Secret Sweetheat Swap

Thanks to Asha, we finally had one of the sweetest swaps ever in India. The "Secret Sweetheart" swap. My Secret Sweetheart was Shalini. She is one who got the card with which I've been teasing you for the past few days...Now that she got it and posted it on her blog,  I can post that card here. I wanted her to post it first.

Girlie, I could hear your squeal all the way to Ahmedabad. So glad you liked it..

This card is a CASE of Heather's card..I had saved the templates from Hero arts blog last year..and had been itching to try this card..with no butterfly punch around..cutting 50 butterflies..no way!! Now that I have punch, I'm pleased as a punch (pun intended) to make this card..

I'm submitting this card for Crafty JC's Hearts and hugs 
And to the Lawnscaping Challenge - All about love.. (I don't own any Lawn fawn, but boy my wish list for their stamps is pretty long)

If you haven't seen my previous post on how I made this card, do drop by and have a peek. Also this is my second post in two days. Scroll down to see the Valentine's card I made for my hubby! Would love your feedback on that..

And here is the card I received in the Secret Sweetheart Swap. I was the SS for Priyanka Bokadia. Super super cute card, loved the rosettes, the butterflies..Thank you so much for this pretty card Priyanka.

It was a wonderful Valentine's day..I also got my Echo park papers..yummmy...Hubby was laughing at me when I said that the papers were so pretty, I could just sit and hug them all day and not use it at all..What do they know!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hey there, Wishing every one of you a very happy Valentine's day! I finally did make a card for my Hubs..And there's a cute story why he got this particular card..but for those who just want to see the card..here it is..

 

This idea of using donuts and that sentiment has been rolling in my head for quite a long while..The image was a freebie from Tiddly Inks, resized it, colored it..added some dot sparkles from Itsy bitsy, loads and loads of  glue and gloss..That's all there is to this card..

This is the sentiment that is on the inside..its a sentiment from the Hero arts set, but I just printed it out..This particular sentiment applies to all of you my friends..all of you who take time to comment and leave loads of love for me...This card is dedicated to you all...I'm entering this card for the Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge- Live Laugh Love. This is all 3 for me!

And this is the card that Hubs gave me..yeah, its Extra-extra large..just look at my card and his...I wasn't expecting it from him..I thought he'd just get me a bunch of roses! It just plain cute!!

So here goes the big story..It was almost our first anniversary(couple of days before) and I was craving donuts. The ones that we get in Ahd aren't the kinds I used to love..especially after having tasted donuts from Mad Over Donuts..you don't like any other..

He was headed to Mumbai the next day..he flew in at 5 am and was back at 11pm, but he brought me a dozen dounuts on his way back. I was stunned! He carried them in his hand, it never left his lap through the whole flight and from the airport to home. I was so touched by his sweet gesture. They say, marriage is falling in love with the same person over and over again. That was one of those days when I fell  in love with him all over again. ( i know it too mush, but its Valentine's day..!!)

These were the ones he got me..so the inspiration for the card came directly from these photos! So now, have I made anyone hungry?

Thanks for all your wonderful comments..it really makes me smile! 

P.S.I'm still waiting on my Secret Sweetheart's confirmation that she got the card..I'll post my mystery card and the card I received very soon!

Teaser no.2

I have no idea why I'm in such a mood to tease you all, but I'm still not posting my card (hint-It is a card). Simply coz I want it to reach the person it should reach, and then show it to you all..So my dear, when it reaches your hands, let me know..I'll do a full reveal of the card...Till then, I've got some fun techniques to show you..

I've seen this technique a hundred times on various blogs,but decided to apply it only now. It was after watching this tutorial, it really made me want to do it. And this is the result of that tutorial..

 For those who want this in a nut-shell, I used my Derwent Inktense pencils, just scribbled it across a watercolor paper scrap..and then generously gave a water wash..You could use watercolor paints as shown in the tutorial. And if you see the middle scrap, it has salt on it..yup..sea salt, that was a technique I saw on Art attack..I love watching that show!! here's a link to that project. I just dripped some color on to the salt too..to give a super texture..

 

 Just some more pics..I love the swatch of color on this..

After the paints have dried, brush off the salt to reveal a beautiful texture underneath.. and then what did I do with all those scraps of watercolored paper? I used my Martha Stewart Royal butterfly punch on it. There are around 50 butterflies on that card. : D

Isn't this a gorgeous sight to see? I was uber happy and after glittering them and putting tiny rhinestones! even more happy!!

