Shabby Chic Memory Box

                             

You  know there are these moments when you see a beautiful creation and you have this urge to immediately try making something similar. Well I had that moment a few days ago when i saw Varshitha's creation over at the Lulupu blog. She is a very talented crafter and almost all of her creations leave me spellbound....and so did this Memory Box Card (as Varshitha calls it). So obviously, I just had to try my hand at it. I've been heavily inspired by her work and simply all of the techniques and things that she used just drew me in. So without further ado here is my creation inspired from Varshitha's Memory Box Card.

    

I've tried my hand for the first time at some shabby chic. Have embellished the cover with lace, pearls, flowers and some other random stuff. But the technique of using strips of patterned papers was inspired from Varshitha's project. Isn't it just beautiful how randomly placed but coordinated strips of paper can actually make something look beautiful!!

Across the patterned papers that I've used, there are these cherry blossoms peeping out from the designs...and i thought i could use some cherry blossom flowers on the cover page for embellishments. I had a punch thankfully and simply used it to punch out the flowers, layered them and used some vintage photo and old paper distress inks to distress the petals.

 When you open up the front cover.......

Lift the inside flaps and you see the accordion album right at the centre.

 

Close up of the album. I distressed all the pages with some old paper distress ink.

When you open the pages of the album....I used patterned paper and plain cardstock alternatively in the pages.

The other side of the album...

I haven't used any embellishments on the pages of the album....simply let the patterned papers do the talking. In fact if you look carefully, the papers themselves have this distressed look to them. That's what I really liked about this set of patterned papers.

Entering this in the following challenges
Crafters Corner Challenge # 12 - 3,2,1 - I have used 3 embellishments (lace, pearls, flowers) , 2 patterned papers (actually more), 1 sentiment
And
DCAM Challenge #2 - Shabby is Chic

Hope you all like this!

An Upcycled Box Keepsake :-)

Here's a first for me!! The first time I upcycled a box....yay!! I've seen a lot of talented ladies out there upcycling boxes or simply decorating boxes and wondered if i'd ever be able to take that first step. Am so glad that  i could try my hand at it. Well i wouldn't say that I've done a great job but its a first step towards many more...hopefully!!

This may be a picture heave post...but guys please bear with me and please do look through all the pics and give me your feedback. :-)

This is an ipod box which i've used. The idea behind upcycling this box was a keepsake-cum-gift for a newly married couple.

 I haven't done much on the box really....its my first time and i wasn't so sure of what all to include while decorating the box. Its just some patterned papers, some handmade flowers and some quilling strips used to make flourishes. Also included the first letters of their names on the box. While making this box I realised that I need to get more embellishments like maybe some chipboard stuff etc.

This is how it opens up.

I also wanted to make it a gift of sorts for them. So I decided to include a gift envelope to put in some gift money. When you open the box the first thing you see is this gift envelope.

It has a small sort of hold to keep the envelope closed. I wrote a small message for them on the inside of the cover of the envelope.

Once you remove the gift envelope. There is a sort of keepsake for the couple. I found this really cute love quote in one of the free printables available online. Its a really cute one and i hope you can read it in this pic.

Its about 7 pages with a few photos and like a small something about the couple.

Then comes the small write up for the couple with their pics. There weren't too many pics of them together and so I had to pick up a few single pics and see how i could weave a small story together. It turned out ok i'd like to think.

The embellishments are pretty simple and minimal...i've used patterned papers, distressing, free printables, alphabet stickers, paper punch flowers, paper butterflies and punches to embellish the different pages of the keepsake.

Entering this into the Beyond Grey Challenge # 38 Gifting Love for this month.
Totally Gorjuss Challenge 200 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 285 - Pretty in Pink and
Creative Inspirations Paint Week #2 - Anything Goes

Care for a cuppa......

Guys there's gonna be a slew of posts from me....I just realised that I haven't posted any of the cards that I've made and all the challenges are coming to an end.....August is almost done with!! Wow!! How fast can time really fly??!!! I've got a few more things to post.....not cards but some other stuff that I've been making. Will post them soon too.

So this one's made with two challenges in mind....one was the CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge #43 and the other is the Beyond Grey Challenge - Latte Love. 

The sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch is 

At Beyond Grey Challenges the theme is coffee + stitching. 

Here's my take for these two challenges.  

The card obvioulsy is CAS. The coffee takeaway cup is entirely handmade. The patterned paper is a free printable and the sentiment is printed. The pp has been distressed with ink first (vintage photo) and then distressed the edges with my exacto tool. Tried to capture it in the pic below.

I don't have a sewing tool and so made some faux stitching on the PP.

So that's all from me on this post. 

Fun in the Sun

So over at Lulupu's the challenge theme for this month is "weather or not". The idea is to depict a scene with a weather of your choice. I've chosen Summer and this is one scene that I dream about....I've never really had a beach holiday. Yes, I've visited beaches but then I belong to a coastal state and so visiting a beach is really a one day thing back home......no one takes a vacation to the beach there!! And so.....I've never ever taken a beach vacation......and that's something that came to my mind first when I thought of a summer scene.

