Woody Wishes

Hello crafty friends..

Welcome to my page today. My house is a total mess this week with old walls being stripped off their color and new ones coming up..I am lovin it!

Nevertheless, I got to spend time in my haven and this time for my DT project at Rhedd’s Creative Spirit, I decided to alter a wine bottle. Its always altered art or mixed media, so play along and do take the time to see what’s in there for inspiration.

So what’s new from me???

This is one is special to me cos it is inspired by my recent yearend holiday in the woods. We were in the middle of a coffee plantation estate with peppers and coffee all around. Tall trees, birds chirping and sometimes the calls of the wild... all so inspiring! I even brought back a piece of the bark which actually triggered this project.

We stayed in a tree house which was the closest to nature kind of feel and I wanted to bring that over in a bottle. Why a wine bottle cos I could gift this to a someone special who dosen’t drink!

Let’s start...

Step1- Having cleaned the bottle, I sponged in a layer of gesso. I was quite eager to use up this lovely decoupage napkin with birds and knew this was just right for this project. Once I decoupaged the napkin, I was ready to work on the base of the bottle.

Step2- I created faux bark texture on corrugated cardboard using homemade texture paste and a palette knife. I patiently waited for it to dry and worked on the fussy cut butterflies and colored them using my new water brush pens. What fun.

Step3- Once the faux bark dried, I twisted and curled it for a natural look and painted it with a couple of acrylic colors. It was then stuck to the bottle base and between the bottle and the bark, I planted some coconut coir. After all the birds needed a home! A few flowers to match the napkin and a cozy abode for the birds was ready.

Step4- Remember I told you this was for a someone special. So I used the Sizzix thin lits die in brown and black and off set the alphabets to give some depth and then heat embossed it with clear UTEE. It was strong enough to dangle from the bottle neck.

So here it is...woody wishes in a bottle.

Hope this inspires you to play along.

I would like to enter the following challenges...

4 Crafty chicks- Anything But A card

Little Red Wagon- They say its your birthday

Country View Challenges- Inspired by bottles

Jo’s Scrap Shack- Ag
Simon Wednesday Ch Blog- Ag
Loves to create- Ag mixed media
brown Sugar Ch blog- Ag

Until my next creative journey,

Happy crafting and re cycling

Cheers.

There lives Rapunzel!

Hello crafty friends..

Welcome to my page today. I’ve been missing here, I know...I have my house getting painted and there is so much mess around but it’s always a pleasure to see the colors coming up on the walls!

Well, it dint stop me from crafting, coz they still haven’t reached there! Last week my daughter had a fancy dress at school and she played the little Rapunzel! She is so smitten by this character for her looooong hair and beautiful looks and I too am smitten for other reasons and so began this project!

Here is what I made! 

The tower where the pretty Rapunzel lived....my creative fantancy took a lovely tour, inspired by this story and the character!

I built a tower with a musical window, a lovely box planter, snow clad garden with butterflies and dragonflies, a log plank base for the tower and an OPENABLE ROOF with a surprise and of course there is something at the back too! 

Hang on......

Step1- I went about covering the entire tower with tissue paper for texture and strength. Once dry, applied homemade texture paste randomly with a spatula. I have used urban cling runner stamp on the wet texture paste for added texture. Told myself to be patient as the entire thing dried!

Step 2- I mixed some gesso to acrylic Prussian blue and gave the tower a coat. As that was drying, I got to make the base plank ready. A piece of chipboard was covered with black gesso. I tried the regular white glue crackle method and I just loved those BOLD cracks. I drew black likes to make it look like a few planks together and made it stand on a flat pebble base.

Step 3- Once the tower was ready, stamped some bricks with Bo bunny stamps and also applied some gesso thru the TCW bricks stencil.

The little angel is made with POP and have antiqued it with brushed pewter DS and acrylic black.

 The window is an IO die cut which has some black splatter and musical backdrop ( Bo bunny again). Only during the course of the fancy dress, I came to know that Rapunzel had a beautiful voice and could sing very well too!

The box planter is lined up with some snow clad foliage and red buds are using TH tattered florals, smallest flower.

