My New poject

I did a cardboard box Alphabet for my nephew for his 7th year Birthday.

The Alphabet "M" is the first letter of his name and its embellished with all his favorite cartoon characters. He was totally thrilled with the gift...asked me to do his entire name..as in an-Alphabet-a-year...counted it all himself and said...his name would be done by his 14th year Birthday and then continued to ask me if I would still be willing to do his surname after that...HOWZZAT!!! My sister was wondering where she did make space at home for all these alphabets....'Moms I tell you'!!

Hope my readers like this project of mine. As always...Thanks for stopping by!
Chinnu

Sharing this project at:




 I did love to say how i did it....but a little dumb of me that i didn't photos in the making of this project. I will still try my best to share how i did this.

1. I used a cornflakes cardboard box. Drew the alphabet shape on it (free hand drawing)
2. I used a craft knife and made cuts in such a way that i could use the same cardboard to seal the open ends on the alphabet and in time give the alphabet shape (now this is where i needed a photo.....sorry :( )
3. Before i sealed the box i added a heavy pebble each for each of the feet of the letter M....so the the box did stay straight when completed. I later realized that i could have also added some jingle/bead...or some noise making object...it would have added more fun....each project is a learning!!
4. I covered the box with different strips of craft paper and then embellished with cartoon cut outs. Painted the free spaces and added some glitter.

I will sure make another alphabet and soon share the procedure...sorry if i disappointed my readers:(

Europe Travel Scrapbook- Finished

After many months of effort..I finally finished my mega project- Our Europe Travel Scrapbook. This is like a dream project for me and I have invested a lot of time, ideas and not to forget....a lot of scraps!!

Its a book dedicated to two wonderful years of our stay in Germany and travelling in Europe. Its my most memorable two years. I have a page dedicated for each month, each trip and each event we enjoyed in that beautiful country. Its a Dream come true....All thanks to my Hubby!!

I used a prebound, plain white sheet book and hence the project involved some serious planning so not to miss anything and also to get the right hierarchy of events. I did my own backgrounds and layouts. Most of my embellishments are from the 'One Euro shops'. I believe in reusing and upcycling materials and make my own embellishments. Its kind of creating happiness in what you have on hand!!

I got introduced to scrapbooking through the net and from then on , have been seriously addicted. This is my 8th scrapbook. So far i had done only family and kids' scrapbook. This is my first travel scrapbook. I have been inspired by my ideas found on the 100s of creative blogs out here. Browsing through these blogs and sites taught me some interesting techniques.Thanks to all those who inspired me and continue to inspire me!


Here am happy to share a few pictures from my scrapbook. Hope my readers like them.

This is the Cover page. Free hand design on Canvas, fabric painted with chain stitched outline and embellished with store bought stickers and wooden word cut-outs.

Close up of my Scrapbook title

This page in memory of our trip to Paris.
Free hand cut outs, store bought embellishments, tickets and some gift wrappersheet and Origami sheet for background.

Close-up view. The oppsite side of these pages each show my detailed journalling and travelogues.
Some have pouches for more tickets/ souveniers and currencies.

This page is dedicated to our visit to Holland. And a picture from Holland has to have flowers around...isn't it??
Origami paper backgrounds, punched border, free hand cut flower motifs and reused fabric flowers, leaves and ribbons.

Close up of the flowers

After the bright Holland page, I wanted to keep the next page subtle for Prague trip memories. The borders are cut from wedding invitations and some left over blings from an old project.

Close-up view.

I have pages for every month we spent in Europe. This is for the month of August 2010 where we witnessed two interesting shows. I used up colorful tissue paer for background and did a flap for the two events.

The flaps open up to show the pictures and reveal my journalling.

This was the month we found a home for ourselves and so the free hand painted, watercolor background.

This was a pending project from our trip to Singapore in 2009. Plain water colored background, free hand drawn borders and  I used up some Singapore fabric cut outs to add the extra effect.

Had shared two more pages in an earlier post of mine.

These projects have been Super fun for me. Hope my readers like my layouts and ideas.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers 

Whispering Woods- Stitch Kit completed

I can't tell you how much I enjoy working with these kits from Anchor.Their pictures are impressive, the kit is always self sufficient and well put together with attractive shades and these pictures look lovely when framed......making attractive handmade gifts. These have always been appreciated by family and friends....so i make them again and again!

So sharing another piece of work i recently completed....."Whispering Woods". This too is for a friend of mine....hope she likes it.

Now the best part is.....I already got another new kit....this time too its an attractive design....a Desert Scenery....Can't wait to start doing this.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

An idea to recycle Invitation Cards

In our homes, come the wedding season and we all are sure to collect a minimum of 10-15 colorful invitation cards. Some are so attractive and vibrant that my heart refuses to part with them or just put away as trash. So this is what i do with them.

