PINK and more PINK!

Hello crafters..

I am back with everyone’s favorite theme “Anything Goes” this time at Scrapping4Fun Challenge. Hope to see you all play along there and do visit to see what the team has in store for you!

You are not going to believe what I have made this time! I have used up all the pinks in this world, Lol…am not joking! Even I couldn't believe my eyes when I was done with this project.

Are you ready…here it is!

Yes, it’s a frock shaped card which doubles up as a photo display and a cute room décor for a little girls room! Now that’s a lot in one project and would you believe me if I tell you that this was made with one big Kellog’s cereal carton!!!

Now if you  are wondering why all the pinks in the world is here…This is a commissioned piece for a client who wanted a unique gift  for her little Princess who turns 3 next month! The birthday girls loves Pink and Peppa pig which is why it is full of cute goodies that the little girl fancies!

I have used PP in all shade of pink and used worn lipstick DI for all the inking and shading on the flowers. The seam binding too is hand dyed. The frock flips open and you have totally 4 pages of display.

 Each page has a photo mat (die cuts), flowers made using CLD cutie hearts and sastha daisy die, pink flat back pearls and some buttons(a cute gift from a crafty friend).

The yoke piece around the neck is a doily die from CLD and inked to match the frock…how cute is that!

I have some tags for the little girl using Joy crafts die and stamped birthday images she would love. Behind each tag there is space for journaling. 

The display can be changed each day and have 4 different looks!

Another thing is the flexibility of hanging this …hang it from the cupboard, wall or just make it stand on a table…so easy!

I hope I have satisfied the little girls fancy and would love to hear your feed back too on this cutie!

I would like to link this to the following challenges…

Beyond Grey Challenges- Monochromatic

Die Cutting Divas- Shaped cards

Crafty Sentiments –Use die cuts

Shopping Our Stash Challenge Blog- Free is good (buttons from a friend, CLD die as a prize win)

Decorate To celebrate – Anything Goes

Craft For The Craic – birthday

Fab “n” Funky challenge – Anything goes with die cuts

DelightfulChallenges-It’s a Kids world

Until my next creative journey…

Happy Crafting and recycling.

Cheers.

A BOOK in a Book in a book !!!

Hello crafters..

Am back after a small break…only to share with you yet another Vintage project! I know you are NOT surprised!

It is customary that I give a ”special” gift to my son’s teacher every year around this time just to let her know how much she means to us.

 Many of you know by now that my older son of 15yrs is a child with special needs. He is wheel chair bound and has been going to a special school for the last 8 years of which he has been associated with this teacher for the last 3 years!

Shopana is a friend, teacher and a guide to my son and it is so rewarding to see changes in him in the last few years. I don’t want to get into too many details here and as is my posts are lengthy, lol!

She is getting married which means we are she will not be able to come from early next year. We are so thankful for all that she has done for Shreyes( my son) and wish her a great future ahead! We will miss you Shopana, your services are commendable and I have no words to express…which is why I have translated it into a lovely handmade gift for you!

Here we ago…

The main Book…A lovely vintage cover with an image I downloaded from We Love Vintage Challenge Blog. I made a ornate panel around her with a scripted background and some heat embossed golden butterflies all around. There is something about this little girl that attracted me, her eyes wanting to tell so many things and this is what my book will convey!

The Spine ..is a piece of canvas cloth that I ran thru a damask embossing folder almost three-fourths and then colored it with shades of yellow and brown acrylics to give a vintage leather look, on the top part of the spine I heat embossed an ornate label and quote from Inkadinkado stamps which says it all.

What do you think this main book is???

 An altered nut case tin…!!!

When you open the main book (Tin)  this is what you see…

On the left you see another ornate page with a sentiment from Stampendous and the same treatment as the front cover.

On the right you see another mini book and …another micro mini book charm! Confusing…

I just got my TH Wall flower paper pack and dint even hesitate to tear a page from it to create this mini tag book. I took the ATC page and created mini from this 12X12 beauty! The paper was too good to be altered and I felt it was just screaming for a bit of yellow to be highlighted and so I went with that.

