions and boy are there some super sweet yumminess in this week's release - the first exciting thing is that there is some EXTRA awesome news to share: a WHOLE NEW LINE of rubber stamps called the Apple Doodle Ink line! Today we are featuring projects from the 2 stamp sets from this line - which coordinated perfectly together - these two sets are called the Window Shopping and Bakery Business ! Taylor is working with a new illustrator with this line - please check out her blog for more on the idea behind this line!!

Project #1 - Diet Starts Tomorrow! (Ain't that the Truth!!)

I am loving the uber cuteness of the Bakery Business set - there are so many perfect sentiments and so many different possibilities! I created this little giftset for one of my exercise buddies - who I adore working out with - because afterwards we snack! lol!!! Her bday is coming up and I know she is going to love this little present :)

I adore this little card of this little sweetie mixing up some goodness! And that sentiment "Diet starts tomorrow..." is sooo our motto!!! I love all the different baked images in this set that you can "frost" with some liquid pearls or stickles! I used Taylor's Sketch #98 for this card:

I wish I could say that I baked these oatmeal pecan cookies - but noooo - I can never get them to be chewy - but I love using Kraft Bakery Treat bags which can make it seem like I did ;) (hee ;)

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Cosmo Cricket

Stamps: Bakery Business

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Rich Cocoa

Accessories: Treat bags, spellbinders, ribbon, MS punches, copics, button from stash, dimensionals, adirondack pearls, and Sakura glaze pens

Project #2 - Apron Recipe Holder/Bday Card and Cupcake Box

Taylor has these super cute apron invitations at the store along with some baking chipboard with which are ready to be decorated in any way you would like (wouldn't these make awesome invitations, perfect BBQ cards, or a way to send a gift card!) I used my apron as both a birthday card as well as a recipe card to hold the ingredients for cupcakes :) and decorated a box which can hold one cupcake.

Here is the Apron Card Invitation - with a little recipe holder where you can write down the recipe for the cupcake or even a birthday wish:

Here is a close up of the box - it holds one cupcake perfectly! I can't wait for a birthday to pull this out - all I have to do is to put a cupcake in it and it is ready to go! - I love the baking chipboard that is perfect for accessorizing in anyway you would like - I covered mine with stickles :)))

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Reminisce and Teresa Collins

Stamps: Bakery Business and Window Shopping

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: Apron Invitations eyelets, ribbon from stash, heart shaped punch, dimensionals, bazzil ribbon, scallop punch, glaze pen from sakura

Project #3 - You're So Sweet Gift Set:

THe last project that I created was this little nugget box gift set that uses the window shopping stamp set - I LOVEEEE the different windows in this stamp set and you can add any kind of images that you would like inside.

For my card - I used the different images in the Bakery Business stamp set in a tiered way to create the look of a display at a bakery with the sentiment - "You're so Sweet"

and for the nugget box - I filled it up with chocolates - and cut out the window portion - so that you could see the inside - the awning is paper pieced and then sponged around:

Here is how the nugget box looks like open and closed:

ANd here is how it looks when its all gone empty :) ( No, I didn't eat all the chocolates.... I just ate most of them :)))

Card Ingredients:

Paper: Cosmo Cricket

Stamps: Bakery Business and Window Shopping

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Rich Cocoa

Accessories: Nugget boxes, ribbon, MS punches, copics, dimensionals, acetate, eyelet and Sakura glaze pens

I had a ton of fun creating these cards! And can't wait to make more!!!!! And speaking of more - There is ALOT more baked yumminess that you don't want to miss!!!

Check out the amazing creations that these amazing ladies have created!!!

Alex Maldonado

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Melissa Sauls

Laurie Schmidlin

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

Tomorrow is Day 2 of sneak peeks - where we will be peeking some adooorabbbble cuteness that you don't want to miss!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!! and please stop by tomorrow!

Big hugs to all,

Sankari :)