ATC Swap

I have joined a group of Indian ATC swappers...and the challenges each month are so fascinating. I joined in April and May and had so much of fun making them. And in spite of not having access to all the fancy tools, stamps or inks, all of the participants have managed to make stunning creations. I would give all the girls a huge round of applause. Truly, creativity has no limitations. I am proud to be part of such a wonderful group of crafters.

I must have spent 20 days of the month thinking about how to make them and then finally made them in last 10 days..I just managed to submit them in time. Sorry if I sound disoriented...a bit tired...entertaining my 1 1/2 yr old BFF's girl for just 2 hours was exhausting...How did you all raise your kids?? How did my gran raise 5 kids...I can't entertain one for 2 hours!! :D

Anyhow, these are the pics..do leave some nice comments..these have been waiting to see the light of the blog for over 2 months...

Here are the ATC's for April..the theme was Summer treats..

I finally got to use loads of bling on them..All the shapes in the ice-cream cone and the lemonade glass are hand-cut..The 2nd ATC has a lot of water-coloring for the background..It was really fun making them.. Used Clear embossing powder on the glares..for the glass and the sun..looks brilliant in person..Am sure the person who gets it will love it..I so hated to send it off...

The theme for the month of May was Anything but a rectangle..you should check out all the entries here..simply stunning!!!

 

I simply used a dress template from Stampington. (Sorry I've lost that link..) Papers are all from DCWV Floral Fantasy stack. Some punches and some bling. Butterflies are stickers..I didn't get time to take pics of these ATC's before I posted them..so I've taken them off the ATC blog..Hope you girls don't mind!!

Will get back to my home base next week and back to my posts and making cards..I did purchase a few cutting templates like the Coluzzle system. I got the circle and the square and I know its going to make my cutting work much much easier.

Till I post again..have a great week everyone..

OLW#5

I'm as usual late for this challenge. I'm posting it on the last day..better late than never. So this week, the challenge was to use faux embellishments, ribbon, button, brads, stitches anything..so sorting thru my stash of stamps, I found that I had a bow, a distress ribbon and a whole set of faux stitches. What's the fun of using a set designed to be a faux embellishment?
So I went outside the box..I love it when I think outside the box and what I have in my head, literally comes out on paper..


This card is pretty self explanatory. Colored it with watercolor pencils..And this time, there is no glitter on it. :(

And then I couldn't stop at one, so I had to make another one. This time the idea was outside the box, and I wanted that idea within a box. I could kill myself with such funny statements!!!

Anyhow, I had this scalloped stitch, and when I layered it, it looked like water. And then I remembered a fish stamp I had gotten in a swap, don't know the name of company, but its from Netherlands I think. And together, it made the best card ever.

Again not much to say about the card, watercolor pencils and sentiment from Stampin bella (blog candy). Borders with Sharpie
Wouldn't you say its fabulous! I do..I love how it turned out.
Another challenge done. Waiting for the next one Susan!
Wont' be able to do the next two, going two weeks to my parents place! :D

These two cards also go in for the CWC004-one layer cards.


That's all for today folks, see ya around!

Clean and Simple Shabby card

Now that is one title, I was sure I would never say..I'm making a clean shabby card! So is it clean or is it Shabby..you tell me :D

It was this  video that I had seen and I was so inspired that I had to make it...I loved how the flowers turned out, I could sit and make a dozen if you wanted, but the card did not turn out exactly as I had hoped it would, but it is a start.

I have had this CS from Stampin up given by Sophia Landry, and some sheets of designer paper. I love the thickness of the CS. Shame they're not in India. I love the texture, colors and the weight of the CS. Wonderful to work with.

Did I distress on this card? Ask me what I did not distress..probably the butterfly was the only untouched element.

I distressed the flowers, the edges, the pink strip, scrubbed everything with my emery board.

I tried to put shimmer on the brads in the center, can't say if its visible.
This is for the CAS67, Clean and Simple challenge, though I am late in posting it.

Short post, gotta go make card for OLW#5, or I'll be late for that too..

Cast of Characters:
Papers- CS-stampin up, pink and green paper-stampin up designer paper
Flowers - Hobby ideas, DCWV paper stack
Brads, ice shimmer-fevicryl, butterfly sticker.

Little things

Just a few days back, I had seen a kid play with a ballon...while the rest of the kids around him were busy with their video games and internet, this one was blissfully unaware of anyone but him and the ballon..The sight of that kid still fills me with joy and I just wanted to capture that on paper...having no balloon stamp wasn't going to deter me...I've got this beautiful stamp from Michele...she is one generous and wonderful person...she sent me a box ful of stamps she wasn't using and it was a huge box...Thanks Michele.

