Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #34 - "Oceans 11"

Good Morning Everyone,

Happy Saturday! I am so excited to share with you that this week for the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge - we have picked the movie: Ocean's 11 as our featurette! I a-d-o-r-e this movie - (aside from the hot Clooney-Pitt eye candy duo :) I loved the clever writing, the witty banter, the awesome music, the eye candy galore, Clooney in a suit (yum!), Pitt and his sunglasses (yum!) and the list goes on.....

Ever since I first saw this movie (the 2001 version) - I was totally charmed by the Clooney-Pitt duo and the was totally loving what director Steven Soderbergh did with this all-star cast - seriously LOVED ever moment of this movie. For my card, I went with the charm aspect and how Julia Robert's character is George Clooney's missing link - and that in the end he wasn't just pulling the heist of the century for the sake of the money but also for love - hence the sentiment: You are my Lucky Charm...  

Card details:

Paper: Taj Mahal Paper Pack, Paper company (gold and black)

Stamps: Just Rite stamp set  - Times Roman

Ink: Stazon On Black

Accessories: Crystal Effects, Paper BLiss accents, ribbon and brads from stash

Shows Watched: Rescue Me on Hulu

I had a lot of fun making this card - and hope that you have a chance to play along with this movie challenge of Ocean's 11 -  you can check out all the details on our challenge blog: Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog corner :)

See you all at the movies!

Hugs,

Sankari :)

HOpe you all have a chance to play along this week!

Hugs to all,

Sankari :)

TCP Tuesday - Birthday Card

Good Morning Everyone,

I think today is my official catch up day to catch up on some of my favorite craft challenges that I have been missing in the last 2 weeks. Things here have been rather busy on the job front, on the family front and on the home front. I think I definitely needed some stamp therapy to help nourish my heart :) I just realized that I posted 5 cards today! You can't even imagine the mess that my craft corner is in - it is no longer a corner - but the scraps and bits of ribbon and storage boxes are spread all over our room.... somehow cleaning up a craft mess is not as fun as creating it :) LOL!

I have missed participating in the TCP tuesday challenges - and was psyched that I had a little time to create some things this week :). The colors were very yummy autumnal colors and even though I wanted to make a fall card  - I needed to make a birthday card for a dear friend - so I went the b-day party route instead. 

I have to say that I LOVE the way these stamps stamp... they are just yummy, clean and crisp.

The green, orange and brown cakes were paper pieced and then glazed and stickled and finished with a cherry brad to top them. The white paper was dry embossed with flower pattern, and then the corners were rounded and matted. 

Well, today is filled with activites - from a parade at the town square, to a picnic at lunch to a birthday party in the afternoon and another one in the evening - phew! I am tired just writing about it :) Well, I am off to get things ready for the parade and to finish making my potluck contribution to the picnic (where I hope I have some time to wrap the present for the party right after that....) Alright, parade! here we come!!!

Hope all of you are well!

Thanks for visiting,

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

Card Recipe:

Stamps: The Cat's Pajamas

Ink: Martha Brown

Paper: scrap pile cardstock

Accessories: Making Memories Brads, Platinum Stickles, Liquid Glaze, Gold Paint, brown & green prism color pencils, corner rounder, ribbon by Offray.

Show Watched: Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey - man, this show can be addicting :)

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #31 (Miss you Cupcakes!)

Hello Everyone, 

Happy Labor Day - hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend. Things here have been more than busy - I can't believe that its been so long since I have made a card - I feel like I am in card withdrawal .... so it was so nice to do Taylor's Cupcake Challenge.  On the left is Taylor's fun sketch for this week! I love all of her fun sketches and especially the fact that we are encouraged to use cupcakes - who doesn't love that!!!

I started making a completely different card - but then after about an hour - it just wasn't working - have you ever had that experience....  aarrgH!...  so after a while - I just gave up and started from scratch. 

I created the tree background in Photoshop and then after printing it out, I drew little cupcakes that I cut, colored and adhered to the tree - as if the tree had  little cupcake flowers. 

