Flowery Congrats

A very big hello to all my readers and crafting friends. The monsoon is still absent from the shores of the Bay of Bengal(and consequentially from Kolkata too, where I live)  but it is storming and thundering every day so I guess its not too bad. The days are hot, humid and sunny...it is impossible sometimes to muster the willpower to get off that posterior. I have been doing a host of things to while away the time...learning French and doing calligraphy are some of the things I do other than crafting.

I have been obsessed with stencils of late. As I own remarkably few of them, I have been forced to entirely hand draw and cut my own. But I always have a wonderful feeling when I remove the stencil and reveal the wonderful pattern underneath. It's like magic to me!

I had to create daisy stencils in two different sizes for this card. I created a wedding card keeping CSCC#4 in mind. I also tried to use the colours from Cosmic Colours#2.

I think the sentiment looks like calligraphy...the practising is paying off!

Thanks for reading, and happy crafting!

My First Layout

Yes, I have finally succumbed to the scrapbooking bug...I'll share my first layout with you guys today.

I started with an old photo of my Ma. I really love this photo of hers because she is smiling so fully, without anything held back, without any artifice.  Anyway, it was just lying about, not even in a proper album so I decided to create my first LO with it.

Windows With Faux Stained Glass

Today I am going to share an altered project with you crafty people! Its actually a window I created on the lid of a box...I was totally inspired by Kirsty's take on the Lessology challenge.

Something Happy

This time of my life...post my schooldays and final exams and before college...people say there will be no other time in my life like this. There is no great pressure, either in studies or otherwise. You don't feel guilty when you're reading a book or crafting or simply lazing about. As my results had been declared, my spells of sudden panic attacks have also melted away. I am excited about college and a new era of my life but I plan to enjoy these last few days too. I am in quite an optimistic frame of mind these days, and my card for today is all about my feelings...

Back Again

I was absolutely cut off from blogger for the past few weeks! Today I viewed my bursting dashboard and felt so strange! I was even pleasantly surprised by a win in CSCC#3, which was completely unexpected. I will try to get back to the posts of my blogger friends soon because honestly I don't even know what lovely creations I've missed out on!
First of all I'd like to share some news. My 10+2 level exam(ISC) results came out recently(remember about all the exams I'd been whining about in the past?) and I totally exceeded my expectations! In a very happy state of mind as a result! Hopefully I'll be able to get into the college of my choice!
Now on to today's card. I've made this for one of my closest, oldest and dearest friends and she's like a big sister to me. This is for her birthday, which was a few days back.

Gold Miner Card

For those of who read my previous post, you will know what I'm talking about when I say that my mother has forgiven me! She even cooked some really yummy chicken yesterday as a treat! Incidentally, that's the dish she cooks best. My mouth is watering as I write this... :D

Today I made a very simple card. I just drew a little gold miner inspired from a computer game I used to play and wrote the sentiment. I coloured the miner using my watercolour pencils and voila! the card was done!

A perfect card to give to a friend, on any occasion. This is absolutely my type of card!

Playing this along with CASology and CSCC#3(jeans, black belt, shirt colour from brick wall, shoe colour from tie).

Thanks for reading, and happy crafting!

Mother's Day

So here is the card I came up with for this mother's day. Its become more than just giving a card because currently, she's really pissed at me! We quarrelled yesterday on a MOST trivial topic and I've noticed that the loudest quarrels always stem from the stupidest things. Don't you agree? I hope she is blown away by the supposed loveliness of the card and forgives me on the spot.

RIC#59

I just fell hook, line and sinker for Runway Inspired Challenge's inspiration this week. The fabulous colour combo and the lace detailing at the bodice is what drew my eye. Here's my card...

I traced the damask pattern from an old wedding invite. I decided to give my handwritten sentiment centre stage, so there is no image/embellishment. Tracing the pattern was a pain in the posterior but I think the effort was worth it.
Also linking this to Seize the Birthday, Moxie Fab World and Itsy Bitsy Monchromatic challenge.

Thanks for reading, and happy crafting!

Something Electrical

After all my whining here about the weather and absence of rains and all...I'm thrilled to say that it finally rained! In fact its raining as I write this! Maybe I did not go dance in the rain but I am enjoying the cooler weather a lot!

