Cupcake and circles

This is a card I made a few months back but the blog for this card was pending! Finally I got the chance to share this with the world :)

This is a very simple card and took me less than 15 mins to assemble after I got the idea :) I used my circle cutter to cut those circles from paper with embossed dots. 

Materials:
TE Kit Pattered Paper
Orange cardstock
Cupcake sticker
Blue, green, yellow circles cut from embossed dotted paper
"Happy Birthday" stamp

Thanks for stopping by! 

Diwali Bloghop - Day 2

Hop to next blog: Piali's "Touch of Creation"

Hop to previous blog: Gayatri's "Handmade by G3"

Welcome to Day 2 of the Diwali Bloghop! Today we are focusing on Diwali decor which is "anything but a card". I decided to make my own diya (oil lamp). This is my first time making one so I learnt some good lessons around decorating a circular cup. When I was wrapping the cup with ribbons I realized I need to cut the ribbons in small parts rather than one whole piece the length of the circumference. This is necessary to align the ribbon with the cup edge!

I took a small glass cup and decorated it with ribbons all around its sides. Then I added some red pearls and golden flowers on its edge. This was simple and quick and I plan to make more of these to light a row of lamps on Diwali days.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Check out some awesome Diwali decor from very talented ladies in this Bloghop group!

• Chaitali's "Cuts Crops & Creativity"
• Smriti's "Ribbons etc"
• Gayatri's "Handmade by G3"
• Pooja's "Creative Corner" <You are here>
• Piali's "Touch of Creation"
• Isha's "New Ideas"
• Sanketi's "The Story Teller"

In case you haven't checked our Day1 Diwali card ideas yet click here.

Wish you all a very Happy Diwali!

Diwali Bloghop - Day 1

Hop to next blog: Piali's "Touch of Creation"

Hop to previous blog: Gayatri's "Handmade by G3"

There are many reasons why this post is super special! First of all this is my first ever bloghop and you have no idea how excited I am writing this post :) Then there is Diwali - the Indian festival of lights just around the corner and I can't wait to celebrate! And of course the biggest reason why this post is super special - this is the first time I made Diwali cards and I am dying to share those with you all :)

Diwali is the one of the most popular festivals in India. Diwali is celebrated every year in many special ways. During the Diwali week people visit friends and relatives, exchange sweets and gifts, burst fire crackers,  decorate the house with lanterns and rows of diyas (small oil lamps) and rangoli (usually sand art with a variety of sand colors). In the spirit of this festival of lights I used many glittering layers and embellishments on my cards. Also I kept each card very simple and took advantage of this opportunity to use a variety of patterned paper that I brought from India. 

Materials:
Orange patterned paper from India
Cream decorative paper from an invitation
Golden net paper from India
Flame shaped glitterring flat bead

Materials:
Dark patterned paper from India
Cream classic patterned paper
Ribbon

Materials:
Orange handmade paper from India
Cream patterned paper from India
Golden ribbon
Ganpati cutout

This year Diwali celebrations are in the week of Nov 11.  Its not late at all to get your creative juices flowing and start thinking of what you wanna make for this year's Diwali!

Thanks a lot for stopping by and let me know what you think of these cards! Also remember this is a 2 day Diwali BlogHop so stop by tomorrow for some more Diwali related craft ideas.

Now continue hopping and check out some awesome Diwali cards from very talented ladies in this Bloghop group!

• Chaitali's "Cuts Crops & Creativity"
• Smriti's "Ribbons etc"
• Gayatri's "Handmade by G3"
• Pooja's "Creative Corner"    <You are here>
• Piali's "Touch of Creation"
• Isha's "New Ideas"
• Sanketi's "The Story Teller"

Before I end my post I want to give a big shout out to my friend Chaitali for organizing this BlogHop. She is a super talented and super enthusiastic craft buddy who always manages to pull me out of my craft slack times and gets me on my feet to creative journeys! 

