Festive Parchment Flowers

Parchment Flowers

         Hi friends sharing a card with a medley of media including, parchment, velvet fabric, glitter foam , real dry flower seeds and metal.

Parchment Flowers

          I used the Heartfelt creations  Sun kissed fleur stamp and die cut set to make my flowers after stamping and heat embossing parchment with white embossing powder. The glittery green centers are beads!

Heat Embossing

             The Season's greeting was stamped and heat embossed using a Hero Arts stamp and the glittery snowflakes you see on the card are my favorite Memory Box die cuts. The ornaments were cut using a Sizzix die from   metallic card stock on which I created the pattern using Alcohol Inks [ More on Alcohol Inks here : Alcohol Ink Introduction, Alcohol Ink Techniques 1, Alcohol Ink Techniques 2]

Metallic Accents

         I bordered the  embossed and inked Thinking of you with metallic accents sent to me by Vishakha.The lattice background of my card is a favorite poppystamps Meso background die.

Alcohol Ink and Parchment flowers

         The picture above shows how the alcohol ink and the heat embossed parchment sparkles!The green leaves are velvet fabric leaves from my local fancy store. I had so much fun adding the different types of materials in this card!

Parchment Flowers

Supplies :Dies :  PoppyStamps Meso background , Memory Box Frostyville border  , Heartfelt creations  Sun kissed fleur, Sizzix- Hero Arts Ornaments 3 stamp- die set [ Won from Di of Pixie's Playground]

Embossing Folder : Darice Sentiment [ won from Isha ]

Metal Embellishments: from Vishakha Mittal

Stamps : Hero Arts Season's Greeting , Heartfelt creations  Sun kissed fleur

Linking to  

1. Linda 's 12 Tags Of Christmas challenge which is sponsored by her wonderful store, The Funkie Junkie Boutique - inspired by the red , green colors and , gorgeous textures and lovely shimmers + snowflake of Linda's wk 9 tag link above.
2. Craftindesertdivas Christmas
3. Whimsy Stamps Inspiration Challenge 88 Holidays
4. Simon Says Work It Wednesday Nov
5. Crop Stop Challenge

Floral Thank you Card

Floral Thank you Card

            Hi friends sharing a Floral Thank you card featuring stamped flowers galore. I am not much of a "stamper" but had so much fun using Ryn's Hibiscus which I had won recently.
        I stamped Ryn's  gorgeous detailed Sideways Hibiscus rubber cling stamp with Versamark and heat embossed with Ranger's gold embossing powder. Water colored with distress inks. I used a red gel pen to add some strokes to the inner parts of the petal.The background was inked with distress ink and sprayed with Lindy's pearlescent spray.

Designs By Ryn Hibiscus

I encircled the circle with tiny Cheery Lynn  flowers and added a golden Cheery Lynn  butterfly with a purple body [ actually a flower pollen!]

Cheery Lynn  Butterfly

            Added a favorite Marianne Anja Border on the lower part of my card and added stamped and die cut Heartfelt creations flowers. Nowadays my garden is visited by so many little birds and so I added a small Marianne golden bird  to my floral card!

Floral Thank you Card

         The Thank you was created using a Darice embossing folder I won from Isha's giveaway [ Thank you so much Isha].
          I was inspired by my friend Pamelia to splatter white acrylic paint all over my card !! Thank you so much Pamelia ...though my card is very amateurish compared to your masterpieces I had so much fun!

Supplies : Dies : Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 1, Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 3, Marainne Bird, Marianne Anja Border , Cheery Lynn  butterfly , Cheery Lynn Build A Flower Embellishments 3 , Spellbinders Lace Hearts

Embossing Folder Darice Embossing Folder 

Stamps : Designs by Ryn Sideways Hibiscus Cling Rubber Stamp , Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings 

Linking to : 
Marianne Design Divas-Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 1, Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 3, Marainne Bird, Marianne Anja Border

Edited : This card earned me a  Guest Designer spot for  entering in the  ICR Falvour board Challenge 

Artistry Ink Pad Review

Artistry Ink Pad Experiments

          Hi friends Thank you so much for all the love showered on my Stone Decoupage tutorial post. Sharing a Christmas Card in non traditional Colors .                 The wheel barrow with flowers is a Stamplorations stamp I heat embossed in Gold and water-colored using Artistry Ink Pads [a new type of ink pad launched in India] and Staedtler water color pencils.
           I dabbed the ink pads on a craft mat, squirted with a few drops of water and used it to color the flowers and leaves on the cart. The cart itself was colored with Staedler pencils and then brushed over with a paint brush dipped in plain water.
       