(sidenote: Wouldn't that be great if there was a cupcake tree that grew in your back yard! Then, if your child told you at the last minute that the bake sale was tomorrow - you could just run out to the back yard and pick a few from your backyard cupcake tree! mmmm... cupcake tree!)

That was a yummy digression..  :) the rest of the card was pretty straightforward to put together... I cut the ribbon slit a little bigger so that I could run two ribbons through and then run another one on the side to tie a little bow... The ovals were cut with my CM cutters and centered onto the cupcake tree panel. I painted the cupcakes with a little pink paint and added some pink dots to the ovals and wrote the sentiment: Miss You Cupcakes!"  in the honor of my friend who I totally miss and who is as sweet as cupcakes :)

Well, hope all of you get to enjoy some cupcakes soon! (Even the word cupcake is fun to say!)

This is my birthday week! There I said it!! So I am turning 29 again :) LOL! I am so excited !!! Will have to post some pics! Wishing all of you a happy Sept!!!!

Thanks for visiting!

Ciao for now,

Sankari  :)

Card Recipe:

Paper: DCVW Cardstock

Ink: Martha Stewart Brownstone and Metallic copper on the edges

Tools: Photoshop

Acccessories: Brads from Making Memories , Ribbon from Martha Stewart, Black Diamond Stickles, Pink Acrylic Paint, Brown Archival Pen from Creative Memories, Oval cutters (Creative Memories)

Shows Watched:  the first few episodes of The O.C (on Hulu) I never got into it when it came out - and then I thought I would watch a few to see what the hype was about on Hulu - and now I am an undercover OC fan :)

2 Sketches 4 You - Kazan's Sketch Challenge

Hello Everyone, 

Here is a birthday card that I made for my father using Kazan's sketch for the monday sketch challenge from 2S4U! What a great sketch and her card for this sketch is amazing - love it!  As I mentioned in the post below - the birthday season is upon me - so forgive all the birthday

 cards that might be getting cranked out this week :)  

I had so much fun making this card ----- I got lost in craft world, while making a left at Stamp Street and totally missed my exit to  Energy Tomorrow Town while driving past an early bedtime :) But I had so much fun. 

 

I love getting lost in craft world... and of course I have been in lost in blog land for months.... I think I have blog fog .... I can't think of anything that isn't blog related....  or feel an itch to blurf much more frequently then I would like to admit :) But isn't that great - I get to meet all of YOU!!! 

And that is how I found 2S4U and I have to say that as soon as I saw Kazan's Sketch - I was pysched because  I wanted to try to make an inchie forthe square in the sketch, so that is what I aimed for, but it grew - but it's not qute a twinchie :) 

The window in the card is supposed to be part of a brick building (my husband doesn't think it looks like a window or a building.... but I gave him a blank stare and ignored that "critique" and kept cutting out little bricks and pasting them on... boy, do my fingers hurt from cutting little bricks out!). 

Instead of scallops going around that part of the sketch... I made some shrubery. I sketched out some bushes and a shrubby kind of tree and painted it with few layers of acrylic paint and cut it to fit the space. I am not sure they really look like shrubs - they look a little like green flubberkins to me - but I hope it looks like a shrub or 4... :)  When you open the window, the sentiment reads: Happy Birthday Dear You!  I love that little sentiment - it's so cute and little and teeny too.

Are you the kind of person who buys things that are little - just because they are cute....? I think I fall into that category... I think I am a sucker for marketing... if it is little and packaged cutely - even thought it might not serve a function... I feel like I must rescue it from its lonely existence on the store shelf and give it a cozy home.. The latest teeny weeny purchase was one little cute spoon.... that's right -- just one.... it was so little and brown and wooden and cute... but it is SO cute that I can't bear the thought of using it - so it is safely being kept in our junk drawer :) LOL!

Anyhoo --- I digress.... and I digressed so much that I don't even know where I am .... I have a feeling that the blog fog just got thicker -- so I might have to go and throw some cold water on my face and inject some hot java :)

Thanks so much for visiting and if you made it this far - thanks for reading this crazy rambling blog entry!

Hope you all have an utterly fabulous Wednesday!

