30.8.15

Fancy Fold Explosion Card

Gate-fold Card
         Hi friends I needed to make a birthday card to mail to a blogger friend.This is a Gate fold card in a garden theme with fluttering butterflies and handmade flowers !
Handmade Flowers
         I love using the Poppy Stamps Meso die as a backdrop to handmade flowers.You can see more examples of this die on my pinterest board : PoppyStamps Meso background die 
Handmade Flowers
All the handmade flowers were stamped and die cut using Heartfelt creations Botanical rose -wings.
Handmade Resin Fairy
I couldn't resist adding my handmade resin fairy to the garden!
Explosion Card
 On opening the front flap of the gate-fold card there is a framed "Happy Birthday"
Handmade Flowers
           The orange of my base card is rather bright but I do hope my blogger friend is cheered up seeing such bold bright colors!
Heat Embossed Marianne Petra die
        The top corner of my card flap has an embossed Marianne die cut .Many Marianne dies are perfect for dry and heat embossing and here are links to more projects using the Marianne Designs Petra Corners die : 3 D Chariot tutorial , 3 D Gazebo Tutorial , Easy Fancy fold card tutorial , 3 D Lantern tutorial 
Explosion Card
        On opening both the flaps of the Gate fold there is an  Explosion Pop Up fold with flowers and leaves and a Pergola framing it[ another Marianne die cut] . Here is the tutorial link to making the explosion fold : Explosion Fold tutorial and here is one more example using the explosion : Box a Card tutorial 
Fancy Fold Explosion Card
I hope you enjoyed visiting me!

Supplies : Dies : Poppy Stamps Meso background
Cheery Lynn  Medium Butterfly,Cheery Lynn  small butterfly, Cheery Lynn grass , Cheery Lynn  flourish leaf strip
Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 3, Marianne Designs Fence, Marianne Designs Birds Pergola,Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 1,Marianne Designs Petra Corners
Spellbinders floral oval,Spellbinders Shapeabilities Sentiments ,Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings ,Heartfelt creations Classic Leaf,
Edited : This card was lucky for me as it won the random prize at Poppy stamps Challenge
It also was featured as Honorable Mention at Creative Moments Fancy Folds theme Challenge 

29.8.15

Santa Pop Up Card

Santa Pop Up Card 
          Hi friends sharing a simple Pop Up Card for Christmas. I had made the pop up mechanism some time back so decorating it didnt take much time.
Santa Pop Up Card 
          Who doesnt love Santa ? I dressed up this Christmas Pop Up Card with snow using Whipped Spackle. I like  Whipped Spackle  much more than Snowtex[ seen here : Christmas Diorama] as its easier to apply , doesnt flake off and is not crushed!
Santa Pop Up Card 
Both the Santa and the reindeer are stickers...I love using stickers in my cards!
Santa Pop Up Card 
          I used Memory box frostyville die to cut the snowflake borders on the card.The silver one was cut from glitter foam.The  presents were made with Marianne presents die[a win from Marianne Designs for this project : 3 D chariot tutorial ]
Santa Pop Up Card 
Supplies : Dies : Marianne Designs Fence, House and Bird , Marianne Designs Presents , Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 3 , Memory Box Frostyville border

28.8.15

Chandelier Embossed Card

Chandelier Card
       Dear friends sharing a simple embossed card with white on white and dollops of red !
Embossed Chandelier
       The star of the card is a Chandelier embossed using a Sizzix folder and I added pearl and rhinestone strings to hang on and beside the chandelier. The little red flowers are Cheery Lynn  die cut flowers and I added tiny pearl centers on them!
Spellbinders Lacy border
 The Spellbinders curved borderability is one of my favorite dies though it is time consuming to poke out all the intricate pieces!
Thank you Card
Here is the inside of the card with a simple Thank you and here is one more card made with the same Chandelier Embossing folder  : Easy Heat Embossing Tutorial 
Supplies : Sizzix Chandelier embossing folder , Spellbinders Borderabilities Curved Borders 2  , Cheery Lynn  build a flower embellishments 3 , Cheery Lynn  sunflower
Linking to Unstampabelles ,
Edited : This Card was chosen DT favorite at Unstampabelles

26.8.15

Crepe Paper Colllage Art

Collage Art
          Dear friends Thank you so much for being so kind and encouraging on my posts sharing my daughter's crafts. Sharing yet another of my 9 yr old's crafty projects.....this one is a collage art !
         My daughter is quite a good critique  both of my work and her own and she was not very happy with the hurriedly done background for the flower vase [ this was done in school and I think she was in a rush!] and was surprised when I told her I thought the whole thing looked gorgeous
Collage Art
          What I especially loved were the bright colored crepe paper flowers in her vase! Also you gotta love those little orange flower pollens she drew for her yellow blooms.
Linking to  2 Creative Chicks
This project was featured by Nana of 2 Creative Chicks. Thank you so much Nana for encouraging young talent!