The front cover… and the back cover is made with chipboard from cereal boxes and the spine is a piece of colored burlap from my stash. I have used complimenting papers from DCWV and embossed with TH burlap stencil and sprinkled some gold embossing powder on it!

The label on the book is hand made resin embellishment. I cut the paper from DCWV pack and made a faux frame using air drying clay and then filled it with clear resin. As it was drying, I sprinkled some fine glitter for some sparkle. I have kept some coconut coir behind the label for some more texture!

The butterfly is resin mold which has been treated to crackle paint and on the cracks I have rubbed in inka gold. Just look at those textures…

Some metal book corners and this mini album is ready.

Here are the tags inside the mini, all cut using Joy crafts die and the sentiments all from TH visual artistry. A lovely yellow ribbon keeps the book intact.

From the spine hangs a micro mini book charm along with a few tea pot metal charms.

The book charm…is an inchie to be precise and I enjoyed making this teenie weenie thing! 

It actually has some pages inside and some more sentiments. The book is held tight with some twine.

So here is my BOOK in a Book in a book …

It took me more than 2 days to make this one and I wanted to make something really special that can be treasured and remembered too.

I should be giving it to her in a couple of days and before that would love  to hear your feedback on this.

Hope you enjoyed reading all the books…

I would like to link this to the following challenges..

Frillie and Funkie Challenge _ A gift from the heart

Country View Challenges- my fav butterflies are all over the books!

Craft Hoarders Anonymous- Box it up!

4 Crafty Chicks – make it sparkle

A Creative Romance- use anything old ( the inkadinkado stamp is my fist stamp bought 18mnths back!)

Brown Sugar Challenge – use 2 or more colors ( brown, yellow, gold and green)

Crafting Musketeers – Anything But A Card

Sentimental Sundays – heartfelt Thanks

That Craft Place – anything Goes

613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes

Until my next creative journey…

Happy Crafting and Re cycling.

Hugs.

Frozen in time !

Hello crafters..

Happy Saturday to you all …I have something totally contrasting to my previous post! Well, that’s how it is every time…I love to create different styles and this time it is something feminine, shabby chic, grungy, vintage, frozen in time and some PINK…Does thet make sense??? I have played around with some textures and techniques and done a fusion of Prima and Tim Holtz…you can imagine the result!

Here it is…an altered match box.

I made a jumbo match box using cereal boxes and covered it with Prima Something Blue papers. I stuck to the colors grey and ping and little bit of aged silver. This is my first time in this color combo. The theme being “Sewing”.

I have taken the focal image from We Love Vintage Journey Blog where they an amazing collection of vintage pictures that you can down load.

I have always refrained from too much pink and thank to the Grey here…I managed some grunge and texture. I mixed some fine white sand to texture paste and added color to get the cement finish and have applied this in various places.

The stamp set that I have used is Tim Holtz Visual Artistry. The flower is made using fine cotton fabric that I starched and swished it thru D Inks spun sugar and walnut stain. Then I did second generation stamping of Bo Bunny script with Archival inks and ran the fabric thru TH Tattered floral die. I layered up 3 flowers to get this one!

The little sentiment is from Whimsy stamps I have given a watered down effect on the back ground.

I have badly been wanting to use Distress embossing powders and sadly it is still in my Wish list and I couldn’t wait till it came. I saw some techniques using salt crystals/ sand and tried it out. I mixed some white sand with ranger silver embossing powder( equal parts), applied versa mark on the area to be embossed, pored this mixture and heated it from BENEATH…this is important, otherwise the sand flies off…I got it the second time only!

 That is how I embossed these buttons and one side of the vintage clock  face. Do you see the sand crystals peeking out, not as good as the master but somewhere there….please give me an honest feedback on this

.

Now for the inside of the box…I stamped the body form on prime PP and heat embossed in silver, stick it to two layers of cereal carton and cut it out to get this chipboard like embellishment! 

