Pretty in pink

Hello Friends…

Welcome to my page today. Today’s project is one that went with the flow for me…truly started as an experiment and then one thing led to another and this is what I made!

A plain paper mache box went under the knife today, lol! I wanted to do some experiments with decoupage but was unable to get a napkin to my liking and so I decided to make one!

 I stamped these lovely flowers with Archival black ink and then colored them with DI worn lipstick and mustard seed on the reverse.

I gessoed the box and then gave it a cost of burnt umber acrylic paint and once dry gave a coat of Picket fence Distress crackle paint. The fine cracks gave a lovely weathered look to the box.

I adhered the floral tissue to the lid and its just amazing to see the fine cracks through the stamped image! I just love it. 

A bit of random stamping with Archival leaf green ink and Bo bonny script and sponging the edges with picket fence DS completes the top of the box. 

The ornate metal opener is also painted with Distress crackle Picket fence.

The sentiment on the lid to is stamped on tissue and from Paper Artsy...just perfect for this project.

The box opens to some more acrylic painting on the inner lid in complimenting colors and then I stuck the vintage lady and the sentiment, both from my stash. 

I have stamped some leaves and added a loopy bow and some die cut flourishes. The flower is made with Joy Crafts die and colored with Worn Lipstick and Aged Mahogany DI.

And inside the box????

There is a palm size junk journal made with coffee stained papers. 

The cover is made with an empty Tissue roll cut open and I have stuck canvas cloth. The vintage girl picture  from my stash. The papers are from my daughter’s old note books all held together with satin twine. The spine has some metal charms and beads too.

The journal has some interesting pockets and tags and fits into any purse or handbag and comes in handy anytime! The closure is a elastic band held with a button and brad.

The sides and the inside of the box is lined with papers from DCWV French Country paper stack.

That brings us to the end of my experiment and  through this process I realized that PINK after all is not a bad color, lol! Some how I had a fixation about this color for this project and am happy about the success of my experiment. Do let me know your views.

I would like to enter it in the following challenges..

Crafts 4Eternity- Spring

PolkadoodlesChallenge Blog- Pink and Pretty

Fussy n fancy Friday challenge Blog – Spring time flowers

Crafty Catz– It’s a girl thing.

Wags nWhiskers – flowers

SimonWednesday Challenge – make your own background

Mixed MediaWorld – bright colors

Art by MiranChallenge Blog- AG

Glitter andSparkle Challenge Blog – Anything But A Card
The Artistic Stamper - Flora and Fauna

Until my next Creative Journey,

Happy Crafting and Re cycling,

Cheers.

Stone carved garden...

Hello Friends and Crafters…

Welcome to my page today. It’s a beautiful weather in Bangalore right now with the summer showers starting in the evenings and the temperature has really come down! I love rains, the smell of the wet ground, the shiny wet greenery and the water droplets settling on the leaves and flowers. My perfect “muse” for altered projects, lol!

I have my kitchen renovation going on and a midst all the mess and dust at home, couldn't help but do this project on a rainy day!

I created a faux stone niche here and then played around decorating it with flowers and foliage to give the look of a stone garden!

So here we start…

I first created texture for the niche with tissue paper and then gessoed it. Took out my paper Artsy stencil and Prima stencil to create textures and as the texture paste was dry, sprinkled some fine white sand. I left it to dry naturally…yes one of those patient days from me. Thanks to the rains…I was in a good mood!

Once the texture was dry, I rubbed in Prima chalk edger, Tin Can all around and slightly darker around the edges. Gave it some time to dry and then gave 2 generous coats of multi medium, gloss. Finally some color splats in black brown acrylic colors with a tooth brush and voila my faux stone nice is ready!

I gave some filler inside the niche with waste cardboard and then finally a strip from Prima Sunrise Sunset paper pack..I love the evening colors here with the effect of water spritzed here, perfect for a rainy back drop!

My stone niche is now ready to take the alteration and out comes all my hand made embellishments!

The  Vintage lamp post is a CLD die cut and I antiqued it with some gesso and then some blue inks and then again a dry wash of gesso and finally a few coats of multi medium.

I covered the niche half way with a lovely chipboard gate from Creative Embellishment…colored it white and then some brushed pewter and walnut stain DS.

