Dreams come True !

Hello Crafters,
Welcome to my page today and I have some good news for you.
By now, you all know my love for Vintage and it was a dream come true moment when Chris asked me to guest design this month at A Vintage Journey for their blogoversary.
The challenge this month is "Anything Tim" and as for me, all my projects have a (over)dose of Distress and  Vintage .A blog that inspires me the most and the products that I can't do without, I just had to take part in the celebration!
Do drop in there to know a little bit more about me and also to take part in the challenge and the celebrations. The goodies to be won are endless and irresistible!

It was my other dream to have a drift wood décor piece and today I present to you my “faux drift wood”  deco item which can light up any table. After all we are talking about celebrations at AVJ, right…

To make the drift wood, I used a horizontal piece of box, made a few circular openings on the top ( you will see why in a while) and inserted the empty tape rings.

 I stuck layers of tissue paper and cheese cloth and then spread homemade texture paste with a spatula all around the box. Once dry, I took my first collection of Distress stains, picket fence, walnut stain, brushed pewter and weathered wood and applied them and voila, my lovely faux drift wood piece was ready. Doesn't it look like it one of those pieces “washed off “the shore?

For the front panel: I have printed this lovely table quote from the net on kitchen tissue and have adhered it on canvas cloth with gel medium. I aged the canvas with DI antique linen and Vintage photo andflicked some black soot distress stain too.

The edges have been given a shabby look by machine stitching. I Have fastened the banner on the panel with TH hardware findings, which have been painted with black soot and brushed pewter D Stains and then “rusted up” using paper Artsy rusting powder.

The side panels: I made a faux frame using garden twigs and painted it with picket fence and brushed pewter D stains.

 I then printed the table manners quote and then framed it behind the frame with an acetate sheet too from packaging. Simple embellishments here, with a resin star fish cracked up with picket fence distress crackle and then walnut stain to highlight the cracks.

The back panel: A miniature banner that says it all. I dipped it in UTEE to get a glassy finish and have hung with natural twine.

 I have a thick layer of coconut coir for some dimension and texture here. I wanted the back to be simple to reveal the “faux texture” here. Looks good right?

Floral embellishments in the front: I love making them! All these lovelies are made using mostly TH tattered florals die. It’s amazing that you can make  a wide range of flowers with this single die. One of my favorites and I can’t do without it! The foliage too is mainly TH and the lovely ferns are using Tattered lace die.

The subtle colors of the flowers are all using distress inks and I wanted a soothing color palette on the drift wood, nothing too bright. I also did a “Tammy Tutterow” bow …colored the seam binding with DI and made the bow using her instructions to make a handmade bow maker!

The butterfly was my first experiment with D stains. When I got the package, I just opened the package and tried out the marbling technique with the few colors that I have and ran a water color paper over. I took all the stains in a lovely rainbow pattern and I use the monarch butterfly die to get this one. One dip in UTEE and this delicate thing turned out to be a toughie!

The little bee is a stamp and has been colored using D inks and sipped in UTEE too. A closer look and you can see the rusted hardware and a customized Ideology token! Do you see it hanging there, lol…yes I made that with a token die and D stains and wrote “avj” just so that it reminds me of this wonderful day!

The entire piece weighs like real drift wood and some wooden feet colored with picket fence D stain helps it to balance well!

Phew! Ready for a little more…

The Top panel: is where the surprise is…remember the circular cut outs? What do you think it is for???

Have a look…this is ultimately how I envisioned this drift wood to be on the table…

After all, “The fondest Memories are made gathered around the table” right… and with celebrations on here at AVJ, don’t you think the table needs to be brightened up…here it is…

With the candles and the cutlery…

A closer look at the center and you can see a battery operated LED candle glowing beneath the lovely lotus!

As the sun sets, it gets warmer…

The back side with the add on’s..”BON APPETIT”!

Finally, the end is here. Thank you so much for putting up with my loooong post…I had to share every bit with you, after all it took me 4 days to finish this!

Thank you Chris, Brenda and the entire AVJ team for this opportunity and hope this satisfies your creative needs and makes you play along the “anything Tim” challenge.

