Celebration time!!!!

Hello Belles, this is my first post as a part of the design team of UnstampaBelles challenges.

 

The challenge for October is .....

 

..TIME 

 and the twist is shabby chic!

Time can be many things - a moment, a place in the day, a memory.....

Remember also you can make a card but 

you can also make anything else that suits the challenge theme!

Just also remember - NO STAMPS to be used please either digital or rubber or clear/cling - not even in the background or for a sentiment.

October is Sponsored 

by

Flourish with a Bling

 

They are currently having a

HUGE $2 FLOWER SALE 

for the month of OCTOBER!

Now, have a look at my project. I interpreted the theme quite literally, using a clock. My project indeed has a flavor of shabby chic but is also what I call "cute".

 

I received this triangular desk clock with a big corporate logo inside…and I couldn’t help but alter this one. I wanted to go with the baby theme. I made this as a gift for namakaran  (It is a festive celebration in India  when a new baby is born and is also named in this ceremony). To the clock, I also added 3 photo areas where  photos of one’s choice can be displayed.

And dear readers, I also have and easy step by step tutorial for you!

 

 

To start with I opened the clock piece to paint (white)the inside to hide the logo. Since a new mommy is tearing herself part between feeding, changing diapers, playing with  the baby and taking care of herself I thought of adding stickers / sketching cartoons with copic markers to add flavor. I also  stuck a monkey on the long hand of the clock suck that he can do the rounds(pun intended) 24 times a day, accompanying the mommy.   

Click for an elaborate view

Next I cut out a tree with my paper knife from a Kraft colored cardboard (Which is one ingredient I almost always use for my mixed media project).

 

 

Please click for an elaborate view

 

 

I had hoarded the yogurt cup holders we buy from the store. When I stick two together in allows me to even slip  photo through it acting like a frame. I decided to use it here as the radius of these perfectly matched the clock (I broke the 3^rd circle as you can see).

For the base of the clock, I first coated the glass with masking tape. Then I coated it with gesso and modelling paste and scratched with a fork to create a checked pattern. I once again smooshed the ink pads directly on this. Then I stuck my tree onto the side.

 

I cut out my textured papers and stuck them onto the created frame. This is the space created to add photos.  Now comes the fun part, embellishing this. You can see a lenient use of chipboard, beads, lace, twine.

The bird is a chipboard, the eggs are beads while the nest is burlap string. The baby and the milk bottle are embellishments  (of polymer clay) by Sunglow Art.

 

 

Note that I have leniently used lace behind each embellishment and inked it for adding drama!

 

 

I made flowers  using the same textured paper and pearl. The green moss/ grass is fibre moss. If you do not have this green wool which is torn and tattered will work equally well!

Did you also notice a tad of shimmer i added?

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And here it is!

Hope this inspires you to play along and make your own time piece….Link your project HERE

 

Supplies used (If not mentioned in the post already):

Embellishments/ stencil from itsy bitsy

Gesso white

Modeling paste

Hot melt stick

Archival ink pad: rose, magenta hue

Dylusions ink sprays: Funky fuchsia, bubblegum pink 

  

Am also linking this to

Imaginationsonline: Festive Celebration of baby birth

BGC 61#: Baby shower

Lessology: Created a baby scene

SSS: Show us what you made

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #5 - Ribbons, Twine, & Fibers

 

Once upon a time.....altered book cover

Small things in life often leave a lot of inspiration for me charge my crafting instincts. This weekend I had arranged a play date for my kid. I spent half the time reading fairy tales after fairy tales. …All the books started with “ Once upon a time…..”..With a calligraphic capital “O” written distinctly at a start the story….And the next night (almost all night) this is what I came up with.

 

I had an old black diary, the cover of which I chose to alter…..I started by sticking a beautiful vintage pp from paper theatre while allowing some black to sneak through  the side. I cut out small pieces of cardboard to appear as bricks and stuck then to create a wall (was inspired by the tale of the speaking wall). I further used my ink pads to directly smoosh on the card board allowing the natural color of the card board to play its role.. .

