Easy Peasy Card

I was away for long. Sorry for that. amidst the hot temperatures and water scarcity, we have had thunder storms in the past few days. Moderate rains did help my plants and the temperatures are down a bit. The power lines were down for some time. So we had no electricity for long hours during the past few days. When ever the storm is on they cut power for safety sake. If that happens during night time or early morning hours then it takes some time for power restoration. That is why I couldn't post.

Here is one more card. This one is a birthday card.

The base you see is a dark pink pearl-marble hand made paper. I think I got that correctly. It has a pearl sheen and also marble affect. It is hand made paper. 

The top fold is about one inch less than the bottom fold. I don't think it is clear from the picture. I don't know what this fold is known as. Does any one know?

I first stuck the black printed tape. Both on the top and the bottom folds. It looked so apt.

After that I did not know what to do. None of the papers or other material seemed to match the card. 

Ultimately I used a small rectangular piece of black hand made paper as a layer. Stuck to the base with glue. The picture stickers-I used foam tape to give them a little dimension. Added the four self adhesive white stickers to the four corners.Then I stuck the sentiments.

In all it took me just a few minutes to make this card. So what do you think?

Materials used:

Dark pink (pearl) marble handmade Paper

Black printed Tape

Black hand made paper

Sentiment and Picture Stickers

White self adhesive crystals

Foam tape

Glue

Your comments/suggestions and thoughts mean a lot to me......Please do take some time to comment on these post as I am still in learning stage and welcome your suggestions.

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Birthday Card

Hi friends, I went shopping with my niece. It was so very hot- we had our tongues hanging out :) like my dog. But we had fun. I am posting all that separately. But because of that shopping in the hot summer afternoon, I was down with fatigue and low energy levels for last two days. 

For now, I am continuing my hand made cards series. Here is my fourth card.

I started with a of-white(cream coloured) textured card stock. I had bought a bunch of them as no other material was available in local markets. So I have to exhaust this stock. 

I had some printed tape. Which I used on the card. Then I used a few punched flowers and leaves, after shaping them. I stuck some crystals and faux pearls in the flowers.This is how it looked.

Then I added a fairy- a dimensional sticker. I have tons of them which I bought for a project with kids and have a lot left over. I could not take a pic at this stage. It looked good.

Then I added sentiments- clear stamps just bought the other day when I went shopping with my niece. I stamped directly on to the card using orange ink and green ink which I bought along with the stamps. 

I was apprehensive and doubtful for trying it out directly on to the card. I was thinking of stamping on a separate sheet and then add to the card. I din't do that and now I don't like the way it turned out. Especially the green one (Happy Birthday) I had to write on it with a green glitter pen as, because of the textured background, the stamping was not clean. 

Then I did the most foolish thing. I wanted to try out the distressing technique using my newly bought distress inks. 

I used one of the colours and distressed the edges of the card. I don't have much experience with this technique. So I din't like the result especially the bottom part of the card, which had some big blotches of ink, which was accidental . So I had to cover it up with tape. Now I don't like the look of the card. But I am satisfied with punch craft part as they turned out very beautifully.

I am not going to use this card. I will simply keep it in my stash for future reference. 

After this episode, I learned some lessons the hard way.  I realised I need to practise and perfect any technique before using it. I am new to stamping and distressing. I need to learn and practise a lot. 

Material used:

Textured Card Stock

Printed Tape

Punches 

Punch papers

Crystals and faux pearls

Clear stamps

Pigment Ink and Distressed Ink

3D sticker of fairy

Glue

Keep an eye for more posts......

Do leave your comments, suggestions and thoughts and any tips and tricks that can help me to learn this craft....

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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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Greetings

Happy, Joyous and Fun filled Holly to all of you. Some celebrated yesterday and some are celebrating today. Be Happy and Celebrate the colourful Nature at its best in this Spring season.