I then dressed it up with a net fabric gathered skirt and a bow and grungy button! The edges are all distressed and inked with grey chalk edgers from Prima and DI walnut stain!

The other aged up embellishments in silver and grunge is all for you to see…all sewing related!

For the pull out I have aged some jewellery findings and attached trinkets, beads, my faux distress embossed button and a monogram ‘A”. The monogram has been given a brushed metal look using silver CS, chipboard, embossing powders, UTEE and distress crackle paint rock candy (for the back)! First I ran the CS alphabet thru an embossing folder and then went ahead to give it the aged silver look! Looking forward to hearing on this too…

For the pull out on the top, I have attached a shabby linen chord.

At the back of the cover, I have this lovely quote from the same TH set and I have altered a vintage clock face here using crackle paints and the distress embossing! I am in love with these textures and hope I have not gone too grungy !

I like  this “frozen in time” look  with all the textures and distressing. Do let me know if this appeals to you.

I may decide to give this to a “special” friend who is a sewing enthusiast depending on your comments and feedback.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges…

Lessology – use a monogram

We Love Vintage Challenge Blog – grey and pink ( thank you so much for this choice, else I wouldn’t have ventured on this!)

A Vintage Journey – All sewn up ( I have tried some new experiments with the master’s techniques! )

That’s Crafty Challenge- Anything Vintage

Natalie and Amy's Challenge  – Stitch it

Until my next creative journey…

Happy Crafting and Recycling.

Hugs.

Bling it up !!!

Hello crafters..

Today, we celebrate Children's Day in India and am glad to be posting this!
I have something really cute  to share with you  today…my DT project for Scrapping4Fun Challenge#30 Rachelle wants us to create“anything with a "bling” this time…easy right??? So people, get blingy and look forward to seeing your creations.

I had to make a gift for my little one’s friend as it was her birthday yesterday. She is all of 5yesrs old and was very clear she wanted shades of purple this time…bless the pinks lol! I took this opportunity to make something cute and blingy for a little girl which she will fancy and at the same time be of some use too! So here is what I made…

A cute little handbag!

This empty cereal carton saw some daylight and made it into a cute little bag which can house loooots of goodies inside and there is a surprise at the back too…hold on for that!

Since the colors choice was made, the making of it was easy! I chose lovely PP from DCWV as pretty as a peacock paper pack and started covering the cereal box, inside out! This made the box really sturdy…the inside has a lovely paper in blue.

I then created a window and covered it with acetate ( another use of trash from die packaging). This window creates a lovely view of the inside! I have lined the window with purple bling.

I then stamped this lovely fairy image from Little darlings(Itsy Bitsy) and colored it with DI and applied silver glitter for some sparkle!

The flowers are handmade using TH die and Itsy Bitsy. The top part I have attached a lovely floral white lace which gives the look of a flap for the bag and has more bling. I am sure little girls can carry off that much and more!

A little birthday tag using Inkadinkado ornate frames and sentiment has been heat embossed in silver and colored with Di and more bling here!

Are you ready for the back…

Here it is…

I have made a cute oval panel in foam and kept the decoration minimum here, guess why???

 I told you it is not just a bag and can be used to store something too in the outside…any guesses! I won’t prolong the suspense here…this is what it can eventually be used as….

I also bought a few pair of earring for the little girl which has been hooked to the foam panel!!

 Now isn’t that a double bonanza…goodies inside and outside! My daughter is already screaming with joy looking at this…

This re assures me that her friend will like it too! I have attached Velcro strips on the top for the closure and lovely twisted lavender chord as a string to carry and flaunt this designer bag, Lol!

Here is my angel carrying the fairy handbag! I hope she will part with this one now…I may have to make another one for her now!
 I asked her if this bag is cute and pat came the reply.." No Amma, this is NOT cute, It is wow, beautiful, nice, very nice, good, very good"...Well I got it...that's the world of a 5 yesr old!

