Wooden T Light Holders

A very good evening to all of you.

I recently bought some pine wood T light Holders for the festive season. These are cute little blocks of wood about 2 inches all the way around. Thus they are small but cute.

Initially I thought of decoupaging all of them with scrap of tissues that I had in my stash. On second thought I decided to experiment with them.Considering that the base is square of 2 inches by 2 inches I selected some small stamps and stencils and tissues.

And here is what I came up with....

Though they have a very small surface they are ideal for being stenciled with small motifs and designs. Using traditional Indian motifs I did these two sets. I also added a bit of bling on one of the sets.

I had a few small stamps in my stash. So the next attempt was to stamp them. And I was surprised and pleased at the final effect. 

Lastly I did decide to decoupage two sets of the holders. One in floral pattern and the next set in my favorite butterfly pattern.  And I loved them. And I added a bit of stamping to create more interest and continuity in the pattern. 

Here is the final look at all the T Light Holders together

Do let me know what you think

Vintage Pen Stand

Good Evening,

For those who don’t know I come from a defense background and thus a lot of my projects are based on the themes that dominate our lives.

Living in a Naval community thus ensures that a lot of projects are in a nautical theme. And very frankly there is a certain charm in working with prints of old sail boats and sea colours.

Recently I made a Pen stand with a tissue paper that I have had in my stash for sometime. It’s a very beautiful tissue with a map and old sail boats around the map in the sea. The tissue’s background is already in a vintage colour thus making it easier to create the vintage look.

Each panel of the pen stand has been created from a separate part of the tissue but has been put together so that it looks like a seamless pattern. I have added a little bit of antique gold paint and Prima waxes to give it a hint of opulence.

Here are some pictures of the completed project

Hope you enjoyed this...

Hexagon Coaster

Good Evening,

I have done a lot of projects on coasters. And I have done various art forms and techniques on them. Starting  from Warli and Madhubani I have come a long way to Decoupage.

Coasters are a perfect way to test new products and papers. But I have done a lot of projects in both square and round shaped coasters.

But recently I managed to pick up a set of Hexagon shaped coasters. And I was super excited to try out some new papers on these. And having collected a large collection of papers from various places I set about trying to find a suitable print for the coasters.

And I found this beautiful English shabby chic pattern paper. Its soft green with yellow daffodils all over and it was perfect. Being a decoupage speciality paper it was super easy to work with this paper and here is what was the final outcome.

Using brown as the base colour for the coasters I completed with a distressed look at the edges using brown and rust coloured inks.  

Hope you like these... 

Daisy Tissue Box Holder

Good Evening,

I recently got a request to do a tissue box holder. And I was super excited to do that as it’s been a while since I did a tissue box holder.

The print selected was a beautiful napkin with daisies on it. I especially like this tissue as it’s soft and vibrant at the same time. And considering that it is going to be a functional object the client did not want too much texturing, on the box.

It seemed to be a simple project at the start. But what I had not expected was that the pattern would not fit on the box if used in the original form. Either it would end up on the corner or would be cut in strategic places and thus lost it beauty.

Thus to ensure that the main motifs are visible and the pattern covered the entire tissue box I decided to cut out the motifs and place them at the places where I wanted them.  Thus in this way the entire project was created.

To create the vintage effect without overpowering the design, I  have used a combination of antique gold and brown to create a distressed look. This ensures that there is enough hint of gold to give sheen over the project yet it antiques the project to give it a vintage look.... The edges have been highlighted in brown and gold.

Here are some pictures. The gold effect is not visible too much but I can assure you the project looks very beautiful in reality.

Hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did making it

Do leave your comments below

Peacock Tray

Good evening,

On the onset wishing you a very Happy Diwali...

If you have been following my facebook page then you would already know that I have been fascinated with decoupage for sometime now.

For the festive season I decided to experiment with colours which I usually don’t play with. Thus for a big rectangle tray I chose a beautiful paper from Bob and Betty featuring the peacock.

With blue as the base colour I have added acrylic colours in silver, emerald green and pearl dark blue as accents for the stenciling on the back of the tray.

And to add to the to the look of the peacock I have added Prima waxes on the inside and edges of the tray.

And here is how the final the final project turned out....

Here is the back of the tray....

Close up of the stenciling - hope you are able to see the different shades of the blue, green and silver

Do let me know what you think

Mix Media Vase

Good evening,

Its been a long time since I have posted something on my blog. Actually its been more than a year since I have been posted.