Little star

I made this card congratulating the couple on their baby shower to celebrate the news of little star in our family!

Materials:
Pink patterned  paper
Tag from  Cosmo Cricket Element Deck
"Little Star" sticker
Pink cuddly top sticker
Pink ribbon
Pink button

Eagerly waiting for her arrival :)

Dreams

I was starting to get uncomfortable with the long break I took from craft adventures. Life happens and sometimes you just wait forever for the right time and motivation to get back to doing what you are passionate about.. Last week the right time came for me ...

My uncle, aunt and their kids visited us over the weekend and I was excited to see them after 4 long years!!! I started thinking of ideas to make a motivational card for my cousin who will graduate from high school in next couple of years and go to college... and I took this opportunity to use my Silhouette Cameo to show off its beauty and here is what I came up with -

Materials:
Far East Background CardStock
Parachute silhouette cut on Silhouette Cameo
"Let your dreams take flight" PTI stamp and black ink
Black and white twine
Black square stickers

Thanks to my hubby for the amazing gift (Silhouette Cameo) and to Chaitali for letting me use her PTI Happy Trails stamp set.

I declare myself to be officially back to my craft adventures :) and will keep posting here to share my creations with you! Thanks for stopping by!

You are fabulous!

This is the second card that uses most ingredients from my TE April KI kit! :) Here is the first one :)

Materials:
TE April Kit card stock
TE April Kit patterned paper
TE April Kit ribbon
Butterfly dimensional sticker
Pink twine
"You are fabulous" stamp and pink dye

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!! In my northwest corner the sun is shining bright and the sky is clear.. hope you enjoy some great weather in your part of the world too :)

Butterfly

I went to a stamp festival in Portland in April and bought a whole variety of stamps. This butterfly stamp is one my favorite picks from that trip! I made 3 such butterflies on different colored backgrounds and then experimented with several patterned papers to see which combo appealed to me the most! Do you like this combo as well?

Materials:
Far East Background cardstock
Far East patterned paper (flowers)
TE April Kit paper flowers
TE April Kit Ribbon and matching cardstock
Butterfly stamp and black ink
Patterned butterfly background

This design is based on SCS Sketch Challenge 382

Flower circles

I started subscribing to the Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients Kit from April 2012. Most of the ingredients for this card are from my April Kit! I loved the cute paper flowers in the kit that go so well with the patterned paper! And needless to mention I love pink!!! 

Materials:
TE April Kit Pattered paper
TE April Kit Pink & Green Cardstock
TE April Kit Paper flower
TE April Kit Label
TE April Kit ribbons
Pink twine
"you are Loved" stamp

This card is based on Taylored Expressions Sketch 157.
Thanks for stopping by and let me know your thoughts on this card!

Wedding bells

I don't think I was done with the patterned paper I mentioned in my previous blog. I had to make another card with this paper and the wedding theme continued as well.. 

Materials:
Plain background cardstock
Patterned cardstock
Label from TE Expressions April Kit paper pad
Wedding bells sticker
Ribbons
Pearls

The layout is inspired from the TE sketch challenge 155 though I ended up tweaking it a bit to add the ribbons at the bottom.

Wedding cake

Its been a while since I blogged.. I havent taken a break from making cards I just wasn't able to keep up with updating my blog as well!! I hope I am able to make it up to you with the cards that I wanna share with you... thanks for stopping by!

Few days ago my eyes fell on the elegant patterned card stock that I had used a couple of years back to make my wedding invitation cards. I had made 40 invitation cards then and have some pieces of that beautiful card stock in my stash! Keeping up with the wedding theme I used the same card stock to make a card for a newly wed couple! I combined elegant pattern with the wrinkled Indian handmade paper.