The leaves are all from CLD Tropical leaves die, all edged with DI. The flowers are using TH tattered florals die, I have inked them with mustard seed, aged mahogany and worn lipstick DI and then sprit zed water, scrunched them and then layered them. Blame it on the bright colors in my garden right now after the rains, and I just replicated the flowers I saw there.

I couldn't resist using my favorite coconut coir to make a handmade nest for the little bird but looks like the birdie is having a day out in the rains! Happily perched on the gate, admiring the lovely outdoor weather…another scene out of my garden, today! How I wish I could just sit like that…are you imagining me sitting on the gate, lol!

I had to bring in the butterflies now…my favorites in the garden, By now my little garden was brimming with colors and so I decided to make the butterflies in a neutral shade and of course my Vintage flavor has to take over, right?

I die cut the big Monarch Butterfly using text paper and Precision paper cutting die. It is 3 layered, the bottom 2 are just text paper where as the top layer is dipped in UTEE. Oh boy! I just loved this vintage beauty when it was layered up to show its majestic flight in action and yes, it deserved to be embellished with some pearls on the body and some dull gold pollens as antennae! My Vintage Winged beauty in all its grandeur!

The smaller butterfly is using Itsy Bitsy die and text paper and yes, dipped in UTEE and some pearls for this one too! A perfect match to its senior, lol!

Now, with rains in the background and my inspiration, I had to have that on my project! I created droplets with glossy accents all settled here and there on the stone niche, flowers, lamp post  and leaves. A little difficult to capture it on the already glossy stone!

With such a beauty in my hand, I had to have the sentiment that reflects the scene…and yes, I just found the one from my new Kaiser Craft set.

This ones to all of you who are visiting my page today..LIVE A BEAUTIFUL LIFE!

That brings you to the end of my stone garden only to tell you that my niche stands on its own feet too! I have used white flat back pebbles as feet which gives it a strong foundation to stand on, lol!

And before we leave, you ought to see what I have altered here…

The stone niche was made out of an empty perfume carton! 

A generous donor…who gave it to me…only the carton and not the perfume, lol! But yes, to me this carton is more precious than the perfume and I thank my friend, Tony who always collects some lovely trash for me and drives miles to come home and give me bags and bags of my TRASHURE…that’s  TRASH and TREASURE together, lol!

Hope you enjoyed you stay in my stone garden and thanks for taking the time to be here.

I would like to enter my “stone garden” in the following challenges…

CreativeMoments – Ag/ Spring or Easter

Rubber dance Art Stamps- color prompt(rose pink, dusky grey, powder blue)

Red Rubberinspirational- Make a fuss

Mod SquadChallenge Blog- color wheel(blue, grey, pink, greens and yellow)

CreataliciousChallenge -  Embossing ( have used UTEE)

Fan –TasticTuesday –AG with a twist of pearls

Un Rulypaper Arts –Animal Instincts

InspirationJournal- AG

Mixed MediaMonthly Challenge – April showers

Simon MondayChallenge – In the middle (the faux stone niche with the lovely Prima sunrise sunset paper depicting the evening sky!)

Jo’s ScrapShack- florals and butterflies

Make MyMonday – April Showers
That Craft Place - Alter something
Open Minded Crafting Challenge - re cycle something ( have used a perfume carton, tissue paper from packaging and old text papers from a book)

Until my next Creative Journey,

Happy Crafting and Re cycling,

Cheers.

Golden Sunshine...

Hello Crafters..

Welcome to my page today…I am here with my DT project for Anything But A Card Challenge where the theme is “FOOLS GOLD”…so go ahead and create anything but a card please!

I personally do not like gold but do like it if it is aged or dull ! But when you say Gold, I can only think of yellow and so my project today has a yellow base with different hues and textures of gold!

Ready for the feast???

It’s bright and sunny here with new life to nature…I see new leaves, new flowers and new colors in my garden too! I have altered a picture frame this time…A lovely wooden frame that was gifted to me on my birthday by a dear friend who knew I love to alter ! And that is what I did…

Am going to be celebrating my 20^th wedding anniversary soon and wanted to make something for that and also remember I said, I am doing up my house too???

I ideally wanted to make something that would light up a corner shelf and have use some bright colors but Distressed…yes, How can I not do that???

