Kosmic Chai Crafts

Li’l Birdie Mobile

2010-08-03T08:19:00.001-07:00

Hello there, all the wonderful people! I know I’ve hibernated too long – given its summer, too! But honestly speaking, I really missed this wonderful place called Blogland, and here I am!

I took flight from here few weeks (or was it months!) ago as it was becoming more and more difficult to keep up the steady flow of posts and updates with a full-time job and all, but as time passed I realized that this was something that I really enjoy doing and couldn’t do without. The last straw was when some lovely ladies from the blogosphere wrote to me asking if was alright; and I instantly knew I had to be back to where I belonged. Thanks a lot for that gals!

Now about the bird mobile that the title speaks of. I love birds and mobiles – who doesn’t? So here’s what I made the other day – a birdie mobile!

I always wanted to try my hand at clay modeling, but it all really started when I found some ready-to-use Paper Clay at a mart. Now I don’t know if its available in US as well, but its a great recycling idea and moulds well, too!

Here’s what you’ll need to make these beauties:

- paper clay (or any variant) – natural air-drying or oven drying

- skewers

- acrylic paints, varnish

- yarn of thread, needle

- glass pebbles (optional)

Here’s the cute birdies, in natural terracota hue

The first attempt at moulding the birds was not quite bad, I’d say. They did turn out prettier as I went on. Remember to pierce a hole on their back all the way through their bottom when the clay is wet though, or you wouldn’t be able to thread them when dry.

I also made few pretty clay balls, and pierced a hole through them so I could knot them into the mobile, too.

Now, I love terracota pottery and all, but I had envisioned these birds in pastel colors, so I painted them white! Cute already!

Love them in Sepia. Here’s how I set them to dry..on skewers and screw-drivers, no less!

Once dried, I set upon to perform my favorite part – painting! You know how i go berserk with paints.. I forgot to take a pic of the colorful birds before threading them, but LOVED them. Here’s a shot of one of my fave birds:

Once the colors have dried, thread the birds and clay balls in the yarn alternatively spaced by knots in between. I also stuck some glass pebbles in between in the technique shown here. Here’s a long shot of how it adorns a plain wall in the living room.

I’m surely gonna make more of these cute things. So lovely!

Linked to these fab parties!

Whatever Goes Wednesday @Someday Crafts
Link Party 18 @Tea Rose Home
Show & Tell @ Blue Cricket Design
Make it Yours Day @My Backyard Eden
Get Your Craft On Tuesday @Today's Creative Blog
Tutorial Tuesday @ Hope Studios

Simple Spring Wreath

2010-05-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

I've admitted it over and over- I go crazy when I see colors, and though neutral tones fascinate so many people, they're not really my style. Not at all. Colors are my fantasy, and I long to use them more and more everywhere. That's probably why I love Spring, and this spring wreath as well!

This beauty is really easy to pull off! The basic form is very easy to make, and the final look will depend on how you choose your embellishments. You will need:

- Floral wire (not too thin, medium thickness)

- Sharp Scissors

- Tissue paper

- Lots of Mod Podge

- Embellishments: I used several (yeah, you can see that)- twisted paper flowers, beads of all shapes and sizes, paper butterflies, pearls, satin ribbons, and a cute tiny li'l birdie! Follow your heart and choose your own colors.

First, twist the wire to make a round shape out of it. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this step. I kept it asymmetrical and uneven on purpose as I rather like that look.

Next, apply glue on the wire's surface and start wrapping the tissue paper around it. You can skip tissue paper and wrap around a ribbon instead, but I rather love the soft look of the tissue paper. Let it dry.

I painted the tissue surface teal here and there, randomly. Sorry, pic for this step forgotten again!

Never mind! Now lets embellish. I totally went berserk here. I made some rolled paper flowers (I know you all know how to make those- blogland is totally saturated with the tutes; so I won't discuss it here...But I totally love my idea of piercing a wire through the center and twisting in a charming hanging bead into it. Here are the close-ups...

Next I tied three wires in parallel way on the top of the wreath and twisted them all while placing pearls randomly. I glued few butterflies here and there, and the small cute birdie in the centre wire. I tied few ribbon snippets here and there where there was additional place remaining. I also twisted a wire in the bottom of the circle and inserted a hanging bead in each loop.

The result was this beautiful spring wreath! Yay!!

Wouldn't this make the spring extra special!

Linked to these fabulous parties:
DIY Day @A Soft Place To Land
Talented Tuesday @ My Frugal Family
Tuesday Tutorial @Hope Studios
Whatever Goes Wednesday @Someday Crafts
Make it Yours Day @My Backyard Eden
Tea Rose Home Linky Party
Show Off Your Stuff Party @Fireflies & Jellybeans
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Get Your Craft On @Life as Lori
Creative Cats @Poppies At Play
Sunday Showcase @Under the Table & Dreaming

Fun at Work Place!!

2010-04-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

Is that possible, a lot of you must be thinking! I guess I've never mentioned here that I finished my MBA a month ago, and now I work for nation-wide radio company. The work-motto here is "Fun & Responsibility", which is so great, 'coz you get to do a lot more than being desk-bound all day long! I love it so far, Yay!

I have great colleagues to work with. Today afternoon us girls got a li'l bored with the routine job, and naturally crafting came up to our rescue. Guess what we tried today- Origami Stars and Butterflies - with our old used stationary, no less! You'd find lots of tutorials on You Tube, and my, making the paper butterflies was great fun! Once we were done with painting them (yes, we have acrylic paints and more at office, too!!), I suddenly remembered a loop of thread and needle somewhere in my shelf, and lo, the vision of an Origami Butterfly Mobile was born! My colleagues fetched cardboard, and we started to hang the butterflies from individual strands of thread. I tore through my bracelet for some beads to make up for the bare threads. Now, I love my beaded jewelery a lot, but the beads looked sweet in the mobile!

It was great fun to tie up these delightful things with the help of thread and cardboard to the ceiling, more so 'coz it was totally unplanned and unprepared for. I mean, who thinks of hanging a mobile in the office with the help of cardboard and tape, or of ripping apart one of their favorite beaded bracelets! And still end up with something good-looking? See, totally random!

Why am I telling you all this, right? This is to show that us working-folks can have fun at work, too! Try this at your workplace on a dreary day, and trust me, your boredom will vanish soon! What's more, more colleagues at crafting = more ideas, so it will be a learning experience!

Sunday Spotlight Guest - Craft Envy!

2010-04-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hello there wonderful ladies, we have a guest posting for us today, who is none other than Vanessa of the fabulous team Craft Envy! I guess most of us are familiar with them and their lovely creations, and I was awed when they invited me as a guest to their blog, and more, agreed to do a guest post, too! The blog swap sounded unbelievable to me; they're so sweet! I'm fortunate to take a back seat here, and let Vanessa take over! Visit their blog and check out their cool stuff!

Hello Kosmic Chai readers! We are so happy to be here, and grateful that Sonia gave us a little space in her awesome blog! I love her work!

My name is Vanessa, and my sister-in-law/BFF Nicholette and I have this little blog called craft eNVy!

Why would we name it that? Because it's an evil we suffer from. Craft Envy. We are always looking for ways to make something fabulous, and we can't help it but feel envious of all the wonderful crafters we see in the blogosphere and their wonderful ideas! You fuel our crafting!!! :) Okay, enough silly stuff.

Here are a few things you can find on our blog:

Adorable headband made from an old tie! Isn't it cute?

This layered button bracelet is easy and fun, you can finally use up some of those buttons sitting around.

This egg shell picture frame was such a fun Valentine's Day gift to make!

These cardboard decorative letters look adorable in my little girl's bedroom. Make sure to check them out!

So, Mother's Day is coming up soon, and I've started working on some little gifts for the special women in my life, but I didn't quite know how to wrap them, they're tiny gifts... That's when I saw my trusty bag of toilet paper rolls, waiting to be turned into something fabulous, and came up with this:

That's right friends! These cute boxes are made out of TP rolls! Let's get to it.

What you'll need:

- TP roll

-glue

-scissors

-pencil

-some kind of paper to cover your box (I used some old tissue paper from a gift, and a napkin!)

-embellishments

Let's get started now!

Flatten your TP roll, and trace on both edges a curved line, like you see above.

Cut out on the line you just traced. Your roll will look like this.