Here's the card that I made.

I've tried a few new techniques here....well,new for me!! :-) Coloured the sky and the sea with distress ink....used the same colour actually but simply changed the pressure on the applicator to get the desired effect. The clouds are made using masking technique. Even the horizon was created using masking. U can see that I'm new at distress inking coz there's a small smudge in the sky. I'd tried my hand....finger actually ....at some distressing n there was a bit of vintage photo left over on my finger which smudged the blue sky....boo hoo!! :-(

The umbrella and flip flops are handmade. :-)

Used some crumpled brown paper to make the sand/beach. Tore it at one edge to give it a more rough, sandy, beachy feel to it!! The birds in the sky are simply hand drawn. :-)

Now all that I can hope for is to really have this scene in the summer turn to reality for me!!

A "something special" card

Not going to write much in this post. Had made this card a while ago and never got to post it here.
Recently got some border punches and this was the first card that I made using the trellis punch.

A close up of the 'presents' on the card. I enjoyed making these presents and all the while kept wishing someone would gift me something in such boxes! Hmm...wishful thinking I guess! I was quite happy with the way the bows turned out too! :-)

 I left the inside blank with just that party ball on the top corner....added some glitter to it to make it shine....not sure if it looks like one!! He he!

Linking this to Challenges for Everybody - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Occasion-ally  - my Occasion is a Birthday
Crafting by Designs - Anything Goes
Crafty Ribbons Challenge - Use 3 of Something - Used 3 different types of patterned paper for the presents
For the Love of Crafting - Expressions

Gift Envelopes

My parents have shifted base and moved to our hometown. One of the boons (occasionally a bane when there are one too many to attend...!!) is that they get to attend a lot of weddings and all sorts of associated functions. Mom is happy she can put all of her silk sarees to the best possible use and I am happy 'coz all of my silk sarees get to see some daylight thanks to her (I've offloaded several of my sarees to her now!!). :-)

She mostly gifts the newlyweds money so they can buy something of their choice. And so now she has a need for a lot of gift envelopes. Seeing my growing interest in things handmade she requested me to make some gift envelopes for her.  

Here is what I came up with. I used an envelope I had as a template. These envelopes have been embellished with patterned papers and border punched papers. 

Next I intend to try some stamping on the envelopes. Will post once I have a few ready. I've got an order for some 25 envelopes and so need to pull up my socks and quickly work on them! Phew!!

Dress Card!

I got an order for a birthday card for a daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law!!! Now this lady has only a son and this was the first birthday of the daughter-in-law after the wedding. I was so excited that I made about three cards and left it to the mother-in-law to choose from. :-) She chose this dress card.....and she said something very sweet. Now before I tell you what she told me....I must tell you that the three cards were three different types....one was a card with a very neutral colour and a proper birthday theme...the other one was a very floral card and the third one was a very girly pink card. So when I sent her pics of the three cards....she chose the girly pink card and said she liked all the cards but this one was special because of "the absence of pink in her life until now"....isn't that really sweet..... :-)

I saw something similar but simpler on a very talented lady's blog....but the unfortunate bit is that I am unable to locate the blog. I did this almost a month ago and forgot to note down the blog name!! She had made something similar for her bridesmaids thanking them. The best part about the card was that it was really so simple but looked extremely elegant and classy. And that really grabbed my attention. 

So this is my version of the dress card. I of course added a few more embellishments and some patterned paper to my card...but i think it still retains its simplicity and elegance.

Added some pearls at the bottom of the dress.

I was told that the daughter-in-law really liked it and was thrilled to know that it was custom made for her!! :-)

Party Invitations and Return gifts!

Hello crafty ppl......have been missing in action for a very long time now....I was travelling.... then got a li'l busy at home with family and was also quite busy crafting stuff for my daughter's birthday and making a few things on order. Anyway I am back and very keen on getting back to business. :-) I missed out on a few challenges and saw that there were some amazing challenges these last two months. Hope to get back into action and participate in at least a few challenges this month.

Today I'm gonna start with showing you something that I made for my dear daughter's birthday.....it was her 4th and can't believe that she actually gave me a list of friends she wanted to invite....wow!!!....kids these days are really smart!!

We did a Winnie the Pooh theme for her party and I sent out these Honey Pot invites to her friends....they are very simple but went well with the theme. For the invite message I used a free printable.

I also made these pillow boxes with treats to be given to each child along with their return gifts. I tried to co-ordinate the colours of the cardstock and ribbons with the characters in the Pooh series. :-) The pictures of characters are free printables available online .

I also wanted to give everyone a cupcake each as one of the return gifts. I made some lemon cupcakes and made some simple but bright cupcake boxes to put the cupcakes in.

I had also made small thank you notes for all her friends but unfortunately forgot to take pictures. Hmmm....there was just so much to do that by the time we reached her birthday I was quite exhausted....but my li'l girl had tonnes of fun and all of her friends except one could make it. :-)