Materials:
Plain background cardstock
Indian handmade paper
Patterned cardstock
Glossy brown paper
Ribbon
Wedding cake dimensional sticker

This design is based on
SCS Sketch Challenge 377

Circles sketch

I saw this sketch on SCS Sketch Challenge 380 on Wednesday morning and since then my mind was occupied thinking of what papers I could use for this layout! When I started making this card it was more challenging than I thought it would be since all the layers and colors had to match well. I must admit that I spent a lot of time trying to gather and match all the patterned papers I wanted to use. I also discarded 2 of those after I cut the circles since the patterns didn't gel well. Here is what I finally put together -

Materials:
Old World card stock for background
Colorbok card stock for largest circle
K&Company papers for smaller circles & background band
K&Company dimensional  flower &  butterfly

I used my new EkSuccess circle scissors for the first time today! Cutting circles is a piece of cake now :) I placed the paper on a glass mat and then placed this tool on top. What I like the most about this tool that you can cut a circle from any section of the paper and you can check before cutting if the circle is going to cut the expected area on the paper.

Let me know if you like this design! Thanks for visiting my blog!

Gift envelopes

This weekend Chaitali, Prema and I set up a booth at Asha's Geetanjali event to sell our handmade paper goods. Chaitali and I started going to this event since last year and this year Prema joined us as well. All the money we earn from selling our cards and paper products goes to Asha for a good cause.

Last year we had a collection of about 50 cards for the booth. This year we decided to expand the variety of goods beyond cards. I made some envelopes and mini/pocket scrapbooks. I will write another post for the scrapbooks. Here are all the envelopes I decorated!

Are you wondering why I chose envelopes of this size? These envelopes can be used for packaging gift cards or gift cash. There are many places where gifts are given in the form of cash to let the receiver buy a gift item of their choice. It is the same as giving a gift card except that you actually pack a bunch of bills in the envelope :) 

All these envelopes are made of handmade paper from India. I usually make the envelopes too from scratch.  I made about 100 envelopes from scratch with handmade paper and decorated the envelopes - some of those were used for giving gifts to the guests at my wedding. The envelopes in the pics are however pre-made and I decorated each one with a variety of embellishments.  The elephant headed figure in a couple of cards is that of Ganpati - who is widely worshipped in India and is honored at the beginning of rituals and ceremonies. 

Hope you like these designs and thanks for stopping by my blog!!!

Graduation

Materials:
black card stock
Blue,  pink East card stock
black stones
"Success" stamp

Pear pair

Materials:
Checkered card stock
Orange, green, white card stock
"You & me" stamp - orange dye
"Quite the pear" stamp - black, green dyes

Life is Beautiful

Materials:
Handmade card stock from  India
Yellow - orange card stock
Tree stamp - black dye
Brown card stock
"Life's beautiful" stamp - brow dye

Rockstar

Materials:
Judikins music notes background stamp
Blue, black dye
"Party Like a RockStar" stamp
Guitars cut from colored card stock
Black marker
Blue grey cardstock  

Feather touch

Materials:
Peacock feather stamp- Blue, green, pink dyes
Green and yellow  "Old World" cardstock
Green shades cardstock
Green rhinestones
Best Wishes stamp - brown dye 

I do

Materials:
Textured card stock
"For the Bride and Groom" stamp
Bouquet sticker
Golden ribbon
half pearls

This design is based on
365cards Day6 - Keep it Simple

Denim Anniversary

Materials:

Light blue and dark blue card stock

Needle and orange twine

Key stickers and metal twine

Blue brads

                                                                                                                          "Congrats" stamp

This design is based on
SCS WT 364 Denim Anniversary

Monogram S

Materials:
Vintage cream card stock
Handmade green paper
Brown ribbon
Rhinestone design stickers
Black Marker

This design is based on
SCS CAS160 Monogram Cards

Color palette

Materials:
Colorful card stock
Red + cream card stock for palette
"Just a note" stamp
Green acrylic color 

This design is based on:
365cards Day5 - Splattered

Thanks a bunch!!!