Baad picture, sorry. But you get the idea, fold the edges you have just cut out, to the inside of the roll.

You will do that to all of them. It will look like this. Isn't that a cute shape?

Now go ahead and open your roll out again, cover it with glue and lay it on the paper you want to use. I like to crinkle up the paper to give it some texture, I think it looks cool! After that, go ahead and trim your paper to the shape of your little gift box.

Don't forget to embellish away! I tied a cute little bow in one, and I used a paper flower on the other, but you could add whatever you like! And they're perfect size for the little beaded watches I'm making... Shhhh.... don't tell the mothers! :)

Sonia, thanks so much for giving us a chance to be a guest at your awesome blog! You have no idea how many of your projects are currently bookmarked on my computer right now!

Linked to these fab parties!

Just Something I Whipped Up @The Girl Creative
Making the World Cuter Monday
DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land
Tutorial Tuesday @Hope Studios
Talented Tuesday @My Frugal Family
Whatever Goes Wednesday @Someday Crafts
Make Yours day @My Backyard Eden
Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tattertots & Jello
Categorically Crafting @Someday Crafts

'Feature-istic Friday' #3

2010-04-23T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hello there, all you wonderful ladies. I know, it was too bad of me to skip this ritual last week, but I was really occupied at work, and couldn't make it. Do not worry, I'll make it upto you this time! Here we go with some of the best DIY ideas around the blogland.

Check out this awesome Shrink Plastic Statement Necklace made by Alisa Burke. I was awed the first time I found her blog. I still am! Hooked to her creations!

I can't imagine there's someone around here who is not aware of the fabulous team called Poppies at Play! And it makes me sad to that Hannah is leaving the team- I love her creations like hell! So check out this cool and oh-so-easy Spring Wreath and leave her cute comments. We wish you good luck, Hannah!

I love the simple beauty of the Air Plant Chandelier made by Haley. Her instructions make it seem so very easy! And I love her vegan adventures too. Go check her out today!!

I love recycling projects, and just could not resist this Green Mantel made by Laurie at Scene of the Grime (Cute name, I know!). Wish I had come up with this idea, too!

I totally love this Wall Art at the Stories of A to Z! It was love at first sight, and I drool every time I see this. I'm gonna try this for sure, such awesome treatment for a bare wall! Sigh!

Isn't that superb dose of inspiration for this week! I'm all charged for some crafting action, how about you?? Do e-mail to me the links for any ideas that you want me to feature here every Friday! Great way to attract some extra crowd to your blog, too!

Plastic Bottle Purses!! - Guest post on Craft Envy

2010-04-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hello readers, this week I got something very exciting for you! I'm posting over as guest blogger for the first time on Craft Envy. Yay, I'm so excited! Such a lovely offer from Nicholette and Vanessa - they knew I was just a beginner here and still were generous to spotlight my crafts!

Well, I love today's creation of mine, it's a great recycling-cum-storage project! We all know that plastics are non-biodegradable and create a horrible mess and hazard to the earth. Ever since I read this I keep thinking of new ideas for crafts involving plastic bottles..and yesterday this idea hit me- Why not make purses or coin boxes out of plastic bottles!

So here they are: Plastic Bottle Purses, zippered up and all! If you wish to learn how to make these beauties, head over to Craft Envy HERE!

My, aren't they cute! Store what you like in these lovelies, and save the environment too..now that's what clever re-purposing is all about! Do let me know what you think!

Also while you're there, check out the awesome creations by Nicholette and Vanessa, if you haven't already!

'Feature-istic Friday' #2

2010-04-09T22:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the second post from 'Feature-istic Friday' series. We're new, but guaranteed to give some of the best ideas around the blogland every Friday. I know, it was posted up a day late and I'm sorry for the delay - was busy with my new job all this week. Check out these cool and fun ideas and come back and thank me!

Michelle from Someday Crafts is beautifully Forcing Spring to Come along with her kids. Such a fun idea! Spring's gonna surely lurk around there for a longer time!

Find out from Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures how to Decorate Rocks...I really love this one, and am gonna try this for sure! I love her photography and in fact everything on her blog..do check it out!

If you haven't seen this great Creative Work on the Hallway Floor by Alisa Burke, then you've been hibernating all through! Wake up and check this out (one day my husband will get the shock as he wakes up, too!). I hart, hart this!!

Allison from House of Hepworths made these colorful cute darlings. Check out these Sponge Koosh Balls ! Cute to play with, quick to make- what more did we ever ask for!

These Three Little Birdies were my love at first sight. Do visit Heather at Me Making Do and check out this great creation of hers. I was a follower right away as I'm awed by her creativity!

Aren't these ideas all superb! That was a great dose of inspiration for me for sure! Your crafts can be featured here in the coming week as well- that's easy! Do send me the links of any of your creations, and I'll feature them if like them..others get to see your great ideas and you get added traffic directed towards your blog. My email address is displayed on the right hand sidebar.

Curled Paper Peonies

2010-04-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

Hey there everybody, I'm back from my superb vacation...I had so much fun, except for the unwanted tan! Since my last post was so lengthy, this time I'm gonna keep it simple.

So here goes, I made these beauties yesterday- Curled Paper Peonies..Don't they seem fun?

These can used to pep up almost anything - a greeting card, a closet door, or as in my case, my workspace..my computer at work is going to be adorned by them tomorrow!

These are very simple and fun to make, as they require no extensive work, and are almost frugal, as all you will need to make these is paper and glue. Glitter of course is compulsory for me, too!

To make Curled Paper Peonies, You will need:

Paper: Several types of paper were used. I painted cardstock paper with shades of pink glittering acrylic paints, as evident in the flowers above. I also spread some plain paper and magazine pages under some bottles I wanted to spray paint in silver color. You can see that in the pic below:

This helps in recycling otherwise unused paper, and also saves on glimmer mist or sparkle paint! I know, clever :)

Glue, Skewer or toothpick (for curling), Scissors, and glitter are needed too..Lets get started now:

You will basically need to cut three or four 9-petal flowers for making one peony. Templates are available everywhere on the internet for these. You can choose the size of flowers and their number according to the desired fullness. I found three flower shapes satisfactory for one full peony.

I cut these 9-petal flower shapes from out of cardstock paper, mag pages, plain paint-splattered pages, and some gift papers as well. I know, you're thinking what next!

Next, place three alike flower shapes on a plain surface. Do not bother with the first flower. Cut one petal from the second flower, and two petals jointly from the third flower, as in the pictures below (I included two pictures so you're more clear about it).:

Now glue two petals together so that they overlap. Note that for the second and third flower, this overlap should be done for the petals across the gap where you had cut petals previously (you still there, after this line??).

Now hold the skewer or toothpick in a hand and curl each petal of the flowers outwards as shown here. Just a gentle curl will do the trick, no pressures required.

The first flower with no cut petals forms the base, the second flower with one cut petal get glued over the first, and the third flower with two petals cut needs to be glued topmost. Now scrunch the flowers together ever so lightly, like this:

Now for the cut petals - Curl them with the help of skewer as well, and place on the top of the stack of curled flowers. Glue in place. And we're done, Voila!!!

There you go, your flower is ready! Now attach it to a vase, or a gift..People will always admire their simple beauty.

Linked to these fab parties..come, join me there!

Creative Cats @ Poppies At Play

Making the World Cuter Monday

Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative

Market Yourself Monday @Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Wednesday's Creative Inspiration @Roots And Wings Co

DIY Day @A Soft Place to Land

Tutorial Tuesdays @Hope Studios

Make it Yours Day @My Backyard Eden

Spring-y Summer-y Beach-y Bracelet!

2010-03-23T04:18:00.001-07:00

Cheesy title again, I know but I couldn’t help it…since this week was quite boring and dull for me, and I wanted to shake it off through the title!

CAUTION: An extra lengthy post ahead..move at your own risk!

This week we spotted our little jungle friends in our library upstairs..’termites’! The Pest Control people were immediately intimidated, and as a result our home was turned totally upside down. We packed, unpacked and now are packing our stuff again, ‘coz the husband and I are going out on a holiday! Yay, finally! More on that later!

The house was in shambles, but I so badly wanted to make something crafty, that I came up with this cutie li’l thingy!

Those are glass gems, yes! It looked so springy, summer-y and beach-y, that I had to name it the same! I love the messy, tangled look, and thought some others might like it, too!