After the weather report, I guess I'll share the card for today I made for CASology's brilliant cue word this week : ELECTRIC(Seriously guys. HOW do you think the cues up?). After almost exclusively studying static and current electricity and also things like electromagnetism in Physics the previous year, my brain was buzzing with many ideas. But uncharacteristically I decided on a bit of a romantic card, here it is :

Have you ever been in love? I haven't. But from countless romances I've read (guilty confession :p)I am assured that is is a very electric thing. In fact whenever the hero and the heroine come in contact with each other they feel bolts of electricity shivering down their spine, or tingling the hairs at the back of their necks...or creating sensation in some *other* places...ahem. But I digress. What I meant to say that I wanted to convey some kind of attraction with these sparking hearts!

The hearts I cut by hand, wrote the sentiment and drew the sparks with glitter pen. I actually tried a feeble pun on the phrase "The start of something beautiful".

Thanks to Hazel for letting me know about CAS on Sunday! I hope this card qualifies for their current challenge as I've used a glitter pen!

As per Susan's suggestion also linking this to Moxie Fab World...

Thanks for reading, and happy crafting!

Something New

It's still unbearably hot and sultry in Kolkata, and my days are passing in a sort of lotus-eater's dream, as I am just waiting for my exam results*shivers*. I fervently wish we get some rain, and SOON. Or else we'll all melt in the heat. Imagine the city being flooded by a river of liquid Kolkatans! Now I am even talking like a lotus eater. Do I sound high? ;)
Well, today I am sharing something that's totally a new and foreign thing to me, and this is my first attempt. Mixed Media. Yup, you heard it right. After the wonderful inspiration which Shilpa and Yvonne come up with practically on a daily basis, I guess I felt the *urge*. So, here it is for you to judge...

Something Musical

Music is something very close to my heart. I'm sure many of my blogging friends share this sentiment. I have been taking music lessons since I was three, and constantly listening to music since even before! I think music is THE most pure, clear and abstract form of expression human beings are capable of. In my home, I'm always singing, totally oblivious to my parents or neighbours, while studying, crafting, bathing(of course! the bathroom makes your voice sound so magical!) and obviously during my practice sessions. I learn Indian classical music, which I think can have no equal simply because of its IMMENSE potential and scope.
Yeah, I know what you're thinking. This is a CRAFT blog and not a place to air my opinion of random things. So here's the card for today...

C R E A T E

First of all, I would like to wish all my blogland friends Shuvo Noboborsho(Happy New Year). Because today is Poila Baishakh(or the first day of the year) for us Bengalis.
To celebrate the another year of crafting and creating, I've attempted quillography for the second time, a wall art. My first was this quilled monogram. This time, I enjoyed the process so much! Here it is, without further ado.

This is dedicated to all of US, all of us wonderful ladies who create regularly, stretch their own limits and support each other so dedicatedly. When I first started blogging, I never did realise that there was such a world of like minded individuals ever ready to share feedback and all their lovely creations. So, I think, we deserve a huge round of APPLAUSE, all of US!!!

Summer+Wet

I have made this card keeping two challenges in mind...Lulupu#28 and CASology#90. So here it is...

Its Cloudy Now

Yes, I know. I'm posting the second time today! I thought I would blog about this card tomorrow, but here I am!
Ok, so this card is for CASology 90, and the cue word is : WET. India is the land of the monsoon, so of course, I had to think about rain...

With Love...

With my brother currently staying with us(he stays in Bangalore) I am finding that I spend all my time hanging out with him! There is no time for crafting... but yesterday I made up my mind to make a card, and so here it is today.
For this card I tried to make paper roses. Now I have made origami roses before, and fairly complicated ones, but the most realistic ones can be made only with cutting or punching. So I searched for tutorials... but drew a blank : either they were too difficult, too ugly(!) or made use of punches. Finally came across a Pin(origin forgotten :p) and adapted it to make my first paper rose...

Its Summer Again!

My exams ended. At last. I am free!!!
Yay for reading, crafting, music and lazing about! Summer's here! It's very, very hot already, but still I'm lovin' it!
I appropriately kick-started with a summer themed card, inspired from Lulupu Challenge#28. I used both the shades of pink, orange, yellow. Actually all sorts of colours can be found on the hat!

Something Lucky

Hello friends, I have another card I'd like to share today, inspired by a few challenges going on right now. I took the code word from Addicted to CAS, which is : LUCK.

Something Geeky

I saw the new challenge there at CASology, and this weeks cue word is a real bouncer : ROOT. But I immediately thought about the maths exam I had given a few days back, and came up with this simple and geeky card, in less than thirty minutes!

For this card, I literally made PP! I pasted the orange strips over brown CS. The sentiment is handwritten, of course.

Thanks for reading, and happy crafting!