Well I am back after a long time. Been busy with teaching and coaching children. I always enjoy teaching. But with children we need lots of patience and dedication. I also had to build my life all over again after a crisis which changed my life completely. I am still struggling- sometimes up and sometimes down. I still am battling. But thanks to my family and my dear friends who are with me in these difficult time. So I could not concentrate on my blog.

Now I have a break between my teaching schedules. So this time I will concentrate on my blogs and try to post. :) This is what I always think. Especially one of my New Year resolutions was to post frequently on my blogs. Well let us see what happens.

It is already hot here- unbearable. The temperatures are soaring. It is only March and Spring season. It is unusually hot at this time of year and we are also facing a water crisis. I am struggling with my garden. So what happens in peak summer -in April, May and June, we are afraid to even think about it. 

Oh by the way, I have organised most of my craft materials-at least ninety percent of it. Thank God for that. It gave me something to do when I needed to keep myself occupied and filled me with some enthusiasm and creative ideas. Now I know where my various craft stuff is-all neatly organised. 

One of these days I will post about my stash.

Well I am into paper crafts and have been doing some work there. So watch out for it. I will be posting. 

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Warm-Wishes

Wishing you all 

a very Happy, 

Prosperous, Joyous 

Pongal, Makara Sankranti and Lohri 

This festival is celebrated across India with different names. Enjoy the holidays and the festivities.

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Rangoli - 323

Flower vases and Kites

21 dots - 3 rows in the center to 3. This is the season for flying kites. Especially in the North India, people fly kites on Sankranti. So I used kites. I wanted to be alittle different this time. So I opted for flower vases. Hope you like it. 

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Rangoli - 322

Here is one Rangoli for the Sankranti Day.

26 dots - 2 rows in the center to 2 dots.

The pots are Pongal pots-Pongal a sweet made of rice, milk and jaggery. The red squares are the small stools (Chowki in Hindi) with swastika for the Gods to be invited and offered Pongal.

It is very simple and easy to colour.

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Rangoli - 321

Here is a very simple one. 

I have left space in the middle where we can write the wishes like Wish You Happy Pongal or for any other festival. This Rangoli is a combination of 5X5 blocks. 

Hope you like it.


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Rangoli-320

This is 16 dots 4 rows in the center, to 4 dots. Swastikas and flowers to celebrate the festival. 

Tomorrow is Bhogi or the Eve of Sankranti. We celebrate it by getting up very early before the sun rise,  cleaning our homes and yards of the junk, throwing out and burning the junk by lighting bonfires which also helps us to combat this chilly winter weather. We draw Rangolis in our yards or before our door steps, fill them with colours, decorate with flowers, Gobbis. Decorate our doorways with mango leaves and flowers. We then have a head bath following traditional procedures. Then we start our preparations for the big day of Sankranti. 

This is the time for all of us to go to our native villages and towns where the festivities are carried out as per age old traditions. Since this is basically a harvest festival to celebrate the bringing home of the produce of main harvest., it is best celebrated in our villages. 

This is also the time to celebrate the Sun entering the Zodiac sign of Makara that is Capricorn marking the start of auspicious phase of six months there after. Also this marks the start of spring season and warmer and longer days.

This is a major harvest festival celebrated through out India. 

All of our relatives gather in our ancestral homes. Newly married daughters are invited and the couple are showered with lots of gifts. We all receive and give gifts to our near and dear ones. 

Watch out for more.....

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Rangoli-319

Friends I am so sorry I could not post Rangolis all these days.  There was some problem with my net. It is not resolved completely but for the time being I think I can post. 

I created many Rangolis for this Dhanurmaasam. But alas I could not post. Any way here are some I am going to post from today.

You can see from the above Rangoli that I have joined blocks of 4X4 and 5X5 Rangolis. The center is Swastika, which is also a 5X5 block. 

You can extend this Rangoli by adding blocks according to your choice.

Hope you like it. Since the festival is from tommorrow wtch out for more Rangolis.

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