New Year Wishes

Hello !!
I'll keep it short and sweet today. Quickly sharing a card I made for Indira's Mega Celebration Event-2, where the challenge is to make a card, preferably a New Year greeting, using Indian motifs in some or the other form, like, a Mehendi (henna) design, Rangoli, Mandala, etc.
So this is what I came up with:

 The stamps are from Penny Black Dazzlers stamp set, which I totally love due to their intricate design and they remind me of a beautiful henna or Sanskar Bharati(Rangoli) designs.  I thought they would be perfect for this challenge.
After stamping with Archival black ink(which is waterproof), I coloured the stamped images with Lindy's stamp gang Magical micas. The resultant coloured images have a lovely shimmer to them, which may not be very clear in the pictures.

Also linking my card to :-
Cas(e) this sketch#104 

I'm sure most of you must be busy during this holiday season. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a very happy New Year 2015 !

Thanks for visiting me today and always. :)

More Distress Ink scenery cards

Thank you dear friends for your wonderful comments on my previous post, which was about creating a scenery with distress inks. Due to your encouraging comments, I felt motivated to try more of them, and as a result of which, I have come up with two more inked cards.

Here's my first card:

I have kept this one pretty simple and one-layered. I just wanted the beautiful colours of the dawn to rule the scene.  The silhouette stamp is from Impression obsession. It is my recent purchase and I really love it because it reminds me of my childhood cycle rides with my brother. :)
Linking this one to:
Addicted to CAS-- Family 

And here's the second one:

Okay, this one took a little more time to finish. I love how rich and vibrant it looks. The Tim Holtz distress inks used in this one are spiced marmalade and fired brick. In addition to these, I've also used memento inks- dandelion and rhubarb stalk. After a few moments of masking and inking, messy craft table and a few inky fingers, this is what I came up with. :) And the stamped meadow silhouette is from Inkadinkado- meadows.
Linking this to:
Runway Inspired Challenge#74-Escada

Also linking both the cards to:
Virginia's View Challenge-- All things Distressed

I did make a third scenery card as well, one-layered with snow, but the stamping on it went horribly wrong and it was discarded. Hopefully, will give it another try and share it soon.

Until then, let me know what you think about these. I appreciate your views on my work.

Happy Crafting!

Fun With Distress Inks

Hi There!

I played with my distress inks this afternoon. I just love the versatility of these inks. The more I use them, the more they surprise me with their results. One of the uses of the distress inks is making  scenes with the help of sponge daubers or/and ink blending tools. I tried my hand at creating an autumn scene inspired by a real photograph I found on the internet.

Here's my card:

And here's the picture it got inspired from:

The Tim Holtz distress inks used here are- Mowed lawn, tumbled glass, salty ocean, fired brick and spiced marmalade. Have also used a couple of memento inks-dandelion and tuxedo black. Added a few splatters of watered down inks using a paint brush.
Sorry, I don't have the step-by-step pictures of the process because it was just meant to be a trial and I had no idea how it would turn out to be. But after it's completion, I'm quite satisfied with the way it looks.

The tree trunk and the smaller tree-silhouttes are hand-drawn using a black marker. The leaves that appear to be blown outside the framed scene are stamped(hero arts leaves stamp set), fussy cut and coloured with distress inks.

So, that's all about this card. Do let me know what your views are. :)

Linking it to the following challenges:
1. CAS(E) this sketch#102

2. Virginia's view challenge--All things distressed

3. Casology#124-- Old ( Well, I have used distress inks here, and 'distressed' means 'old', so with that logic, I hope that counts)

4. Addicted to stamps and more#124--- CAS

Card with Mandala Quilling

Hello Friends!
 Sharing a card I completed today, inspired by the gorgeous picture at this week's Runway Inspired Challenge#72----Hervé Léger.

Here's the card:

 And here's where it got inspired from:

The main focal image of this card is done by quilling, using 3 mm quilling strips, in the shades of coral and red. The outfit shown in this week's picture is all about symmetry, with intricately embroidered design elements with a touch of gold. So, quilling was the first thing that came into my mind.