Heat Embossed Sentiment

         Its raining heavily in different parts of South India and I guess that is why I was tempted to make a card in deep stormy blue with a cloud! My daughter said it looks weird for a Christmas card but I guess for the kind of weather we are experiencing in this part of the world it seems ok!

Parchment Flowers

          One corner of my card has heat embossed parchment flowers inked with Artistry ink "Blaze" shade and a cute golden Christmas tree charm I picked up from my local market.The Marianne  die cut leaf looks so glossy because I cut it from card stock I had made with alcohol inks [Check this link for more about Alcohol Inks ]

Inked edge

       The holly leaves and berries is a chipboard embellishment . The white dots you see all over my project were made using a correction pen! I am no expert at inking edges but I loved how I could get a cool relatively" un-blotchy for me" card edge using my new ink pads!

Inked Die Cut

          The Christmas tree ornament is also made of chipboard and I added a pearl string to hang it! The elegant border is a Marianne Anja Border die cut I inked while the die cut was still in the die.

         When there are flowers...one needs a little butterfly too but since it was a Christmas project I couldn't add too many so its just one tiny blue butterfly fluttering towards the cart load of flowers!

Now about Artistry Ink Pads...This review is especially for Indian Crafters since I dont think its as of now available in other countries!

Artistry Inks

First of all a Disclaimer: I am not associated with the manufacturer of Artistry Ink Pads Shilpi in any capacity. And this is not a DT post for any shop!
        I had simply congratulated the owner/ manufacturer Shilpa Kenia about launching Made in India Ink Pads on face-book and I was pleasantly surprised when she sent me some Artistry Ink pads to try !
         I am writing this review on my own since I loved some of the unique features of these ink pads  and wanted to write a frank review which may benefit other crafters!Paper Crafting is still a budding industry in India and it is so gratifying to see entrepreneurs trying to meet the needs of the indigenous paper crafting community!
What are Artistry Ink Pads?
These are dye based inks which are acid free and react beautifully with water.
If you are familiar with Distress Inks well then for all practical purposes you can think of Artistry inks to equate closely to Distress Inks in their properties and action !
          In addition to their Distress Ink like properties the  big plus with these ink pads are some cool and clever design elements in the ink pad itself which addresses some problems we crafters frequently face with normal ink pads .

Artistry Ink Pad

Currently Shilpi has 48 colors in their ink pads in 2 sizes : regular and mini. I especially love the regular one because of the cool design of the ink pads!

Artistry Ink Pad

Here are some of the salient and special features of the Artistry Ink Pads

• InkPad is Upside down and hence Juicy Juicy!

     You may have read on several websites and forums about crafting stalwarts recommending you store your ink pads upside down to keep them juicy.I have never liked to do that because then I cant see which ink pad is which unless I go to the extra trouble of labeling them plus I dislike lids coming loose with upside down storage.
      Shilpi's ink pads are designed to store the pad upside down and the lid actually has the ink pad and you can flip it up to lie flat while you work

Artistry Ink Pad

Or you can flip it and bring it to rest atop the base for ease of working....isn't that clever!

Artistry Ink Pad

• Lid is attached to it so you wont lose lids!  - I find this a cool design since I am not the most organized person while crafting and I do inevitably search for caps and lids ! With attached lids....no losing lids or rummaging for lids!
• Raised stamping surface - I think this is the norm for most quality ink pads and the Artistry ink pads too have raised ink pads for ease of use.

  

  Artistry Ink Pad

• You can see the name while working or stacked!

           The ink pad is designed in such a way that there is a projecting shelf with a colored label that is visible even when the pad is open, so you know the color even if you've multiple pads open on your craft desk

Artistry Ink Pad

The inkpad is also labelled on its side so you can stack ink pads vertically if you wish and still see which is the color!

• Space to store blending foam 

Artistry Ink Pad

I think this is the feature I love the best! 

Many crafters have several wooden blending tools and lovely rotating carousels and wooden racks to store their ink pads and blending foams neatly . I have only one wooden blending tool and store the foam blending pads rather haphazardly all thrown together and when I have to use my ink pads it means rummaging through a mess!



Artistry Ink Pad

These cleverly designed ink pads have a neat storage space to hold your foam pad...super cool isnt it!