Quilled Monogram

Ok, I'am back after a long, long time. So, hello friends, its good to be back! I've got one weeks respite now between my exams... so I guess I can finally share what I've been up to the previous month(apart from loads of studying).
Quillography, or quilled typography daunts me a LOT. But finally I took a leap of faith and finished with this...

Altered Box

This is going to be a picture heavy post...
I had finished this project almost a week before but the stupid camera wasn't working till yesterday(Grrrrhhh!!!). This is my first altered project on this blog and I am proud to say I did some recycling and upcycling...

So, without further ado, here are the BEFORE pics...

 Its a box which contained a watch...

Before I show the transformation, here's the finished thing...(top view)

Contrast Card

I've been blogging for only about 2 months...and already I am hooked to all the craft challenges in blogland! My favourite challenge is CASology. First of all, I love the CAS style. Second, the cue words and the DT inspiration in CASology is as good as it gets. I love the fact that the cue words are so simple yet so thought-provoking. Kudos to the CASology team for coming up with brilliant ones every week!
So this week, the cue word is is CONTRAST.
At first I thought of making something based on yin and yang, but unfortunately I do not own a circle cutter and hand cutting circles do not quite work out for me! So, I kept it black & white, symmetric and came up with this...

Okay, so here's the specs : half of the butterfly was hand drawn and hand cut from black art paper. The "negatives" ie. the small bits and the rectangular piece of black paper were also pasted. Created the border using a hole punch and stuck those negatives too on the other side.

For the sentiment, I cut out a piece of white CS, pasted black paper on half of it. The BG is random dots punched out with hole punch. Sentiment is hand written(copied from font : Special Elite) on some sort of translucent paper I found lying about in the house and pasted on the BG.
While coming up with the sentiment, I could not help not thinking about Joker's dialogue to Batman in TDK... lol

Close up of butterfly...

Making this was as frugal as it gets! I did not waste a thing, just pasted everything together! ;-)

Update : Came across a wonderful challenge blog : Muse. My card is not exactly an anniversary card, but its un-mushily romantic and anyway I just wanted to play along as I loved their blog. So adding this card @Muse!

Thanks for reading, and happy crafting!

CASology

My Dotty Creation

I fell in love with the CASology cue word of this week : Dot. Hop over to check out the fantastic DT inspiration here.
When I heard of dot, I was instantly reminded of this video game I used to play a LOT as a kid : Pacman. You have to advance each level by eating all the dots in the maze and killing the monsters. Well, I left out the monster part(we don't want to be scared now, do we?) and took up the theme of dot and eating. What I came up with was a type of an invitation card for dinner(weird, right? But that's me, I'm afraid).
So...

Almost From Scratch

The daughter of a friend of my mother's had had an accident recently. So my mother thought it would be nice if I could make a card for her to give when she visited the hospital. Now, I had never met the Didi in my life. So I had to opt for pretty much a generic card. But the problem came when it came to supplies. Again, NOTHING except for quilling paper. Not even white cardstock for the base. So what to do? The local stationary shop does not stock cardstock(India. More importantly, this is Kolkata :-\). So I glued together two sheets of thick art paper as neatly as I could. A girl's gotta make do with what she's got, unfortunately. Then my gaze fell on a box that was lying around. It was the container of a cosmetic gift set. It had quite a lovely picture of a heart. So I quickly dismantled the box and cut out the picture.
Imagine my surprise when I found the inside of the box was a nice lavender colour! I cut out the maximum part that could be reclaimed, and voila, I had lavender cardstock!
So, without further blabbering, here's the finished card...

You & I

A guy friend of mine recently got a girlfriend...don't ask me how, haha. He badgered and badgered me to make a card for his new love, even agreed to pay! How could I resist? But there was one problem... I was(and still am) dangerously short of supplies except for quilling paper. So I knew I HAD to make a quilled card(even though my slotted tool broke few days ago :( and I take ages with a needle). So here's what I came up with...

YET More Quilled Earrings

I have just finished the piece I was working on. Yay! This one is made for a friend of my mothers. She saw my copper and bronze earrings and liked it very much. She wanted a pair, too! This one is copper and gold, and its very ethnic.

More Quilled Earrings...

I have been making quilled earrings ever since I discovered quilling, a few months back. I love them as they are ligthweight, colourful, pretty... and quite tough once they are mod pogded. In this post I am going to share the cream of all the jewellery I have created since then. :-)

Behold my very first project on quilled jewelry....

Quilled Earrings

First post of this year...

This one will be a quickie... I made a pair of quilled earrings in my study breaks... surprisingly it took very little time! It took me a day as I could work for only 5 minutes at a go...! Quite pleased with these...