Party Time!!

Here I was getting excited to cross the75k mark and when I checked, it had gone way past 75K and another 250 and counting!!! Whoop -Whoop!!
You guys are the bestest!!!!

So as promised here's my return gifts for being such awesome friends and followers (which BTW have crossed 200!!)

I'm giving away 4 candies...oh yes!! you heard me!! 4. They're not big candies, but just sweet enough!!

Here's the first one
1.) Fiskars 2x6 Stamp - Elegant Vines

 

2) Fiskars 2x6 stamp - Summer wings 

 

3) A5 Papermania Capsule collection, Black and white.

4)A5 Daisy Dandelion Picnic Patch...

So what you've gotta do!!

DO NOT SHARE THIS CANDY ON FB!! Yes! Do not. Feel free to mention in your blogs though....I personally find my timeline annoying with posts of candies so I would not want to push this on Facebook.

If you read my blog, you'll be here and that is more than enough for me.

Drop in your name in the inklinkz and I'll pick up 4 winners anytime in this month!! How's that for a change!!

I will however want the winners to contact me within 2 days or I will pick up a new name. 

I'll see you on the other side of May!! Take care and keep Cool!

Kraft and Colors

Thinking of a title name for the post is as challenging as making a card!! And boy oh boy!! Looks like my give-away will come sooner than I anticipated...My blog is already at 74,900 views...just a hundred more and I have a party!!! So what do you want in the give-away? I've given away vouchers, stamps, inks in my previous give-aways....so do drop in your options!!

So coming on to the card..I had brought a pack of Kraft card stock a long time back and never got around to using it....and then I saw Julie's card on Pinterest...and I had to do it. Don't know if flowers qualify on a card for a guy, but this did go to a guy. And I'm hoping he didn't think it was too girly.

 

I white heat embossed my stamps, colored with my Bic markers and a little bit of glitter and the card was done. But there were a lot of failed experiments to get this one card...

 Firstly, not having my heat gun made things a bit weird. I was heat embossing on my dosa pan. Works, just gotta be careful!  

TIP- Try out the colors you plan to use on a scrap kraft CS. Colors don't show up  very well on Kraft CS...the light colors just fade in...so if you're doing watercolors, play around on a scrap first. 

TIP 2 - Bic markers will stain on the white embossing. So be very careful, or use a Copic colorless blender pen to remove colors. I could remove the red with the blender pen, but blue didn't come off easily. 

The glitter pen I used doesn't show well in the pic, but IRL its very subtle shine. !!  I also went around the edge of the flowers with a light grey marker..just to show a bit of shadow...

This is the inside of the card. 
 Here I white heat embossed the border, and added vintage photo for a contrast. And then the words were glued down on the inside

Supplies
Stamps - Papertrey ink- Friends til the end, Signature greetings
Inks - Versamark, Vintage photo distress ink.
Paper - Kraft from Creativita Store,  Fabriano white CS.
Other - Zing opaque white embossing powder, Sakura stardust pens, Bic Markers, Copic Colorless Blender pen, Pro-marker light grey pen.

My first Marci..

For those who wonder who or what Marcie is, she's a cutest character stamp from La-La Land Crafts.
I had oogled at all those stamps and was very very lucky to win one at a friend's blog candy...It took me 3 months of trying to color her to accept that it will take a long time for me to learn...but here's my first attempt at coloring and making a card from that stamp!

 Here's the little darling colored with my watercolor pencils!! Isn't she cute or what!! Here's the link to the stamp..Sweetheart Marci. She's been colored, fussy cut, and glued on the die cut below.

Its a 6x6 card and the pattern papers are from Pretty flowers(or something like that)  from papermania. The dies used are Reverse wonky rectangles.  Banners are handcut. I didn't have the "I love you " in any stamp, so I masked different words from Fiskars sentiment stamps....and the I was acutally an L that I partially inked!! Talk about necessity being the mother of invention.

 This is an Easel card...the message is printed and die cut with label 8 die. Butterflies are MS butterfly punch..

 I loved making this flower....guess am on a flower making spree!! Made with Rose creations and an MFT rolled rose on top.

Its a pretty simple card, but I loved making it..considering the sentiment that was within the card...and I do know that the recipient loved it...

Sending this card to Crafter's Corner Bingo - I'm playing the middle line, Flowers, pattern paper and stamping.

Blue Accordion Card

This year seems to my monochromatic year....well, each year brings its new craziness factor in me!! This year its monochrome and fancy folds!!

So getting back to the card, this is a remake of the pink accordion fold, but in blue. There isn't much to say, so will leave you with the pics....

Kept things pretty simple...some leaf and flower die cuts. Papers are from the Papermania blue collection. All inked with broken china ink. 

Messages were sent ahead by the client and so I just had to measure, print and stick. 

Loved loved the shine on these flowers....If I haven't said before, if you haven't tried Lindy stamp gang sprays, you're missing something .. zoom in to see how glittery they are!!
The flowers are die cut from a rough watercolor paper, so that they have texture and hold the sprays better...