 Mini Artistry Ink Pads

Mini Artistry Ink Pads

The mini ink-pads are lower priced and the "ink" is super but the mini ink pads dont have all the fun clever design features the regular sized pad has! The lid is not a flip flop, there is no storage space for foam and the ink pad is not up side down but you still have the clearly visible name feature.

Mini Artistry Ink Pads

 Now about the Cons

• Part  of the lower panel "paper label" is not securely adhered - It doesn't peel off or anything but I felt it decreased the style quotient a tiny bit for an otherwise world class product!
• Availability - I think these gorgeous ink pads need to be marketed better so that they are more widely available . Would be ideal if major stationary shops in cities at least stock it!

More Resources : Anita Kejriwal has posted several videos on You tube demonstrating various techniques with these beautiful inks . 

Techniques I tried in this project using Artistry Ink Pads

• Water-coloring - I water colored the embossed wheel barrow and flower stamp using all 4 colors of Artistry ink pads - Loved the rich colors and their easy blend-ability.
• Creating a background  - I created the blue background using the Midnight Blue Artistry Ink pad on white card stock
• Inking edges of the paper - I often make a mess while inking edges of my card but it was easy this time!
• Sponging through a die stencil - I especially enjoyed using the Artistry ink pads to stencil since the ink pads were juicy I didnt have to keep pressing on the ink pad with my sponge!
• Coloring Parchment - I used "Blaze" to ink my parchment flowers.Parchment does not take well to many ink pads but these inks colored well and dried fast!

Where to buy Shilpi's Artistry Ink Pads : 

• CraftUniverse.com
• Hobby Ideas Stores
• Devi and Co ,Bangalore [ Directions here : Crafty Supply Stores India]

Non-traditional Christmas Card

I hope you like my card and review. Do tell me your thoughts

Supplies : Dies : Memory Box  Cloud , Marianne fence , Marianne Anja Border, Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 3, Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 1,Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings ,
Stamps : Stamplorations Dee's Artsy Impression Friends and Flowers, Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings , Sizzix- Hero Arts Ornaments 3
Paper : DCWV
Edited : This card was picked Top 5 at All sorts Use 3 dies Challenge 

Decoupaged Stones Tutorial

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

          Hi friends  sharing a super simple tutorial ! As crafty girls, you may have heard of the art of rock painting ; well I have been fascinated with it and even tried my hands on it but never been able to paint anything remotely resembling the beautiful stones featured in books or websites!

          So if you are like me and don't have the patience to paint ,decoupaging is a super simple and gratifying way to "Stone Craft"!

        This is a super easy craft and it feels so gratifying to transform a mundane object into a thing of beauty! You can use these decoupaged stones as paper weights or simply as "objets d'art" in your home! They are so cute you can even gift them!

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

             And don't be scared by the word decoupage...it just means cutting paper into bits and sticking it onto something...No sweat!!

But if you want to go a bit in-depth about decoupage and modpodge check out this link :Mod Podge Tips and Secrets
Materials Required for Stone decoupage

• Round Smooth surface stones or rocks
• White Acrylic Paint and Paint Brushes
• Tissue paper/paper napkins or thin pattern paper
• Scissors
• Decoupage glue- I prefer Mod Podge Matte to stick and Mod Podge Satin for the top coat
• Thin Towel 
• Felt or foam - to add to the under-surface of your stone
• Optional - Distress Inks /Other ink pads and Acrylic paint

Where to collect nice stones suitable for decoupage?

Stones are everywhere....you just need to keep your eyes open. Get ones which are large and can just fit into your palm.Too tiny ones are better suited for painting rather than decoupage and large ones dont look cute enough. A stone the size of an average paper weight would be ideal and then after you have decoupaged it you can actually use it as a paper weight! 

Good places to look for stones:

• Near house/flat construction sites
• Near lakes and rivers
• In your garden!
• In the park

       There is a lot of construction work going on in my neighborhood and truckloads of sand are unloaded frequently for constructing houses. I go for walks with my dogs a couple of times a day and relish collecting beautiful stones [ He he I do the stone picking early in the morning so that not many people are around to see me...dont want them thinking I am crazy!]