I covered the wooden frame with gesso and then sponged in lime yellow acrylic color. Time to distress…out came the sand paper and I rubbed a bit to revel the wood benath and then dry sponged some gesso in places to give a distressed and white washed look too.

I also rubbed in a bit of dull gold Inka gold randomly in the edges to give a vintage “celebration” look !!

The focal point was going to be not the “found relatives” but some real ones, lol! I took a sepia print out of “us” and decided to work a floral theme around us!

I colored some Rhine stones with gold alcohol ink and stuck them randomly. A bunch of floral decoration on the left side with a big loopy bow and flower cluster on the top definitely catches your attention but hey, did you see that I have stamped the sentiments on acetate!

This is my first acetate stamping and it took me two tries to get it right and I liked the subtle, transparent and different look of the sentiments popping out!

There's one tucked casually behind the bow strands and has the gold alcohol dripping from all the sides.

The other one is a fist tail banner and for this I dabbed some purple and gold alcohol ink on the reverse for some splash of color! Both sentiments are from KaiserCraft.I drilled some holes on the inside shadow portion of the frame to suspend a few metal chains with glass beads to look like a half curtain!

The loopy bow has the trinket pin which says “Fragile”…perfect for this project and I made a chunky charm with some aged gold chain and glass beads.I aged the ornate book corners too to give a dull gold look.

 However, I kept the butterfly  and the flowers in bright colors because they add life to this project!

The Monarch butterfly is an acetate die cut using Frantic Stamper Precision die. I first sponged some alcohol ink in gold and then applied some grunge paste with metallic gold color mixed in it and then sprinkled some coarse gold glitter too! That’s a LOT OF GOLD in one little butterfly but I just loved how it looked after drying! I think it steals the show here…

The flowers are all using  different die fro Heart felt creations Arianna blooms, CLD sunflower and CLD sastha daisy die. They have all been colored with distress inks. The foliage is also die cuts from Tattered lace ferns die and CLD Tropical leaves.

That’s the end of the alteration and I think I have never used thus many forms of Gold in any project and I am glad this challenge made me discover the different possibilities.

 So come on, take out all that gold and play along this month. Hope to see you projects soon there!

I hope I did justice to the plain  frame that my friend gave! I am getting a vintage white display cabinet made for my living room ...a new home for my latest creation!

Thank you so much for taking the time to be here and taking part in my anniversary celebrations.

I would love to have my celebrations frame enter the following challenges.

A Vintage Journey – Thru the glass door( acetate, picture frame and glass beads)

Brown SugarChallenge – Distress( I just love that word, lol)

Craft StamperChallenge – Take a technique- color

Red RubberInspirations Challenge – Spring Flowers

Cherry Lynn Designs Challenge – Pretty in purple

Art With Heart - Spring Break

Frilly ‘n’ FunkieChallenge – Spring time die cuts

Moo Mania Challenge– feeling of spring

Crafty  Sentiments- lots of flowers

The Corrosive Challenge Blog- Floral fantasy 

Until my next creative Journey,

Happy Crafting and Re cycling.

Cheers.

Remember when...

Hello Crafters..

Welcome to my page today! Thank you all for your lovely comments on my “faux altered spool” and a warm welcome to all my newest followers.

Today’s project is special and very close to my heart…I have a long vision with it! Yes, it is an up cycled altered project with a purpose , hopefully to last a long long time, lol!

Without much pulling on, here it is…

A “Memory” box that I made for my daughter to house all her “little first things” from infant stage to…

My daughter is 5yrs and 6mns now and currently smitten by “Thumbelina” and “Barbie” and I guess this is the age when we start to build up memories and would probably re call it in our old age!

I too remember a school act in grade 1 on “thumbelina” and I remember this song till date…

"Thumbelina sing, Thumbelina dance..

Thumbelina What’s the difference if you’re very small

When your heart is full of LOVE

You’re  9 feet tall !! "

I could re call this song after 35 yrs lol! Though I vaguely remember dancing and singing for this, then! All these memories came flooding back when I started reading this story book to my daughter last week…

Thank your stars you can’t hear me sing!

And so my theme for the memory box was frozen! A legacy that will pass on…Thank you “Thumbelina”.