Step4- the roof is a piece of chipboard covered with corrugated cardboard and given the snowy effect too and its detachable! 

Will come to the surprise later...

The flower on the garden outside is using Joy crafts die and the little butterflies and dragon fly are stamped and colored using my new water color brush pens and mounted on rusted wire to give the illusion of flight!

Step 5- Do we go to the back yard???

 You see the lovely Rapunzel framed!

And they lived happily ever after...a wicker heart and a vintage key hangs casually to tell their love story!

Did I mention surprise??? I told you the roof opens...yes that’s how she got out in this story, lol!

Now I cannot decide if I should keep a perfume bottle inside and gift it to my valentine....

OR keep my favorite (current) water brush pens and gift it to myself so that I see this on my table everyday! Help me....

And here comes another surprise...

This tower was not built in a day! The secret companion hiding here is the ever faithful empty toothpaste carton! Don’t we chuck that out every month! Not any more...build a lovely home for your Rapunzel too!

Have a good day and thank you so much for stopping by.

I am having this tower enter the following challenges....

Frilly and Funkie- sing, sing, sing ( can you hear her singing from the musical window?)

STAMPlorations- Mixed media

Stamps and Stencils- Oh so blue!

Emerald creek dares- Valentine's is not in the air

Southern ridge trading co – Jan winter challenge

More mixed media- Blue

That Craft Place- Anything goes

SOS- 3 rose buds, 2 butterflies and 1 heart

613 Avenue Create- Ag no twist

Until my next creative journey,

Happy Crafting and recycling.

Cheers.

Tangled Gelli Cereal

Hello crafty friends..

Welcome to my page today. I hope the title doesn’t make you think that I am going to share some disastrous food recipe, lol!

I am still enjoying new crafty goodies and have tried two new techniques which I would like to share with you.

I just got my mini gelli plate(3X5)...oh yes, its so tiny and cute! As you know I get jittery making cards, I kept thinking what could be an alternate use of those gelli prints and then hit upon making a name plague hanging for my studio which is getting painted and all spruced up.

Firstly, I just wanted to play with colors and stencils and experiment making custom prints with the plate. I took out found objects like a comb, corrugated card board and bubble wrap for additional textures.

Here are the lovely prints I got on my first attempt...tiny slabs of handmade prints!

Now it was time to gather supplies for the name plague and I cut out a cereal box to make the base!

 I adhered these gelli panel to the base and made 4 sturdy slabs. I inked the edges with Black soot DI to give a border.

What next??? I wanted something different on the slabs for the alphabets and tried my hand at zentangling!

These few hours of tangling the alphabets got me so engrossed I wished I had more alphabets to do. It was so therapeutic and to add to that coloring them with my new water brush pens was an icing! It was as if the alphabets came to like with all those bright colors, I did manage to do some shading too.

It was an amateurish attempt at tangling and I know I need more practice but the entire experience of doing this piece was so relaxing. I did 4 alphabets, TOFA( To gether for arts)...that’s my brand, blog and page too.

I then fussy cut the alphabets and had them stuck on the panels and went around the alphabet shape with my new PIIT pens from faber castle, to highlight and give dimension.

Then I strung all the panels with a metal chain and for the base, used up beads and a bell to spruce it up. The end result...a bohemian chic!

I loved the total colorful splash of the tangled alphabets against the gelli prints...I purposely dint do too many layers on the prints.

Now I can’t wait for my studio to get painted so I can hand this beauty in a prominent place! I am quite trilled at my maiden attempts at gelli printing and tangling...I urge you all to try it too! It’s quite addictive, don’t blame me for that!

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

Crafty catz- word art

The Sisterhood of Crafters- Something old and new

Inspiration destination – Ag

SOS- Something new

Emerald Creek dares- something new

As you like it ch_ Fav paper or non paper project

Until my next Creative journey,

Happy Crafting and re cycling,

Cheers.

Happiness Documented!

Hello crafty friends..

Welcome to my page today...yes, pretty soon eh? It’s still the first week of the New Year and I have my 3^rd post already! Well that’s how it is when you are pampered with a lot of crafty goodies to start with and memories of a wonderful holiday in the woods! I just couldn’t wait to start after that and  use up my new goodies...a few being the bright, vibrant dylusions paint, the new months and year stamp and of course the Sixzzix thinlits die(my fav)...you will see it in a few projects to come!