25.8.15

Minion Crafts

Cardboard tube Minions 
        Minions seem to be all the rage these days and my daughter too has joined the bandwagon making a multitude of minion themed crafts! She asked my help to cut a cardboard tube up and she "designed" her cardboard tube minions to house her pens and knickknacks!She even made loom band necklaces for all her minion characters!
Minion Painting
          I have not seen the movie so cant quite fathom the  charm of the one- eyed fellas but the 2 eyed toothy grinning fella she painted does make me smile!
Clay Minion
          My daughter has quite nimble hands with clay and I guess this clay minion does look rather cute even though he has only one eye , minus an arm which fell off!
Have you made any minion crafts too? If so do tell me ...!!
Linking the cardboard tube dimensional Minions to BGC
This project was featured by Nana of 2 Creative Chicks. Thank you so much Nana for encouraging young talent!

21.8.15

Smile away Shadowbox

Smile away Shadowbox
         Since I am feeling much more cheerful and happy finally [Thank you so much  my blogger pals-- your supportive comments helped a lot to cheer me up!] ,I wanted to make a crafty project which was so  colorful and cheerful it would chase away any blues !
          I built a shadowbox around the theme " Smile your heart out" the sentiment on an epoxy sticker my friend Lisa sent me!
Sponge Cloud
         Everybody has cloudy days and so I added a cloud [ cut from packaging sponge] just to remind one that eventually the sun will come up !
         I embossed the sentiment " Laughter is the best medicine" in gold and I bet you agree that many a times Laughter is certainly the best medicine! Yes believe me as a doctor I see that all too often...the power of ones emotional state and positive attitude can work wonders! Last month we operated on an 86 yer old man with advanced cancer of the larynx[ voicebox]. His postoperative period was so turbulent as his aged body struggled to heal and at times we even regretted having given him the option of surgery even though that was his best chance! But in all these years we have not seen such a fighter...he was just raring to go back home and I think his positive attitude did more wonders than anything we did and he was soon able to join his grandchildren at home beating the deadly disease and the turmoils of its treatment! 
Laughter is the best medicine
       My shadowbox has a dominance of bright pink and cheerful yellow with oodles of greenery too! The embossed frame was sponged with distress ink and dusted with pearl powders for a gorgeous shimmer.
Cute Fairy
        Everyone has a guardian angel to look over them dont they. I am not deeply religious in the temple going- daily praying fashion but I do believe someone watches over us! And anyway the little fairy looks too cute to not smile!She is actually  a button I stuck on an stamped- die cut butterfly!
Glittered palms
       Well what else can make one smile...something that reminds you of a holiday ...palm trees on sandy beaches..or more accurately coconut trees in my case as they remind me of my hometown of Kerala ! The coconut trees are Spellbinders die cuts and inked in distress ink and glittered over with distress glitter.
Exotic flowers
         I don't know if there really are pink pears and big swirls of yellow berries in the real world but they looked yummy enough to add to my shadowbox!
Golden gate
          This  beautiful golden gate is a Spellbinders die cut and I seem to want to add to every project [ you can see it in our Snail diorama too] ...do you do that too...use a new craft supply in a near obsessive fashion...?
Shadowbox frame
        The picture above shows the shadowbox elements and the wood- glass frame I dressed up to go on top .
3 D floral sticker
          The butterfly was stamped [ hero arts stamp] and heat embossed , water colored and die cut with a Sizzix die. All the beautiful 3 D decoupage floral stickers  you see were sent to me by Lisa [ I am constantly amazed at the generosity of the crafting community!]I added them to my shadowbox so that I can treasure them for life[ Thank you so much Lisa!]
Whipped spackle
          The white snow like elements on the edges of my frame are " Whipped Spackle " and you can read more about Whipped Spackle here : Mixed Media tutorial , Altered Heart tutorial , Texture Media experiments
Laugh and Smile Shadowbox
         The golden lamp post is a Challenge die cut and most of the leaves are Heartfelt creations Classic Leaf die cuts I jazzed up following this tutorial : Leaf tutorial
Supplies : Dies : Cheery Lynn  butterfly, Cheery Lynn  grass,Cheery Lynn  lamp post, Sizzix Butterfly, Heartfelt creations Classic Leaf , Memory box cloud, Spellbinders gate, Spellbinders palm trees
Stamps : Hero Arts Butterfly Rubber Stamp [ in combo with coordinating sizzix dies], Laughter is the best medicine Rubber stamp
Misc : Itsy bitsy frame embossing folder,whipped spackle, Jesse james fairy button, Pearl powders,Distress inks

