Cherry Blossoms and Butterflies

Here is my third card- the first of my greeting cards using punch craft.

I love Cherry Blossoms and of course Butterflies. So inspired by them here is my card.

Cherry Blossoms and Butterflies

I have used the textured light gray coloured card stock. Brown coloured paper twine was used for the tree branch. First I punched out of-white and light pink flowers and glued around the branches.It looked too drab. So I added the red coloured flowers here and there to brighten it up a bit. OK cherry blossoms are not red in colour-I agree with you.  

Then I added the leaves. Hmmm... I had only that green coloured punch craft paper with me. I tried to get any other shade of green but couldn't. So I didn't have any other choice. 

Then I bought the little butterfly punch. I had to try it. I ended up with blue butterflies as at that time my punch craft paper stash was very limited. Any way I was testing my skills and an artist has the liberty to create something new out of his/her imagination. 

My personal opinion is that the colours did not gel together. But I got the shape of the flowers and leaves well for an amateur. 

I did not add any sentiment as I can add it later on, if I want to give it away. 

So what do you say? Your comments and suggestions matter a lot. please do stop by and leave your comments/suggestions.....

Materials used:

Textured Card Stock

Paper twine brown colour

Punch papers

Punches-Flower, leaf and butterfly

Glue

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Good Luck Card

Hi there! it is still very hot here. Still temperatures are well above 40 degrees. Hot winds blow from morning till late in the night. I am struggling to maintain my plants. The situation of water scarcity is so bad that, we are collecting water used for washing clothes and utensils and using it for watering our plants. Surprisingly, my plants are responding well to the water containing detergents(than fresh water) and they seem much greener than before.

OK here is my second card. This was also started along with the first card. 

I used a cream coloured textured card stock. I bought this in one of the local stationery shops. I started with trying out the border punch I bought then. Then I abandoned the card for quite some time.

Later on I added the punched flowers. I have used a bit thicker paper(dark and light pink) for the flowers. So when I shaped them, the retained their shape beautifully. I cut out the leaves my self and scored the veins using a used ball point refill. At that time I didn't have a leaf punch and I also wanted bigger leaves. 

I added a golden coloured tape on the edges of bottom layer of the card. Then I added other flowers and leaves. 

Recently, I bought some stamps and experimented a bit with them. So I added the sentiment. 

I added the sentiment GOOD LUCK as I was wishing my students best of luck for their exams. 

You can also see the bird punched out of a thick card. I used a seed bead for its eye. Both the bird and circular sentiment were stuck by using dimensional tape. Oh I first cut out a circle and then stamped it.

Material used:

Textured Card stock from local stationery shop

Border punch

Punches of flowers, bird and circle

Seed bead

Punch papers, thick green paper for leaves and thin dark brown colour card for bird, orange coloured hand made paper for the sentiment

Golden coloured tape

Dimensional tape

Glue

Crystal Black coloured Pigment Ink pad

Circular sentiment stamp wooden mounted

The problem with craft material sold in India when we buy locally is that they don't have any details on them like the weight or GSM of the paper, the manufacturer or other details. May be they are bought in bulk and repacked into smaller packs.

Next time if I want to buy it, I don't know what to ask for. I always keep a sample with me and show them. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the shop will be selling the same material again or any other shop for that matter.

I always buy different craft material when I am on shopping round. So it is also difficult to keep track of where and what I am buying.

But one thing is local bought material is cheaper than online ones. I also get to see and touch it before buying.

Similarly the sentiment stamp is wooden mounted and I bought the pack containing six of them. I don't know about the brand or manufacturers name. 

So what do you say? Do drop in your comments and suggestions. It will help me a lot....

Watch out for my next posts......

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Hand Made Greeting Cards

I am back after a long time.  Well it is very hot here. Temperatures are 5 to 6 degrees more than the normal temperatures at this time of the year. We have acute water scarcity. If it is like this now, I don't know what will happen as the summer progresses. 

We cannot venture out of our homes until late in the evening. This time it very humid here-first time we are facing this in this area. Even if we stay at home we feel as if we are sitting on a burner. AC and coolers are not able to give us relief. I just hope that my plants survive this ordeal. I also hope that this year the monsoon is on time and that it provides us with plenty of rains. Because for the last two three years the rains were scanty. So this year our water bodies have hit dead storage levels and bore wells are also drying up fast. Even if we want to buy water, the supplies are reducing day by day. W are all keeping our fingers crossed and praying for a miracle.

Well these days I am into paper crafts- making greeting cards. I am not new to this. I used to paint cards using water colours or acrylics. At that time we didn't have so many materials or craft techniques. Craft materials were also very difficult to obtain. Even now buying craft materials is not easy in India in spite of the online sellers.

I am a frugal crafter. I am on a budget and can't spend much on materials or tools. But I am building up on my stash and let us hope I can acquire all the materials and tools slowly one at a time. 

Ok so here is one of my first cards.

I started it with a view to make a paper embroidered card.  I only stuck the pink layer on the base and the sticker in the middle. I wanted to to do some embroidery around the sticker and pricked some holes too. But could not do much as I didn't have proper tools. So I abandoned it for quite some time.

Then one of my friends gifted me a punch set. I did not even open the box for quite a long time. I was busy with my personal life. So one day when I was organising my craft supplies, I saw this card as well as the punch set. I thought I would give it a try.

The base is a baby pink hand made paper thick enough to be used as card stock. The pink layer on top is also a hand made paper (much thinner sheet than the base). The Radha - Krishna is a sticker. Then just for testing, I punched out some flowers and leaves and shaped them and glued it on the card. I wanted to fill the entire card surrounding the sticker with flowers. But though that it would be too loud and cluttered. 

At that time the number of punches I had was limited to the very few in the set. Then again I left it  for quite some time. Recently, I added the Rhine stones (I think that is what the coloured stone like things are called) around the sticker to cover the prick marks and a butterfly. The I covered the pink layer with a paper tape as I didn't like the it was looking.

I am not satisfied with the result but that is all I could do to the old abandoned card. I am just going to keep it as my first card...:)

Now when I look at it, I think I can  do the card differently, if I have to start all over again from the beginning. I now have a little experience with card making.

I was not going to post it here. But then I thought, may be some of my friends out there are such creative people who create such beautiful things, can give me some suggestions or guidance from which i can learn.

So friends, I will be posting my cards here. Please do stop by and leave your comments and suggestions. I have very little experience with card making and I am learning slowly. So your comments and suggestions will help me immensely.

As I said above, I have very limited crafting tolls. I will also be posting about that. I need to build up my tools and craft supplies too.

So keep an eye on my blog.....

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