Well, it also happens to be my birthday in a couple of weeks time and I thought I will make something for myself! Just make something where my creative fancy takes me and this is what I ended up making....

Any guesses???

It is NOT a planner, NOT a card holder, NOT an organizer...then what??? Have a look at the heading now...can you guess? Well we come to that at the end...let’s see how I made this!

I have altered a kitchen roll here...yes, you got me...the ingredients here are all found objects from home, kitchen roll, bubble wrap, corrugated card board, sand, beads , buttons, bottle caps and pieces of die cuts and broken charms!

Here is how it looked before the paints attacked lol!

Once I had all them glued securely, I gave a coat of black gesso...sorry no pic here. Quite scary though it was to see the whole thing turn black!

I wanted my fav greens, blues, oranges and dull gold in this and that is what came to my table. Well there is another reason for these colors too...scroll down!

I started first by dry brushing in fresh lime dylusions paint and OO la la..it just came alive! I love the freashness of this color and next I hit it with london blue and it just got brighter! 

It made me happy to see the black going to the background and how the colors popped!

I then ran some old gold Inka gold on the raised spots and it just immediately highlighted the textures! 

That was just mind blowing...this my first try with black gesso and bright colors...LOVE it!

I was greedy to have this one brighter, so got some subtle oranges in with the mini leaflets.

 I have punched the corner with my new punch and stamped the months on them They are all inked with wild honey and rusty hinge DI. Still greedy, I got the freshly bloomed flowers from my garden, lol!

The metal butterfly too got a dry brush of london blue paints and some beaded body and it almost blended with the rest of the project! Two little bottle caps hold the tube in place.

Since I was in celebration mode, I had the thin lits die take prominence here! Now coming to the little leaf lets... “Happiness Documented”...This little thing is going to document my happiness thru the year.

I have decided that from this month onwards, I am going to write down all that makes me happy.

Yes, I am just going to write down the happy things in my life here, on these open pages....and end of the year make it into a mini book and then read it whenever I want to...isn’t that COOL!

Well you see that I have already kick started with Jan...and its filling up...Make one for yourself too. It’s better to move on thinking about all the good things that has happened and just letting go of the unnecessary bad thoughts.

That brings us to the end of this colorful project, one precious gift I am giving myself! I would love to know what you think about this. Thank you so much for stopping by.

I am documenting this in the following challenges...

Anything But Cute- Ring out the old, bring in the new

TIOT – letters and numbers

Scrapki wyzwaniowo- altered art

Frilly and Funkie – Holiday hues ( a refreshing holiday in the woods, colors of nature!)

Peek-a-boo Designs- AG with the Indian flag colors(blue, green and saffron)

Creative Moments- Ag new beginnings
Loves to Create ch blog- Ag mixed media

Until my next Creative journey,

Happy Crafting and re cycling,

Cheers.

Ready To Travel???

Hello crafty friends..

Welcome to my page today. I wish you all very happy, colorful, Creative and content 2016.

For me, I took the opportunity to thank the 2 men in my life! Are you guessing wild!!! Before you do that...let me tell you, it’s my Husband and Brother!

My bro visited me from London this year end as always to spend the New Years with us and guess what...he pampered me with WHOLE lot of crafty goodies and I decided to give a piece of my hand crafted creativity that can sit on his work table!

As for my husband, the New Year at work meant clearing the old and starting afresh and I thought I will help him be a little organized at work and so a little handmade goody for that!

Here is what I made for both of them!

 Any guesses...You will see it as we progress.

Two contrasting styles but the same functionality!

The blue mini stroller is made with papers from the Papericious pack and the lid is using canvas cloth and embossed using basket weave folder. 

I have then inked it with Archival Ink corn flower blue. The handle is a linen twine and for charms...they are  some of my brothers childhood favs. I then stamped a Whimsy quote, and these hang casually from a Tim Holtz Ideology swivel clasp.

