Watercoloring with Distress Inks

Hello. In this card I have done watercoloring with Distress Inks on the flowers digi. The side strip is color-coordinated with same color distress ink as the flowers. For the card base, I punched the MS punch and added score lines onto the rest of the card.

I used the left over strip on the inside of the card and added a sentiment there too.

Black and White Mucial Notes

Hello. Just a quick post to share one of my new stamped card. I have used three stamp sets here. The flower and butterfly stamp are from Micia wooden stamp and the musical notes stamp is from Maya road.

I used my score board to create a ribbed bg on lower half of the card. The sentiment is from TPC stamp set.

 

Diwali Blog Hop 2014

Hey everybody! We all are blog-hopping today to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights! Join in and participate in the hop to learn more about the festival and see some beautiful ethnic creations! 

What Diwali means to me?

Diwali has different meanings for different people. It is a great occasion to meet friends, relatives, eat sumptous food, burst firecrackers and celebrate the festival together. For me it is a great time to follow all the rituals, decorate the house with diyas (earthen lamps), rangoli (floor art), paper lanterns and toran (festive string for door). We begin preparations for Diwali a month in advance by cleaning the home, throwing away unwanted stuff, purchasing new clothes for Diwali, buying stuff for Diwali puja (prayers), etc. I begin the day with preparing the food so that I have the rest of the day free for other things. After lunch, I sit down to make rangoli and keep all the diyas ready. I do the decor a few days before Diwali and add fresh flowers on that day. In the evening, we perform Laxmi puja (Pray to Goddess Laxmi), and eat sweetmeats. After that we burst a few firecrackers and visit our near and dear ones and have dinner with them. Here is a collage of my previous years' Diwali celebrations.

About my card

Although I love making traditional looking cards for Diwali, this time I gave it a slight twist with a special fold and by using some non-traditional colors like teal. This type of card is refered to as a 'Building Block Card'. I made it using this tutorial from Splitcoaststampers blog. The pattern papers are from DCWV paper stack.

For the front, I used a punched border to look like toran (festive string for door) on the top of the card and added some bling onto it in the form of rhinestones. The greeting is computer generated. I made the Ganesha using this stencil and dabbing distress inks over it. Then I fussy cut it and popped it with foam tape.

Now, for the inside of the card, I made some diya embellishments on my own. These are handcut using paper scraps. I stuck them on alternate blocks and for the rest of the blocks I added stamped, inked and fussy cut flowers.

Hope you like my card and all the fun stuff I tried in it. To view my other Diwali cards, please visit here. I also have a small tutorial on 'How to create a dot rangoli in 5 easy steps' on my blog.

Below is the blog hop order for reference. Have fun!! 

Chaitali

Gayatri

Mayuri

Smriti 

Deepti

Indira - You are here

Piali

Sindhu

Isha

Tasnim

Shilpa

Happy Hopping!!!

Challenges Entered

Imaginations October Challenge - Festivals

Handmade Diwali Cards 2014 - Design 3

Hello! This is my third card in the series of Diwali Cards that I made this year. You may view my other Diwali cards here.

 

I wanted to depict rangoli (floor art) on my card and what better way than to do this with quilling.

 

Instead of the regular sentiment, I decided to do something in the form of toran (decorative door hanging). I have written the greeting in Hindi and secured with a string. The decorative lace border adds to the overall look of the card.

 

 

Challenges Entered

Imaginations October Challenge - Festivals

How to make a Dot Rangoli in 5 Steps

It's festive time here in India and I love to decorate my home with beautiful rangoli (floor art). I am not an expert nor have I learnt it formally. I just love to experiment with my rangolis each year and today I am going to share my process of making a portable rangoli with colors. 

I found this method easier as you can make this rangoli sitting inside your house, unlike the traditional method of sitting outside on the floor. I adopted this process mainly because here in Mumbai we have very less space outside the flats to make huge rangolis, and also sitting outside is not viable because of the humid weather and space constraints. I have this 12 x 12" square piece of wooden ply, which I use to make my rangoli every year. You may make any kind of design on it, but I usually find the dot rangoli easier to do.

Material required:

• Wooden plank - preferably square
• Dot rangoli patterns (lots available online)
• White Rangoli powder
• Rangoli Colors

Here are the steps with pictures....

Step 1:

Select the desired rangoli pattern that you want to make from a book or any other source. As per the design, mark dots at equal distance all over base (wooden ply). 