With My stencil and modeling paste I created a design, once again smooshing it with my ink pads.

 

Now was the fun part. Last week a friend sent me samples of crackle paint and copper embossing powder. I thought of using them here to create a rust effect. I pulled out a key whose lock was broken, and some chain and ring from a broken key chain and gave it a rust look. Further I made net flowers, black lace, wooden beads and used flower cap spacers from my stash to embellish. I cut out the heel of my kids old rexine shoe (yes I cleaned it well) , dabbed it with walnut stain distress ink to appear like an old bag ( inspired by the tale of Puss in boots tale/ buff colored bag). To add value (quite literally) I got hold of some old non-functional (and no antique value either) coins and stuck them onto the bag.

 

On the top I sketched a hand on water color paper and once again added some ink and copper embossing powder. The word ‘love’ is made my twisting a kraft paper string, and coloring it with glitter powder and pigment inks. (inspired by the magic hand tale)

 

Finally I had used this beautiful vintage digi stamp (totally apt for my project), colored it with water color pencils and stuck it unevenly.

 

Hope you enjoyed it.

 

 

Supplies used:

Beads and other embellishments from Itsy Bitsy

Distress Ink: Walnut stain, Black soot

Tim Holtz Crackle paste

Ranger embossing powder copper

Home made modeling paste

Stencil from itsy bisty

Momento inks blue, lilac, yellow

Vintage Stamp: SKD

 

Original diary

Lessology 40: Create a scene (have created a magical scene)

BGC: Human Character stamping

Lawnscaping : use pp
TMC: the beautiful body: Magic hand
Our creative corner: Go rustic
 

Watercolor card

This weekend I went for a short trek after very long and feel really kicked up after that….a whole lot of mountain ranges, un-ending green grass with grazing herds, beautiful lakes and valleys, I mean my eyes refused to believe the earth is not a flat stretch of land!!! Feeling refreshed and inspired to make this one right here.

 In my last post I shared quick 60 second technique to create water color backgrounds.. For this card I used one of those landscapes I created. I trimmed it down to fit into this card stock.

 

To create a frame effect for my card, I cut out strips of patterned paper and stuck it around. Then I pasted the watercolor landscape.

 

 

I sketched this crazy cow with my drawing pencils first and finally with copic markers and colored the cow patches with Faber Castell water color pencils. These are great to work with as they allow you to color intricate details.

 

 

Next, I cut out the head of the cow (yikes…sounds terrible!) and sketched a little black patch to fill that area with my marker.....and pasted this on the created card frame.

 

 

 Next I took a medicine bottle cap to create the cow’s neck, stuck it and pasted the cow's head on it (intentionally with a slight tilt). The black patch behind the head serves as a shadow and a patch, depending from where you are seeing it.

 

I created a removable tag, to put around the cow’s neck. Once again I used the strips of PP and added a hand written sentiment “Grazy about you”…..(I love playing with words!)

 

 

 

 

For the neck band and tail, I have used pretty twine, green shimmer from The Twinery as it contrasts and sticks well.

 

 

My card is ready.

 

 

Supplies used:

Faber Castell graded drawing pencil

Copic Marker black

Faber Castell water color pencils

Camel Artist  watercolor tubes (for background)

Holidays Stripe PP from GG

Shimmer Twine from The Twinery

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Am linking this to

Lawnscaping: Critters Galore
CSCC #7 - Water Colors!

Unstampabeles: Funny

Just us girls : watercolors

Creating water color backgrounds in 60 seconds

Water colors are a great medium to create vibrant backgrounds. I experiment a lot with these and today I want to share a fun technique which I call “water play” which takes less than 60 seconds if you are working on a 16” X 16” paper (smaller means lesser time). This works best on water color paper, however works reasonably well on any other paper which is does not resist water (like gloss). II have tried it with regular chart paper, card stock and thin gsm printer paper….It worked with all.

 The whole technique just lets water do its job (to merge and flow) while you just either draw lines, or introduced drops of water color at different intervals.

Another unique thing is you just need primary colors, red, yellow, blue to work this. I have tried black and white but you can’t be so random with them.