I am really sorry to all for that.

Though I have not been posting I have been active in terms of learning new crafts and making projects....And yes I will take some time out and share all the projects that I have created in the past year. Also I have been practicing my already learned skills in creating new looks and stretching it to create new ideas.

One of the art forms that has held my interest in the last few years has been  mixed media. I did attend a workshop on the basics while I was on a holiday in Pune a few months back and it was super fun. Also the one thing that I truly love about this form is that there are no specific rules for creating a look.

At the same time even ordinary things lying around the house can be used to beautiful works of art. So you could experiment with expensive craft supplies, or you could take common items lying around the house and create something beautiful.

Here is the project that I created when I attended the workshop in Pune. This is made using all the beautiful and expensive products used by mix media artists.

But I wanted to create something different and experiment with items that were in my stash and things found at home. Thus a small ordinary terracotta vase was given a new look....

I have used things I found at home like gauze, rhinestones, sand, handmade flowers coupled along with some left over embellishments from previous projects and MDF embellishments to create this mix media projects.

Here is the beautiful mix media vase.

What do you say? I do hope you do like it....

And I will surely be posting more projects in the future.

Happy Crafting....

Punchcraft Flowers

Hi,

Good evening friends!!

Last few days have been filled with experimentation for me. I have always loved flowers and this fascination is seen in most of my projects. Be it quilling or decoupage or even painting. I just love flowers

Lately I have been seeing a lot of work done with die cut flowers and punch craft flowers. I do not own a Die Cutting machine but that has not stopped me from wanting to make them

So recently I decided to invest in some punches for the flower shapes. And I was set to go. Except I did not know how to make the flowers after punching them. Thus my search started in finding tutorials. (I must confess I am not too good at this activity and don't spend too much time.)

A few months back I had done a project of beaded candles (Click here) after following up on Dr Sonia's Blog. I decided to go back to her blog to get some inspiration and hopefully a tutorial. And as luck would have it. I got not one but two tutorials that I was able to try out with the punches that I already had.

Daisy

This is been inspired by the post by Dr Sonia on Handmade Flower Bouquet Tutorial. She has used a Die cutting machine for her flowers. I on the other hand, have punched out my daisy on a white cardstock.

I then coloured it with Distress Inks and shaped it with my flower shaping kit. It almost looked like the flowers in the tutorial that I had seen. Making a hole and inserting a pollen with glue and my flower was ready. 

Here it how it looks.

I tried the same with a round flower punch but I was not too happy with the look of this one. Here it how it looks..

Thus I need another look for this punch flower. Here is the tutorial from Dr Sonia Blog that I  loosely followed - Paper Rose Tutorial. I say loosely followed because, my cutout was around 1 cm only so was not possible for me to make buds by taking the petals separately.

The left was the punched flower petal. I made small slits to the same (on the right) so that it was easy to curl the petal. Coloured it with the choice of Distress Ink and shaped it using my flower shaping kit. I have used four petals per flower and have curled two petals inward and two outward. 

Finally have stuck them together to form tiny flowers. Here is how they look in different colours. 

I tried another look with just curling them inward and sticking three petals. As there was no bud in this I stuck some glitter balls to the same. 

Here is how the flower looks. I have attached it to a gift tag along with two punched leaves.

Hope you have enjoyed my little experiments with punch craft flowers. Will share more flowers in the future.

Wishing you a lovely day. Do leave your precious comments on this post.

Beaded Candles

Hi friends,

In this post I would like to talk about beaded candles and decorating a candle in general. When I got into crafting, along with painting, one of my major passion was candle making.

There is a lot of satisfaction in making a candles and seeing the colours set and emerge. You can never predict the outcome. But like many people who loves candles I must admit a decorated candle is a beauty and very tempting to have. 

Thus started my quest on collecting items for decorating my candles. And let me tell you even a simple ribbon can jazz up a candle beautifully.

Here are a few examples

Then a year back I suddenly got the idea of putting beads on the candle as decoration. (Actually I had seen a few candles coated in beads on pinterest and they looked beautiful) The idea sounded fun and looked super easy. Just put glue and put beads on top and it will stick.

But it was a hassle and a complete mess. Candles are usually round and of course I had chosen a round one. and the glue went everywhere and only a small portion could be done at a time. Wax is not an easy medium to stick on. So each patch would take hours to dry and then some beads would come off so the same patch had to be done over and over again

Though I did manage to complete one candle I was tired with it and it was no fun at all. Here is the picture of the candle done. If you see carefully you would still be able to see some places where the beads did not stick properly.