Ciao for now,

Sankari

Card Recipe:

Paper: DCVW (Brights), DCVW (The Stack 5)

Ink : Staz-on

Stamps: Stampin' Up

Accessories: Green Paint, Brush, Prima wildflowers, Making Memories Brads, Offray ribbon, Martha punch trimmed, Orange stickles

Show watched: Monk, Family Guy

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......

Got Cake Birthday Card

Hello Everyone, 

We are back from our summer travels and are all a little exhausted but happy to be home. I have to say that I am really impressed with how well the kids did in the van with all the driving - I think we clocked over 50 hours in the van driving on our road trips this summer - and with two little ones - that is not that easy - but they did great! 

On a side note - are you all as shocked as I am to walk into a store and see all the Halloween stuff???! I don't think I am ready for that at all - it still feels like summer to me..... :) 

Anyhooooooo - here is a little card that I made for my MIL that I didn't post before we left - its a fun card made with Clear stamps and left over scraps.... I really love this little guy holding his cupcake. The only fun little thing is that the little cherry is a red brad. Well, I can't wait to get crafting - but I still have to unpack all of our stuff... but hopefully today my fingers will get a little inky :) 

Hope all of you are enjoying these last days of the summer holidays and also enjoying all this lovely sunshine. 

Thanks for coming over for to visit - come back soon :)

Ciao for now,

Sankari

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 :) !!!!

Dragonfly Card for 2 Sketches 4 You!

Hello All,

Here is a fun card that I made forLaura's Sketch challenge #5 - from 2 Sketches 4 You. I love this sketch and wanted something bold and bright for it... so I went with the black, white and red theme. 

The sentiment "Thinking of You" is stamped is embossed in red and is from the SU! Little Hellos set. The dragonflies are from Clear Stamps and the smaller ones are stamped in silver and the larger one is stamped in black on red cardstock and then cut out and attached with a brad from Spare Parts and lifted out of the page for dimension. The ribbon is from Offray and the black square brads are from Spare Parts. There are black stickles (!!!!! i {heart} black stickles) going around the black cardstock. I loved making this card because it came out just like I had in my head and it was just fun to use bold colors! 

Can you believe it's Wednesday already! Whaaaaat???? How did that happen?! We are heading out to Minneapolis tomorrow to see my in-laws and also this weekend is the CM Showcase Convention, which also happens to be in Minneapolis ( how conveeeenient :) I can't even express how many things have got to get done before we can head out on the road, but first things first - I wanted to post this card :)

Hope all of you are enjoying your Weds. and enjoying the summer sun 

(can you believe its almost August!! Gasp!)

Thanks for coming over for a visit,

Ciao for now ;)

Sankari

Hang in There Card

Hello All, 

I getting ready to go to the post office yesterday to mail a card for Mackenzie's Aunt (if you would like to make a card for her please click here), but then I wanted to make a card for Mackenzie herself since she is also going through some roughness during this time. So I made this quick card using the SU! Mini Mates set and I followed the fun fun fun sketch that you see in the top left corner, provided by Jen dM from "i {heart} to stamp". I love her fun sketches!

 

I really loved this little guy hanging from the tree - he is so cute. I colored him and stickled him and then layered him on the 

alternating pink and brown cardstock. The ribbon is from Offray, the buttons are from my box of random buttons and the Prima flowers have brads from Spare Parts. The dots are from Martha's Craft Paint and I scalloped the pink cardstock with my corner rounder. 

I hope Mackenzie enjoys it as much as I did making it for her :) I really enjoyed this sketch - it was fun way to include color and break up the visual space

I can't believe that today is almost done - where did the day go? I think when you have kids running around - time just flies - and then all of the sudden the day is over and here I am cleaning up again for the umpteenth time - sheesh!

Hope all of you are well

Thank you so much for visiting me, 

Have a good night :) 

Sankari

2 cards from 2 Sketches 4 You!

Happy Tuesday Everyone,

I just only recently found this great blog: 2 Sketches 4 You,  that does sketch challenges created by the amazing Kazan Clark and Laura Davis. I was pysched to find this blog and have really enjoyed their fun sketch challenges. 