Materials:
Vintage card stock
Twine
Bead Letters
Recollections  purple shade flowers

This design is based on:

365cards Day4 - Super Sketchy Sunday

Sunrise at sea

Materials:
 Colored card stocks
Wave border
"Its your day Enjoy" stamp

This design is based on

• 365cards Day2 - Imagine This
• SCS MMTPT187 Make a card using images of the sea!

Pretty pink

Materials:
Dotted patterned paper
Pink ribbon
Handmade paper
"Pretty Baby" sticker
Crochet baby top

This design is based on:

• 365Cards Day3 - Pretty in Pink
• SCS Sketch Challenge 374

Birthday Banner

Materials:
Lines patterned card stock
Red, blue, green, yellow card stock
Foam alphabet stickers
Twine
candle and ribbon shaped birthday buttons

This design is based on:
SCS TLC366 ~ It's a Banner Kinda Day!!

Baby on the way

Materials:
Dotted and plain card stock
Wooden mini  clips
Twine
"On the Way" Sticker
"B a b y" alphabet sticker

Vintage look

Materials:
Vintage card stock
Handmade paper from India
"love you" stamp
heart sticker
needle + red marker for faux stitching

This design is based on:

SCS CAS158 Challenge

Flower sketch

Materials:
Handmade paper from India
Brown ribbon
3D Flower
Dried leaves
"Best Wishes" stamp

This design is based on:

SCS Sketch Challenge 373

Cutie Pie

Materials:
Checkered card stock
Blue card stock
Crochet baby top  & metal hanger
Blue ribbon
"Cutie Pie" stamp

This design is based on:

SCS Sketch Challenge 372

Mighty tree

Materials:
Tree trunk card stock
Leaves card stock
Butterfly brads
"On Your Special Day" stamp

Sunshine rainbow

Materials:
Rainbow colored plain cardstock
Patterned blue and green card stock
White translucent patterned paper

This design is based on:

SCS F4A103 Rainbows Challenge

Missing "U"

I started thinking of a joke which led me to thinking of a pun to use on my card. Also while going through my craft raw material I realized I had not used my jigsaw alphabet stickers in a while. So I started thinking of a theme around a missing puzzle piece :) After much thought I finally settled down on a missing "U" from "Missing You".

I drew the sad boy outline and colored it and cut it around the outline. 

Materials:
Pink and purple card stock
Jigsaw alphabet stickers
Markers to color the boy cutout

This design is based on:

SCS F4A102 Send a Joke Challenge

Moonlight romance

Materials:
Blue and black card stock
Textured translucent white paper

This design is based on:

SCS WT361 - Valentines with a Twist Challenge

Heart buttons

Materials:

Pink handmade paper

Red heart shaped buttons

Pink heart stickers

"LOVE" stamp

Red marker pens

Flower power

Materials:
Flower patterned card stock
Pink ribbon
Pink, Orange, Green card stocks
Ribbon flowers

This design is based on:

SCS Sketch Challenge 371

Ring bling

I cut out two champagne glasses from the red patterned paper using a craft knife. I used a vellum for the glass effect behind the red paper. I designed the card such that I could use the cute ring embellishments from Michaels store.

Materials:

 Red patterned paper

Vellum paper

Ring embellishments

Silver Glitter Pen

2012 creative journey begins ...

2011 was phenomenal! Chaitali and I undertook a challenge "Cards for a Cause" and raised money for Asha - a non profit organization that works towards education for the deprived. On a personal front I gifted a scrapbook to my parents with memories from our week long Alaska cruise last summer. I fulfilled a custom order of  25 Thank You cards for my 1 year old nephew's birthday party. Here is the gallery of some of my creations from last year!

This year I am trying something different. Chaitali introduced me to some card making challenge blogs earlier this month and I am highly inspired by her to participate in as many challenges as I can. This space is dedicated to all my creative adventures that 2012 has in store for me :)

Stay tuned!!!