To stretch a short story long, I was busy packing, yet just had to make something, when I confronted some strings with glass gems stuck to them in tangled mess. Now if you have seen my older post where I made a butterfly and glass gem mobile, then you will know where those strings came from. First time readers don’t panic, I’ll ramble about it from the start!

You will need: Glass Gems, Yarn thread, Tacky Glue, and the ability to tangle the threads finally! (that comes naturally to me!)

Now follow these simple instructions to make your glass gem strings:

Cut the yarn threads in the desired length and number. If you want a fuller and heavier bracelet, use 4 strings. 2 strings should do for a simpler one. I used 4 strings, each 15 inch long.

Now, the glass gems obviously wouldn’t be fully secure onto the thread if you simply stick them to the strands. So you need to make a ‘seat’ for them so that you can safely glue them onto the threads, forever secure. The ‘seat’ is made as follows:

Easy- peasy, isn’t that? Let them dry for few hours. The pics are borrowed from a previous post, since I had my strings readily made for me from the previous project.

The next step is mighty easy, and even if I do not have the picture for this step, you will be able to do it easily! Simply hold the glass gem strings and give them a good shake. Yarn tangles easily, yours will, too! Don’t bother to keep the loops straight and let them tangle. When you’re satisfied with your ‘tangled mess’, start wrapping them around your wrist. Do it in such a way that the ends are knotted and tangled as well.

Now wear it on a sunny day to the beach, like I’m going to, soon!

I love how it sparkles in my hand!

And I love it in sepia colors as well (don’t know if I can get glass gems in these colors!)

Make yourself one, too!

Now about my vacation – I’m going to visit these fab places:

It’s a good combination of ancient heritage places, and gorgeous beaches…I’m gonna have fun! Goa ...Oh, I love beaches!

Now I'm off to meet my dear friends now before leaving, see you next week!
Linked to these fab parties..do 'attend'!
Tutorial Tuesday @Hope Studios
Get Your Crafts On @Today's Creative Blog
Tip Me Tuesday @Tip Junkie
DIY Day @ A Soft Place To Land
Weekend Wrap Up Party @Tatertots And Jello
Creative Cats @ Poppies At Play
Show Off Your Stuff @Fireflies And Jellybeans
Whatever Goes Wednesday @Someday Crafts

'Feature-istic Friday' #1 !!!

2010-03-19T04:07:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the ‘Featuristic Friday! This is the first post for this event, and I’m very excited to show you some projects I like best around the Blogland…I’m doing this so our fellow bloggers can share some inspiration. If you think any of your creations – new or old, deserves to be here, then please e-mail me the link to that craft. I will feature it the next friday if I like it! Good way to get more clicks onto your crafts, too, especially the older ones which are now somewhere invisible in the archives. Send me some links, ladies!

Here are this week’s favorite picks:

Shannon from Posh Pieces made this delightful and unique Paper Flowers Wreath. I LOVE this!

Kalleen from At Second Street came up with this fun Mod Podged Hand Trees! Such a great way to involve kids in something crafty!

If you haven’t ever been to LollyChops ever, then you really have missed a lot of crafty fun and humor..Lolly is fabulous (and so is teal ;)) Check out these amazing Tissue Paper and Paper Flowers.. While you are there, check out her other amazing crafts as well, and take a lemonade along. You will thank me for this, I know!

I love flowers and anything flowery! Check out this wonderful Fabric Flower Necklace whipped up by Vanessa at Craft Envy. Yes, there’s a tutorial!

Julie from No Money Mama made these Sweet Little Birdies..Hoping I’ll be able to make them,too!

Julie from Growing Your Grass Greener made this fabulous Springtime Ribbon Wreath. So very unique!

There, you have your dose of inspiration! Now start searching for your craft stash and whip up something new yourself! Do remember to send me your links for the next Feature-istic Friday!
Those whom I've featured here can grab my button on the right sidebar! You totally deserve it!!

Get Featured on 'Featuristic Friday' on Kosmic Chai Crafts

2010-03-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Readers,

There are some exciting features coming up on this blog. From now on, you will find 'Feature-istic Friday' posts on Kosmic Chai Crafts, where in I will feature various attractive crafts from around the Blogland. The featured crafts can be anything - decor, recycled ones, repurposed ones, a furniture redo, anything at all as long as its fresh (as in non-repetitive) and genuine.

If you wish to participate, please mail me your project links at the following email address:

anjanasonia(at)gmail(dot)com

I will feature the best ones here! I will choose some projects by myself too, so do not be surprised if you get a mail from me declaring that you are being featured here! Start e-mailing now, let's look at some great creations!!

Spring Flowers Mobile From Plastic Bottles

2010-03-16T05:57:00.001-07:00

I finished my spring flowers mobile quite some time ago, but things have been so hectic nowadays that I didn’t get time to post it till now.

Can you guess what these flowers are made of?? (Of course you can – that’s plain evident) These were made of plastic bottles!

Recycling is the new buzz around the Blogland, and I’m into it as well. So this time it was plastic bottles – did you know that only 20% of the overall plastic bottles are recycled ever?

That seemed just so awful, and I decided my next project would be from plastic bottles- everyone has so many of them around! So here’s the final product: Spring Flowers Mobile!

I’ll be honest – the flower making takes some time and lots of patience. But I guess all of us ought to recycle things in our own style. If you decide to make this, then you will need:

Plastic bottles –lots and lots (I used about 20)

An old butter or normal knife

Strong scissors with teeth or Exacto knife

Acrylic Paints

Fishing line thread

Embroidery or metal hoop

Satin Ribbon

Lets get started! In order to cut flower shapes we need to poke a hole at the bottom of the neck of bottle. Some choose to drill a hole, but I hate heavy machinery, so I found an old blunt buttering knife which I put onto the stove flame for around 30 seconds, and poked into the desired place on the bottle..it does melt a hole as if plastic is merely butter!

Easy Peasy! Now draw some flower petals around the bottle’s mouth and cut them by inserting your strong teethed scissors through the hole you just poked. This does take some effort in the starting stage, but slowly you get the hang of it. Don’t these flowers look very cute?

I also used the flower shaped base of the bottles by cutting around the shape. The middle part of the bottle looked like it could be used as well so I drew some flower shape on the middle part of the bottle as well and cut it.

Now for the fun part. Paint the flowers in your favorite colors..I guess its not difficult to guess which is mine!
Right, I love blue! Now pile the flowers over each other the way you want them to hang from the mobile:
Now take a strong needle and thread it with some fishing line. Poke a hole through the piled flowers like this:
Decide the length of the flowers to hang from the mobile and knot the ends accordingly. Repeat the same for all the flowers.
Now take one flower pile at a time and knot the upper end of the fishing line onto the embroidery or metal hoop. After you finish knotting all the flower threads, take a longish piece of satin ribbon, glue an end to the hoop and begin rolling it around the hoop. for more precise instructions regarding the making of a mobile, go here.
Now cut four equal lengths of ribbon and insert them into four opposite corners of the hoop so that they hold the hoop securely. Tie a knot and hang your mobile from a hook.

There, isn’t it pretty! Some might not find it that pleasant, but I’m mighty proud of my recycling skills!

I'm going to join fab parties this time, but sorry that I can't include all the party buttons as it makes the posts look very cluttered. I'll just be including the link to the party now on..hope that's okay with the party organizers!!

Market Yourself Monday @Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Whatever Goes Wednesday @Someday Crafts
Make it Yours Day @My Backyard Eden
Penny Pinching Party @The Thrifty Home
Craft Schooling Sunday @Creative Jewish Mom
Show off your Stuff Party @Fireflies and Jellybeans
Get your Craft On Thursday @Life As Lori
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @Somewhat Simple
Great Idea Day @Infarrantly Creative
Craft Concotions Friday @That's So Cuegly
Creative Cats @Poppies At Play
Weekend Wrap Up Party @Tattertots And Jello

Fabric Scraps to Switch Plate Covers – Say goodbye to lifeless switch plates

2010-03-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

I give up. There’s no point hiding it. I love colors. I tried keeping to neutral colors, but I just can’t keep off coloring anything and everything!