I had this sturdy cardboard box that once was a packaging to some branded bed sheet and pillow cover set! My friend with a lot of hopes passed it on to me and thought I would be the best person to  bring life to it. The moment I saw it, I knew it was going to stay with me for a very long time. It is BIG and sturdy and has a lot of space to hold memories and more ....

It had a glossy paper over it and so I din’t want to gesso it at first. I took out lots of tissue paper from packaging and used gel medium to cover the entire box with it and then gave 2 coats of gesso and my box was ready to take all my “ creative abuse” lol!

I got a picture of this lovely flower girl who reminded me of “thumbelina” and decided to make her my focal point..

With the basic decoupage technique in place, I started creating textures all around her with Prima daisy stencil and crackle texture paste from paper Artsy. The entire lid had flowers all over….

I started working around the flower girl by sponging  green and lilac acrylic colors with a hint of brown. I covered the entire box with these colors so the girl blends with the textured flowers! Does she???

I wanted the box to age on its own and dint want to give it too much of a vintage look now it self…I know you are giving a surprised look…yes, with great difficulty I kept myself from the “vintage” look but not really!

You will see spots of brown…I rubbed in brushed Pewter on all the cracks and the flower just started shining! Lavender and silver is such a lovely combo and I feel will be cherished by my daughter even when she grows up.

I kept working on the colors of the lid, till I got the desired look and decided .. NO 3D embellishments…another surprise for you???

I wanted to keep minimum on the top…because I plan to keep this and give it to her probably when she turns 16 !! Long vision…lol!

Here comes the “vintage” from me…I took some Kraft CS and then die  the alphabets with Spellbinders die. I cut 2 more from an old invite and layered them to give a chipboard thickness to the alphabets. Some text stamping on all the die cuts with Bo bunny stamps and Archival green ink and then I aged them with Walnut stain on the edges

.

This not being enough, I applied distress rock candy crackle paint and then brushed pewter on the cracks. Now they are ready to hit the box ! The ideology ornate label with a little more aging with vintage photo and brushed pewter distress stain is the perfect embellishment here with 2 little rose buds. That’s it for the lid!

The green burlap ribbon bow accentuates the closure with a lovely wooden button from American Crafts. I layerd it with another white button for added interest.

For the sides,  colored some lace fabric flowers with brushed Corduroy DI and layered 2 for each flower with a white flat back pebble as the center and had them stuck all around the box. Some rhine stones in lilac and the sides are ready!

This is ”oh so girlie”  look but it was all for Thumbelina…you see!

And now the box opens….

I have kept all the little things that I have collected from her infancy till now and hope to add on till it accommodates, lol!

 You can see her first booties and mittens, her first shoe, her first denim skirt, ,her first book in school, her first story book, the ticket for the first movie we watched together, first biithday frock with the hair band and the list goes on..

The box inside has been covered with some lovely papers from Re collections.

The inside flap has a hand made photo frame made from Corrugated cardboard and I have given a white washed look and some color splats to it. It has a lovely picture of me and her on her “First” birthday! To its left I have a pocket with lots of empty tags which I plan to fill up as years  go by with messages and quotes . Some hand made flowers here too and a jute twine bow completes the look.

And so the box is sealed and will keep filling up with the years to come and if I am still blogging around after 10 years, will keep you posted on the event of giving this fully loaded box to my daughter!

That brings us to the end of this memory tour and I am glad you stayed with me till here!

If you like this project and have taken time to leave a comment, I want you to also re call your first childhood memory and share it with me…would love to take you to your past and re live those moments!

I had a great time making this for my daughter and happy to know we share some “common likes” and it has started with Thumbelina and let’s see how it grows with each stage of her life!

I would love to have this memory box enter the following challenges…

Fussy ‘n’ fancyChallenge Blog – Buttons and Bows

We Love VintageChallenge Blog – K3 ..3 types of Kraft ( have used cardboard box, corrugated cardboard and Kraft CS)

PolkadoodleChallenge _ Use a die

Scrapping 4 Fun – AG with 3 embellishments ( flowers, bow and rhine stones)

Crafts 4 Eternity – baby baby

Country ViewChallenges- Use Kraft card

Stamps and Stencils– AG

Mod Squad ChallengeBlog-  Tic Tack Toe (sponging, die cut, rhine stone)

Sisters of Craft – AG

BGC – Spring Green

Die Cutting Divas – AG
CSCC - AG

Until my next creative journey,

Happy Crafting and Re cycling

Hugs

Wonderful Cozy Moments...