Then sometime around last year, I was just browsing through the net looking at ideas and new projects (I had just been introduced to the concept of paper crafts and was still learning about it). That is when I stumbled upon a post by Dr Sonia (She has this wonderful blog with so many tutorials that it's mind blowing)  and I was introduced to the something called the tacky tapes. There is a picture of her daughter putting the tape on a glass and putting beads onto that. 

That got me thinking. Why couldn't I put tape on the candle and then adhere the beads to it. I decided to try it. Thus I found a vendor who was willing to courier me a tape. And I finally tried it out. And voila it was so easy. I could do it in 1/10 the time. And if the beads didn't stick very well I could just press a little and they would stick or add new ones. I did choose bigger beads this time as I wasn't sure how it will do with smaller beads. 

Doesn't it look beautiful.

Hope you enjoyed this little information and the loved the candles done by me. Do let me know if you want some more additional information on candles.

Also do visit Dr Sonia SV Blog for some wonderful creations and tutorials

Nameplate

Good morning!!

I have finally finished the nameplate for my front door. 

I have been married for more than four years. Ever since we married my husband has been urging me to make a nameplate for our front door. In the first year of marriage we visited many shops and exhibitions in the quest of finding a perfect nameplate. But with no luck. Everything we saw and found was something we had seen on someone's door. And I did not want something that was common. 

I wanted something in earth tones, with a vintage look and at the same time I wanted a floral element. At the same time I wanted something simple, nothing too fancy. Tough.... you would say.

Well at some point I decided that I would make us a nameplate. So I kept trying things and art forms but nothing seemed to click. Every couple of months my husband would bring up the topic of the nameplate and I would look sheepishly and tell him "its work in progress". 

But between my other projects and commitments, I never got around to getting it started. A few months back I had ordered a few printed tissues for decoupaging. And there was this beautiful tissue which had a perfect vintage look and it was vibrant at the same time. It was perfect.

I found a piece of wood at home and guess what it was the perfect size, primed it and put base coat. I tried to get the exact shade of the tissue but couldn't but I was still happy with the colour. Once the tissue had been decoupaged to the wood, I added a darker shade on the side for the names. Once the tissue and the painted area was perfectly blended in I stamped a script stamp in the background in places to create a texture. Finally added some gold antique and bronze antique paint in places with a sponge. 

This is how it finally looked 

All that needed to be done was to paint our names.

And voila my nameplate is ready. Ready to be hanged. 

Do let me know what do you think about it 

Oil Paintings

I come from an artistic family. In the sense that both my mother and grandmother both were heavily into crafts.

I guess that was also a need of those ages. Not everything was found as easily in shops as it is in today's world. Also there was no internet. Thus granny made a niche in embroidery.

My mother on the other hand took things in a very different direction. Not only was she skilled in all forms of embroidery but she also did oil painting and bobbin lace (will share her projects of bobbin lace in a separate post). She did paintings for a few years and then with me keeping her busy slowly the brushes and the paintings got locked away. And forgotten.

My real love and appreciation for oil paintings started when I visited Lucknow and saw the paintings of the Maharajahs which seemed to be looking at me as I walked past them, even after more that a 100 years of them being painted. And it just grew when I saw the collection at the Salarjung Museum in Hyderabad, which has oils from just about every corner of the world. It actually has separate halls with art work from a different countries. A true treat for the eyes.

In the last four years both my husband and me have motivated my mother to start painting again. And slowly it has become her passion and hobby once again. Now every weekend is spent in front of a canvas board with oils. 

Here are some of her recent work.

Indian Village Scenes

Bunch of Flowers

Will share her other works also from time to time...

Thanks for taking your time to go through this page... Would love to hear from your end too

My Love for Candles

Hi Friends,

This is my post about candles. Yes before I got into any other form of crafting I got into making candles. Thus my first with candles. My husband loves having candles in the evening. And yes we do have candle light dinners very often. 

My very first candle was in a beer can which I had cut open to to make a mould (Though I have made one in school which refused to come out of the plate on which the mould was kept). This time too it was not a great success considering it leaned on one side but it did get me excited. Over the course of the next four years there were many experiments and many successes. Below are some of the candles that I have made.

Will share with you the simple process of making candles in the coming posts.

Enjoy till then!

P.S - Yes they are a lot of photos and I do hope you do enjoy them