And I just cannot bring myself to throw away the remnant fabric scraps from any project. They are stashed away in hope of a reuse. The other day I noticed some scraps of a lovely fabric with pink and red patterns like cherry blossoms. My bedroom walls are alternatively pink and red, too, so I knew what I’d do with these. The husband cringed yesterday as I said I wanted to color up the switch plates, like this:

But I did go on doing this, anyways, for I hated this drab white look of the switch plates:

So I transformed them to colorful and cheery looking by gluing some fabric scraps onto them. Isn’t that a great idea? All you need to do to make these beauties is a few fabric scraps remaining from your previous project which also coordinate with your walls. Simple as that!

You will need:

And of course, fabric glue or Mod Podge…Did you ever come across a project that needs only that many items?

Now proceed! Measure the dimensions of your switch plates, and size the fabric scraps into strips of suitable size. Note that you will need to leave some allowance if your switchboard is in an angular shape like mine. Those with straight switchboards can relax.

Now glue or Mod Podge all over your switch plate carefully so that none of it goes into the cracks (If it does go into the cracks, then you can kiss the circuit goodbye!).

Cover with the fabric strips on all sides. It is okay to let the strips overlap sometimes, it wouldn’t be visible. Let dry.

We’re done! So fast and easy, and adds such dash of color to the room!

Got some fabric scraps? Bring them on, Ladies!

Linked to these fab parties..come join the fun!
Tip me Tuesday @Tip Junkie
Great Idea Day @Infarrantly Creative

Its So Very Creative @ Its So Very Cherie
Market Yourself Monday @Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Whatever Goes Wednesday @Someday Crafts
Show and Tell @Blue Cricket Design

Butterfly and Glass Gem Mobile - I'm in love with it!

2010-03-01T04:52:00.000-08:00

I've been busy since a few days, making....THIS! Click on the picture to get a better view, as these pics do not do justify the beauty of this mobile. But then I think any project involving butterflies is a beauty!

Butterflies fascinate me..I'm obsessed with them. Makes me wonder why I never posted any projects related to butterflies, but here I am anyways with an alluring mobile with butterfly and glass gems. One can find butterfly mobiles all over the blogland, but I wanted to make a difference by adding some glass gems or pebbles which shine and shimmer prettily, thus creating a nice ambience.

Here is how its done! You will need:

You can do it with just one hoop if all you desire is a single tier mobile, or two hoops for making it double- tiered. I intended to make a two- tiered mobile, but ~~was too lazy~~ ran out of time so made a single tier. That looks good too!

I cut all the butterflies in 4 different wall papers all by myself (took me 2 days to cut over a 100 flutters!). You can choose coordinated colors, but I went totally berserk and chose a wild combination of red, white, pink and blue, and colorful glass pebbles. I found a fabulous butterflies template HERE! Thanks Lolly!

Lets get started! Place your hoop on a flat surface and mark the distance at which you would like the strands of the mobile to be. Should not be too far or near ideally. Mine had around 25 strands.

Do not worry about the visibility of the marks, we shall cover them later.

Now take your yarn ball and cut the individual strands. Decide the length of the mobile according to where it will be hanged. Leave an extra allowance of 5 inches on each strand length. My mobile was 25 inches long, so I cut 25 30 inch strands (Huge, yes!).

Now start working on individual strands. Note that glass gems are heavy, and should be ideally glued onto something wider, as we don't want a pebble falling suddenly onto a child, do we? So for a long-lasting glue bond for the glass pebble, follow these steps to make a 'seat' for the pebble where you could glue it:

Make a simple knot onto the yarn strand at the distance of 4 inches from one of the ends.

Make these knots all over the strand at a regular interval of say, 5 inches. The more the use of pebbles, the prettier you mobile will turn!

Now put a dab of tacky glue or hot glue over the 'seat' and press the pebble onto it. There, let dry and it is permanently stuck. Here's how the strand looks like after this step:

Do this to all the 25 strands. Now for the butterflies! Glue the flutters in between the pebbles. See to it that the distances are more or less equal.

Needs some patience, I know, but the result is worth it! Repeat the above for all the strands. Here were some of the finished strands. Let dry.

Now temporarily hang your embroidery hoop from a hanger or suspend it from wires like me. Take the strands and tie them one after the other onto the marked place on the hoop.

Nearly there! Use a coordinated satin ribbon to cover the ugly hoop and the knots. I used pieces of red and pink ribbons. Simply glue one end of the ribbon onto the frame and keep on rolling and wrapping around. Keep gluing at regular intervals.

Now the final act! Insert 4 equally wide and long ribbons and tie them together to form a hoop to hang. Now hang it from your chosen spot with a hook or chandelier. Our dining room looked like it needed some dash of color so I hung it from our pretty chandelier.

I love to gaze at it while the lights are on!

LOVE this!!

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Glass Gems Earrings- Modpodge Does it Again!

2010-02-23T12:42:00.000-08:00

Here's my second attempt at jewelery making, since they said the first wasn't bad at all..Some dear blogger friends liked my crystal chain necklace enough to feature it. Thank you so much dear readers for the encouragement! That got me started on another jewelery venture..Glass Gem Earrings!

The simple yet elegant beauty of glass gems is felt by all. I had seen several projects with glass gems and they all rocked. I've used these glass gems in some projects myself, so I thought, why not make jewellery with it, too? So I made up these pretty earrings! Won't they just jazz up a simple skirt or a plain dress?

These are quite easy to make, and if you make jewelery regularly, almost cakewalk. Here is what you will need to make them

Now get started. Take a piece of fabric of your choice with a design that you would like to show in the glass gem. I chose a dark blue cloth with golden swirly designs (I love them swirls!). Now take two glass gems of roughly equal size and cover the flat area with some generous dose of Mod Podge. Now place these Modpodged glass gems on the fabric pattern that you want to show on your earrings, like this:

Remember to protect your carpet by covering it with newspapers first. Do not worry about the initial opaque appearance of the ModPodged glass gems as they will return to their transparent self once the ModPodge is dry. Here's what they look like, once dry:

One dry, cut the fabric to free the new 'patterned' glass gems, which will look like this:

Pretty already! Now for the little more trying part: the earrings! Okay, jewelery experts, do not cringe at my method of making them, as I hardly know or follow any hardbound rules! You need two small chains with small loops for this part. If you don't have one, join a few jumprings together. Now assemble some oval beads of your choice (mine were again transparent), and insert eyepins through them. Twist the free end with a jewelery plier and lock. Snip the additional part. The beads I bought already came with eyepin hoops and saved me a lot of effort.

Insert the free end of the hooped oval beads into the rings of the chains (Have I lost you completely??), and twist. It is actually very easy to make, just follow the design you want to make. Link the beaded chain into the earring hooks. They will look like this, at this stage:

Now lay the glass gems flat side up. Snip two equal pieces of the metal wire (around 2 inch long each). Insert one end into the last ring of the chain to form a small loop and twist. Apply some tacky glue onto the back of the glass gems and place the twisted loop onto them. Cut two small round pieces of fabric to cover the loop. Place onto the back of glass gems, and press firmly. Now apply a thin coat of ModPodge for good appearance.

Let it dry amply, and wear these glitzy beauties proudly! Here they are:

Aren't these pretty? You can also opt the easier way out by wearing them simply as pendants in a chain. Apt for glam-ing up another plain look!

I'm going to make several more projects with these wonderful glass gems- be back soon!
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Crystal Chain Necklace

2010-02-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

I have a habit of venturing into things unknown and I constantly have newer whims..this time it was hand-made jewelery! I had never tried to make any jewelery earlier, though I bought a mountain load of them...so when I did try, I came up with this charming necklace:

Made totally from frugal items that you can lay your hands on at any craft store, this pretty necklace is going to be one of my favorite accessories to jazz up a plain shirt! The crystals sparkle and the pictures do not do any justice to the real way they glow, but I think you get the idea!

Making this was super duper easy, and all those jewelery making pros out there could do this in like 15- 20 minutes! You will need:

Simple silver chain strands (mine were around 20 inches long)..I bought mine at the local store some time ago, just as a whim, as they were quite cheap!

A crystal strand...if you don't get this straightaway, you can easily make it on your own by linking crystals of the color of your liking with hoop rings. I salvaged mine from another old jewelery piece!

A metal clasp or hook (optional if you don't want one!)