Prepare your stones

• Easiest way is to fill a bucket with soapy water and leave your stones for a couple of hours/ overnight.....that way you don't have to spend as much time scrubbing them clean. 
• I do add a little bit of antiseptic Dettol too into the bucket of water just to decrease the germ load before I handle the stones!
• Choose stones which don't have cracks....in case all your stones have cracks you can "cheat" and smoothen it out with air drying clay/mseal.
• Choose stones which have one flat surface- this just makes working on the stone easier ---decreases frustration of running after rolling stones!

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

• Paint the stones with white acrylic paint...yeah you can skip the gesso...it doesn't really mater!
• Use thin paint brushes to really get into all the little dips on the stone! 
• After drying turn it over and attack the under-surface !
• Decoupage only after the paint has dried thoroughly

 Choose Decoupage Paper

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

•  You can use thin pattern paper, thin wrapping paper or tissue paper. Avoid thick pattern paper as it will be difficult to wrap on to the curved surfaces of your stone

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

• You can cut the design closely or just leave a margin. 
• For the stones decoupaged with tissue paper use only the top layer and discard the other layers.Tissue papers may have 2 or 3 layers and you have to peel off all layers and use only the printed layer for decoupaging.

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

• You can apply a thin layer of mod podge/ other decoupage glue using a regular paint brush or a foam brush on the dry stone.

Dont apply a lot of glue on the stone or you will be left with a sticky mess and frustrated hair pulling!

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

Gently place your cut design on the stone and mop with a towel gently!

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

Once dry you can bring out the artist in you and try a few tricks to help merge the design to the rest of the stone! In the design above I inked the white acrylic painted parts of the stone with Distress Ink to decrease the contrast with my birds.

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

You can also add a few dots of acrylic paint randomly to up the cuteness quotient!

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

         If you are planning to use your decoupaged stones as paper weights or want to avoid scratching your tables with your stones, hot glue a piece of felt on the under-surface of your stones.

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial

The red flower shown above was cut from a DCWV pattern paper..I fussy cut the flower and leaf close and inked the surrounding stone with distress ink and added white acrylic paint dots!

Decoupaged Stones Tutorial

In this design I experimented with both white and black paint dots! I have used the same napkin on this project too : Foam Rose tutorial

Decoupaged Stones Tutorial

And that is the under - surface of my stone ...the felt levels off the irregularities and not only does it protect your table/other surface from the rough surface of the stone but prevents the stone from sliding or wobbling.

Decoupaged Stones Tutorial

 The one shown above is quite large and the size of my palm! I

Decoupaged Stones Tutorial

I hope this simple tutorial will be of use to you or inspire you in some way!

Linking to 

1. Sparkles Forum Challenge 
2. Sweet Stamps Anything But a Card Dec 15

Fairy Christmas Tag!

Fairy Christmas Tag

           Hi friends I am thoroughly enjoying making tags....it is so much fun to embellish a tiny piece of paper! I used a Christmas tree foam stamp to stamp a tree on a musical notes pattern paper and heat embossed using Ranger's Holographic embossing powder...this powder is just wow for festive projects...once embossed it literally shines in different colors depending on how the light is falling on it!

Heat Embossed Flowers

 Added my favorite stamped heat embossed parchment flowers and some silver Marianne leaves. Experimented for the first time using a snow marker and ooh it was fun to see the snow puff up!

Handmade Resin Fairy

     And that is my handmade resin fairy you see popping up every now and then in my projects! She is going to put the crystal ball [ a crystal bead I added to her hand!] atop the tree!

Beaded Border

        And yes I couldnt resist adding a sparkly snowflake border! Also proud of the beaded trim with the crystal beads behind them! It is crazily tough to get equal spacing with beads!!I fuzzy cut 2 butterflies from a DCWV pattern paper and layered them with foam dots to make a 3 D glittery butterfly.

Embossed Tag

I hope you liked my fairy/angel  tag!

Supplies : Dies : Memory Box Frostyville border  , Heartfelt creations  Sun kissed fleur, Marianne Fence, Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 3
Stamps : Itsy Bitsy Christmas tree foam stamp , Heartfelt creations  Sun kissed fleur rubber stamp,
Misc : Marvy Uchida Snow marker , Ranger Holographic Embossing powder
Linking to

1. Linda 's 12 Tags Of Christmas challenge which is sponsored by her wonderful store, The Funkie Junkie Boutique - inspired by the beautiful tree and snow splatter on her tag of wk 6 [ link above]
2. Happy Little Stamper Christmas Challenge 
3. Craftindesertdivas Christmas
4. Cropstop Challenge 
5. Sweet Stamps Anything But a Card Dec 15