Standing Tall

I made this card for my lovely SIL for her birthday and then I thought, 'hmmm, that's a pretty tall card...' and decided to send it to Caardvarks' latest challenge - A Tall Order.
The card itself was very simple to make. I used double sided patterned paper and glued two wide strips with the pattern on each side. Then I glued some coordinating buttons on the flower patterns on one strip and coloured the centres of the ones on the other. I stamped the word 'love' on the bottom corner and used my corner rounder on two opposite corners. That's it! Ain't it pretty? :)

The Festival of Lights!

Deepavali came and went, but for the day at least, it made us look deep within ourselves and seek the pure light within. Maybe our ancestors set aside these special days to remind us to slow down and reflect on our ways and think beyond the material lives we lead...

And doing something we enjoy and love is, they say, like meditation - what a great reason to craft! I made these boxes to hold some home made sweets for friends. It is one of Dawn's many projects. I used to make something similar with old greeting cards, but I did not have any particular measurements as such. Of course I changed the look of my boxes to suit the Deepavali theme. I stamped the lids (with Indian-ey looking patterns) and chose festive colours for the boxes themselves - deep green and fuchsia (known as 'mithai pink' in Indian slang - mithai meaning candy floss and the candy floss we get in India is a much deeper shade of pink!)

I had fun making these boxes and I also had fun making the sweets - you can see them in my cozy little kitchen :)

These boxes are so versatile! You could easily make them for any occassion to hold anything and they're so simple to make. The fact that you can make them smaller, bigger, deeper, flatter - a huge thumbs up! And the options to decorate?? A short trip to crafters' paradise :)

Monkey See Monkey Do :)

Just a quick post. I saw this project on YouTube and wanted to try it. It's a cute little Tea Bag Holder from Dawn. Her projects are simply awesome, take a look yourself.
Here's my take on it...

All set to spread the light!

I'm so pleased with myself right now, ask me why...I finished making my Deepavali cards, rummaged through my stuff for everyone's addresses, wrote out the cards and am all set to mail them, yay! Last year I was kind of annoyed with myself. First, I started making the cards very late, when there were only a few days left for the actual festival and there was no way my cards would've made it in time. Then, to make a bad situation worse, I delayed mailing them. So then I thought I'd send them anyways and still didn't! By then, the whole point of it was lost, so...and that's why I'm so happy this year - mission accomplished, well almost!

I had to make lots of cards, so I wanted to settle for a design that was simple. I went for an elegant pattern as the highlight of my cards and added some shimmer to it with rhinestones, after all festivals are all about colour and shimmer. I printed out the sentiment and the message inside. The other patterns are stamped and I hand wrote the 'Om' in the middle. I had to make the envelopes myself, which turned out quite well I thought. And they did not take very long, I just had to figure out the measurements, make a template and work off it. I stamped the envelopes to match the cards. I stuck to three base colours for my cards and made five of each :)

I have a couple of tips for all those who want to make several cards in one go -

• Stick to a simple design. Anything complicated will be quite a task to reproduce several times.
• Try out your design on a 'draft' card first. I simply used plain A4 sheets cut to my card size. That way you can play with the elements of your card until you're happy with the design. This is especially helpful when you're figuring out which way to feed the paper into the printer so you get the words in the right place! This may sound obvious, but it will save your pretty CS from being the guinea pig (hehe).
• Work through your cards in stages. For example - first cut your CS to desired size, then feed them into the printer for the sentiments, next round the corners of all cards, then stamp the main images, etc. (rather than completing one card and then moving to the next.) That way your workspace will be more organised and finishing your cards will be a breeze.

For now, my job is done. I hope I'm able to spread smiles and joy on the occasion of this beautiful festival of lights!

Speaking of spreading smiles, see Jennifer's blog to read more about the wonderful card drives she's been organising. I'm planning to send one soon.

A Fairy Happy Birthday!

The fairies went from the world, dear,
Because men's hearts grew cold:
And only the eyes of children see
What is hidden from the old...
~Kathleen Foyle

I made this card for my little niece who turned 7 this month. I found the dainty little fairy in a magazine and had to, had to, had to use it :)