I wanted to bring some symmetry on my card too, so I chose to do it by quilling a Mandala {Mandala (Sanskrit: मण्डल Maṇḍala, 'circle') is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the Universe. The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape.}

Added a few gold rhinestones and matted the design on a piece of golden paper. Stamped the sentiment and the card was ready.

Love to hear your views on my work always. Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great day. :)

Exploring My 'Scrappy' Side

Hello friends !

Something new and different from my side today. Of late, I've found myself getting drawn towards scrapbooking. I love seeing those wonderful mixed media scrapbook layouts and watching the step-by-step process of creating one. Although this is not my first attempt at a scrapbook LO, but this is surely my first attempt at making a mixed media layout, playing with different mediums and sprays. Oh, yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it !

Have a look:

I was inspired by the sketch at Once upon a...sketch-November Challenge, where this month's theme is-- Inspirations. 

My inspiration for making this is my 3-year old daughter. Every mother loves to see her child smile and giggle and laugh her heart out, to be free of any worries. I have tried to capture the happiness I feel on seeing my baby with her wholehearted, toothy giggle. :) Although she loves to pose for the photos, it usually gets difficult to get her real self, her natural laugh to be captured in a photo, because kids get camera-conscious and don't come out naturally. After a few attempts, I got lucky and captured my favorite moment :)

Some close-ups:

Add caption

The Journaling reads like this--"I may be having the worst time of my day, but your innocent smile makes all my worries fade away. Keep smiling always!"

Also linking it to:
Kraft Zone challenge--Anything goes with prima. (Prima producta I have used here are prima elementals bubbles stencil, floral bg stamp-romantique collection and junkyard metal findings. Below is the picture of the prima goodies I've used)

Would love to hear your views. Thanks so much for visiting.



Supplies used:
Watercolour paper-base
Lindy's stamp gang- magicals-- Drink me silly
Prima elementals stencils-bubbles
Prima background floral stamp
Prima Junkyard findings-street signs
Fiskars-butterfly stamps
homemade gesso
homemade texture paste
mulberry flowers
antique metal charms
Doily,corrugated piece of paper, music sheet, laces-from the stash
border punch

Sea

Hey everyone!

Great to be back crafting and blogging. I wasn't getting any good ideas and was feeling creatively low since I was away from crafting for quite a while (I shared the reason for my absence in my last post here), but as soon as I saw this week's CASology cue word-Sea, I knew what I had to come up with.

Here's how I made it :
1. Inked a piece of white cardstock with tumbled glass and salty ocean distress inks, darker on the sides and the corners and lighter on the inside
2. Made it look like a white foamy wave by tearing it on one side and stuck it over the card base
3. Used a 'small foot' punch on a scrap piece of paper, used the negative as a stencil of inking up those footprints
4. Stamped the sentiment from Fiskars-all around quotes
5. Finished off the card by embellishing it with an antique metal anchor charm.


Quick and Simple.

Also linking up with:
Virginia's View Challenge#9--All things metallic(Have used a metallic anchor charm)

Would love to know your views. Thanks for visiting.

Have a great week ! :)

Just Saying Hello

Hello, hello my dear crafter friends! :)
How have you all been?  Hope all my Indian friends had a fabulous Diwali :)
I know I've been MIA for quite a while now and this little space of mine has been neglected for over a month. My apologies. As of today, I have no project to share . Just popping in to say a big hello to you all and to say how badly I miss you all and ofcourse my crafting. The reason for MIA being a short term relocation to a new place. Well, my husband's job took him to Thailand for a period of 3 months and my daughter and me joined him for his last month there. So we are just back after a month long relaxing sojourn(well, relaxing for my daughter and me, poor hubby had work to do :P), feeling refreshed and energetic. :)

Thailand is a beautiful country and the people are wonderful and hard working. It is well-known for it's cuisine, and if you are a non-vegetarian and do not mind introducing new tastes to your taste-buds, this is the place to be. :)