I would like to enter my drift wood decor in the following challenges...
Inspiration Journal - Spring
That's Crafty Challenge - wings"n" things
Unruly paper Arts- I am lucky ( can't get luckier being a guest at AVJ)
The Shabby tea Room - Spring Blooms
City Crafter Challenge Blog - inspired by the colors, beach, drift wood, dinner ware, star fish, lovely blooms!
(PIN) spirational Challenge- Spring
Lawnscaping Challenge - Distress (there is a lot of it!)
MIXED MEDIA WORLD - Anything Goes
Re cycle, Re purpose, Re invent- Anything goes

Until my next creative journey,

Happy Crafting and re cycling.

Cheers.

Faux leather tutorial

Hello Crafters,
A big warm welcome to all of you.
Do you remember my "faux leather" journals that I had made a month back and I had promised a tutorial too for the same?


Well if you would love to make a journal for yourself then do hop over to Rhedd's Creative Spirit where I have full tutorial on the technique and how to make a junk journal using some coffee stained papers!
Yummy, can you smell it here?


No, you cant...hop over here and  leave me some love too! I just love it.

Big Hugs.

Remember the now...birthday wishes!

Hello crafters..

A big warm welcome to all my new followers and to those who are already with me!

I have a “special” project to share with you today, a box that I altered as a keep sake box for my husband! His birthday is in a few weeks and I thought I will give him something that he uses everyday.

I wanted a place where my husband could keep this daily stuff like the wallet, id, cards, pen, specs and all those little things that he gets back from the office every day and so I made this box. This will be a one stop place for his daily treasure, hopefully!

 

As I told you before, I am “doing up” the interiors of my house and so I made a box that will sit on his dresser. I wanted to subtly to remind my husband to keep things in their place. In these 20yrs I have failed miserably in this part but I always keep trying, lol!

I hope this box will make him want to keep his daily treasures here!

I have up cycled a card board box by altering its opening and the closure flap to fit my needs. I wanted it to withstand the daily wear and tear and so decided to make it look like a combination of wood and leather…both macho elements!

I knew that I could do it with all the Tim Holtz products and the techniques that I have learnt in my 2 years of crafting! Why fear when the master is here, lol!

For the lid, I gave a few layers of gesso and then colored with layers of distress stains (my new buy) Picket fence and broken china. I sanded in some areas and also dry brushed gesso in places for a white washed old look.

Then came some layered stenciling and stamps using TH cargo stencil and gothic. I  used the numbers from the stencil and his stamps to jumble up my husbands date of birth on the box! I also did some random script stamping.

For the outer sides, I adhered pages from an old atlas which just complimented the blue of the lid. I then swished out some homemade texture paste, added  some fine grain sand and some brown acrylic colors and went around all the sides of the box to create  random texture with a spatula.

As it dried I rubbed some perfect pearls in copper to get that slight metallic look. I inked the edges of the box with archival black and at this point I sealed the entire box with 2 coats of gloss medium. Now it is a solid box, unshakable!

Embellishments  for men is easy, NO FLOWERS! I hand wrote the famous quote from Tim and inserted it behind a chip board film strip. It was as if the focal quote was made with my husband in mind who is so absent minded! Just the one for him…thanks Tim.

The hinges from TH hardware findings were cut from grey board and gave a coat of picket fence distress crackle paint and rubbed in vintage photo stain in the cracks. The same for the film strip too.

From the film strip there is an interesting interactive feature dangling…a vintage clock charm, an altered resin key and lovely “timely thoughts” mini tags all held together in a metal chain and Ideology trinket pin.

The box has magnetic closures and for the flap, I made vintage white printed button using a die and dipped in UTEE and then strung a jute twine to make a bow. This conceals the magnet.

The keyhole is a TH die too and has the same yummy texture with the worn out metal look.

The box when opened has some interesting things too…

The open lid has an acetate pocket where he can keep the visiting cards. The TH vintage car stands proudly there and some tickets to make the man happy on his journey, lol! The masculine embellishments, you see! I love those little tickets clipped on the pocket!

The box in itself has plenty of room to keep a wallet, a spectacle case, pen and some papers too. I made a mini book using note book stamp from Whimsy…this is just so vintage and romantic! Some quick notes, hopefully he will “remember” to use it, lol!