The sketches that they both had this week really caught my eye and I decided to make both of

 them at one sitting. I wanted to make them both with the same color scheme  -  sometimes its fun to see the same colors with different sketches and different themes. I picked some fuschia purple with some apple green and spring green (which looks flourescent in the pictures - aie!!!) Anyhow - I had a load of fun making these two cards and can't wait till next week's sketches! The above fun sketch challenge is from Laura, whose sketch is featured at Cardvaarks. I really like the big circle image on the left side. So I wanted to make something that was big, bold and bright - and here is what I came up with:

I really love how this card turned out. The stamped sentiments are from

 Clear Stamps - the butterfly was paper pieced and then embossed with polysparkle - and the background fuschia color was also clear embossed with the smaller butterfly from the stamp set. I created a little ribbon flower with the three different colors, added the little sparkle flower rhinestones to the punched circles, stamped the sentiment "Thinking of You"  in Martha's Copper Ink and added little dots with the craft pen from Martha. The butterfly is much more sparkly in real life - its hard sometimes to take a good picture.... For example, at the bottom of the card ( <--------- right there ) you can see the clear embossed butterflies - its more noticeable in real life, but I couldn't get a good angle to get it in the picture - if I moved it one way, then you could see somethings but not others - so I tried to get a picture that attempted to get most of the card details. Anyone have any tips in taking pics of cards?

---------------------------------

 Onto Kazan's Sketch. This week Kazan came up with this really fun sketch. I  liked the small boxed area in the corner of the larger box area. I also wanted to use the same color scheme as the above 

card and so I created a birthday card. The stamped sentiment is from SU! and initially I had colored in all the presents (boxes) but didn't really like the way it came out - so I opted for a simpler look and instead of coloring the presents - i just covered them with stickles :) - When in doubt: Stickle!". I used my CM square punch and punched out 4 aquares and covered them with a strip of ribbon before laying the Happy Birthday sentiment on top of the boxes . On the background spring green paper, I created a swirly background using the 2 step flowers from SU! and embossed it with polysparkle powder - and also embossed the bottom flourish (from Clear Stamps) with the same powder. I punched a hole and then tied the ribbon in the corner. I have to say that it was a little challenging to tie the ribbon, because I didn't have much left, so I was trying to tie to small ribbon ends together

and kinda felt like I had 4 fingers all in one little knot trying to get it to work.  Phew!  

I realized as I was making this card that I need to make a whole lot of birthday cards - because there is a whole string of birthday's coming up....  this is a great sketch to use again and again!

Here is a funny quote from Steven Wright that made me laugh...

"Last week the candle factory burned down. Everyone just stood around and sang, "Happy Birthday".  

One great birthday tradition that we have here is that everyone lights a candle and makes a wish for that person - its very sweet to hear all the great wishes and to see the cake all lit up with wishes - I love birthdays!

Which birthday stands out in your memory? I think one of my favorite birthdays was when I was in Nairobi, Kenya and my fellow classmates surprised me with a party (I was tooootally not expecting that) and then my host family took me out that night to a  south Indian restaurant - oh my goodness - I was totally homesick for some good ole Idli & Sambar and so to eat that food was like the best birthday treat ever! 

Speaking of which I am off to get lunch ready! Hope all of you are having a bright and sunny (and not humid) kinda of tuesday!

Oh, almost forgot to show you the inside of the cards: Inside the thinking of you card there is a little purple rhinestone flower with a circle of white dots and inside the happy birthday card there is a little "present" box with the purple ribbon and a silver brad holding the bow (its not quite clear in the picture - sorry about that).

Thanks for coming over for a visit!

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

PS - will post Kazan's Cardvaarks sketch later :)

 

In Everything Give Thanks

Hi  Everyone, 

What an intense night it was over here - full of lightening, rain, downpour, hail and more rain. This morning, we were in a thunderstorm warning and lost internet for a bit. But now, its bright and sunny and H-O-T and humid - hard to even believe that it rained at all. 

Hope all of you had an enjoyable weekend. Ours was full of cleaning and housework (that is still not done) and also filled with going to the park, to a birthday party and an impromptu trip to a restaurant for dinner - (YAY! to spontaneity!). 