 This is best to make quick landscapes, waterscapes and skyscapes and use it as a background. You can also doodle, stamp or emboss on these.

 And I promise it takes less than 60 seconds(except the drying time) and you can just never go wrong.

 

If you are trying it remember the most important thing…..just have fun, water and colors will always throw a new surprise at you, and you will love it.

I created 3 other such backgrounds and will use it for some of my future projects.

Just a quick note , water color does become a tad lighter once dry, so do not fear using darker shades if need be.


PS: I used watercolor set by American Crafts for this one!!!

Textured Kitty tag

I wanted to make a funny tag for long now. Finally, I decided to make this for my best friend who has finally decided to get married to her sweetheart after years of living in. We are both ardent cat lovers and I let all my catty love flow for this one

 

I cut out a tag of cardboard, randomly tore patches to let the corrugated portion peep through. After which I applied patches of gesso, dabs of crackle, some acrylic paint and finally ink sprayed it before I let it dry.

  

This time I decided to go with my own hand drawn sketch, hand written message and self made stencils (honestly coz I don’t have anything of that sort in my stash!). I sketched a cat and with a similar shape, sketched another sheet to cut out ‘cat stripes’ . Similarly  from a scrap thick paper I cut out fish bone patterns.

 

My selfmade stencils

 

I used these to layer modeling paste onto my tag. I re-gessoed some portion of my cat, before I went ahead with the modeling paste. For the tag hole I used my paw punch. For the tail I used burlap twine and added some texture to it.

  

 I wanted to play with this statement “Officially mine” so I twisted it into a catty lingo “Ofishally mine”. To add more zing, I wanted to portray the fish as the cats catch hence decided to use a net (this is what my local veg vendor sells to me in) and make some paper fish. For the fish I dabbed texture paint and ink sprayed on a glossy sheet to get this uneven effect. Then I sketched and cut fish shapes. For creating a fishing hook, The sandwiched a clothes hook between the two fish cut outs. I handwrote the quote and paw punched and inked it.



Used this for the fish

 

Finally, I loosely stuck the net and tightly hooked the fish to it.

  

Hope you enjoyed it.
Supplies used:
Clear Crackle texture, white gesso, modeling paste, acrylic paint, paw shape punch, copics, burlap string, pink & blue ink spray, craft knife and craft mat....

Happy Crafting!

  

Am linking this to
 

BGC : textured tag
TMC : Anything goes
Scrapitgirl: Stencils
Unstampables: Funny

Gauche Challenge: Country Chic : Inspired by colors, texture and net/lace in the mood board. This is the first time im playing along this challenge. I happened to bump into this blog while surfing. I really adore the unique projects the alchemist bring to the table. I am an all new follower!

 

Mixed Media tag

Am very excited sharing this with you today. I have been down with an ENT infection for a while and just been crafting in my head. Finally I am somewhat back in my craft room, have been looking around for inspiration and am really kicked up about using textures.

 This time I made an altered luggage tag.

 

While I have been in bed, Ive been staring at this luggage tag on my suitcase. I really loved the cut and was thinking I can make it look like a mini suitcase. So here I am; combining my love for travel, texturing and recycling!

 

The original tag

 I stuck a translucent wrapping tissue paper all over the tag so use the red color of the tag. The front side (where the name is displayed, I cut out a card stock shaped as a suitcase, applied a layer of gesso applied home made modeling paste while adding a tingle of shimmer, through my stash net stencil. I clicked this pic while I was carrying it in my hand, also so you’d have an idea of the size of the tag!



Suitcase shaped paper textured to stick onto the airline tag

 

I wanted to make a small wheel to my suitcase so I pulled out an old red button from my stash , gessoed it and inked it.



Button as a wheel
 

 Once dry, I dabbed distress ink on it. My kitty recently tore apart my pearl bracelet and I had kept those away in my box, so I thought of using those to border the suitcase.