Just a day's wait and the card should be where it will be, and then I'll post it!

Coming Soon!

Woo-hooo! This is post no.200!! And I'm approaching one year of returning back to blogging..so that calls for some candy! So I'm collecting certain things and I'm calling my candy, "Bling to blind you" Candy.
Hope you guessed it..its going to be a lot of bling..tell me what kind of bling you want...and I'll try to find some to add to the loot..I'll post in March. So you have a lot of time to figure out what you want to be included in the candy!

Also a sneak peek of my next post..I'll post it in a day or two..

 It looks like madness doesn't it. That's what my DH said..he said Isn't that tooo many butterflies...and I said, Butterflies are never enough!

So till then, I'll be waiting on your suggestions for Bling candy!

Playing with patterned paper

I've been busy making scrapbook for a friend. But sadly my creativity, inspiration, mojo..call it whatever you want has gone out the window..maybe I over did the albums, 4 albums in less than 6 months and all baby albums..someone tell me to make something else..anything else..

 I had made a page, with a paper that didn't seem to fit in..And somewhere along, I saw a post on Juhi's blog about stamping on PP. And that clicked a bulb in my brain. I headed over to Yvonne's blog for Dana's post. And wow! what a post..I kicked myself for not following Yvonne's blog..I had been missing out on tons of inspiration. Better late than never..

This is what my pre-made page looked like..pretty pale and I just didn't like the colors..

And here is the after-page, after I stamped like crazy with my newest baby stamps. (I wouldn't recommend this company at all. Royal and Langnickel..cheap but not the greatest impressions.)

I know that most of this stamping will be covered by the photograph later on, but right now, this page looks playful..not my greatest effort, but better than the bland page before.

Thanks Dana for this wonderful challenge and inspiration.

Stylish blogger Award

Wow! I am honored girls..Thanks so much for tagging me with this award..I've been tagged with this award from Karuna, Rachna, Anita and Priya. Thank you so much..

 

 As per the rules, I have to tag more people and tell you 8 things about myself..The amount of blabbering I do on  my blog, there isn't much left to know, but still will attempt somethings..

1. I love reading..and re-reading my favorite books..I've read Harry Potter and the Twilight series more than  20 times....EACH!! 

2. I and Hubs love eating out. I love trying new places, new menus. 

3. I love good perfumes, and if you're wearing a good perfume, chances are I'll love you even before I talk to you. My favorites so far at Ralph Lauren's Romance, Hugo Boss, Gucci-Me, Davidoff Echo, Bur-berry weekend. Recommend some of your favorite to me..would love to try some more.

4. I can become the ice queen if pissed off..I can go for days without talking to the person I'm angry at, even if we're in the same house.

5. I hate watching English movies dubbed in Hindi. Eeew!! Calling a dinosaur in Jurrasic Park, a "chhipkali"!! Eew!

6. I hope to have a scrapbooking/cardmaking store of my own some day.

7. I love having warm brownies with chocolate sauce and ice-cream. Whenever I'm upset, this is what calms me down.

8. I miss having a girl-friend to sit and talk and just have a good time. Ever since I moved cities, finding girl-friends that I can relate to is a big problem. I do have girl-friends, but not someone I can call at 4 am and bug her life out.

Most of you already have this award, So I'll try to pick a few that don't have it yet,

E.T

Yenni Natalia (hop over for some amazing sweetness)

Bhavna

Smriti

Smita

Dec ATC Swap

Just a short post to show off the gorgeous ATC's I just received. The theme for the month of Dec was "Stamping". I loved ones I received. First off, I'll show you the ones that I made.

I used the only PTI set that I own, to create these. The set is "Little lady" and used memento inks, Bahama blue, Rose bud, Lady bug, Pear Tart and Tuxedo black to create this piece.

Pic from ATC blog(by Asha)

 This beautiful ATC comes from Asha. I love the stamps she used. 

Pic from ATC blog.(by Mansi)

 This gorgeous piece comes from Mansi. Love the distress inks she's used. The ATC's all 3-d. Beautiful. 

Pic from Ujjwal's blog.

And this surprise came from Ujjwal. Thanks soo so much for this gorgeous card, the texture of this CS is beautiful. Thanks for making my day!

