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.




Curled Paper Peonies

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!