Project Christmas Stamps: Stamp 3

Hello hello! I bring another card with me today. Another one of those stamps I got at, yes you guessed it right, Riot! I'm quite obsessive that way, I see stamps, I buy stamps, LOL! So I'd bought a bunch of these on a Christmas theme spree. The Christmas carols playing at the store, the store attendants wearing cute Santa hats and a general feeling of 'oh-it's-Christmas' all together created the perfect setting to get hypnotised and buy half a dozen rubber stamps that day! This is the stamp -

And here's the card -

With this card I actually didn't know where I was going and it ended up being eclectic. And I like it! It's something totally out there, you either love it or you hate it kind of a thing. Husby hated it, me, I quite like it :) There's something interesting about that jolly Santa juxtaposed there with the unconventional choice of two seemingly uncoordinated pattern papers. Whatever, no need to muse over it so much I guess, I like how it turned out, ha!
Of course, how can Santa not have some Christmas sparkle right? So I ran a line of stickles around his cap. More bling with some sparkly rhinestones and just some highlighting with a white gel pen and a plum marker.
I didn't add any sentiment. Somehow every time I look at the smiling Santa, there's a really deep Ho-Ho-Ho that plays in my head...is it just me, am I hearing voices again? Just kidding! I think Santa does the talking in this card J

So that's Stamp 3 in my Project Christmas Stamps. Have you started making cards for the holidays yet?

Happy Crafting!

Project Christmas Stamps: Stamp 2

**Scroll down to see my guest post on Aalayam**

Hi! I'm back again with another stamp. This is Stamp 2 in my series, read about Project Christmas Stamps and see Stamp 1 here.

Got this one at Riot, a simple, no-fuss sentiment stamp.

And here's the card I made - 

Don't you think the card reflects the simplicity of the stamp itself? I decided to use the sentiment as the focal element here and highlighted it with sparkly rhinestones and a white gel pen. I also lightly inked the edges of the die cut with the same plum ink which I stamped the sentiment in. Rounded the corners off at the bottom, and the card was done!

Have you rummaged through your stamp collection yet? What have you pulled out that you'd like to use in a project soon? Leave a comment, would love to hear!

Be back again real soon with another stamp and another card.

Until then, Happy Crafting!

Guest Post at Aalayam

Good Morning! It's totally my kind of day today - slightly cold, the scent of a light drizzle from last night, and birds shaking off their wet feathers on rooftops, chirping away!

I'd like to share with you all a wonderful blog that one of my girl pals co-writes - Aalayam. Here's what the writers say about their blog -

Aalayam is co-authored by Deepa and Supriya. We are passionate about living the good life and by extension we love design, décor, travel, photography, good food, and the vast richness of world culture! The entries in Aalayam will reflect our ethnic Indian culture while juxtaposing the global appeal for readers, followers and pinners from all over the world. Via feature posts on topics as varied as the red ochre of the Warli paintings to the weft weave of the Ikkat dyeing, Aalayam will strive to be an intellectually and visually stimulating experience for our readers. Come join us at Aalayam! 

Supriya & I go way back. We went to the same school and have had some great times together. And it's so wonderful to be able to stay in touch and be connected, even after all these years! That we both love everything arty and chic and eclectic just makes the friendship even more colourful and sort of close to the heart :)

I'm guest posting there! I have a really fun and easy DIY project for you. So head over to Aalayam to see my post.

Have a wonderful day you all!
Happy Crafting!

Project Christmas Stamps: Stamp 1

Hey there! 'tis the season, already! Gosh, where does time go?!

The other day I was clearing up my (very) messy craft room and now it looks so much better, I can actually see the floor!! While working on Little Miss' birthday party projects I seemed to have pulled out e.v.e.r.y one of my craft supplies, although for the life of me, I can't imagine why! And then weeks and weeks after that I had simply let things pile on there, always closing the door to that room as if if I did that some little elves would come in and clean up the room for me at night.

Anyway, I totally have this rather annoying habit of digressing way too often, ha! Now, while I cleared up the room (yeah, those elves never came!) I dug into my rubber stamps' drawers and picked some Christmas themed ones. I thought I'd do a series about cards I make using each of those stamps. You know, have some fun, get creative (and justify the years 'n' years of hoarding.)

So here's the first in the said series, that I'll call Project Christmas Stamps ( makes me feel good 'cos it sounds oh-so-grand!)

This stamp is something I picked up...Mmm...I tell you, I forget!! I have no idea when and where I bought this one, but I have it and I inked it. I remember now - at Riot Art & Craft Store! I bought a bunch of these really cute itty bitty Christmas stamps last year...and this is one of them.

Here's the card I made. Just a clean and simple card - 4x6, chocolate brown base, layered with pattern paper from K&Co (which I had picked up like ages ago, seriously!) and a banner stamped with the sentiment. Can it get easier than that? Oh and some bling and faux stitching, of course :)

Do you have any Christmas themed stamps (or any stamp) that you've been wanting to ink up? Leave a comment here, I would love to hear from you!

See you again tomorrow with another stamp and another card :)

Until then, Happy Crafting!

I think I'll move onto other stuff...