And also having the perfect sentiment stamp was just a bonus...since my brain was fixated on Susan's challenges..I decided to go with it. This is for the OLW#4, to use one ribbon, on your one layer card. 

There isn't much to describe in this card..Since it was a solid stamp,I used my water color crayons directly on the stamp, spritzed some water and stamped it. The ribbon was glitterified just a bit...and the sentiment is from Stampin Up! delight in life.
 I also took my Sharpie and drew around the heart image.

Once I was done with this card, I knew I wanted to do one more...I had seen this beautiful way of folding ribbon on many blogs, but the one that made want to really do it, was this card on Ayana's blog..First of all, I love her name, and her blog is such an explosion of color...colors that I wouldn't dream of using, she uses in such a wonderful way...

So I thought of using ribbon as the stalk and then adding the flower, problem! I didn't have a large flower, or a smaller ribbon. So in the card, the stalk looks ginormous and the flower, tiny! I'm a perfectionist. Its all about giving a finishing touch or proportion to the card. But for this once, I let it slide.

I made it at night, and waited to take pics in the morning. When I get up, my DH tells me, that brown trunk thingy on your card has opened up...uh! oh... well, so much so for all the effort. Fortunately, I was able to put it together again..
Colored it with watercolor pencils and outlined with grey pencil. 

So that's it from me now. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Cast of character:
Heart stamp by Posh impressions
Watercolor crayons
Stampin Up! Delight in life
Brilliance graphite black ink


Flower stamp by Autum leaves
Fabercastell watercolor pencil
Signo uniball silver glitter pen
Just a note- Stamping bella stamp.

Introducing the humble Comma and fullstop!!!!

This is going to be a long post...so if you don't have the time to read my blah-blah..just scroll down for the cards..so now on to my blah-blah..
First I must thank Susan for sparking a riot in my brain..ever since I did her OLW punctuation challenge, my brain has been whizzing with ideas..and suddenly my oft neglected alphabet stamps made an appearnce. In my last post I introduced you to the question mark and the exclamation mark

Before I ramble ahead to the latest card..here is one more with the same kind of flower created with the question mark...Never have I attempted so many cards to make on card...this is experiment no 3. The first card was perfect, until my stamp pad fell on it, and smudged the whole image, the sentiment didn't stamp out completely in the second try and this is the third attempt. Phew!! This beautiful sentiment is from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamps!


  And now, I bring forth the Comma and the full stop.

Here's the first card..I was inspired by this card on Susan's blog..I picked up the color combo and went with that...Had this ink cube lying for 2 yrs, this is the first time it got some use :D

This is a small note card, measuring 3x4.5 and the frame made with comma's (yes, your humble comma, with the full-stop as the center of the flower) works beautifully to encase the sentiment, which is again from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamps. Sue, has a wonderful collection of Christian themed word stamps and lots of sentiments for a very good price. (No, I don't get paid to advertise, I just love the sentiments)

I was suffering bling withdrawal symptoms so had to put in just a little bling on the center of the flowers

Then my brain wanted to use the same colors and create another notecard..but this time wanted to complete the flowers...so this is the next card that I made..

And since I wanted to use the same color theme as the earlier card, I took my watercolor pencils and just highlighted the sentiment. And yes, there is glitter here too..

Not much but enough to satisfy my craving for glitter.

I have never had so much fun in making cards, and finally when I'm down to the basics of stamping, using only 3 elements, stamps, ink and paper, did I realize the true joy of stamping. And now I know which side of the line I stand on. I stand on the side of clean and simple stamping. So having realized that, I know that I need more kinds of inks. So here's where your input comes in. Which is the best kind of ink to buy..I'm close to buying Memento inks. With choices comes confusion. And from where would you recommend I buy?
And after posting 3 cards, (which by the way is a record for me), I still am not done..I just have one last picture to show to you...

 If you are still here with me, thanks a million for reading this far.

Cast of Characters:
Fabriano CS white.
Blue ink from Hobby ideas
Brilliance dew drop graphite black.
Brilliance dew drop pearlescent poppy 
 Uniball Signo silver glitter pen (I need some more and can't find any..if you find it let me know)
All sentiment from Heart and Soul Rubber Stamps

Simplicity

Simplicity is the name of the new blog that I've fallen in love. As the name says it all..simple no fuss no frills. On a previous post I had mentioned a couple of others. This one is by Susan. And I love the clean cards she makes and just to make sure she inspires us all, she has a One Layer Wednesday Challenge (OLW, funnily everytime I read the acronym, I read it as OWL don't know why..something to do with brain being able to adjust the letters itself?)
Anyways, so this week her challenge was to search through your stash of stamps and use only your punctuation marks to create a card.  Go stop by her blog right now and see the wonderful cards and technqiues she shares.

