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

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!!
I linked this to:

Flowers on Canvas - Avatar Inspired!!

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!!

I linked this post to:

and and

I'm lovin' it!!

My New Button!!

 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!!

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.

Painted Leaves on Canvas

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

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

Singed Fabric Flowers – Love ‘em!!

I came across instructions for a good technique for making oh-so-pretty fabric flowers. Unfortunately, I forgot the 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, yet quite deadly if you get careless in the process. Not a child’s project certainly…though a child’s play for grown ups. You will need:

Pebbles Vase

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

…until I found an empty whisky bottle!! I know some of you will say: “a bottle, again?..sigh!! But I love to decorate 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 or flat glass surface, really). 


So here is what I made...

My, isn’t that classy?

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

Sea pebbles (lots n lots) in your choice of colors and shapes

Glass bottle or any surface you want to decorate, really

Acrylic paints , black glass liner for stems

Paint brush

Hot glue gun, or any tough glue

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

After it had all dried, I proceeded to stick the pebbles with glue on to the bottle in decorative shapes. I did it in flower shapes..you can do it in the form of any shape you fancy. However, be careful 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 neck of the bottle, coz it had gotten little messy there, so I had to cover it up that way! It does not look bad though.

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

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