Anyhoo - I just wanted to post a card that I made for Jen's Sketch for you To Try - what a fun sketch challenge! I loved the off kilter image and had to try it when I saw it a few days ago - but couldn't get to it with all the built up laundry and housework  that have been neglected. And even though all of that is still not done - I took a break to make a quick card. I wanted to make a card for a fellow Virgo sistah of mine and so I opened the SU! Happy Harmony set: and got busy. 

The background paper is actually gift wrap (it was so pretty - I had to make a card out of it :), the brads are from Spare Parts, the Prima flower was dabbed in Martha's metallic bronze ink, the ribbon is from Offray and then the last touch was to dab some stickles (gold) on the flowers. The flowers were stamped in Martha's Silver ink and then embossed in Clear powder. I embossed with Polysparkle powder the swirls from the SU! 2 step flowers set onto the brown cardstock for a quick fun DP. The card measures 3.5" by 4.38" which is a really nice small size to work with. 

This was a really fun card to make because I was making it for someone special - those cards are so much fun to make. So now, I am going forth to finish off my extra long To Do (which is always being added onto thanks to my 2 wonder kids :). How are you all doing on this Monday?

Hope you are all having a great start to the week!

Thanks for dropping by for a visit :)

Ciao for now,

Sankari

TCP Tuesday - You Amaze Me card

Good Morning Everyone, 

Here is a little ditty that I made for TCP Tuesday this week. I really like the swatch from Michael Miller that was the inspiration for the challenge (on the left) and wanted to incorporate those colors and pattern into my card.... so I created my own background on photoshop. I printed it and then layered it with coordinating paper and added brads from Spare Parts and the ribbon from Martha. I dotted it with stickles and added stickles to the center of the little flowers on the background design. 

This card is made for one of my good friends who completely amazes me. I am so grateful to all the amazing friends in my life, whose love and kindness makes my heart smile. 

That being said, now I am off to do a house pickup....hope all of you are well and happy.

Thanks for stopping by,

Sankari

Happy Anniversary Card (2 in 1 Challenge)

Hello All, 

Just a quick post today - this is a card that was inspired by the Ladies at the OCC (Our Creative Corner) and also from Jen's Sketch For You To Try. The inspiration challenge for this week at the OCC was to make a card from this beautiful dining set and the sketch from Jen was really a great one incorporating a square and a 2 half circles:

   

I loved the warmth of the colors of the dining set and I also needed to make an anniversary card and when I saw Julee's card over at Verve - I was totally inspired to make this card. The rose sentiment was embossed in gold and its hard to see its full sparkle power - but it really makes the card kinda fun. I took the photo in the bright morning sun light - so its hard to read the sentiment (Happy Anniversary), but I didn't have time to take another pic - oh well. 

Since I have to make this a quick post (there are a ton of errands and paper work in store for me today! aie!!!) I will post the card details later. 

Hope all of you are well, happy and healthy!

TTYL,

Sankari

Make A Wish Birthday Card

Hello Everyone,

What a great day today has been! We have had great weather today, I had a chance to pick up the house a little, my daughter had a playdate (she is one) and it was very sweet to see the little ones playing together and now both the kids are in bed - so that means I get to craft a little - woo-hoo! yay!! 

Since today was a bright and sunny day - I was inspired to make a bright and sunny birthday card for my neighbor's daughter who is turning 5 on Saturday. I was inspired by the sketch at the awesome Mother's & Daughter's Creations Challenge Blog and had to try that sketch for this card. 

I really liked that the pink part of the sketch was off center a bit. I wanted to make a fun card and so this is what I came up with.

The background DP is from DCWV. The stamped sentiments are from All Night Media and colored in by Prisma pencils, the ribbon from Offray and the brads are from American Crafts. Although you can't see it, I used some paper glaze on the cake stand and on the candles and lots of Crystal Stickles on the teal cake layer. 

I think, I like making birthday cards best because they put me in the festive mood - and festivities means that there will be cake- and that is always awesome !

Hope all of you are doing well and are excited for all the promises that await you tomorrow!!!

Sunny Smiles :)

Sankari

PS - Thank You to all the awesome people who left comments today! That totally made my day! You guys all inspire me!

