Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Li’l Birdie Mobile

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!
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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
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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!
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Love them in Sepia. Here’s how I set them to dry..on skewers and screw-drivers, no less!
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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:
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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.
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I’m surely gonna make more of these cute things. So lovely!






Monday, May 3, 2010

Simple Spring Wreath

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!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Fun at Work Place!!


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, April 25, 2010

Sunday Spotlight Guest - Craft Envy!

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!  

Friday, April 23, 2010

'Feature-istic Friday' #3

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!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Plastic Bottle Purses!! - Guest post on Craft Envy

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!

Friday, April 9, 2010

'Feature-istic Friday' #2

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.