Hey there! I was 'supposed' to finish my post on all the exciting projects I took on for Little Miss' First Birthday Party, but, sadly, I do not have ANY pictures of the party favors I made :( Aargh! I could smack myself! I guess in all the excitement and anxiety of getting them done, all packed and ready to go I did not stop for one moment and think, 'Hang on, lemme quickly get a few pictures to put on my blog...'. Nope, didn't do that and now I don't have any pictures of the finished projects. Sigh!

But, anyway, let me at least tell you what the goodie-bags had in them -

I bought some notebooks from a local store here and covered them in colourful and pretty scrapbook paper in the theme colours. Then I used the stamp set Quinn's ABCs from Lawn Fawn and stamped each notebook, on the cover, with the respective child's name. It makes for a fun personalised gift.

Then, I made some bag toppers for 4x6 size self sealing clear bags and filled them with some Hershey's Kisses. I might have had a picture of one of those which was an extra one, but husby darling had sneaked it into the car for a 'snack-on-the-go'! Pfft!

And then the rest of the things I filled in were all store-bought little goodies.

Now for some yummy in the tummy for the kids, I  made some savoury corn, zucchini and cheese muffins, loosely based on this recipe. I made some good old frosted cupcakes with sprinkles, colourful (and healthy) fruit skewers. Rest were store bought cookies and nibbles. Oh, yeah I printed out water bottle labels with every child's name. It added a nice touch to the table, apart from being very practical ;)

And then, thanks to Pinterest, I made this colourful pompom bunting to put on Little Miss' high chair, you know, all the small details, etc. But don't know how but it somehow ended being a funky accessory for the birthday girl :)

So now I think I sort of have a closure! That post was hanging on unfinished way too long, plus I have other exciting projects to share :)
And moral of the story for me: Be more organised and take lots of pictures. Always with a blog post in mind :)

Happy Crafting!

Projects I Want to Make...

Hey there! I said I'd do another post on the birthday party projects I made...haven't forgotten, just that I have to take some pictures, so will be back with a post soon.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd spread some crafty cheer and share with you some projects that I've had on my mind for a while now...want to make these soon.

1. Tealight Candle Card

2. Upcycled formula container with dollar store elephant lid...something like this 

3. Coasters

I L.O.V.E how much inspiration there is all over the Internet these days! Crafting Nirvana is just a click away :)

Have you been inspired by anything lately? Are there projects that you've had on your mind too?

Happy Crafting!

Crafting as a Mommy!

Our Little Miss turned One! Gosh, where does time go?? It was only like yesterday when she was born...

First Birthday Party = Loads of crafting fun for me! It's really hard to explain the profound joy I found in making (almost) everything for my baby's special day. I had so much fun and all the while I had a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart. I thought I'd share all my projects with you lovely crafty people. Hope it inspires you to plan a fun party soon, you know, just like that?

I was quite ambitious when I started planning, which was about a month and a half ago. I wanted to make most of the things myself - the invites, the party hats, favor bags (+the favors), buntings, decorations, the cake, a photo booth, and a whole lot of other things, phew! But somewhere along the way, I decided it was all getting too much, even for me! So I skipped the party hats and...yeah, just the party hats :) Oh and yeah, the photo booth props. There's a whole story behind that, but I'll spare my woes!

I'll split the projects into a couple of posts as I don't want to cram everything in one long, never-ending picture-heavy post!

The theme was 'Sprinkles'. Actually, it ended up being more of a 'Colourful Dots' kind of a thing. Sia (my baby) had a cute onesie that was white and had these little polka dots in orange, fuchsia, turquoise, green and yellow and the inspiration came from there, weird huh? I kind of liked those colours together, and no offense, but I thought the 'fairy' or 'princess' theme had been really, really overdone everywhere, and so I simply picked a colourful, yet girly 'n' pretty theme. (I may have to do a 'princess' party after all, once my little girl is big enough to say she wants one, but until then it will just have to be mommy's choice, ha!)

With these colours in mind and a sort of polka-dot theme happening, I started off with designing the invites. I must say, I heavily relied on my wonderful 'n' efficient Silhouette for most of the party projects. I made a very simple cupcake-shaped card for the invites.

Decorations next. I didn't want to go overboard with the party decorations. I knew I didn't want the usual suspects - balloons and streamers. So I went for tissue paper pom-poms. I know they're already on the verge of being 'too common' these days, but I'd never made them and this was the perfect opportunity. I made them in all the colours of the theme. 

They were so so easy to make and very economical too! The tissue paper packs were about a $1 each! And the colours were easy to find, which made me a very happy mommy :) 

Next I made a 'Happy Birthday' bunting, again using all the colours of the theme. 

We did have some balloons in the end, but we decided to just leave some around on the floor for the kids to pick up and play with. But that's pretty much the decoration bit - simple, colourful and cute. Checked all my boxes :)

For the photo booth, I had a vibrant, fun, colourful backdrop in mind. There were a lot of ideas, including finding a polka-dotted sheet, painting a large frame, etc, but in the end I made these. I kind of don't know what to call them, buntings? paper garlands? I punched out a bunch of circles in all the party colours and went to town with my sewing machine :) They did take me a while to make, but I loved the end result! 

I think that's enough material for one post :) Will be back with the food and party favors in my next post.

Until then, happy crafting!

P.S: I'm taking custom orders for party supplies. If you see something here that you'd like for your next party, please contact me on thecraftangel@gmail.com.