As for the challenge, oops! I thought, I own but one set of alphabets, that too a tiny one..didn't even know if it contained any punctuation marks. But it did, there was an exclamation,  a question mark, a comma and a full stop. And I have  owned this set for 3 yrs. Used it, maybe twice till date, and I know this today..go figure!!

This is one thing I like about such challenges, they make you think outside the box..and I'm pretty happy with the results.

A bit more about the card. Fabriano CS. Love this thick CS. Now if you haven't guessed by now, the top part of the border is made of question marks and the straight border is exclamation marks.

That's all to the card. oh yes! I could not stop myself from edging the borders with black ink. Just to give a finishing touch to the card. Here's a close up of the border:

Cast of characters:

Fabriano CS

Dew drop ink in pearlescent crimson

Technique tuesday stamp-loves me, loves me not (for the big dot)

Stamps from hobby ideas for the alphabet set (Meglio stamps)

Sentiment is from Art warehouse-Borders 2

Some Randomness

I haven't been making cards in the last week..still organizing all my craft stuff that I finally got over..

One question for you guys...how do you organize all your stuff? Do you have the space for a craft room or do you stuff it in plastic cases like I do? and craft wherever you get space..at times I'm on the floor, cutting and assembling, at times I'm sitting on my couch and messing the whole couch! Yeah! Thankfully I have no one to screech over me for the mess I make. By the time H comes home, the creative chaos settles into an organized randomness.

Anyways, I thought of sharing some thing I used to love a long time back, while I was studying..I haven't done them in two years..and I'm just a copy cat..none of these are original but done from other sketches..

Would love your comments...

This is by far my favorite..

This is the last one I've done...there are a couple of more but haven't scanned them yet.. might try again but this needs a lot of time and even though time is all I have, the heat makes it an ugly environment to work in peace..

So what say?

Thank you

Long time no see. Well, most of my time has gone in making the ATC's for this month's swap at Crazy for ATC's. I had to rack my brain for some really good ideas. It took me more time coz I was dealing with some migrane issues. But overall, I think I did well. Nope...am not showing them now..only once they reach the hostess will I put them up.

So in the mean while, I took on the Inchie challenge and the sketch was similar to what Divya has put up, so barring a few creative liberties I took, here is the card. And this card is headed for someone who least expects it. Let me know when you get it. (Clue : I've never met your nor spoken to you)

I was going for a monochromatic theme, but it seemed too bland, so took the inchies, used some rub-ons on it. and voila! I've got  color.

Not having stamps is irritating me. Two weeks more and I bring all my stuff here, even if it means I have to keep them in suitcases. I finally found my versamark pen and embossing powder that my MIL's sister gave to me as a wedding gift. Umm..yeah I know, weird wedding gift, but better what I love than get something that stays at the back of the cabinet for years together!


Sending my card to the
Inchie challenge #3
Creadiv's Sketch challenge #1

cast of characters:
Design paper : hobby ideas
Rub-ons : hobby ideas
Black ultrafine sharpie marker
Grey cardstock

Inchie Delight

I found inchies dull the first time they were introduced. Why base the whole card on an image 1x1"? Why?

But then somehow they grew on me. And now having made my first inchie card, I am in love. These are a delight to make and yes, quite addictive. And especially after salivating on the Inchie blog, I had to jump in and make a card for the Inchie challenge.

There isn't much to this card. Very simple as it gets.

And yes, thank you if you notice the 2nd inchie is slightly crooked. After the glue dried, I realized it.

The pp is from hobby Ideas, the image from Tiddly Inks

colored with Watercolor pencils and coated with Glue and gloss for a nice finish. 

A bit of glitter, but not too happy with the glitter. Its too coarse. 

I want some really fine glitter pens..something like Diamond Dust. Well nothing can beat diamond dust..Does anyone have extra diamond dust to send my way?

Here's my sweet lil turtle...

See how the glitter is all coarse. I hate it. I wanted some like fairy dust. Is there such a thing as fairy dust??

Inchies were made by sticking two pieces of CS together to make a hard base.

This card is off to Inchie card sketch #2.

I hope you like it. Back to brainstorming for my ATC challenge. See ya soon..

I won a blog candy!

I won a tiny blog candy at Dawn's blog. Yipee..Here's what she sent me..a fabulous card and 3 sentiments from Stamping Bella...

Isn't the card awesome? It is simply fabulous. I would love to make something with this sketch.
 Stop by Dawn's blog and say hi to her..

On another note, as I said I've joined the ATC group, just have a peek at last month's ATC's. They are so freakin fabulous...I don't think lack of supplies is a deterrent to them. Way to go ladies & gurrls!!
Here's the link.. March ATC pics