May 31, 2012

From simple to bling-y!

I’ve been trying my hands at a lot of projects but haven’t had the time to share them yet; hope to do so in the next few weeks! If you’d like to learn about the body butter that I made, read it here.

One of the things on my to-do list was to try the rhinestone feature on my SCAL. I know what a motivation…(hope DH is not reading this!). So I thought the next time I buy a plain t-shirt I’m going to bling it up! Fortunately I got one soon enough and was looking around for the hot fix rhinestones. Then we happened to go to hobby lobby where I spotted this Glamor Glitz Iron-on rhinestuds pattern! What was even better, I’d a 40% off coupon. So the $6 pattern cost me only $3.60 and made my t-shirt…priceless (I know how cheesy!)!

From
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To
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All I had to do was stick the pattern to the front of the t-shirt and then iron on the reverse. And voila!

It looks so pretty now!! I’m so happy Smile

March 29, 2012

Out on a limb

That’s a PTI set that I recently bought. I’d been drooling over creations made by this set so it’d been on my wishlist for a long time!

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Stamped Gingham cover-a-card in Spicy Marmalade on Golden Harvest CS. On white CS, stamped the branch in Walnut stain (one of my favorite distress ink colors!) and the flowers in Spicy marmalade. Sponged the edges with Mustard seed and Spicy marmalade. Popped up a few flowers and added glitter. Tied a black twine and popped up the white panel on the card base. Easy peasy!

  • Stamps: Impression Obsession Gingham cover-a-card, PTI out on a limb
  • Paper: PTI
  • Others: black twine, Stickles, Memento black, Distress inks – Spicy Marmalade, Mustard Seed.

March 28, 2012

Liebster award

Chaitali presented me with this beautiful award! Thank you so much Chaitali! It’s so flattering to read that my work inspires her!!

 

 

 

 

Here's what to do on receiving your Award:

  1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
    • did that but once again thanks a bunch Chaitali!
  2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
    • Check out Chaitali’s blog – she’s an energetic blogger, an explorer and a great crafter! I’m amazed with how many different cards/techniques she’s tried in so little a time!
  3. Copy and paste their blog award on your blog.
  4. Present the Liebster Blog award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve recognition!
    • I’m sorry for being a spoil sport here but it’s hard for me :-( Here’s to all the lovely blogs out there!
  5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

March 14, 2012

Another gift bag transformation!

After I transformed the Lacoste bag, this t-mobile bag literally begged me to give it a new life! Generous that I am, I put on my thinking cap to see how I could perk up this bag!

tmobile_bag   tmobile_bag_upcycled

I stamped the sentiment using Versamark on PTI Smokey Shadow. Embossed with white embossing powder. Made the flower using wired ribbon. You can see the tutorial here. This was my first time with a glue gun and using the felt as a base was turning out hard to manage so I used a cardstock instead. The flower is really very pretty! I used 3 yards of ribbon for the flower and a 2” circle as the base.

  • Stamps: Hero Arts Cuckoo
  • Paper: PTI Smokey shadow
  • Wired Sheer ribbon, hot glue gun.

March 12, 2012

Up-cycling a shopping bag into a gift bag

Sometimes something as mundane as a white paper bag can inspire you? Or is it that the white paper bag is a clean canvas which is natural to inspire you? Either ways, this Lacoste shopping bag inspired me to convert it into a cute gift bag! I love how it turned out! Don’t you think it would be perfect for a kid?

lacoste_bag       lacoste_bag_upcycled

I cut the following using Cricut:

  • blue background label using Shapelies.
  • The hippo and phrase using Create a Critter cartridge. The hippo is cut at 3.5” and the phrase at 2”. I added goggly eyes to the hippo and glossy accents to the flower and the hearts in the phrase.

I design is on both the sides of the bag.

  • Paper: PTI blue and generic paper from Joann
  • Googly eyes, glossy accents, Cricut, SCAL, Create a critter cartridge.

February 23, 2012

A whale of a post!

I was perusing through my meager stash of stamps – thanks to my recent de-cluttering – to find some inspiration for my next card. Can you believe it? I found none. None as in zero. Zot. On the contrary it created in me a desire to buy some new stamps. After all I didn’t have ANY masculine stamp…or a text background stamp…or floral silhouettes…and so on. I’m sure most of you can relate to this feeling! I didn’t want to give in to that feeling because lately I’ve been buying a lot of fabric to feed my other addiction – sewing :-). Given all these constraints I figured Cricut and SCAL were my best buds here.

I’d bought the Create-a-critter cartridge because, of course the cuts looked sooo cute, and then lot of people had been praising it; but I hadn’t had a chance to make something out of it. That my dear friends was the inspiration for my next card. Flipping through the handbook, there were so many critters I wanted to go along with but just couldn’t think of an appropriate sentiment. Finally after scratching my head, pulling my hair and searching the internet ( a LOT of that!) I found nice little sentiments for the whale. So whale it was.

It took me a tremendous amount of time to make this card – right from designing to assembling it – so I made two of them. To make myself feel better. That all that time was not spent in making not one but TWO cards. Yep they’re quite similar but hey I tried my best to make changes here and there without investing MORE time!

At the end of it all – I’m SO happy!! So proud of these cards :-)

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  • The following was cut in Cricut:
    1. Cut the whale at 2.5” and assemble it.
    2. Using SCAL, cut the clouds at 1.5” and 1.75”.
    3. Using SCAL, cut 3 wave borders (downloaded it from internet somewhere).
  • Cut a white CS 4” X 5.25”. Die cut an oval in the center of the white panel using the largest of oval nestabilities.
  • Sponge the clouds with Broken China Distress Ink.
  • Sponge the wave with white pigment ink.
  • Adhere one wave border to the white panel with the oval die cut. Adhere the other two to the card base. Stick the clouds to the cloud base. Glue the bottom of the whale and pop the top of the whale on dimensions. Pop the white panel on top of the card base using dimensionals.
  • Print the sentiment using Microsoft Publisher. I used to print my sentiments using Word but I read about somebody on SCS who did it in publisher and realized how easy it was! The placement and everything is so much better! Pop the sentiment using dimensionals.

I recently bought a pack of assorted cardstock from Joann for cutting with Cricut. I must tell you that it has made my life so much easier and made me love my Cricut so much more! I agree that the cardstock is quite thin but since most of the shapes are layered it doesn’t really make a difference. In fact the thinness make it easy to layer. It cuts in one pass (unlike PTI which cuts in two passes) and the cuts are very clean! There are 25 shades so there’s a light and dark for almost every color – love that. Again that’s very useful for layering. I would highly recommend this cardstock pack for use with Cricut!

Looks like the title is just apt for this post! I came up with the title because of the whales involved and had no intention of making this truly a whale of post!!

February 20, 2012

Romantic night

Somehow reading that title gives me no indication that I’m going to bore you with a card…good for me and bad for you :-).

I love that romantic windows cut file from Heather! And I must say that the card turned out way beyond what I’d in mind! Doesn’t it look gorgeous?!?!? I know I know I’m trumpeting my own horn…but what can I do…I just can’t help admiring it :-)

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Cut the romantic window at approximately 3” in width in black. Then cut a “blackout” of it, in a slightly smaller size (around 2.5-2.75” in width) from a white CS panel 4.25” X 5.5”. So that I now had a “window”. Adhered the black window to the white CS panel. On the card base, masked a circle and sponged with distress inks. Popped the window panel on the card base using pop dots.

  • Paper: PTI White, The Paper Studio Black
  • Inks: Distress Inks Broken China and Faded Jeans
  • Cricut, SCAL.