December Diva Inspirations Hop Verve Stamps

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to Verve's December Diva Inspirations Hop. It's the 5th of the month and that means it's hopping time. We love to get our Verve inky around here. So pull up a chair and take a tour of some fun creations using Verve favorites .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.

For my card today, I decided to get sweet Rudy out and ink him up for some holiday fun using the Santa's Helper stamp set from Verve stamps, which is also on S A L E right now (oh yea!). I love this little guy - he is so cute with that little top hat! omgoodness!! I decided to keep the card layout a little simple and tried to do a little rustic CAS with this little guy :)

 After coloring him, I popped him up on some dimensionals and onto the Sweet Scallop die from Verve stamps. I couldn't just stop at one card - he is tooooo cute - so I kept going and made some more cards mixing up some ribbons - they will totally come in handy in the next week or so while putting together teacher's gifts at school. Here are the cards that I made using the same stamp:

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Santa's Helper stamp set from Verve Stamps
Inks: Memento Bamboo Leaves and Tuxedo Black and copics
Papers: Kraft cardstock and scrap DP
Accessories: Sweet Scallop die from Verve stamps, white gel pen, paper crimper, twine, gingham ribbon, grosgrain ribbon, snowflake punch from MS, bling and corner chomper

I loved coloring in Rudy and creating these cards :) and I can't wait to see what the rest of the team has created - please hop with me and check them out and leave some love with a comment and you could win some fun Verve stamps!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Big hugs,
Sankari :)

	1. Julee	11. Andrea
	2. Amy	12. Teresa
	3. Anya	13. Charmaine
	4. Betty	14. Laurie S.
	5. Jessica	15. Stacey {Guest}
	6. Karen	16. Jen
	7. Sankari	17. Amber
	8. Sarah	18. Maureen
	9. Susan	19. Marisa
	10. Tiffany	20. Christyne

World Card Making Day with Taylored Expressions

Hi Everyone!

Happy World Card Making Day! All of the new Taylored Expressions products from the October release are SO cute and are in the TE store – and even though release week is over, the crafty fun keeps going! In honor of World Card Making Day – We created some fun TE card, and for me – I HAD to use the super cute Peppermint Place stamp set with the Merry and Bright Project Pantry - love these bright and colorful papers! This stamp set is such a must have for everything winter wonderland because it features THE cutest gingerbread house – makes me want to make some hot chocolate and eat some gingerbread!!! 

I wanted to keep the layout really simple and so I didn’t have a sentiment on the outside – only on the inside. I colored in the gingerbread house with some copics and then colored in the outside with some bright and fun copics. I stamped some pennants from the Christmas Countdown stamp set and paper pieced them with some cute DP and then added it to the side of the image.

 Card Ingredients;

Stamps: Peppermint Place and Christmas Countdown stamp set (for the pennants on the side) from Taylored Expressions

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black and Bahama blue

Papers: All cardstock, ribbon and designer paper are from the Merry & Bright Project Pantry

Accessories: corner chomper, tacky tape, dimensionals, pearls, Make a Snowflake die, embossing folder, liquid pearls, copics

The Merry and Bright Project Pantry kit is such a great one to have for your holiday cards - AND in honor of World Card Making Day -  today there is a SPECIAL where you can receive 15% off on card kits and project pantry kits . Just go to the Current Specials Page at the TE store and ender this coupon code! Such a great way to celebrate World Card Making Day! 

 the inside I added this super sweet sentiment – and then added some candy canes on the bottom – sigh!! Such a cute little house – glad that I don’t live in a gingerbread house though because I could never leave – I would just be sitting there the whole day eating gingerbread walls! HA! They would have to roll me out of the house by breaking down the door lol! 

Well, I can’t wait to see what all the lovely creations are from all of these amazing designers - please hop along with me and check them out!!

Charmaine Ikach

Jami Sibley

Lori Craig

Michele Boyer

Nancy McKinney

Jen Shults

Sankari Wegman

Stephanie Kraft

Taylor VanBruggen

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

Verve Sneak Peeks are here!: Christmas in the Air

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Guess what!?! Its release week over at Verve Stamps and this month's release is absolutely amazing!!! Seriously, awesome! Julee has created sentiments and images for all kinds of holiday card making and beyond!!! If you haven't yet seen the sneak peeks over at the Verve stamps blog that have already gone up on Tuesday and Wednesday - make sure you check each mouth watering sample out here! And today, Jackie Pedro, Jen Tapler, Jen del Muro, Jessie Rone and I are sneaking some peeks from two stamp sets that we are peeking today: Christmas in the Air and Holly Jolly.