Pretty simple eh? I would like to have my fairy bag enter these challenges…

As You Like It Challenge _favorite gift packing ( I have a designer bag here, lol !)

Craft For The Craic – Birthday

Try It On Tuesday Challenge – Anything handmade
Craft Room Challenge - anything 3D

Tando Creative Challenge - Something with a use

Thank you so much for stopping by and do let me know how this " Wow" bag " passes off in your world...am waiting to hear!

Until my next creative journey…

Happy Crafting and Recycling.

Hugs.

My kind of CLEAN and SIMPLE !!!

Hello crafters..

Am back soon with another “not so complicated” project today. Before that, I would like to thank you all for the wonderful responses to my “forever fall” deco piece. Looks like you liked the bright colors, this project today is a contrast to that in terms of colors and embellishments.

 I managed to do something clean and simple…NO NO NOT A CARD…this is my DT project for AnythingBut A Card challenge#41 blog where the theme this month  is an open challenge. You can make anything as long as it is not a card.

I have re cycled an old wooden wedding invite into an altered wall plaque! I first sanded it and gave a liberal coat of gesso sanding in between layers. This time I wanted some soothing color and wanted to have lots of white! I know you might be as surprised as me on this thought. Believe me, I struggled to keep it simple but I had this vision in mind and then just did what I wanted to see…

I colored the panel in pastel turquoise acrylic colors and thane sanded it to reveal some white in parts and in some places the wood beneath too.

I drew a free hand heart in the center and used Pva glue to create cracks there. Once happy with that I masked the heart and went about creating textures on the rest of the board.

For this, I mixed equal parts of Putty chalk powder with white glue and little water to get a paste like consistency and poured it into a plastic paper cone, with its tip cut. Now with one side sealed when you press the cone, the paste oozes out of the fine tip which can be adjusted depending on how much you cut it.

Once again I drew free hand flourishes and swirls and left it over night to dry. The next day it was tough and strong..I sanded it a bit and rubbed in inka gold and some walnut stain DI just to age it a bit. There I go again…can’t keep anything really clean can I ???

Once I was happy with the aged panel, I went with creating the embellishments. This time, it was going to be simple…remember??? I made these flowers from scraps of pattern paper that I had. The roses are using TH tattered florals die and the  daisy is using CLD Shasta daisy die and the flower center has some flat back pearls.

I used walnut stain to ink the edges of the flower and applied a little bit of gesso too keep it shabby! Some ready made leaves and that was ready.

Next comes the focal object on the panel…the sentiment. I looks for some interesting craft quotes on the net and took a print out. The main sentiment is crackled with rock candy distress crackle paint and for the mini accordion behind it, I have used hand made paper on which I have used TCW stencil and Di to create a back ground and then stuck the quotes. On the edges I have applied gesso here too.

Do take time to read the quotes…This is so true with me. Is it the same with you too…do let me know.

I clipped the quotes to a mini clothes pin and stuck it to the panel and highlighted it with a jute twine bow!

I then drilled holes on the wood panel and strung in some baubles in complimenting colors and some copper wire. I had to tie a silver ribbon bow on one side to just lighten it up a bit!

I small cow bell retrieved from a broken wind chime at home, finds its place on the lower end of the panel! I have rubbed in gesso here too.

That’s it..my clean and simple project is ready…Do you think it is so??? Do let me know…If you know my style of work,you will understand my struggle here!!!!

My daughter just loves to hit on the bell every time she passes by it and says” Amma, it is time to craft”…I just love her for understanding my love and passion for the art and giving me time for it too.

This project is dedicated to all you craft lovers…Thank you all for stopping by, leaving comments, visiting me and also following my blog!

Hope this inspires you and would love to see your creations at Anything But a Card Challenge, this month.