I was experimenting with crepe papers to make flowers and I had made these mini sunflowers some time back. However since they are so small, I never got a chance to really use them. Any guesses what I made the leaves from!...Well, it is a result of an interesting experiment. I soaked up a green wool in glue and then stitched it over a paper to create this formation. I let it dry and simply tore apart the paper and was left with this beauty (which I further colored/ distressed) .

 Moving to the back of my tag (this is where I wanted the red to show through!) I applied modeling paste to create a world map and to the water area applied gesso. Once dry, I simply painted the water with acrylic paints and couldn’t resist my temptation to add some glitter!

World map created with gesso and paste

 The other flap of the tag (behind the name and address flap) I applied modeling paste and scratched it with a fork to create this pattern. Since this is so small and I don’t own a stencil so small, I made some cut outs from an OHP to create the Rays pattern and stamped a cut ladiesfinger (Okra ) with gesso and red ink and let the color play itself.

 

 I sketched this blue haired girl, while I wanted to use the phrase “to paint the town red”. Since I made a globe-trotting tag here, I changed it to world!

 

 

 I am so used to creating large mixed media projects, this was completely out of my comfort zone. But I learnt that size doesn’t necessarily interfere with spontaneity!


Im quite liking how this looks....what a chic suitcase it would make.

Wouldn’t you help but notice it, if it was dragged in front of you while you are killing time at the boarding gate!

 

Suitcase on wheels

 Supplies used: home made - modeling paste, gesso, crepe paper, mini pearls, button, green twine, distress ink (worn lipstick).

Am linking this to

BGC 58: Textured tag

Lessology : Travelogue
Craft Hoarders Anonymous  Challenge #15 - All The Pretty Flowers
SSS Wednesday : Create your background

 

Very excited to link this to The Mirror Crack’d  , their first mixed media challenge.

A personalised CAS

I really enjoy making crafty stuff with strong messages. Here is a card for a very close friend who is a stylist by profession.

 

I wanted to experiment with paint and layer technique that is to first ink/ watercolor the paper and then to randomly doodle/ sketch to cut out shapes. This method gives you lots of scope to experiment with colors and shapes, plus if you are like me and don’t plan to the T when it comes to craft projects, this one is great!

 

I was inspired by this picture by runwayinspired

 

 

To implement these colors, I started randomly dabbing shades of peach, red and pink. I doodled various shapes (flowers are such a great element to play with) . I used a blue pastel as I wanted an edgy outline which would not be the case with a marker. I cut out rims of these shapes and overlapped these shapes to make a flower. I have not stuck the complete shape but rates only a certain portion such that colors are seen through and through and are different from every angle.

 

 

For the face, I simple glued a yellow stretch of wool. The picture (my inspiration) also had a mirror. So, I also stuck two round mirror embellishments which serve as earrings iif you want to look at it that way.

 

Am linking this to

 http://runwayinspired.blogspot.in/2014/08/ric66-sportmax.html

http://beyondgrey.blogspot.com/2014/08/bgc57-watercolors.html

http://blog.kraftzone.in/2014/08/challenge-8-cas.html

http://chocolatecoffeecards.blogspot.ca/2014/08/challenge-71-bingo.html used blue, yellow and string.

 

 

 

Not-so-usual birthday card

I recently made a photo card for my colleague to capture memories of his last birthday celebration with us at work.

 

This time I wanted to experiment with spraying ink and kraft paper. And here is what I came up with for the card cover.

I first stamped  photo set  stamps and sprayed it randomly to create a background. Later I folded a net cloth, to create a circle. After which I cut a kraft paper to create a see through pattern and stuck a “happy birthday” quote on it. From an old chocolate box I cut out triangles to make flowers and from the same box also cut out a border consisting mini triangles.

 

Since this needed to be masculine, this was the first time I remember using this combination of colors, but there is always a first time!!!  I usually use bright or summer colors.

 

 

 

 

And this is how it finally looked!

 

Am linking this to

http://lulupu.blogspot.in/2014/08/challenge-37-plus-step-by-step.html

 

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=1847

 

http://seemsalittlesketchy.blogspot.in/

 

 

http://sweetstampsblog.blogspot.in/2014/08/challenge-184-masculine-birthday.html