You can use  a scale or a paper stencil like the one shown here to do the markings.

Step 2:

Since I am not very good with it, I generally use a pencil/chalk to draw the design on the base to get it right. I have faced situations where I had to redo the entire stuff, if I try to make it with colors directly.

Step 3:
Use the plain white rangoli powder, to make the outline.

Step 4: 
Prepare the colors by mixing in the white powder.

Step 5:
Start filling in the patterns, one color at a time. I have first filled in green color in the image below.

Then fill second color, and so on...

Here is the ready rangoli!! You can now pick it up carefully and place at any corner of the house.

Light earthen lamps and place over the rangoli.

This is another example of the dot rangoli that I had made during Diwali, in the year 2012.

Have a safe & wonderful Diwali. If you get inspired by my tutorial, please do let me know and share your rangoli pictures with me. :)

Handmade Diwali Cards 2014 - Design 2

Hello. So here is another Diwali card that I made this year. There's a lot of layering, stencilling and distressing done on the card base.

I decided to make my own diya (earthen lamp) embellishment. I used this stencil from Itsy Bitsy to trace an outline and cut a black silhouette of the diya with CS. Then I paper pieced other layer in different colors and popped them on one another with foam dots. Finished it off with some bling. The greeting is computer generated. The bg damask stencil is also from Itsy Bitsy.

Decoupage Mdf Jewellery Box

Hey there! Finally I tried my hand at another big decoupage project. I bought this six compartment mdf box from Craftslane. I wanted to make a jewellery box for myself so I wasn't afraid to experiment with this one. The pink according to me is a bit darker than I wanted it to be. But I guess it doesn't look that bad!! :)

 

 

 

I coated the box with white wood primer, and then painted with pink acrylic paint. Then I pasted the decoupage hydrangea tissue paper design all over the box. I then applied a generous coat of mod modge over it. To embellish it, I dug out these pretty flowers from Itsy Bitsy that I had been hoarding since a long time. The butterfly chipboard embellishment is also from Itsy Bitsy.

 

I created a cluster at the left top corner with a metal fairy charm and loads of pearls.

  

I also liberally stuck two lines of pearl and rhinestone border on all sides of the box.

 

And here it is, filled with all my junk jewellery :) It is also apt for gifting on festivals. You can fill it up with dry fruits or other gifts.

 

Challenges Entered

Imaginations October Challenge - Festivals

Handmade Diwali Cards 2014 - Design 1

I managed to sneak in some time to make some Diwali cards. I have been super busy with my little one, and I could make few Diwali cards while he was taking a nap.

 

I have used my favorite Ganesh stencil from Itsy Bitsy. It's so easy to make festive cards using this. I just had to take out my distress inks and dab over the stencil. The sentiment is computer generated. The bright colored card stock adds to the festive look.

 

This is the stencil that I used for the card. For my other Diwali cards, visit here. 

 

 Challenges entered

 Addicted to CAS #49 - Stencil 

Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge #28 - Anything Goes

Handmade Christmas Cards 2014 - Design 1

Taking a cue from Jennifer Mcguire, I tried using my stamp in a different way to create this card. I stamped the leaf bunch multiple times to create a leafy vine. For the berries,  I inked up a round foam and stamped with it. 

The stamp set used is Penny Black 30-140 Christmas Cheer Clear Stamp. I have used three stamps from this stamp set for the card.

 

 

 Challenges entered

CSCC#8 - One Card, One Stamp set
Delicious Doodles #105 - Christmas in October

Decoupage Mug

Hi. This is another DIY decoupage project that I made for my craft desk.

 

 

 I had this porcelain mug from Radio Mirchi with me for many years and I was kind of bored with it now. I decided to give it a fresh look with decoupage. The base coat is peach acrylic color. Then I glued the decoupage design with mod podge over the mug. Once dry, I applied a coat of mod podge over the entire design.

 

Stripes Stencilled Background Card

Hello! Today's card is made using one of my stencils from The Crafter's Workshop. I have used Chipped Saphire distress ink to color  the bg wigth stencil. The flower was stamped using a wood mounted stamp. I first staped the full image in green and fussy cut it. Then a second image was stamped in red ink and only the flower was fussy cut. The red part was layered atop the green image using 3D foam tape.

Challenges entered

 Crafting When We Can Challenge #79 - No Designer Papers

Fashionable Stamping - #83 Anything Goes