I have a small request to all those who participate in the ATC Swap. I want to request all of you to post the ATC's you make as well as the ones you receive. Seeing pics of my ATC's on your blog and knowing that you appreciated my efforts, makes me want to create more. Also I like to know who received my ATC's. Of the 4 swaps that I took part in, I've seen only one ATC being displayed. I have no idea where the rest of my 7 (2 ATC's per swap x 4 swaps ) ATC's ended. That makes me really sad.

So its my humble request, For the sake of everyone who puts so much effort into creating these precious ATC's, appreciate them, share them and shower them with love.

Happy Birthday Baby Bro

Sometimes when I think of silly ideas, I go crazy. I wanted to make a crazy crazy card for my brother, but ended up using a silly image. That too, is good in my book. He's a dentist and I wanted to create a funny tooth shaped card for him, but then found this image and that grinning apple/tooth (can't figure out what is it actually) took my heart.

 That's my sweet younger bro and his wife. Happy Birthday sweet bro!!

He used to be like that as a kid, grinning like that... He's still funny, still threatens kids at his clinic with huge injections to make them brush their teeth! so I thought this would be the perfect image for him. And since I was so in love with the sketch from Annabelle stamps, I used it again..its perfect for fast cards.

Isn't that grin awesome? plus the apple/tooth was holding a toothbrush..I fell in love with this image..hope he has a good laugh over it...
Also entering it for the Allsorts challenge this week, to make card for boys.

Card Supplies
PP- Papermania colossal paper pack- Basics Vibrant
Celebrate sentiment - Inkadinkado
Colored with - Derwent Inktense, Sharpies.
HB sentiment - Printed.
Glue n gloss over whole image.

Love ya

Welcome to my first project in 2011.Kinda late isn't it? Well better late than never I say!!!

This card turned out better than I had hoped. This image is one from Hearts and soul rubber stamps, and I absolutely love it. Coloring it was a challenge, but I decided to break out my newest purchase, Derwent Inktense Watercolor pencils. Oh my gosh! They're the bestest pencils ever...if I could get more colors I would gladly give away my Faber-Castell watercolors. I just didn't find any good skin colors in Derwent. A little color goes a long long way! If you want the best, get these colors..they're no where near Prisma color pencils, but in the watercolor pencils, it can't get better than this. (at least in India).

Isn't this image gorgeous?  When I'd seen this image on Dina's blog 2 yrs ago, I had to have it..though its only the second time that I'm inking it. I used Fabriano Watercolor paper to stamp and color it. This paper holds the water beautifully. There is a learning curve to these colors, and I'm still learning.

I've used a new technique to glue those punched out hearts. I took and embossing stylus, and embossed from the back to create dimension on the hearts. Then added glue and gloss under the hearts so it holds its shape (Thanks for the tip Dina) It doesn't show in this photo but its nice and puffy.

This card uses the sketch from Annabelle Stamps ABSC033 and the colors from Annabelle's Stamps Challenge : Say it In-Red and White.

Also entering it into a couple of more challenges:
Mark's Finest Papers - To use Hearts on your card
Really Reasonable Ribbon - Hearts Theme and Ribbon
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Theme is "Love is in the Air"
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge -To use pencils to color

New year cards

I've been MIA for almost a week, what can I say...my DH has way too many holidays in the last 3 months of the year...diwali vacation, then the winter break, thankfully now no more vacations for him till May..which means I can stay at home and not travel around...
I got back from our winter break just yesterday night and what a wonderful sight to see 3 beautiful cards waiting for me on my door-step...Thanks girls you made my day..well night, technically!

 This beauty came all the way from Anita in Kolkatta...love the layers and so effortless, it would take me 3-4 hours to do so many layers!! Thanks so much for this card girl..

This gorgeous one is from Juhi..you don't even need to think twice before you can know her style..love the felt, {DH kept running his fingers over the felt and asked, did she use cloth on a card? she used a stitching machine on a card...what will you use next? (he keeps hearing that I want the cuttlebug, and now that I want the stitching machine, he's lost it) } You gotta take classes and teach me how to stitch...

And this gem made it all the way from Srilanka, from Michelle...its just sooo pretty...love the snowflakes and the tiny  dots of sparkles!! Thank you so much Michelle!!

Thank you all for making my start to the new year a wonderful one!! Big hugs to all of you!!