For today's card, I used Julee's awesome sketch: VSOCT09D (check out all 5 Verve sketches that Julee has created and how you could win some of these stamp sets by playing along!) I made today's card from the stamp set: Christmas in the Air. I love every single sentiment in this set - but I think this is my most favorite one: Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies - I love the font in this set and the snowflakes are divine. Since the sentiment was about butterflies and snowflakes, I decided to make a winter snowflake flower with butterflies that were emerging out of the designer paper...

Card Ingredients:

Paper: K&Company

Ink: Memento Aquamarine

Stamps: Christmas in the Air

Accessories: Inkessentials gel pen, candy dots, flower from BoBunny, Martha Stewart punch, rhinestones from Kaiser, ribbon from stash.

I stamped the four snowflakes and then colored them with copics and then glittered them and cut them out, adding dimensionals when layering them. I kept the colors monochromatic and simple so that the focus would be on the center of winter's snowflake flower :). I absolutely LOVE each and every single image in this set!

I am so not a winter girl (can't handle the cold) but I can't wait for some winter wonderland after using this stamp set!!! Hot cocoa anyone?? :) LOL! See you at the release party Friday night (9PM EST) for more details of the par-taay and how to win some of these AMAZING stamps - check out more details here!!!

Thanks for stopping by here and hop on over to the Verve Stamps blog for a whole lot of sneak peeks from the Divas!!!

Big Hugs!

Sankari :)

Happy Friday :)

Good Morning Everyone,

Wow - I can't believe that it is Friday - the last few days have been so busy and each day has been one late night after another - I wish I could say it was crafting but it was all the things that I have been putting off doing that I finally had to do.... and so I was so excited last night that I had a moment to craft :) yippeeeee! I couldn't wait to use Taylor's newest set: Wings of Joy and used the color combos from this week's color challenge from Debbie at the Christmas Stamping all Year Long blog :) I adore adore these sweet little birdies perched on their birdhouse and the sentiment: "May Joy take flight in your heart this season, bringing Love to all around you."

Card Details:

Paper: Prism cardstock fromTaylored Expressions

Ink: Not Quite Navy from SU!

Stamps:Wings of Joy from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: Spellbinders, Delightful Decorations punch, eyelet and cropadile, green flimmer ribbon, corner rounder, liquid pearls, liquid glaze and ribbon from TE

I don't know about you - but winter is arriving waaaay too early here in Iowa and so I wanted to make a summery happy card :) And so I pulled out the Berries and Cherries set from Taylored Expressions and made a fun little quick card with one of my fave sentiments: I love You Berry much :) (I was browsing for a fun sketch earlier today and found one from a while ago - but now can't figure out which sketch this is from?)

Card Details:

Paper: Prism cardstock from Taylored Expressions, red gingham paper from stash and black and kraft cardstock from stash

Ink: Ruby Red from SU!

Stamps: Berries and Cherries from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: Cuttlebug Swiss dots, eyelet and cropadile, black gingham ribbon from TE, liquid pearls,Sakura of America pens and Inkessentails gel pen

I can't tell you how much happier I am after stamping a little always good therapy to get a crafting done in the corner :)

Hope that you are having a happy friday and are happy to get your weekend groove started!!!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog :)

Big happy friday hugs!

Sankari :)

ReLEASE DAY -at Taylored Expressions!!!!!!! and Happy World Card Making Day!!!!!

Good Morning Everyone!!!

I am SO excited that it is release day over at Taylored Expressions and today the Baker's Dozen and I are bringing you a whole lot of yumminess from sneak peeks to all the ways that Taylored Expressions is celebrating World Card Making Day !!! So first things first - how about some sneak peeks? Today we are showing sneak peeks from the last of three stamp sets that Taylor is releasing today called: Holiday Wonder - and I seriously LOVE this set (I know I say that about every set - but seriously - this stamp set is SO cute!!!). I ADORE all the sweet images in this set and it coordinates perfectly with the Christmas Key Ingredients cardstock and DP and embellies that Taylor has put together!

This first card uses the seriously awesome designer paper from the Christmas Key Ingredients - and I LOVE LOVE LOVE pink for Christmas and holiday cards - somehow - its just so sweet and jolly all at the same time! I cut out the wave part of the designer paper as kind of hill and then stamped these super cute trees, copically colored them, and then popped with foam tape from Taylored Expressions. And my fave part was stamping the snowflakes in Brilliance silver. I ADORE the glittery ribbon and snowflake chipboard (which is smooched with Smooch :) and then blinged up :) - seriously the Christmas Key Ingredients and Very Merry Christmas Bundle that Taylor has is amazing-ly FILLED with amazing holiday YUMMINESS!!! (seriously so yummy - that i HAVE to write in CAPS!!! lol!)