So that's it from me for now...I have another card coming up, but that has to wait till it reaches the intended recipient.

Exploding Card | Origami card

Sorry about the abrupt halt to the Pattern play class posts....day 4 arrived and hubby fell sick. And I never got around to even finishing watching the class 4 and 5 till later in the weeks. I still have to get a hang of those two last days that I missed...

Today I share a card I made for friend..this year I have decided to send as many cards as I can. Even if they reach late, but they will reach. :)

I chose to defy convention and not call this card by its given name....The napkin fold card..Simply because I've never ever come across a napkin that's folded like this...and I chose to make a variation because I didn't like the band  across it.
Somehow the band made the card feel open and incomplete (???) perhaps...I'm a bit weird that way!!

So here goes my Exploding card/Origami Card
 

 

I think I'm fixated on the color red...this is the 3rd red card I've done in 2 weeks!! :) This uses my new Embossing folder from Couture Creations, that I picked up in my local craft store. YES! my local craft store!! Distressed the embossed areas with barn door ink and then direct to paper over the embossed areas for more contrast. 

The sentiment is my new hero arts stamp.. and the little butterfly is a Cheery lynn die. Some really small bling stones are on the embossed flourishes.

( So where's the actual card? ) hold ya horses

 This is how it opens. Like a Trifold with an exploding card in the centre. Its fun to change things now and then. All panels have the same embossing, distressing and inking. With an edge of deco shells border punch.

I kept the card relatively simple. Simply because in this fold I had met my nemesis. It took me 4 cardstocks to get one fold right. I made and gave it up so many times....1mm off and it would not fold!! Am not touching it for another 3 weeks now!!  Though I now know what all mistakes I did, so might not be so hard the next time around!
The PP is pebbles inc from Itsy bitsy.

 And this is the inside. Love love the birthday sentiment. I wish I had time to do more. But did not want to add flowers or flourishes. They're soo passe now. Every card has flower and flourish...and I'm challenging myself not to use them .

And I'm glad my friend loved it....I did make some bookmarks for her too...will share in the next post..

Sending to Crafter Corner's Bingo challenge- Top horizontal row..distressing, rhinestone and ribbon.

Pattern Play- Day 3

Here are my cards for day 3 of Pattern Play class....feeling good that I'm still doing one card or two a day!! Not much to say about, just trying to play with lots of pattern papers and yet not overwhelm the cards...

All the papers are from the Echo Park Summer days collection ( I think)  I've used 5 different PP's to make each card....and yet wanted it CAS.

The red PP was too stark on the top card, so to tone it down, added a bit of vellum on top!

Hope you like them...I loved them!! Thanks for all your wonderful comments everyday!!

Pattern Play - Day 2

Fnally got down to do cards for Day 2 of class...This day was  stamping & patterned paper...I wanted to some emboss resist, but alas I have somehow managed to melt my heat gun. The heat gun works, but keeps on melting its outer casing...so its gotta go into the trash!! I opted of paper piecing shown by Jennifer Rzasa.

 Cased from this card, that I have pinned on my Pinterest board since sooo long!Sometimes I think I pin things just for heck and never make anything out of them. So finally picked up something that I have loved for soo long! I wanted pattern paper and stamping, yet I wanted it to be Clean and simple.

 I have no clue what pattern papers these are. These are from a huge stash that my friend Jan had sent me. 2 yrs later I am using it. The sentiment using it after 8 months of buying the stamp...getting the idea of the hoarder I am? hehe!!
I can tell you that the stamps are from hero arts...and coated with startdust stickles.

Since the stamp was huge, I had to make sure I upped the size of the card too. It's an A5 card...8x5 in.

 Here's the happy bling!!
Entering this card into the Hero arts Spring theme contest...what says spring better than bright and vibrant flowers...
Crafter's Corner- Stamping

Pattern Play Class Day 1

I have no idea how regular I will be in posting every day's card but will give it my best shot!

So here is cards from Day one of Class...Mixing and matching different pattern papers. All the papers from a long hoarded collection from Basic Grey called Lauderdale! oh how I love the papers! OMGeee!! I am using pattern papers on my cards!!! Whoopeee!!

I picked my 3 favorite methods from the ones shown in class and went to town with it.

I picked one busy, one tone on tone, and one solid paper from the collection. 

 This card didn't need any embellishments. So the two red gemstones are the only things I added.

I've popped the banner with foam dots. and of course some butterflies. Sigh!! Where would I be without them?

This one has all the 3 hearts on foam dots....and it looks great!! Just a few pearls to  finish the card. The banner is glued only on the topmost heart.

 

So this is my cards for the first day of class. Day 2 is almost over and I'm yet to make one!! off I go to make them! 

Something Special!!

We Gossip Gurls are a mad bunch..sometimes I just have to blurt something that is running in my head and they will jump on it and give it shape. This idea was something I just blurted out once, and they ran with it. The Idea was to make a card/CASE/ be inspired by someone from your Crafty Mentors. A way to thank them, especially on Women's Day.