Color Throwdown Week #2

Hi All,

How are all of you today? Here things are bright and sunny  - and so that calls for a walk in the park with the kids! But first, a little card that I made for the second Color Throwdown (I just love saying "throwdown" - its so much fun to say!). The wonderful ladies at Color Throwdown have come up with a great set of new colors for this week's challenge. The colors are Pumpkin Pie, Cool Carribean and Barely Banana. 

This was such a nice combination and I was trying to think of what to do and this is what I came up with. I made panels from the light yellow paper (why, I don't know :) and then adhered the cat image on top. The stamped sentiments are from Clear Stamps and the image was embossed in white onto the orange paper. To contrast the colors a little I xacto knifed the tail so that some of it would show up on the blue.  I added a little white prima flower with a little button brad on the cat and a few brads on the corner for color. I didn't have any ribbons in those colors, so I just went with a simple white ribbon simple ribbon. 

I really enjoy these challenges because they make use colors that I might now have thought about putting together - and I love seeing what all the amazing crafters have been up to. Thanks so much ladies for organizing this! Can't wait till next week!

I am off to organize our park outing - hope all of you are having a sunny day!

Ciao for now,

Sankari :)

90% Going Green

Hi Everyone,

Here is a quick card that I made -seriously quick (I love it when that happens). When I was on Julee's site I saw this  card and loved the layout - and I had to try it. This is a layout that Deb Albright made for Julee (check it out here). Almost all the materials in this card were from recycled products - the papers are from K & Company (4x6 recycled mat) in the Earth tones. 

These papers are really pretty - my photo of the card is not a great pic and doesn't really do them justice - but I love these new papers. The Prima flowers and brads (from Spare Parts) are recycled in a way - because they were on a card that I made for my friend, but my one year old daughter got to it before I could put it away and so I reused the elements that I could salvage... that's kind of recycling right?? and it also teaches me the valuable lesson of cleaning up my area after crafting). I punched the squares out with my Creative Memories Square punch and the assembly was so quick I couldn't believe it was all done. The ribbon is from Offray. 

So it was really only the ribbon and main cardstock for the card that was not part of any recycling process - so this is a mostly green card. Fun and good for the environment!!  ;)

I can't believe today is only tuesday - it feels like it should be friday again! The last two days have been so full of activity - it feels like its been a week.

Hope all of you are enjoying your day!

Ciao for now!

Sankari :)

Celebrate 12 Birthday Card!

Hi Everyone,

I have been MIA for a little while now. We made our big trip back from Baltimore on Sat. and returned back to Iowa this Sunday. It was really hard to leave my parents, and I am so grateful that we could all be there with them for so long. Thanks to everyone for the sweet wishes of good health for my father. On our way home, I got a really bad cold - major congestion etc.. The past 2 days, I have been trying to sort laundry, put away all of our things that we crammed into our Minivan and get my bearings again. I hadn't even touched anything craft related, but last night I realized that I needed to make a birthday card for my dearest Akhila who is turning 12 this sunday!! I can't believe she is so big - I remember holding her as a wee little one. I can't believe that she is almost a teenager!!! Whaaaa??? 

So out came some crafts and in the late hours of the night, I tried to make my little Akhila a birthday card. I was trying to figure out what I should do and so for inspiration I popped onto the OCC and saw this great sketch. The card sketch is from the gang at Our Creative Corner .  All of these lovely ladies are amazing and I especially LOVE Dawn Easton's work. Apart from being an amazing artist -  Dawn is just soooo sweet - she is so kind and uplifting and her messages are just so inspiring. She is just a lovely lady. What an amazing world of crafters we live in!! 

I really enjoy doing these sketch challenges - its such a fun way to use the space and to see all the other amazing crafters and their creations. (Note to Self: I think I am slowly becoming a challenge junkie! gasp!!) This weeks challenge was:

It is a great sketch and worked perfectly with the sentiments that I wanted to use. I am not sure where the paper is from - its from a stack of DP that is from the pre-blog days. The 2 sentiments were stamped with Stazon Black ink. The Celebrate sentiment is from SU! Tag Time set and the numbers are from Clear Stamps (Doodle Numbers). The brads are from Scrap Essentials (Bright Mini Brads and Bright Star Brads). The ribbon is from Offray. 