The inside of the box is lined with atlas pages and faux leather paper using basket weave embossing folder and have rubbed in perfect pearls on this too to get the copper look! Some lovely vintage white glass baubles help the box to stand up on its feet!

That’s it, my birthday gift for my man, Tim style! I really hope this will make him keep his things in place …even if he keeps all of it inside THIS box, it’s mission accomplished. What I have failed to do in 20 years hope the master will succeed!

 I am eagerly waiting to hear your comments on this box with a “hidden purpose”.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges…

Red Rubber Inspirational- for the boys

Stamping Sensation- one for the guys

A Vintage Journey- anything Tim

Shopping Our Stash- counting on you

City Crafter Challenge -The key to the time

Art with heart Challenge- Go Green ( have up cycled a card board box, pages from an old atlas)
Simon Monday Challenge- B is for( box,blue, baubles, brad, button,bow and the Big boy!)

Until my next creative journey,

Happy crafting and re cycling.

Big hugs.

GREEN with Envy!

Hello crafters..

Welcome to my page today. I have my DT project with Anything But A Card to share with you today. The theme this month is “Green with Envy”. It is up to you to interpret the theme but yes, we would love to see the color green in your project too. Absolutely anything that your heart fancies except a card! Now that’s the easiest part as you all by now know that I can’t save myself to make a card, lol!

I have altered a little glass jar which for this theme. A plain clear jar on which I first created a “faux Frosted” effect and then dabbed some alcohol inks in green, blue and silver. As you can see, green is dominant here.

My favorite color is green and that is one reason I love all nature inspired projects. This is going to be no different but yes, green is going to be the highlight here. Is there anything as too much green?? No way…right now my garden is bright green with a couple of showers that we had last week and I see some fresh leaves sprouting and a few flowers too. That’s my take on this challenge…but  what about the envy? Let’s wait for that part…

Once the bottle was done, I wanted to do some heat embossing  on the bottle directly which flopped big time! The embossing powder for some reason was not melting…I dint want to experiment, so I went ahead heat embossing the flowers and the quotes on tissue. I did the embossing in white so that it shows against the green.

I love these 2 quotes from Paper Artsy and it was just apt for this project. The lid too has some left over alcohol inks dabbed on it and then I made the mini terrace garden here!

Loooots of green foliage and a focal flower in the center. Just that one flower is enough to brighten that garden. I used Arianna blooms die to layer up this flower and mildly inked it with worn lipstick DI.

A garden is incomplete without some winged beauties and so came the butterfly and the bee!

The butterfly is a Itsy Bitsy die and I shaded it using DI and then dipped in UTEE. Whereas the bee is a stamp which has been colored too with DI and covered with rock candy crackle paint. Which looks better??? Maybe the butterfly is envying the bee for more than one reason now..one maybe it looks better and two, cos its first and up close to the flower, lol!

So you get that “envy” thing now???

I couldn’t stop at that, and then lit a battery operated candle inside and was only surprised at the subtle beauty it radiated with the Buddha sitting next to it.

 I love this click... to me ,it was speaking a different language at that moment!

 The soft glow just grew brighter as the sun dipped.

Hope this inspires you to play along this month and do hop over to see what the teamies have created every week!

I would like to have my mini garden enter the following challenges.

GreatImpression – Go Green

ArtisticInspiration – AG with a twist of green

The MirrorCracked – Wings

Crafts 4Eternity – Anything But A Card.

LovesRubber stamps Challenge- AG

WowEmbossing – Spring (have done heat embossing in white and also UTEE)
Take It Make It Challenge- AG with stamping
All Sorts Challenge - Spring is in the air
Sweet Stampin Challenge - Green for St. Patrick's day

Until My next Creative Journey,

Happy Crafting and Re Cycling

Hugs.

Colors of India-GD project for TIOT

Hello crafters..

A warm welcome to all of you and a Big Thanks to my new followers.…am here today with my Guest Design project for Try It on Tuesday where the theme for this fortnight is “Pearls for Girls”…How exciting!

I was really excited when I was asked to guest design for TIOT, such a talented team out there and its honor to be featured amongst them for this challenge. Thanks TIOT team for this opportunity.