Hello Crafters..

Welcome to my page today ! Its sunny and bright here in Bangalore and yes, the nature is showing signs of new life! I love the fresh green leaves popping out and especially the smell of jasmine in our garden! It’s a delight so sip my morning cuppa with this to watch and smell, lol!

 Schools here have shut down for the annual vacation and that means trouble at home with the little one bored and behind my back! But yes, we love to craft  and so you will still get to see very little from my side for the next 2 months!

This month at Rhedd’s Creative Spirit we have “Anything Goes” as always but only mixed media or altered art. Please do remember that. I have an altered spool for you this month…a spring/ summer creation with the lovely papers from Graphic 45 French Country Collection!

The papers are so warm and cozy in itself and so I decided to do a scene to go with that! A lovely garden with flowers and birds and a window to look out too.

I chose some co ordinated papers in bright sunny colors from the pack to wrap the spool and then applied some crackle texture paste thru the bricks stencil. Heat embossed the window, shutters and the little trough in white and had them in place. Of course they had the slight worn out look with scrapping here and there!

The window dressing is using some marble hand made paper on which I have used my new stamps from KaiserCraft and the sentiment was perfect for the scene! You agree…

The planter is bursting with greenery and made some tiny bright flowers using TH tattered florals. The final dressing however is the polka dot Georgette ribbon bow which adds that “ ooo so pretty” look…what say?

Coming to the top of the spool, I made a scalloped square photo frame in chipboard and covered it with the lovely PP and inside there is a rusted copper lining if you see closely. I made that with some foil paper, ran it thru an embossing folder and colored it with acrylics and perfect pearls in copper! A perfect spot for a family picture..

The half wooden spool from Paper Artsy is also aged with some texture paste and distress stain in picket fence and walnut stain. It however holds some lovely white rose buds and also a cute little butterfly waiting to reach up there!

The sunflower is using CLD (DL 121) and CLD cutie fringe. I placed on a bed of coconut coir for dimension along side some green leaves. The vintage copper lamp post too is using CLD(B130) and it has a cute little bird house. It is a stamp and die set from Marianne Designs and I so so love it! It had to house a few birds and so came those two little love birds using IO dies!

I also made a cute coir nest hanging from the birdhouse but looks like the birds want to enjoy the outside world, lol!

The grass border is using IO dies and the fence…any guesses??? Those are remnants of the TH bird cage die…can you believe it, tied together with some copper wire! They have been aged too with some crackle paste and distress stains and the birdie seems to love perching on it!

That’s the story of my altered spool but wait wait….don’t leave. There is more to it than what you see here.

Do you really think I had a big wooden spool to alter…I wish I had, But who was giving up? I made my own spool using some empty brown tape rings and some old CD”s !!!

 Here we go.. so the spool actually opens up and the lid can be a separate decorative piece! Ta da…

And the  body of the spool can be a lovely pen stand or even hold some Easter goodies…yay! The ribbon looks lovely here...

 I would love to receive something like this, loaded with lots of surprise and that is how I satisfy my self, by making these things for myself, lol!

I am sure you can now a make a spool too at home and go ahead surprise your loved ones with these and don’t forget to take part in the challenge this month at Rhedd’s Creative Spirit. I leave you on that note ..phew! But just more to tell you that I love reading your comments and am so thankful that you decided to stop here today to take that little time off to share some love…

I would like to have my “faux spool” enter the following challenges!

Frillie and Funkie – add a ribbon

Cheery Lynn Designsblog- Back to nature

 Sentimental Sundays – Spring flowers plus a sentiment

 613 Avenue Create- Anything Goes

The CorrosiveChallenge Blog – Hop into Spring

That Craft Place – Easter/ Spring

ArtisticInspiration – AG with flowers
TIOT- They who have wings
SOS - No foolin ( faux spool here,hope that qualifies! and faux metal frame)
CCCB - polka dots
MMM- Recycle/ Upcycle with a twist of flowers
Our Creative Corner- color your world

Until my next Creative Journey,

Happy Crafting and Re Cycling

Hugs.