Jewelery pliers

Now for the fun! Decide how many chain strands you want to include in the necklace. I chose 5 silver strands and a crystal strand, making a total of 6 strands. Take the silver chain strands, cut the lengths of each one from longer to shorter and spread them neatly. I wanted my necklace to be on the longer side (the longest strand being around 32 inches long, that is, 16 inches when worn). Decide the length you want for the necklace, and keep in mind that it will be halved when you wear it. Next, I cut 12 silver strands, 7 inches each. Take your crystal strand in the desired length and link it with 6 of these short silver strands on both sides with the help of metal hoop rings. Confused? It is very easy , actually:

There, your crystal strand is now ready to be joined with the 5 long silver strands. Secure with metal hoop ring on both ends. Now link a metal clasp or hook on one of the ends. If you do not want a metal clasp, simply join both metal rings and press firmly with your plier.

There you go, your necklace is now ready!

This beauty will glam-up any plain tank tops or shirts of yours! Go for it, ladies!
This was featured at
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Valentine's Heart Wired Flowers

2010-02-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

Is that a funny name? Anyways, I came up with this lovely creation today:Wired heart flowers!!
I love this, to the point of insanity!! Wouldn't you like to make some for this V-day, too?
Here is what you will need:
Floral wire
Glue
Fabric (to make flowers from of course!)
Floral tape
Buds (optional). Lets get started!!
Just for the sake of clarity, this is how my floral wire looked like

Snip a piece of floral wire according to the size of the flower desired by you. Take a reference shape to get the perfect circular shape(Mine was a deodorant bottle!!). Pull the wire tight so as to get a perfect circle, and twist around one end over the other, to lock in the shape.

Okay, the next step is to put in your index fingers inside the loop and turn them outwards, while you pinch in at the middle..Don't get that? You simply have to make a heart shape out of the circle, like this:

Now spread the fabric right side down. Hold the wired heart and apply glue onto the surface. Place the glued side onto the wrong side of fabric facing up, and press like this

Repeat the same steps for as many petals and flowers you want. I made the first flower with 5 big petals, and 3 smaller flowers, too! Let them dry..and attend to that laundry!

It was a pretty pink satin cloth I chose, and another one with white polka dots on white.
Okay, back to it, cut the petals carefully along the wire edge as they dry. Here is how it will be like

Pretty already! Now stack them up together, right side up, like this

Twist all the wires together. Be sure you have twisted the wires tight. Now spread them, and arrange in a flowery shape. Wrap the wires with a floral tape, and you have this

You can do so many things with these pretty flowers...Arrange them on a mantel, or a vase..or tie them as a corsage, may be...

Right now I'm making more of these beauties! What do you think of them V-day wired hearts??
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Mod Podge Shoes!!

2010-02-05T15:58:00.000-08:00

I made Mod Podge beauties yesterday!

I have seen so many Mod Podge projects across the blogland, that I wanted to make mine soon enough. We do not have Mod Podge in India, so I had to suffice with what I had. (For Indian readers- I used fevibond + fabric glue + feviqwick for instant and lasting bond...Sigh!)

I bought these sandals/ shoes at a thrifty price in Thailand, and back then they looked very cool. However, soon they were old-looking (at least to me!). But would I throw them? No way!!

I am a shoe-freak! I get bored with shoes just too quickly, and needed to alter these. So I set out to make myself a new pair of shoes from a pair of old denims which didn't fit me anymore (Sob!)

Cut diagonal strips from jeans and cover the front part of the shoe. Let the extra cloth be there for a while. Apply Mod Podge to the front section, and a thin line along the inside edge where you will tuck in the fabric.

Now snip the extra portion of the jeans strip until the edge, fold and tuck beneath the surface in an EXTRA neat way.

Go on with this process of placing a jeans strip diagonally, snipping extra edges and tucking in neatly.

There you go, you have a new shoe, minus the worn look!

But oh, something is still missing here..fabric flowers, of course!!

For the flowers, cut 5-6 five-petal flowers of varying sizes from a coordinating fabric (Mine was another old printed jeans). I also cut a small four-petal flower, and a few single petals from the same fabric as the shoe.

Lay the flowers one over the other. The bigger ones go at the bottom, the smallest one on the top. Thread a needle and pass through the flowers. Now thread the single petals and arrange them to get a uniform round shape.

Let the small flower with four petals be alone. Now glue these to the shoe. Ta Da!

I love these so, SO much! Yep, I'm a girlie girl!!

They'll go great with my heavy wired pearl bangles, bought in Thailand again, but new enough!!

Anyways, I could go on forever with this, for the cute look alone...even if fingers kind of singed due to all that strong glue!!

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Cute Valentine's Card

2010-02-03T08:11:00.000-08:00

Cards are always special for any occasion, and this V-Day was no different. I'm by no means a scrap booking expert, but I do like the personal feel derived from a hand-made card. So, I set out to make this

So cute! Okay, scrapbookers, if you think differently - avert your eyes!! But then, I somehow love the overall effect! Read on if you want to make this!

I know what you noticed first - the satin flowers of course! I made them from a great tutorial for fabric roses on Everyday Chaos. She makes excellent stuff, check the fabric rose tutorial here, and do come back! My roses came in very differently though, they look little like cinnamon rolls (Yum! maybe because of the small size I guess)!!

I painted a white cardstock paper in silvery hues, and then gathered my satin roses. I also cut a few heart shapes from a striped cloth, and one big heart from a polka dot cloth. With the help of a round edged scissor, I also cut a slightly bigger half heart from the page of an old rotten book. Here they are:

Now with the card! Stick the polka-dot heart overlapping the paper half-heart onto the card stock this way

Now draw outline of a smaller heart onto it with glue, like this

Glue the fabric roses under the outlined area, taking care to maintain a heart-like shape. For best results, glue flowers along the outline first and then squeeze in some flowers in between the spaces. Here is what it looks like

I glued the striped hearts at random all around. Then I went over the board and cut some circles out of the old novel pages and stuck them randomly as well. Outline the heart shapes with a darker colored sharpie like pink or red. Here it was, finally!

You can decorate hundreds of V-Day crafts this way. I like the heart in the center so much that I'm goinf to cover hubby's gift box the same way, too!

I'm thinking of more ideas with hearts and flowers! Has your mind started to whirr too?

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Valentine's Hearts - Stamp 'em up!

2010-01-27T21:46:00.000-08:00

Hi Y'all! I thought I wouldn't make any V-day crafts with hearts and all..but then I thought "What's a Valentine's craft without hearts anyway!" and proceeded to make a stamping craft that need not be packed inside crates after the V-day celebrations..you can simply keep it for display, as its not very V-day specific.

Ain't it so very warming and heart melting?

Well, its very easy to make and in fact a good project for kids..I've been married for a only a year now and have no kids, so I proceeded to have all the stamping fun by myself.

I first covered a canvas with a white cotton fabric. You can choose one of your choice. Stretch it over the canvas and glue on the back. For the best results in stamping, do not iron the fabric before stretching it.

Here is what you will need for making the stamps (Confused?? Well, of course I'm going to make my own stamps here; they're way cuter!!)

I chose four acrylic colors to go with, so I drew four slightly different heart shapes on the foam strip. Cut the shapes. Cut four styrofoam blocks about an inch thick, and glue your heart shapes onto these blocks. Let them dry. They will look like this

Draw free form branches onto your canvas with brown paint. You can see I was a li'l lousy at it and made the paint blot and spot too, but no problem, as the problem areas can be covered later on.

Now for the stampin' fun! Dab some color uniformly over a heart with a paint brush like this

Stamp on at the branch ends, and have fun! Use different colors and shapes, and let some hearts overlap, as that is what gives it a perfect look. Mine looked like this after a while

Too bare for my tastes! So I went on doing it further. Its hard to pull to a stop, but I finally stopped when it looked like this

Its fun and you can let it hang on even after V-day, adorning a lone wall!
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A unique Valentine Vase!

2010-01-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

This is my first V-day related post, as I spent lot of time thinking of a unique idea for expressing my love to the hubby for this V-day, for it marked our third year together. I wanted something unusual and not very mushy, so came up with the idea of making a Valentine special vase from a glass bottle, and an old novel or book.

Here is what I made

I wanted to use less of red and classic heart shape to make it a little different from other V-day Crafts..but couldn't quite keep off the red color. If you want to make something like this, all you need is a glass bottle, few pages off an old book(mine was a stupid novel), some red paint, and silver colored branches to glam it up! You can use any plain branches too, though..I colored them because my hands cannot be still when I see paints!!

It starts this way: Paint a glass bottle (or any vase, for that matter!) red. Keep it aside for drying.