Now, coming to the challenge…Pearls look amazing in most of the projects and probably the simplest to accommodate as an embellishment in any project. I have tried to “show off” my pearls in a different way!

This time around, I have an altered project where I have up cycled a card board box which once housed a thermal flask. In the normal course, the packaging box would have found it’s way to the bin but having been bit by the re cycle bug, I decided to give it a new lease of life thru this challenge!

I needed a box to keep my collection of bangles and bracelets and so decided to make one out this!

Firstly, I made it operational horizontally against its normal position and secured it well by stapling all the edges. I then dished out this lovely pattern paper from Temple Tree. It’s a handmade paper, almost like fabric and has lovely paisley patterns all over it.

Have a look at the paper…so vibrant, so colorful, so ethnic and traditional, so INDIA…yes, the colors are inspired from the Indian flag this time.

I had a different plan for the lid! Once the box and the sided were done with the paisley paper, I inked the edges with peeled paint DI for dimension.

For the lid, I fist adhered rushed tissue paper with gel medium and created texture with TH burlap stencil. Once this was dry, I applied green acrylic paint and before it dried, I wiped off with a wet tissue. This removes some of the paint from the top layer to reveal the white beneath…distressed look with good old acrylics!

I then rubbed in Inka gold on the raised portions of the texture. It complements the paisley’s so well, you ought to see it live…

Now comes the time to show off my pearls. I made this brooch button for the closure with some full pearls and also the danglers from it with more tiny pearls. Fixed the brooch to the box with a brad and used elastic for the closure. My box looks pretty dressed up, lol!

For the embellishment on the top, I dint want too many colors,. I made lovely layered blooms using Heartfelt creations Arianna blooms and have a closer look at them…do they feel waxy???

 Yes, I dipped them all in a pot of bees wax and this time, I put a drop of musk oil to the wax…so you can imagine the fragrance from the flowers! I really hope you can smell themmm….oooooooooo

A lovely sentiment from Inkadinkado and some more pearls to line the box and the outside of the box is ready!

For the inside, I chose a complementing paper in green from Recollections pack and covered it,. I slid a empty kitchen roll to fit the width of the box …my bangles look pretty there, don’t they?

So, is that it…NO…you got to see the back ! What do you think would possible be there???

Ummmm..guess…

I fixed a foam panel in a matching tone to” show off “a few of my “special “ earrings too…now isn’t that a bonus!

Do you see the lovely gold bottle cap feet of my beautiful bangle box??? It proudly stands on my dressing table with all goodies inside and outside, lol!

I hope this inspires you to play along at TIOT and do let me know if you liked my “colors of India” box.

I would like to enter the following challenges with this house of bangles!
Re Cycle Re purpose Re Invent Challenge Blog- AG but re cycle
Glitter and Sparkle Challenge - AG
Eclectic Ellapu - AG
Our Creative Corner- Junk in your Trunk (old carboard box, bottle caps, empty kitchen roll)
Country View Challenge - AG
Frosted Designs - Handmade flowers and re cycled materials ( cardboard box, bottle caps, kitchen roll)
BGC- Mixed media

Thank you so much for stopping by,

Until my next creative journey,

Happy Crafting and Re cycling.

Cheers.

Hickory Dickory Dock!

Hello crafters..

A new month beckons…and it’s already March! Can you believe we are 2 months up??? I am excites about the coming months as I am planning to give my 10yr old house a BIG makeover! Can you imagine the possibilities that open up for me as an “altered art” artist???

Am loving the thought of it and so I begin this month with my DT project for Rhedd’sCreative Spirit where it is always ANYTHING GOES but altered art or mixed media only. Isn't that fun.. I clubbed the 2 possibilities and came up with this “Hickory Dickory Dock” but only this time you have birds flying up and not the mouse, lol!

Have you guessed??? YES, it’s an altered wall clock…

How exciting is that…I have altered a boring wooden clock to suit the new color scheme of my house and that too using a lot of Tim Holtz products and techniques. What do we do without the master??? It’s amazing how things can be altered using his products and that is what you will be seeing soon…

I started by sanding the entire wooden clock after removing all the clock parts. Once the wax and gloss was removed, I applied 2 coats of gesso and patiently waited. This time it is a big project..3 feet tall…so I better be patient, lol!