I would like to link my “clean” project in the following challenges…

Frosted Designs - White space

Fab "n" Funky Challenges - 3 embellishments ( flowers, beads, bells,bow)

Crafting by Designs - Anything Goes

Die Cutting Divas- Ribbon, Twine Pattern paper, pearls

Crafty Catz- Ribbon

Crafts 4 Eternity - ribbon

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
Vintage Stamping Challenge - Anything but a card
Scrap It Girl - Use paints, water colors or gelatos ( have used acrylic colors)

Sugar Creek Hollow - Recycling ( wooden invite, bell from a broken chime)

Until my next creative journey,

Happy Crafting and Re cycling,

Cheers.

Forever "Fall" with a tutorial

Hi Crafters,
Am back in my comfort zone...a project loaded with flowers and embellishments, all hand made! This is purely inspired by my morning walks...the sights and colors that I see. I love to walk thru the scattered leaves and admire their changing colors and textures and as continue a few bursts of colorful blooms in the neighborhood houses peeking out of the wall! Love the yellows, oranges and dark shades of pink thru the woody brown...would love to capture this moment FOREVER and so began this project.


A picture heavy post and I have tried to explain a step by step on the wood bark texture that was much appreciated and I had requests too for a tute. You can see the project here.
This is 360 degrees fall table decor piece, made from an empty Vodka carton! How cool is that...

I made a window in the box and then stuck masking tape all over to get an initial texture.

 Then scooped out my homemade texture paste. For this, I mixed equal quantities of chalk powder(from local hardware store) and white glue with little water to get a pasty consistency and then added some brown acrylic colors and applied it all over.
No, that is not chocolate sauce..just look that yummy texture.

 Once it dries, it's absolutely bark like...AS SIMPLE AS THAT! While you apply the paste on the masking tape, take a spatula and then just make incisions all over and in some places scoop it out to make like knot holes too! After it is dry, you can do the final color shading with further brown and black acrylic colors.
I further sprayed LSG cactus gold to get a slight shimmer too..too bad the camera can't capture it. I then stuck PP from DCWV pack...I crushed the paper and inked it with DI to get the slight texture to go with the bark!

Next cut out a piece of acetate and dabbed in alcohol inks in all fall colors and when that dried, I heat embossed a golden sunflower on both corners! I loved the texture of the alcohol inks.

Now comes the interesting part...I colored scraps of handmade paper with DI in fall colors using Tim's swishing technique...applying the inks on craft mat. spritzing water and swooshing the paper thru it to get a shades of colors. Then I splattered some black paint on it and ran it thru the big shot with TH tattered leaves die to get a handful of lovely fall leaves. Some of them are also using Cheery Lynn tropical leaves die.

I took out some pine cones and berries from my potpourri  deco and altered it a bit, sprayed gold mist and also covered the berried with diamond dust and went about doing the fall arrangement on the top panel.

Top panel...a bed of TH tattered leaves with hand made flowers all using CLD sunflower and shasta daisy die, heavily inked .


the front panel...the acetate widow with ornate metal corners and some more flowers on the sides with a little thank you banner!

And when the tea lights are on.....wow!
Just the moment I wanted to capture...I invite you all home to see this in real!


I told you it is a 360 degrees deco...so on the other side...
Cute little frames in all shapes heat embossed with UTEE platinum and some more hand made flowers.

This is how it looks with some pictures in it...I just slipped in some Xmas pics from the net. This can ofcourse be changed according to the occasion!
I also went a step further and gathered some twigs from the garden, colored it and layered it to form the feet for the box!


So, My "Fall" frozen forever in this little box which will find a place as a center table deco! Do let me know what you think of this project.


I am linking this to the following challenges...
Beyond Grey Challenges - Fall challenge
Decorate To Celebrate - Anything Goes
Divas By Design- Born fire colors
Creative Moments Challenge - Anything goes/ Celebration
Shopping Our Stash Challenge - Leaf me alone
Try it On Tuesday- colors of autumn
Sugar Creek Hollow - Re cycling and re purposing
A Vintage Journey _ Bountiful harvest
Inspiration Journal - Happy Holidays

Until my next creative journey...
Happy Crafting and Recycling.
Cheers.