A wise man once said, "  A man would like to believe he's a self made man, but in his heart he knows, he is only there because of every person who helped him along the way"  That wise man is my father. I find it funny when people refer to me as the queen of stamping or perfectionist etc...I do not like labels. Sure I love a bit of flattery, but for those who think, I was born knowing everything, I wasn't. I've learnt a lot along the way. Every bit of info, every scrap of knowlege I have, I learnt from someone who was willing to share.

In the last one year, I've met friends who have taught me soo much. And I love them more because they do not hesitate to share what they know. (That is another pet peeve, but will go in another post, as to why everyone loves hiding their sources or doesn't share what they know for the fear that the other person will steal their copyright!!)

Today what I share is my pure dedication to these 3 women. First up is Neha Bhatt. I'm lucky enough to live in the same city and I cannot describe how much she's taught me. Most importantly what she's taught me is that any project I make should have a connect with the sentiment and the card. You should be able to translate your sentiment into your project. Just coz you have a sentiment and just plop it there, doesn't make a card. This is just a small way to thank you for teaching me so much. And I'm sure I will keep learning much.

Secondly is my evil twin born in another city to another mother. Saumya. From you I've learnt to experiment. Try new things. Even if I get fed up after one attempt, at least I tried something new. And if I love it, it will be another thing that I would love to research. Trying new folds, mediums, techniques and the endless brainstorming of how to do something better!! Hope to continue this madness for a long long time!!

Lastly my girl across the border. ET as I call her. Erum.  Loved loved learning from you how to use distress  inks. That every color can be used to create awesomeness if you just want to use it. Never seen greys, browns and blues on a card and yet called them beautiful.
That even if you have no tools, you can create awesomeness. You're always down to earth and ever ready to help with any small query. Love that about you.
Happy Women's day to all of you....

Here's how this translates on the canvas. Actually its a CS pasted on Canvas, since I didn't have acrylic paints and this canvas was all wrong for watercolor paints.

Setting yourself free is in the terms of Creativity. I've learnt that if I keep making what I'm good at, I'll never learn something new. If I stay inside the box and keep making what I know, I'll never get out of the box. If I was good at CAS and never tried anything else, because CAS was my thing, I would not be able to create anything else. I set myself free of the labels, of the box, of my own perception of what I am supposed to be.

This mason jar represents the box. The uncolored butterfly represents what I would be if I continued to stay within my comfort zone, within the box.

And this is what Creativity could be, if I set myself free....Vibrant, full of colors and capable of reaching wherever I put my  mind to. I will talk about the making and supplies in another post. This is already way too long!

This is my dedication to every crafter who dares to step out of the box and try something new!!

See you soon!
 

Lulupu Challenge#10 ~ Birthday Special Blog Hop Day # 7

Hello Everyone!
www.lulupu.com turns 1 this month and we are all happy and celebrating!

I joined Lulupu Team right from day one. And it was such an awesome experience planning the blog, the challenges, creating inspirations. It was exciting to see the blog and the store develop and grow. I have loved seeing the fabulous inspirations and the amazing creativity that the team displays and when asked to be a part of Lulupu's Birthday bash, there was no hesitation. Happy Birthday Lulupu... and wishing the Team another fabulous creative year ahead.

March will be going to be fun at Lulupu - The Craft Lounge! There will be many giveaways and tonnes of fun so do ensure you follows Lulupu all around FB, Twitter, Pinterest and Youtube! To kick start the celebration we have a Lulupu Design Team Blog Hop along with the monthly challenge. So if you have landed at this post just now, you can start HERE and join us in this fun filled week !

So here I am sharing my project for Lulupu Challenge #10 - Let's Celebrate.

As the challenge suggests, we were to take inspiration from a fellow Design Team member and create a project that celebrates.... well... just about anything. My inspiration was Isha's Accordion Fold Card.

I loved it for its colors, the gorgeous pink and white scheme. And the fact that I had not done such a cute version of an accordion fold before. But I wanted to give it a twist of my own too...So I made it into a tag booklet.

 I kept the colors almost the same... using the pink and white combo. The paper are all from a collection called Confetties. Using Spellinders Label 8 for the base and floral ovals for the topper. Some bling and a 3D butterfly complete the front of the Tag book. The gorgeous sentiment comes from my newest Papertrey ink stamp.

Continuing the white and pink theme inside. (I think I'm still hungover from the baby girl book :p) 4 removable tags and ample space for writing messages.
This one is going to my bestie who is celebrating her new Baby girl's arrival into this world.
The book closes with a ribbon.

 Here is a little close up of my 3D butterfly. I was over the moon when I made it...and it looks gorjuss in real life. I think it might just fly away!! :D
And that's my project to Celebrate Lulupu's First birthday...Do join in the fun and celebrations...

Continue the Lulupu Design Team Blog Hop with the next post tomorrow on

Isha's Blog

 Also here is the list to help you track the blog hop ending on 9th March.

 Karuna 
Ujjwal
Juhi
Indira
Snehal
Shruti
Tejal <-- are="" here="" you="">
Isha