Once dry I chose my new colors Distress stain in peacock feathers and applied randomly all over the clock and simultaneously added watered down gesso, to make it more chalky and applied all over the wooden parts.

Again, my patience tested as I had a good amount of coverage to be done…so 2 coats again with sanding in between. Once I was happy with the color tone, I applied rock candy distress crackle paint in random parts and applied walnut stain distress stain in the cracks.

Also weathered down the clocks by sanding the edges to reveal a bit of the wood and also inked in many places with walnut stain to give it the “antique look”…it is a 20 year old clock, anyways(gifted for my wedding)!

The next stage was to take up TH stencils in cargo and I applied homemade texture paste and as it was wet, sprinkled some fine glitter on it. Voila, as the texture dried, it also started sparkling!

Once the outer of the clock was ready, I moved to the inside makeover. I am finally gathering up courage to tear up papers from TH wall flower paper pack, but only 1 sheet for a project lol! Here I managed 2, cos I knew I would be looking at this clock every day and would have a chance to admire the papers too, lol!

I fussy cut the floral patterns from one page and the birds from the other and distressed the edges and modge podged the floral patterns on the shadow box portion of the clock.

To my delight, I had a big shadow box to play with and since this is a battery operated clock, the pendulum is actually a static piece which means I can work on it too!

Once the flowers were in place, I gathered some twigs from the garden and applied picket fence D Stains to it and made a little “platform” for the birds to perch on! I stuck the twigs to the length of the pendulum and had the birds sitting on it!

For the round portion of the pendulum, I had some pattern papers stuck with modge podge and then stamped this wonderful quote from Paper Artsy on tissue and flaunted it as the focal piece there…very true isn’t it ???

Now comes the clock face…I just die cut a crclr to suit the size of the face using the same PP and inked the face with alcohol inks in matching colors. You see a blue/green and brown in the edges??A closer look at the inside and you will find the secret date of our wedding day…after all it is a reminder of our wedding, you see!

I still had a lot of space inside the clock and so built a lovely BIG nest with loots of coconut coir tucked in and perched a little bird there with an egg too! So you see a lot of birds here and not the mouse!

Embellishment time…my most enjoyable part of ant 3D project and this time I wanted to make some different flowers. I decided to do some cabbage roses using left over PP from my stash and followed every step of the talented “flower queen” ( I am sure many of you will agree) Jennie of Live The Dream. You have to see her amazing flower tutorials and see how your project comes to life with those beauties. Thanks Jennie for being an inspiration! I just love the look of these flowers on my clock, just PERFECT. This such a lovely idea to use up scraps.

The flowers are all made using TH tattered florals die. I assembled the flowers with some chip board branches from Creative Embellishments which I painted with picket fence D Stains too.The leaves are using TH tattered flowers and Die nemics die. One more bird tucked in here, waiting to get inside…

Isn't it cute???

I loved how the entire thing shaped up and for the impatient soul in me, this was a true test! This project took me 3 days with all the drying time that I dint speed up!

Now I have Huge satisfaction of altering a mega project  and it proudly hangs on the wall now bringing memories of our wedding! Though the walls still wears the old look, in a couple of months, it will be a perfect fit to the new colors up in the wall!

Thank you so much for your patience too, reading every bit of my makeover process and would love to hear your comments. I just love reading every bit of and can’t thank you all enough for that.

You are going to see more makeover projects and home décor projects from me in the coming months . Hope this inspires you to play along and would love to see your wonderful projects out at Rhedd’s Creative Spirit this month.

I would like to have my Wall clock enter the following challenges…

A Vintage Journey - Special numbers ( wedding anniversary here!)

Stampartic- special day

Artist Trading post- Alphabet soup

Decorate to Celebrate- Anything Goes

Crafting for all Seasons- Dies/ punches

Simon says Monday Challenge - Anything Goes
City Crafter Challenge Blog- Use it Up- have used paper scraps for the cabbage roses
Mixed Media Monthly Challenge- Birds of a feather
Natalie and Amie Challenge Blog - Flowers
BGC- Mixed Media

Until my next Creative Journey,

Happy Crafting and Re cycling.

Big Hugs.