Card Ingredients Details:

Paper: Christmas Key Ingredients

Ink: Rose Red from SU! and Brilliance silver

Stamps: Holiday Wonder from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: Everything is from Taylored Expressions: snowflake chipboard, smooch, corner chomper, foam tape, adhesive and of course my favorite: liquid pearls (white opal).

This second card is from the same set and I seriously LOVE this sweet house in the stamp set - it is so sweet and so fun to color. I wanted to create a little holiday scene and so stamped everything in the card and then cut everything out and moved it around to create a little scene. The background paper is a sheeny and opalescent paper that kind of shimmers and I stamped this super cute Santa and the Reindeer flying over the house and then blinged up Santa's path :)

Card Ingredients Details:

Paper: Making Memories, white cardstock from stash

Ink: Bahama Blue from Memento

Stamps: Holiday Wonder from Taylored Expressions

Accessories: copics, foam tape/adhesive from Taylored Expressions, wave cutter from Creative Memories, glitter from Martha, snowflake chipboard from Taylored Expression

SALE SALE SALE!!!!

So to get your holiday cardmaking off, all of the 2008 Christmas stamp sets (Season's Sweetings and Home Sweet Home stamp sets) are 25% off from now today through October 5th!! Here is one of my cards made with the Home Sweet Home stamp set that I made earlier this year - it is seriously one of my favorite holiday cards:

I love this gingerbread house! And while the sale is going on and you are checking it out - be sure to check out the What's the Deal section over at the Taylored Expressions store because there are alot of items that are 15-20% on sale!!!!! And everyone who places an order today ONLY, will get a free card kit download!!!!

AND to celebrate World Card Making Day, even more! Head on over to Taylor's blog for a free digi-stamp!!!! for the backs of all your holiday cards! This is a file that when you print out on your card - will automatically appear on the back of your cards! Or if you would like - you can always punch it out and dress it up...

Also check out the Stamp a Sweet Impression Blog! Because there is an AWESOME challenge and prize that is there (like - a Taylored Expression stamp set of your choice!!!!) so hurry and check it out because the deadline to enter is Sunday night!

And lastly check out all the yummy cardmaking genius from the lovely ladies on the Baker's Dozen for the peeks from the Holiday Wonder stamp sets! They leave me in wonder! :)

Charmaine Ikach

Denise Marzec

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Karen Motz

Laurie Schmidlin

Sharon Harnist

and of course!: Taylor VanBruggen

Thank you so much for visiting me today!!!! Hope your weekend is filled with magic and wonder!!!! Happy World Card Making Day!

Hugs!

Sankari :)

Paper Craft Planet Sketch Challenge!

Hi Everyone,

You might have heard that Pluto is not considered a planet anymore (what's up with that??!!) But don't worry - there is a new Planet in town that is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better: it is called Paper Craft Planet and it is the creation of Susanna Boyd of Card of the Week. Susanna does such an amazing service to the paper crafting community in her site Card of the Week - because she goes through hundreds of blogs and even more posts and puts it all together in her site - its is such a great way to see what amazing things people have made and are up to.

In that same way, Paper Craft Planet takes this to a whole new interactive networking level and is an online community for papercrafters that is filled with familiar faces, a chance to meet new friends and is an amazing new way to draw inspiration from each other, share photos, videos tutorials to all things paper crafted.

In one week, the number of people who have joined has jumped from 500 members to 2500!!!! There are numerous Stamp Companies that have created groups and are doing fun give aways and challenges - You have to check it out and it is so easy to join and get started in the fun - click here to get started (if you haven't already) !!!

This week, Susanna is hosting a sketch challenge - (below is her fun sketch). Sakura is offering a prize for two lucky winners - all you have to do is to create something crafty with this sketch that expresses the theme of thanks or gratitude and then go over to Paper Craft Planet and link it up to the sketch (use the keyword: Sk110808 when you upload so that everyone can see your work in the gallery!) When you are done also leave Susanna a link to your creation on her blog and you are automatically entered to win another prize from Sakura!

I made two cards for this challenge.


The first draws its color inspiration from the lovely ladies at the Color Throwdown.

This week's colors were Old Olive, Chocolate Chip and Pale Plum.

The center flowers are from Handmade Heart (felt flowers) and are layered on a scallop punch and a 2"punch on dimensionals. The lavendar buttons race to outerskirts of the circle, which are followed by an outline of liquid pearl dots.


The ribbon is from Offray, the cardstock from the Paper Company. The bottom edge is corner rounded as are the dies of the images. I threaded a ribbon through the center and added a little chocolate button. The little thank you tag was hand written and was punched out from a Fiskars Tag punch and then adhered onto the cardstock.