Now for the flowers! I love books and though it was painful for me to tear pages from it, it was a good way to use an old stupid novel which I'd have thrown otherwise! Take an old book with yellowed pages, and rip a few pages from it. Draw flowers of desired shape and size (I made a 4-hearts shaped one and another shape at random) on the page on the top. Hold the pages together and cut according to the shape on the top page. This way, you can cut more flowers at once.

See, they are pretty! And bring in the classic look so well!

Now stick these flowers onto the painted vase with glue. These flowers would be very delicate so be careful while handling! I stuck them when the paint was still wet, so I saved glue, but the flowers absorbed some of the red paint too.

Here's the vase

Now for the decoration. I painted some branches metallic silver, and glued small paper flowers to them at random.

Easy Peasy! There, its a unique V-day craft that is out of the blue, and quite different. On the Valentine's I'll inscribe messages like 'love' and 'Be Mine' on the flowers and hang them again.

Its almost screaming out 'Be Mine', hope hubby likes it!
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Beautified Flower Pot -Its all in the details!!

2010-01-24T00:56:00.000-08:00

I love to find new things and modifying them to suit my home decor. I made this lovely thing yesterday which adorns our wooden shoe closet

My husband says I keep looking for things I could find useful even if I had to rummage through waste. So yesterday I found this desolate looking flower pot in our old and neglected storeroom. I found another ancient and beautiful large vase too, but that I'll talk about in some other post.

This was the flower pot I found

Looks like its best left alone, I know..but it had a basket-weave kind of pattern I liked,and my mind started whirring regarding what could be done with this. And then I remembered, our shoe closet was feeling rather lonely too, with its vacant surface.

So I stuffed the bottom of the flowerpot with old newspaper to make it stable and to reduce its depth.

Then I took some wood twigs i had collected and painted metallic copper earlier and placed them in the pot. I stuffed in more paper to support the twigs, and covered it with some dried grass to disguise the newspaper and bring in some natural look. It looked like this

Better than before, but it still looked kind of incomplete. Something was missing...so I added some orangish flowers, maple leaves, and a cute li'l birdie; all of them streaked with copper tones.

Now it looked complete and beautiful!

Is it not so lovely now!
Here it is, from a long shot

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My efficient jewelery holder

2010-01-23T00:57:00.000-08:00

Yup, you bet you have seen too many of jewelery holders and are wondering what is the need for one more? There is! I'm a self-confessed jewelery addict - I have collected them from wherever I can- India, US, Thailand...you name it; and I'm proud as hell of them. I got loads of what they call 'junk' jewelery (I love them so, how can they be junk?) and it was getting difficult by day to manage and organize them. So I started searching for ideas on the blogosphere, but all those shown were merely sufficient to hold merely 8-15 pieces...What of the rest of my nearly 100 earrings??

So months ago, I made this by gluing cardboard onto my closet walls. Though it looks okayish, it was a painful act to pierce in holes into the cardboard and hang the earrings.

See, how difficult it was? I obviously wasn't very happy with this and began to search for more ideas. Then one fine day, I saw this PVC screen/ mesh in a neglected corner of a friend's garage.

It had a lovely creamy hue and a nice texture and I was in love with it. My friend was too glad to get rid of what she considered garbage, and this PVC screen mesh was mine!! (Okay, ignore my hand!)

It was made of PVC or plastic, so I could easily cut it with my normal scissors. You can use iron or steel mesh as well, but you need to have all the complicated tools to cut and fold it, and there's always the danger of cutting your fingers from the raw edges. As for PVC, forget about any inconveniences...its so very easy to work with.

Moving on, I measured the dimensions of my closet wall and cut the screen (with scissors!). I mounted the screen on two cardboard pieces along the length to give it some height and stiffness too, and glued them together. (Do not use hot glue gun here, the PVC screen might melt out. Use tacky glue, its sufficient.)

It looked like this

You can fix the screen on to a large wooden frame as well..I simply didn't have one handy right then.

I then glued a wall paper on the closet wall (optional!) and glued the mounted screen onto it.

Next step was my favorite..I hanged my earrings onto the screen. Warning: there are too many, so be prepared for the dazzle! Here it is

Here's a closer shot

See, how easy it is for me to take out a pair while in hurry, and also to hang it back? Easy Peasy! All at almost zero expense!

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From 'Plain' to 'Oh-so-Glam'!! - Restyling a blouse

2010-01-16T04:41:00.000-08:00

Okay, I didn't really mean to make the title sound so cheesy, but it somehow applied to my craft today. I had this plain blouse with black swirly designs on the corners, but totally plain in the middle..

Too plain! Atleast for my taste! I had to make it more appealing.

So I glam-fied it to this:

My mind started whirring and stopped onto something that I was making a lot these days, but couldn't get enough of it: Fabric Flowers!! So I set on to make some flowers, and cut a few circles of coordinating fabrics, and a wide strip of cloth to seem like a branch. Here is what it takes

I used 4 different fabric remnants I had to make the flowers. I cut them into circles of varying sizes and singed them using a candle flame. You can view the detailed tutorial for making these fabric flowers here. I also cut an wide strip of fabric to make the branch-like pattern on the shirt.

Now for the pattern! I used a random pattern to hand-stitch the branch and glued the flowers. You can use any pattern of your liking to 'glam-ify' any plain or dull clothing of yours. My friend used flowers made similarly to spice up her curtains and bed post!! There are endless possibilities, really.

Here is how my shirt looked after the restyling (Ignore the white patch near the top corner: I started to paint something, and changed my mind!)

Does it not look more glamorous now than the original plain look? See, I told you that my title would be justified!!
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Flowers on Canvas - Avatar Inspired!!

2010-01-11T05:18:00.000-08:00

I made these two pretty pictures today-

Click on the picture to view the shades blended in a lovely way!!

Ever since I've watched the movie Avatar, my mind has not stopped thinking of the surreal beauty of the forests, and the moral of the movie as well. Do watch it, it makes you stop and think once about how humanity is on the point of extinction, as they go on to kill and capture anything and everything that will bring them material wealth, owing to their greed...I was moved by the depiction of contrast between what we are meant to be and what we have come to be...Its time to think and stop the mindless destruction of nature, as if this goes on, we will leave our grandchildren a horrible legacy of misery and suffering...!! Here are some great shots from the movie:

I love the colors and the expressions!!

Ah, the beauty of it all!

Okay now, enough of speech-giving...We're back to my crafts. Here is what I painted (on styrofoam again, its cheaper than canvas!!) as a tribute to the beauty there in...Poor justification to the pictures from the movie, I know, but the paintings themselves seem beautiful to me...I made two of them - here they are, in close shot

Ain't the flower just too cute??

Here's the second one when hung in my living room

If you want to know how I made these, see the painting technique from this tutorial of mine, and the flowers in the paintings are from this tutorial by me. For the second picture I used some twigs which I painted in yellow to match the color of the wall...Do check out and let me know what you think of them!!

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My New Button!!

2010-01-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

I finally got to make a new button for me blog!! Isn't it oh-so-cute!!

Wish you a prosperous and happy new year!!

2010-01-01T01:31:00.000-08:00

Hi,
I am just taking this opportunity to thank everyone , I mean everyone (my blog readers especially) , who made 2009 a fabulous year.May 2010 be the year you achieve wonderful things in God's guidance and strength.

I wish you and your loved ones prosperity,good health, wealth, happiness, greener pastures, abundant blessings.
May God Be With You.........Be Blessed!!!!!!!
(And may god make more and more people read my blog!!)

Painted Leaves on Canvas

2009-12-28T04:47:00.000-08:00

I’m very fond of (Read: OBSESSED with) leavesand try to use them on many of my projects. On a trip to our back-garden, Ifound these lovely leaves (name unknown, sorry!!) which were shaped like treesthemselves.

I thought they would look beautiful on a canvas, and set onto press them. You can use any leaves which are beautifully shaped. For pressedleaves, I simply put in the leaves which I like in between newspaper folds andplacing a small pile of newspapers above. If you want, you can press them underheavy weights like books, but I rather the newspaper methods as it preservessome of their textures, instead of flattening them totally.