Sharing a few snapshots taken while our stay:

The Floating Market Scene, Bangkok

Street food

The Reclining Buddha, Phuket

Phi Phi Island

Kata Beach, Phuket

Handcrafted on teakwood

Phuket

Mom and me at the Siam Ocean World

 At the James Bond Island(apparently, a Bond movie was shot here)

My Family and me :)

This was one of my most memorable vacations. But all good things come to an end, and my vacation has ended, I'm back home, back to my daily chores, a truck-load of laundry, a delayed Diwali cleaning of my home and cupboards, Lol.  But honestly, I'm happier being back to my own country, to the welcoming warmth of my own home, my bed, and ofcourse my crafting table, which hasn't been put to good use since long.  Apparently, my mojo's still on a vacation, awaiting it's return :)

Until then, hope you all have a creative week ahead, and do not forget to tell me what you all have been upto. Anything new and interesting?  

Thanks for stopping by!

Musical Birthday

Hi dear friends,

It's been ages since I played along with the challenges at Lulupu, but this fortnight's challenge-- Black-n-white with a pop of colour--had my creative juices flowing. So I made a card ( No surprises there, I know!!) which is not CAS ( NOW you are surprised, aren't you?? :P) .
Also linking it to Seize the birthday Challenge--Anything goes(No toppings, please)
 Please have a look.

Piano card

Please note--- I have used yellow colour in three varying shades along with the black and white, but I have absolutely NO idea, why the dark yellow appears to be orange in the pictures !! It is actually a darker shade of yellow, like that of a ripe mango, I can assure you that. Just clarifying myself because I don't intend to break any challenge rules..lol...:)


I saw this card on the Pinterest but haven't found any tutorials for it. There are some templates available for making this kind of card, but I found it difficult to stick to those measurements so I went with my own. 

A pocket with a tag inside

 


The shape of the card and the black-n-white keys are cut with the help of my craft scissors. The musical sheet that is stuck over the inner side is hand-drawn ( the one you see on the card box is a printout I had been hoarding since long).

Closer view of the quilling

The flowers on the outer panel of the card are quilled using 3 mm quilling strips from the yellow family pack.Added a pocket inside the card for a sentiment tag(and any personal note if you wish) to be inserted. Finished it off with pearls.

I made this card for my younger brother who celebrated his 24th birthday this month. He loves music, so I planned to go for this piano card. You must be thinking -a card for a guy and flowers?? Well, my brother is a biggest admirer and critic of my work, and he likes to see my quilling, so for this particular card, I went beyond the general limitations of gender stereotyping(no butterflies or flowers for a man, pink for girls and blue for guys) and went ahead with what I believed would make him happy. :)

 box with the card inside

The box

Would love to hear your views about this. :)

Thanks for visiting me today.

You're Wonderful

Hey wonderful people!

Hope you all are doing great! As for me, I'm taking things easy this weekend and making the best use of the spare time I have in my hands. :) Sharing a card I made inspired by a few challenges.
Here's my card:--

The roses are hand drawn, watercoloured and fussy cut before sticking them over a  doily layered over a textured card panel.I have used watercolour cakes for colouring the roses. The sentiment is NBUS from the Waffle Flower Bowtiful stamp set. Finally, the panel was mounted over a blue card stock and bling was added.

Linking this card to:--
1. NBUS#2--- This one's for you, Darnell.You truly are wonderful !( The sentiment used here was one of the NBUS)
2. Cas(e) this sketch#93  (I was amazed by the inspiring designs shared by the DTs there, but I was completely awestruck by Alice Wertz' card here, and based on this, I was inspired to make my own. )
3.Create  something catchy challenges#7---Watercolouring
4. Muse Challenge #85--I was inspired by the beautifully coloured blooms on The Muse Marion Vagg's card.

That's all from my side. Thanks so much for visiting me today.

Have a great week!! :)