The second card draws inspiration from the lovely ladies at the OCC (Our Creative Corner) - where the challenge this week was to draw inspiration from a holly inspired Martha stewart cupcake. Well, I just can't pass up a cupcake challenge - and Taylor is the guest designer, so I had to play! The card for this week's challenge uses her new stamps from the Stamp a Sweet Impression line (this reindeer cupcake is from the Home Sweet Home set).


paper pieced the reindeer and put a little red sequin as the cherry/nose and red stickles for the glow lines. The Icut ovet the larger circles with CM cutting system. The papers are from the Paper Company and DCWV. I added some cotton uff dots as snow, embossed the sentiment Let it Snow in white RP and then added some white liquid pearl dots to one side of the cirlce. The scalloped edge of the circle is from a mini scalloped punch from Martha. The center circle is raised up on dimensionals and for a little touch, I added an ornament to the sweet little reindeer's nose.

These cards were so much fun to make - I really enjoyed the process :) Can't wait to see all the fun creations that everyone has made - don't forget to check out Paper Craft Planet - and also stop by see what our pick is for the Cinema Challenge Creative Challenge for this week.

Thanks for coming to visit!
Ciao for now,
Sankari :)

Mojo Holiday Monday Card

Hi Everyone, 

Its time for Mojo Monday! I didn't have a chance to play along with the 12 Anni-Verve-sary sketches - so I was psyched to see Julee's Mojo Monday Challenge. I loved this sketch - it is so versatile. I have all these ideas spinning in my head of different cards with this sketch .. just have to find the time :)

 I usually don't find my mojo till thursday - but it came early today because I got some TCP stamps in the mail!I have been eyeing them for a few months and so when I was actually holding them... I did a lil' dance when I got them and couldn't wait to use them. 

I have to tell you that Alma over at The Cat's Pajamas is awesome - she is just the sweetest ever - she went above and beyond in her shipping of these stamps - because of a whole craziness which can be for a later story - but the main point is - that She is Awesome! and the stamps are amazing - I love the way they ink up and give a solid impression - Love it Love it!!! Love it!!!

I really loved how this card came out - I haven't really gotten into the holiday realm of cardmaking because I think I am desperately trying to hold on to the last remaining days of summer - but how can you not make a fun holiday card with these cutie patootie penguins? They were so much fun to stamp, as were the mittens (which were paper pieced and colored). I can't wait to do more with this set - but I have to go clean up from breakfast first :)

Hope all of you are having a fabulous day :)

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

Card Recipe:

Paper - DCVW

Ink - Staz-On Black

Stamps - TCP Kittie Christmas

Accessories: Ribbon (Offray), Brads (Making Memories), Crystal stickles, Corner Rounder

Show watched: Arrested Development (season 3) ... so funny - i wish they had kept it on the air longer.... anyhooooo......

2 Cards for Taylor's Sketch Challenge

Hello All, 

Two posts in one day!!! Three cards in one day!! Woo-hoo!  These two cards are made fromTaylor's Cupcake Challenge Sketch. I really loved this sketch - so I had to make two cards. They were both so much fun to make. Since we are leaving tomorrow to go to Minneapolis for a week - I wanted to get these cards made. The birthday card is for my cousin, whose birthday was last weekend (sorry Padmini :) but I am sending it today!!) and the Season's Greetings card is for the challenge from the amazing ladies at the OCC, whose challenge this week was to make a Christmas in July Card. 

The holiday card was made with cardstock with unknown origins - it has been in my scrap pile forevah... the buttons are from my button stash - they have been sliver stickled :) and the sentiment is a rub on from I don't know where (these were bought pre-bloggin days when I didn't keep track of where things came from). I added the textured dots by painting them in and finished it all off with some Crystal Stickles.

The birthday card has the same situation where I don't know where anything comes from - except that the brads are from American craft (i love that the cherries are brads) and dots behind the cupcakes are crystal stickles. The cupcakes and sentiment are from Clear Stamps (?) and they were stamped three times onto white cardstock, colored, cut and stacked ontop of each other. The gold dots were painted on as an afterthought - I tried to keep this card dot free - but I couldn't help it - I think I have become a dot addict... help!!! :) LOL! Well, what can I say - I love Faith's cards - and suddenly I feel like its not complete with dots :)

Okay - we are now off to the post office and the park and where ever else the road may take us - perhaps for a little Radiance dairy ice-cream!!! YUM!

Thanks for coming over to visit!

Ciao for now,

Sankari

PS - Oh my gosh! I just noticed that these cards are ribbon-less!!! Gasp!! How could I have let something like that happen :) !!!!