19.8.15

Snails Diorama

Snail Habitat Diorama
          Hi friends first of all Thank you so much for the supportive comments on my last post where I confessed to struggling to manage my online presence. I am staying away from Facebook and put in my resignation from DT commitments [No I didnt have a ton of DT commitments  but just one!] and it does seem to have done wonders to ease the pressure.
          My regular readers will be used to seeing occasional "weird" blogpost headings from me isnt it ...? well you guessed right this Snail Habitat Diorama was made for my daughter to take to school.
Clay Snail
          My daughter is in 4th grade now and they are learning about snail habitats. They were asked to try and bring snails to class.Though I am very squeamish about anything slimy and crawly, like a dutiful mom I ventured out into our garden, the marshy neighborhood locations and even a nearby lake to search for the little snails!My daughter was so disappointed we couldnt catch any snails but cheered up considerably when I agreed we could make a 3 D diorama instead to take to school! 
Snails School Project
             I cut up a large flat piece of cardboard , scored , bent and glued it to form the diorama base with a tall background  to accommodate all the snippets of information we had printed about snails. There was no time for proper painting so I had to speed things along by whipping out my green spray paint bottle to cover the kraft colored cardboard base!
            Any garden needs a fence...albeit hurriedly constructed and a bit lopsided!!The glittery grassy bushes winding along our garden was die cut from foam [ foam has more body than paper and super easy to glue erect using hot glue]
Habitat Diorama
        A garden needs a few critters and my daughter added a golden foam dragon fly on the grass and of course she wanted her garden to have a bicycle just like her real one in pink and blue!
Habitat Diorama
The flowers in the garden were made using Heartfelt creations Botanical wings- rose die stamp set and they were stuck on a 3 D bush we made out of thick cardboard
Spellbinders Gate
I debated whether the golden gate was too stylish for our humble garden but I couldnt resist adding it!
Handmade Clay snail
           My 9 yr old made all the snails using air drying clay and real snail shells we had found at the lake bed . I think you will agree her clay snails turned out rather well with their cute tentacles and tiny eyes! Snails secrete a slimy trail to help them to slide along and my daughter was delighted our faux slime made using the glue gun turned out super!
Snail Habitat
           Land snails love cool damp places and so we added a small pond [using textured foam] in the garden and you can see 2 snails enjoying themselves in it! The purplish black heap you see on the bed of the pond is foam putty ...love how it looks like pebbles and the brown rock was sculpted by my daughter using clay.[You can see more foam putty projects here : Altered Heart tutorial and Texture Media Experiments] She also colored the Memory box spring border die cuts we added to our diorama.
Fairy
       And here is a closeup of  the  little fairy who keeps the little snails company ! And yeah our snails's garden habitat has lots of butterflies fluttering about!
Snails School Project
          Our Snail Diorama was an extremely hurriedly put together project but my daughter loved it and was thrilled she had something to take to school!!
         The funny thing was the next day morning my hubby was able to find quite a few real snails wallowing in the rain drenched mud just outside our home!! My daughter's excitement knew no bounds  at being able to take a 3 D project as well as real snails to school! And yes both were a huge hit in her class!!
Supplies : Dies : Spellbinders Guilded Gate, Spellbinders Alphabets,Spellbinders Label , Spellbinders frame, Spellbinders beaded Oval, Sizzix Grass, Memory box spring border ,Marianne Fence, Cheery Lynn  dragonfly,Cheery Lynn  bicycle, Sizzix scallop oval, Provocraft butterfly, Sizzix Butterfly stamp - die set, Heartfelt creations Classic Leaf . Heartfelt creations Botanical wings- rose die stamp set,  Memory Box fringe border, ECD Oval accordion. 
Stamps : Hero Art Butterfly rubber stamp, Heartfelt creations Botanical rose- wings rubber stamps
Fairy - gift from my friend Angelin