I would also like to give a shout out to Savitri for the inspiration for this card. She made such a great card for her MIL and I loved her use of numbers. She has got such a great style and her work is just awesome - go and check her out here. Go Savitri :)!

I am glad to finally post a card - phew! It's been so long since I made one, and its amazing how happy making a card makes me feel! So, now I am off to the post office to send this little card to my little Akhila who is not so little anymore (but she will always be my sweet little one - to me).

 Hope all of you are well and enjoying the sunshine of summer!

Best wishes to all!,

Sankari

Mojo-licious :)

Hi Everyone,

Here is a card I made for Julee's Mojo Monday (#44).  I really loved the sketch for this week's challenge - its such a versatile sketch. 

 

I chose not to use the optional layer and instead chose to add a ribbon - I was trying to avoid ribbons altogether - but felt like the card "needed" something. The birthday cake image from this card has a funny story behind it. I found this birthday cake image on..........(drum roll please)................ a paper plate!!!! I think it was almost a year and a half ago - I saw this image and fell in love with it. We used it for a birthday party and I saved one of the plates because I thought I could make it into something... someday. Well, after carrying it around with me for a year and half, I found it again in my scrap pile and thought that it might fit the vertical image on the Mojo Monday challenge. I love finding images in the oddest places like that - everything can be incorporated into a card, right??! :)

The very very very back background is burgundy cardstock. The other DP are from a stack of paper that I have had for so long, but have no clue where its from, its kinda organgy/reddish. I crumpled the background paper and then inked it with some #6 Brown from Marvy Matchables. The brads are from Paper Studio: Spare Parts, the ribbon is #148 Seville from Morex Corp., the sentiment is from Kolette Hall and was stamped in Stazon Black. The gold dots on the BP were painted on with gold paint. Oh and I have to say, I loved the little photo corner touch - never done photo corners before, and I have to say it was a really fun touch. The photo corner was layered onto black cardstock for a brighter look. 

I really loved this sketch and can't wait to use it again soon. I think that everytime I do one of these challenges, I learn a little something new and fun. Its a great way to get your mojo going.... its only taken me till Thursday to get mine going and now its almost the weekend! LOL!

Hope all are well,

Ciao for now :)

Sankari

Our Creative Corner Challenge - Brads and Buttons

Hi Everyone,

Here is a card that I made for the Our Creative Corner Challenge - Brads and Buttons. The inspirations for this card came from: Dawn Easton and Maria whose cards I CASED.  Before I continue with the card - I would just like to take a moment to thank Maria for being so sweet and welcoming. Way before I even had a blog, I would pop onto Maria's for a little inspiration and was always amazed by her crafts and more than that who she was. She has always been so open and so encouraging in her emails - she is just the sweetest sweetheart and a wonderful person. Thank you so much Maria! As my son would say: "You are just so tweet".  So go on over to Maria's site and check out her cards!

As to this card - I have to admit - it all started when I saw the paper -(Sparkle Cat Circles - from Cloud 9 designs). I just loved it! and then I remembered that I had some brads that matched, and then I found some buttons that would go and then I saw some ribbon that could tie it all together (all of these elements are from MakingMemories). I love how the brads look like buttons (these are epoxy buttons). As for the sentiments - the  Thank You ,  I think is from MSF! - but I am not sure because I didn't keep the packaging - will have to check on that.

And after I made the first one, I couldn't help but make a second one, using the same stamp set but a different Thank You sentiment.  I really loved all the circle elements - it just feels so very fun - you can't quite see it - but the paper has some glitter on the black circles -which makes it quite the disco card in the sunlight ;)

This was a really fun project and I have to say I am so into buttons now. Who knew buttons could be so fun!? I couldn't resist adding a button with the matching ribbon in the top right corner...  and had to control the urge to go button-wild :) 

I can't wait to see what new challenges they have today at the OCC. Hope you are all enjoying a sunny saturday! 

Best wishes to all

Ciao fro now :)

Sankari