Its really up to you how long you want to press these leaves.For me, overnight pressing seems just fine. Here they are; the leaves lookbeautiful and adequately pressed. (Sorry for the poor quality pictures; mycamera is still in for repair and I had to suffice with my cellphone camera) :o

My intention was to paint them onto a canvas,but I didn’t have them handy, and couldn’t wait for another day to startpainting, so I used a piece of Thermocol or Styrofoam sheet, whichever name youcall it by, as I had good supply of large sheets of it. You can cut arectangular piece of suitable size. Mine is around 15”X10” sheet.

I like the texture of Styrofoamwhen painted upon, though I detest it when plain white. So I painted it invarious hues of green acrylic paints: bamboo, metallic green chrome, sap green & Khaki.

Here is how the sheet looks, once finished

Pretty already!

Now I placed the leaves on a newspaper and painted them inhues of metallic red and gold yellow. There was a tinge of orange as well, ifyou can just see it. I love fall colors!

After the paint had dried, I applied a generous coatof glue on the reverse side, and stuck them onto the painted sheet.

You can apply ModPodge, really. (I envy you, as we do nothave Mod Podge in

India

)A few strokes with it, and you are done.

I painted two more leaves metal red and stuck them oneither sides. To bring a natural, rustic look, I glued wood twigs randomly. Theend product looked like this (Click on the picture to view the texture and shades more closely):

Is it not pretty!! My husband loved it and immediately fixedit onto our bedroom wall.

I’m lovin’ it!!
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Singed Fabric Flowers – Love ‘em!!

2009-12-28T04:04:00.000-08:00

I came across instructions for agood technique for making oh-so-pretty fabric flowers. Unfortunately, I forgotthe site’s name, but on the brighter side, I do remember the how-to! Lucky me,for you can see how well they turned up!

These are dead easy to make, yetquite deadly if you get careless in the process. Not a child’s projectcertainly…though a child’s play for grown ups. You will need:

Fabric sheets in your choice ofcolor and prints

(Be mindful of choosing onlythose fabrics which melt slightly as heated. Cottons won’t work for thisproject- choose satin, silk, nylon, polyester or organza!)

Cardstock paper (optional)

Scissors

Candle

I made flowers in two shapes. I willdescribe both. For the round-ish flowers, cut small pieces of fabric inround-ish shapes. The shape here need not be perfect, and the rather vagueshape adds to the beauty. Make these round pieces in varying sizes: one largerthan the other. My flowers had around 4-5 layers of petals so cut around 20pieces to make 4 flowers.

For the second flower, I drew fivepetal basic flower shapes, smaller to larger) on the cardstock paper and tracedthem onto the cloth. Now cut the flowers (need not be perfect, again) withscissors.

Here is how mine looked:

Now light the candle or tea light.Hold one of the cut pieces to the flame and slowly move it round so that thecorners are slightly singed or curled up. You need not should not take it toonear the flame; only as much close as required for it to slightly melt. Repeat thesame for the round shapes and the flower shapes. You will begin to see howpretty they will turn up. I sadly do not have a picture for this step; I could hardly dare to hold a camera while I was holding a cloth to flame!

An extra tip: put your thumb ontothe centre of the petal as you hold it to the flame, and point the petal upwardas you singe it, so as to get the perfect petal shape.

Now for the final part! Place theround petals one on top of another, from largest one at the bottom to thesmallest one at the top. Each flower has around 4-5 layers of petals, so placethem accordingly. Now sew these layers together in the center, and embellishwith a button or pearls.

Here they are, all so cute!!

I’m thinking where to use these,as I made lots an lots in different colors. Any suggestions, readers? Post ‘em up, I’l be thankful to usethem!!
I’m lovin’ it!!

Pebbles Vase

2009-12-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

I always saw these glass pebbles soldon the beach, and loved them..but had no ideas regarding their use..

…until I found an empty whiskybottle!! I know some of you will say: “a bottle, again?..sigh!! But I love todecorate these bottles, somehow can’t keep my hands off them. So here I was,facing my pebbles, and an empty whisky bottle (you can use any other round orflat glass surface, really).

So here is what I made...

My, isn’t that classy?

This particular project is more aboutimagination really, than a particular set of steps to be followed, but I’llnarrate my story anyway.You will need:

Sea pebbles (lots n lots) in yourchoice of colors and shapes

Glass bottle or any surface you wantto decorate, really

Acrylic paints , black glass linerfor stems

Paint brush

Hot glue gun, or any tough glue

You are ready now. Clean the surfacesof the bottle, wipe it dry. I painted the bottle with thick layers of olivegreen and sea blue, to remind me of sea and sands…I then let it dry as thecoats were too thick.

After it had all dried, I proceededto stick the pebbles with glue on to the bottle in decorative shapes. I did itin flower shapes..you can do it in the form of any shape you fancy. However, becareful not to overdo to make everything messy. Learnt that the harder way J

Here it is up close..

I tied a golden ribbon on to the neckof the bottle, coz it had gotten little messy there, so I had to cover it upthat way! It does not look bad though.

There it is – I put in a twig andadded a fabric flower I made with a white cloth. Doesn’t it look all dressed upand vintage!!

I hart my pebbles vase!!
I linked this beauty to a fun blog party

Fall inspired candle holder

2009-12-15T00:19:00.000-08:00

Hmm..you’ll be thinking, more candle holders?? Well, I love them so much that I cant seem to keep my hands off making them. So here goes another. I found a lovely green colored empty wine bottle at my cousin’s place. She was too generous to give it to me and my mind started racing as to what should be done to make it a fabulous candle holder. Here is what I did to a plain green bottle:

I was always in love with how beautiful and magnificent the maple and oak leaves look in the fall season. In

India

however, we do not have maple trees. I really missed the magic of red, orange and gold leaves. All those who live in the countries abroad must be having such fun with these fall leaves. Now, I wasn’t the one to just imagine; I had to make a fall inspired candle holder somehow.

So I set to cut out paper maple, oak and other fall leaves to make my own fall collection, even if out of paper, lol! Find out how:

I cut them up, then painted them (or tried to!!) paint them in the colors of fall: tan, red, burgundy, orange.

Okay, you may find these funny as fall leaves, but they are MY fall leaves all rite!

I went ahead and stuck them in a random fashion onto my glass bottle with some fast glue. Remember that there is no specific pattern to be followed here, its all random.

After it was all dry, I outlined each leaf with the help of a gold glass liner and let it dry for another 2 hours. I know you must be thinking, drying? Again? Lol!

Tada! I captured the fall season alrite, and the memory will glow proudly as I light the candle up….

Here are all three of my glass candle holders together…oh my, they are pretty!!

I've linked these beauties to:

and at

Birds-on-Branches Mobile

2009-12-14T23:53:00.000-08:00

I was kinda bored with only glass bottles as my crafting instruments, and came across this beautiful bird mobile (http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/09/bird-mobile.html) by Disney at ‘Ruffles and Stuff’. Check out her blog (www.rufflesandstuff.blogspot.com), it is full of lovelies. I just love her way of ruffling things up in a classy sort of way!

Well, like millions of others who have already made this mobile, I stepped in too! The top corner of one of the walls in our bedroom was little too bare, and I set out to hang a pretty bird mobile there. Like Disney said, it was the easiest project alrite, except that the positioning of the branches is the most crucial aspect of it all.

This is how I made this:

I started with the search for two somewhat similar twigs or small branches. Found several! (As to what I did with the rest of them, I’ll post later on!!) I then painted the two branches with metallic copper shade paint so as to match with the colors of the walls.

Once the paint had dried off, I tied the branches each separately in middle with some nylon thread (you can use fishing lines too..). Now comes the tricky part: positioning in the right way mattered a lot, or it would look downright clumsy.

So I held the branches where I wanted them to be, pulled the nylon thread tight, made a loop at the loose end of the thread and hanged the branches from a hook near the ceiling. If you do not have a hook near the corner of the ceiling, you can use a stick-on hook and hot-glue it to the wall for extra safety.

Now for the birds! I found these adorable birds at thrifty prices in a supermarket, and decided to use them for this project. I hot glued them on the branches at random. Ta Da, the pretty looking birds-on-branches mobile is here..!

Now would they chirp in the morning??

I linked this to:

Amazing candle stand bottles

2009-12-14T11:54:00.000-08:00

Once again I have been off for long, but most of the blame goes to the MBA classes which I’ve been having from 9am to 7pm even on Sundays, and its getting tiresome…phew! I haven’t been idle though, as you will see, coz I have made these ravishing beauties…

I had one or two empty wine bottles at home…u know how we keep stacking them on and on thinking they will be useful some day…anyways, I thought of making something useful with them, and came up with the idea of candle holders or stands…aren’t they too cute? And so very functional! It can two-time as a classy décor item as well as a candle holder. Read on to know how I did it!

