Back to my old love...

Hi! I came across the Crazy Little Projects site some time back. What really caught my eye was the Sew Crazy Monthly Challenge, a sewing series which will have a monthly theme and a challenge.

I was very excited since I have been wanting to get back to sewing for some time now. I learnt to sew as a child from my mother who used to teach sewing, embroidery etc. Since I did Home Science, I did 3 more years of sewing in college. Though I have stopped making garments, I do enjoy making stuff like bags, cushion covers etc.

I was even more excited when I saw that one of the projects was a zippered pouch with pin tucks. Though pin tucks are not a problem, I have never been too comfortable with zippers. So this was my project of choice.

For the outer fabric, I recycled an old trouser. The print is from my stash. There is a great tutorial at Simple Simon & Co which I followed.

The pouch turned out a bit bigger that the tutorial since I could only get a 10 inch zipper. I embellished the pouch with some fabric flowers, embroidery and yellow wooden buttons.



Here is a close up of the pin tucks...



and the flowers.



The pouch now goes to my daughter to hold the million and half things that she needs to carry to school everyday.



I really had fun making this pouch. And the best part? Took me only around an hour to finish! I am definitely making more!

Love,
Nan

A vintage tag...

Hi! Super, super quick post today.

My first attempt at vintage style; something that I have been wanting to try for a long time. I hope I have been somewhat successful!

The base is a piece of file board. I textured it with acrylic paints in Dark Brown, Black, Metallic Gold and Metallic Bronze, applying the paints with a balled up piece of newspaper.



The corrugated sheet is recycled from an old box. The doilies, white embroidery floss and flower were stained with coffee. The flower is constructed from five scalloped circle die cuts. Buttons are from my stash.



The sentiment stamp is from Micia, stamped with a black Faber Castell ink pad. The flourish die is from Die Cuts and More.



The final touch was the butterflies which I had punched out and coloured with glitter for my Butterfly Card.


You can check out the post here.

Entering my creation in the following challenges:

DCAM Challenge Blog - Challenge #1 - Anything goes with a handmade flower

Crafters Corner Challenge #11 - Anything goes

Beyond Grey - BGC #37 - Latte Love, since I used coffee for aging effect and the dark brown base.

Indian Craft Room's ICRC31 - Butterflies and brads / buttons.

Would love to hear your comments on my first attempt at making a vintage tag.

Love,
Nandini

Indian Craft Room's ICRC25

Posting again after a looong break.

I have been busy making stuff, though I have been too distracted to post the pics. Blame it on my baby starting to crawl! Nowadays I seem to spend half my day (and part of the night!) chasing after him!

Anyways, I decided to make an entry for the Indian Craft Room's ICRC25 challenge at the last minute. The challenge was interesting. Make a calender, with a recycled element.

Hmm...

I always like recycling. I believe it cuts down on the crafting costs and also makes you more innovative. You tend to look at everything with an eye for reusing it in some way. I also truly believe that crafting need not be expensive. You can create lovely stuff from the simplest of materials.

I started with an old magazine for a paint company that my husband had passed on to me some time back. It had some amazing graphics and beautiful, glossy pages. I also had an extra date pad after I finished making the calenders for the Swapcraft swap.

So here is what I came up with...

The calender size is 5½ x 4½ inches. The pattern paper is recycled from the magazine. I also used some pale pink handmade paper and a small piece of plain green computer paper.

I invested in a Bigshot die cutting machine around Diwali. Must say I am very happy with my investment. One of the things I have been experimenting is teabag folding, which I have always wanted to do it. And having the Bigshot makes cutting all those small circles so much easier!

I cut out several circles and started fiddling around with the folds. Since most of them had the lovely neon pink on one side and shades of brown and beige on the other, I decided to go with a fold which would show both sides of the paper.

I finally came up with this fold on my own. Atleast, I haven't come across it anywhere else on the net. 

I ran the pink handmade paper through Itsy Bitsy's embossing folder - Leaves. The leaves and stem were hand cut from plain green paper. I used the same paper as the base for the calender.

The pattern paper was cut into a large circle. I glued it to the pink paper and trimmed off the sides and stuck one of the scraps at the bottom. I covered the top part of the date pad with a scrap of the same pattern paper, to cover the stapler pin. The months are perforated at the top and can simply be torn away.

After I finished assembling the calender, I felt it was missing something. So I added stitching lines in neon pink around the pattern paper.

I mounted the whole thing on a piece of thick file card and added a stand to keep the calender upright.

So thats it. My little desk calender is ready! I think it will end up sitting on my husband's desk. Or else I will make another one for him in a different colour combo and gift this to a friend.

Hope you liked this little calender of mine. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Love,
Nan