I make Gift envelopes with them. They come handy when you giting cash/ gift vouchers. The more attractive the inviations are....the more attractive are the envelopes.

Am sure you all know how to make those envelopes....some general tips that I would like to share are:

1. You'll need a good quality adhesive, especially if you are working with the recyecled paper kind of invitations.

2. Feel free to use those designer scissors to give the envelopes a nice trim.

3. You could embellish the envelopes if you wish.I generally re-use the borders and motifs from the cards and envelopes themselves.

4. Make sure you have collected a few invitation and for a start- this would give scope to mix and match and your envelopes are sure to turn out more vibrant.

5. Just remember to cut out texts or cover up the texts and where ever possible reverse the text inwards so that you could use the plian side for the envelope.

6. This idea works well to recycle Greeting cards, some attractive calendars or posters too!

This season I made about 25 enevelopes with all the invites I had received!!

I enjoy making these every year. Hope the same for you.
Cheers,
Chinnu

"52 reasons" Card Deck

There are many beautiful and inspiring projects for Valentine's on the many creative blogs out here. I have been impressed with all the talent and ideas people share on their blogs.
One project that truly inspired me was the "52 Reasons" Card deck. I simply loved this idea and had to make one.
I took about a couple of weeks to write down and then type out the reasons. Am truly impressed with the outcome.

 I casually found these cards at home! I thought the red rosy print on these cards made it so very apt for a Valentine's gift. 

There are many tutorials on the blog as to how to do this project, so am not doing a tutorial here. Just a short post on how i did it.

I used Word Document and typed the text in various fonts. Printed them, cut out the shapes and stuck them on the cards. There are pictures of a few pages from my Deck.

I also added a few pictures from our trips and some embellishments!!

I alternated red and black cards and also tried to match some cards with the reasons i had typed. Like i stuck the "You make me feel like a Queen" on a 'Q' card.

I then pucnhed the cards, braided red crochet thread and binded the cards together. Added some gold colored thread, some embellishment and done!

Then I re-purposed a souvenir box, it was so perfect in size for the cards and gifted it to my Hubby!

Now all that am waiting for is his reaction after he goes through all the 52....crazy reasons!!

I did have a lot of fun doing this project...hope you all have fun too!

Cheers,

Chinnu

Linking this to

Iron Craft Week 1 and 2

Am playing Iron Craft challenges this year too! Especially nw that they have cut down on 52 and made it 26 projects, with 2weeks between submissions...am all game and enjoying being back with the crafty group.

Week 1: Theme was simple- Paper Craft.
I did 2 two scrapbook pages for this submission. My 20months of stay and travel in Europe was so much fun, i had to make a scrapbook to treasure those memories. Its was a mega project that i did finish over 5months. So submitted two pages from this book.



Page one was for the month of May 2011- This month had lots for us to celebrate- My Birthday, our Weding Anniversary and ofcourse the good news that we would soon be welcoming our bundle of joy got revealed to us this month....so goes the title "Surprise- Celebrate- Relax".

 Page two was dedicated to this grand family photo that we got clicked on our trip to Black Forest. We all wore their traditional costume and got this fun image clicked!

Week 2: To celebrate the Valentine's Season, the theme was 'Heart and Flowers'

I was a little late on this submission...yes! My baby demands more time sometimes. Anyways since i was making this as a Valentine gift for my husband, i knew i had time, so i did it at leisure.

Its '52 reasons I love you' card deck (more about this in my next post).

That's it from me for now!!

Cheers,

Chinnu

Back after a long break!

Hello Readers,
Its been a long...real long silence from my end. Let me share the reason with you all.
We were expecting our bundle of joy and not to mention what all symptoms kept me away from blogging!! And also am back from Germany and happy to be back in Bangalore, my hometown. So these changed kept me occupied.

Our bundle of joy came into our lives on 5th of December.....she is a Darling!! Now that we Mom and Daughter "seem" to be in sync, am again getting time for myself and what a better way to kick start some "I-me-myself" kinda activity than to be back with a post on this most loved place of mine....MY BLOG!!

Our Little Princess is healthy, beautiful and most of all very cheerful....that makes life so easy for me now!! We sure are blessed.

What's in store to be shared with you all is;
1. Pregancny gave me enough time to complete my mega project- "Europe Travel Scrapbook". It has pages for the 20months we spent in Germany and about all our getaways in this beautiful country.
So will soon share pages and layouts from my book.

2. Also made some cute little dresses for my Angel, can't wait to share the pictures here.

3. And then ofcourse, am playing Iron CRaft Challeges this year too!! Thanks to the Kathy and Susi for making it a 26 projects this year....it sure gives me enough time. So I will be back to share the submissions every fortnight.

All in all, henceforth, i hope to be more regular here.

Cheers,
Chinnu