You will need:

Few old, empty wine bottles, or even glass jars

Glass paints and glass outliner (water or oil based, up to you). In

India

, the most widely accepted brand is Camel so I used it, though you can easily get some other brand in your country.

Metallic acrylic paints ( I used copper and silver)

Designs that you want to trace on to the bottles

Baking paper

And most importantly, oodles of imagination!

Clean the bottles, rinse thoroughly and let them dry. Make sure there is no residue of alcohol left as it could get dangerous. Remove the labels by soaking for a few minutes in water. Remove any plastic attachments on to the mouth of the bottle, if any. (My bottles did have them and it was little hectic work to remove them by melting with a hot knife. I hope your bottles do not have them.)
Select a cool looking design or stencil, trace it on to a baking paper sheet. Now spread this sheet on a flat surface, put the bottle above the design and trace the design on the surface of the bottle with the glass liner, taking advantage of the transparency of the bottle.
Let the design dry for few hours, and then start coloring the bottle with the help of glass colors in your favorite colors to match with the décor of your rooms. I used the metallic colors to highlight the design on the bottle.
Let it dry for al least 24 hours, and your bottle is ready! So charming indeed!
Now for the candle part, fill in the bottles with some pebbles (preferably white) and sand. Insert the candles and light them up!! I’m loving it!!

Cool and charming Tote from a T-shirt

2009-11-27T01:03:00.000-08:00

I had a red and white polka dotted Tshirt that I thought did not really go well on me…actually I thought it looked li’l funny like a shirt. So I decided on a whim to turn it into a bag that I could use while going to college, or while hanging out with friends….

This whim of mine turned the T-shirt into a fabulous chic-looking shoulder bag. I love it!

Isn’t it a great looking bag? Polka dotted bags are to die for! You would surely want to make yourself one such cool shoulder bag from a t-shirt you no longer use. Its super duper easy, here is the how to:

Lay the tshirt on a flat surface; iron if necessary. Trim out the collar in straight line, and sleeves too.
Reverse the shirt and stitch along the bottom edge.
For the handles, I used a matching red scrap fabric from another t-shirt, and cut it into three nearly equal strips. You really need not be very precise in dimensions of these strips, as it wouldn’t matter. Now tie the strips together on one end and plait them together, the same way as you plait your hair. Make two such plaits if you want two handles for your bag, like I did.
Stitch the edges of these plaited strips onto the inside of the top side corners of the tshirt. You are done! Accessorize your bag with buttons to make it look cooler. If wanted, you can also stitch pockets on the inside for keeping small change.

Here is my bag:

Looks so chic and fabulous! What do you think?

I linked this to:

Categorically Crafting @Someday Crafts

This was featured on

I’m loving it!

Adorable Cutie Toys from T-shirts

2009-11-26T17:35:00.000-08:00

Phew, I’m here nearly after ages! Though I was down with a bout of sickness, I’m back for good…I know I’ve been away for a long, long while, but to compensate with this absence, I’m here with these cutie toys…check ‘em out, they r cool!!

Okie, here’s the deal…I know the pics quality is li’l disturbing, as my camera has been sick too and has gone for repair…I had to suffice with the one in cellphone only, and it wasn’t as great. Sigh!

However, the crafty genius in you will know that these cutie toys are very easy and simply fun to make. I wanted to make some cute n easy to make toys for my niece; and was surfing through craft sites when I saw some ‘plushies’ which looked just too great. Here is the site:www.chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com. Check out plushies and other crafts made by Holly, they are amazing! I was mightily inspired, and decided to do something similar, but let me admit that I’m nowhere as skilled at it as her!

And there were some ‘big’ problems…I had no felt lying around, and I haven’t ever tried making stuffed toys. However, I had loads and loads of old t-shirts lying around. That and the desire to gift my darling niece with these cutie toys made me go on with it, just the same. The t-shirt fabric makes the toys so very soft, and the finished toys look so very cute!! So here goes the tutorial:

Take a scrapbook paper and draw this shape on it. Leave some allowance (around 1cm) for sewing.

Cut the shape with the help of scissors and with a water soluble marker pen; trace it along on the fabric of the t-shirt being used by you. Fold the fabric in double first.

3. You will have two pieces looking like this.

Place these two pieces one over the other with the right sides facing each other, as shown in the picture below.

Now sew along the edges, leaving some allowance. I used basting stitch with hand; it was so easy! Take care that you leave some gap so as to reverse the fabric so that the right side shows outside now, and also for inserting the stuffing. Use your index finger or a knitting needle to reverse the stitched fabric inside out.

I know, you must be thinking that it looks very puny. Not to worry, as it will fill out as you stuff it later. Do not worry if the edges look little rough and unsymmetrical, it can be corrected and smoothened once we have stuffed the toy. Now stuff the toy with cotton or with remaining t-shirt scraps. I used t-shirt scraps as I wanted to save cotton for another project and there was a lot of fabric scrap remaining, which I decide to use up wisely, lol! Now stitch the gap completely.

The stuffed toy will look like in the pic here

It is really up to you as to how much you stuff in. I wanted only a fluffy look rather than a real stuffed toy. So I left some space inside the toy, which made it very fluffy.

7. Now for the face of the toy. You need to cut another small piece of t-shirt (preferably white) in oval or heart shape for the face, like this

I apologize for the poor quality of the image, once again. But I hope you will get it J

8. Place this fabric piece on top of the toy where its face should be and stitch along the edges once again (you can hot glue it, too!)

9. Draw cute and pretty eyes and nose with a permanent marker. You can also use the eyes that are used for soft toys. I did not have them handy, hence marker came to my rescue, lol!

10. If you want to attach ears and nose and hair, tats easy too! Take a piece of a contrast colored fabric, and draw two semicircles for ears and a circle for nose, like in the image:

11. Cut these shapes and stitch as ears and nose. Use your marker pen with renewed creativity…and you are done!! Look how pretty and cute these cutie toys look!! My niece will sure love them!

I love them all, but this one is my favorite…

Aren’t they so very cool and fun to make? Make your own cutie toys now!
Linked to
Categorically Crafting @Someday Crafts

Ad mantras which make the businesses go strong!

2009-11-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

Mantra # 1: The ‘Emotional Connect’

Advertisements and promotions part of a company always catch our attention. It always amazes me as to how a small accidental phrase or idea revolutionizes the entire advertisement industry, and makes the particular a market favorite forever. The ‘emotional connect’ factor is just amazing in nature. As an ad agency, once you are successful in making the audiences able to ‘connect’ emotionally with your ad, your job is done! Well, easier said than done. Those working in ad agencies spend days and nights steaming up their grey cells to come up with the right idea for a ‘connect’ ad. There are some ads however, which are made on the ideas based on a spur of moment blurt, which makes history in terms of their popularity.

Many of us might not know this, but the most revolutionary ad campaign of the century was undoubtedly Volkswagen Beetle’s “Think Small”, which made connection with the hearts of billions of people all over the world. To make this ad attractive was a mammoth challenge for the ad agency. Where there were other newly released long, sleek and shiny cars from competitors, Volkswagen Beetle looked ugly, small and patronizing. Funnily, it started accidentally when the ad agency copyrighter compared the glove compartment of this car and compared it with a lemon. This funny comparison made it to the top selling car in the markets. To this day, ad agencies remember this comparison while trying to think of a worthwhile theme for a product.

Another marvelous ad that made sure that the Volkswagen Beetle stayed on top selling cars list using ‘connect’ mantra was the famous ‘funeral’ ad. (I’m lil obsessed with VW today!!) This was when TV was newly invented and was still a show-off. You have to watch it to believe its ingeniousness (click on the video below). A rich man dies and leaves nothing for the wife, sons and business partner as they have vices. But he leaves everything to a nephew who believes that “a penny saved is a penny earned” and drives a Volkswagen Beetle. This ingrained in the minds of thousands the idea that to own a VW Beetle is wise. Another blockbuster idea, this sure was!

Keep watching this space for more such marketing mantras, im off for now, as my testosterone calls for some craft!!
“A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with bad advertising” - Henry Ford