The formal leather mini stroller is using Tim Holts “lost and found” paper pack and I have teamed it with faux leather using Kraft CS and distress paints and Distress crackle.

Brushed metal feet using brads help the stroller balance itself! I have used Ideology ruler ribbon for the handle and a ticket using his stamps. The metal charm is a Sizzix thinlits die and have used the faux brushed metal technique. The key hole too is a Sizzix hardware findings die that has been heat embossed in gold.

Shall we open the stroller’s????

Here they are....

The stroller opens up to reveal 4 compartments that can accommodate visiting cards! Yes...it’s a visiting card holder...now don’t we have a loooot of that piled up at work and at home and it just becomes difficult to choose the right one at a glance.

Its just so boring to have a folder to hold them, so I decided o make some eye candy for the men and subtly drive the message of being organized too, lol! This is not just going to sit pretty on the table for sure cos I got a big NOD and HUG from both the men!

In fact, the compartments have been labeled to categorize the cards...the casual one has them stamped on the sides!

The formal one has red tabs (Sizzix Tabs &Tags die)stamped with alphabets to break the monotony of leather!

Here is a look with the cards in...

I bet this will be a conversation piece on their work table and yes, let the visitors flow!

Do let me know your feedback on this project...and one last secret ingredient here....

Both the strollers have their outer case made with empty cereal cartons! 

 I would like to drag my strollers to the following challenges...

A Vintage Journey- Vintage travel and luggage

Artistic Stamper- AG

That Craft Place – AG

Stamping Sensations – Ag with a die

Loves to Scrap Challenge- New beginnings.
City Crafter Challenge Blog- new beginnings

Until my next creative journey,

Happy Crafting and recycling.

Cheers.

My kitchen companion!

Hello crafty friends..

Wishing you all a very Happy new year. Sharing my first project for 2016 and my DT creation for Rhedd’s creative Spirit where every month it’s “anything Goes” altered art or mixed media only.

I have an altered project to share today...my kitchen companion for twenty years now! Yes, it’s my good old kettle...my first buy after marriage and it has served me so many years until it gave away a few years back.

 I had neglected it and abandoned it in my garden as a planter and almost forgotten about it until I happened to be cleaning my garden.

I spotted this old fella, all weathered and chipped with a broken handle and I told myself “this is not how he is meant to be” and yes, he made it to my craft table the very same day, all cleaned up!

I gave a good clean up and mended the handle and tied a nice thick twine all around to ensure thet he can be carried around safely! Once that was done, I decided to start the makeover...

Step 1 - I was more than happy to use my new dylusions paint for this project. I first sponged gesso all over the body and spout and when that was dry, applied the dylusions paints in parts. I have used london blue, fresh lime and lemon zest for this...just so vibrant and colorful!

This was an instant boost to the drab looking fella!

Step 2- Once the base was dry, I started hand painting few flowers on both sides. I have used acrylics for this with a little texture using gesso. On one side, I have lovely bright pink flowers and on the other side there are bright red poppies. Being, acrylics, it dried very fast.

Step 3- I went about creating some textures on the back ground using Prima Finnabair texture stamps and black archival inks. To brighten up I also had some color splats using liquefied gesso and some white circles too using gesso and a bottle cap! My mixed media is incomplete without some script stamping and I love to see it popping here and there.

Step 4- OnceI was happy with the overall look, I went about inking the edges of the kettle...the top ring and the base with black archival ink. This gave an instant depth to the project. My old fella was unrecognizable and  i felt there was a stranger in front of me!

An unusually bright, vibrant project from me and I thought it was time to spruce up this old fella’s new lease of life! Time to celebrate the New Year and with a little potted plant snuggled inside cozily, it just looked perfect for my kitchen!

I got him back to the kitchen, not to work anymore but to just sit around and watch things and take rest...after all it has served me good all these years. It’s payback time...what say????

Thank you so much for stopping by today and hope you will take time to see what my team mates have in store for you, and do play along.
Linking to the following challenges...
Sisters of craft ch blog - Ag
The ABC Challenge- Y is your choice(AG)
A Bit More Time To Craft - AG

Until my next creative journey,

Happy Crafting and recycling.Cheers.