A DIY Stamp..

Hi! One of my favourite type of stamps are the background stamps. I especially love the Impression Obsession cover a card range. But there is another, easy option if you don't have suitable background stamps. You can make your own out of fun foam! Here are two cards that I made with a DIY background stamp.

I used the Fancy Butterfly die by Impression Obsession to cut several butterflies cut from a sheet of foam and mounted them on a 7" x 7" piece of sun board covered with thin double sided tape. Here is the stamp.

For the other stamp I used a Cuttlebug die.

I covered the stamp with white acrylic paint and stamped on a piece of watercolor paper. Once the paint was dry, I smooshed the panel with pink and blue acrylic paints. I ended up with a panel large enough to make two cards.

Close up of the first card

And the second card

Both the sentiments are from the Persian Motifs set by Altenew. I heat embossed them with black EP on strips of vellum.

You can check out more examples made with my DIY stamps here

And here

And also here

Hope you enjoyed this post on DIY stamps and give it a try.

Love,

Nandini

August Challenges - Week #2

Hi! The month of August was very special at Create Something Catchy Challenges. For we hosted four weekly challenges instead of the usual monthly challenge. Each challenge was different and exciting, sponsored by some of our favourite crafters.

Week #2 was hosted and sponsored by the our beloved Dr. Sonia! You can check out her awesome blog here.

The challenge was to create any project incorporating handmade flowers. Here is my inspiration project.

I love working with fabric and have a large stash of different varieties. I created two types of flowers. The small ones are made from circles of fabric. The large one is made from two strips of fabric. Here is a photograph of my daughter, wearing the large flower.

After she had worn it, her friends demanded more. So I ended up making three more bands!

Some more hair bands that I had made in the past are here

And here

Hope you enjoyed my creations! Looking forward to hearing from you!

Love,
Nandini

One stamp, two ways...

Hi! I have a lot of cards that I made, photographed and never uploaded on my blog. The cards I am showcasing today are part of that.

I love the cover-a-card stamps by Impression Obsessions. They have a huge range of beautiful background designs and at 5.75" x 5.75" the stamps are really useful. I had purchased the Dotted Floral stamp some time ago. The first thing I did when I it was to stamp it on white, black and kraft cardstock and heat emboss with clear, white and black EPs.

I ended up making two cards from the backgrounds, rest are in my stash.

For the first card I went in for the classic black & white combo.

I stamped in black on a piece of white cardstock and heat embossed with clear EP. I trimmed the panel and mounted on a square piece of black card stock.

The sentiment stamp is from Altenew's Persian Motifs set, heat embossed in gold. I added a gold border around the white panel with a gold gel pen.

For the second card, I went for a more colorful look.

I heat embossed in white on a piece of kraft cardstock. I used my watercolor pencils to color the panel.

The sentiment is heat embossed in white on a strip of black paper. A metal brad completed the card.

Hope you enjoyed the two completely different looks from a single background stamp.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Love,
Nandini

Distress Ink Stamping...

Hi! I just realized that it has been more than a month since I blogged! I have done very little except my DT cards. Which I have not posted on my blog! My craft mojo has been seriously missing this past month.

I decided to sit down with the supplies and try something simple to get started.

I first stamped with Altenew's Striped Florals in black. Then I used the solid stamps from the Circle Scribble Flowers set by My Favorite Things in three distress inks - Peacock Feathers, Evergreen Bough and Crushed Olive. The sentiment is from CAS-ual Fridays, heat embossed on black in white.

Entering this card in the MFT Color Challenge #28

I omitted the lilac color since I wanted my card to be more masculine.

Also entering it in the You Could Be a Card Design Superstar Card Contest by My Favorite Things.

Since I had my supplies out, I decided to try a technique that I had seen during OLC's Background Check class.

I don't have any solid stripe stamps. So I simply created one from some fun foam and stamped with the same distress inks and Pumice Stone. After the panel was done, I decided to add some faux stitching lines for interest. The stamp is from Itsy Bitsy.

I decided to created a shaker tag to add on the background.

Entering this card in the Tag You're It! Challenge #29

Also linking both the cards to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use a stamp & Blog Hop.

Love,
Nandini

August Challenges - Week #1

Hi! We, at Create Something Catchy, are celebrating the month of August with something special! For the next month, only the next month, we will have weekly challenges, each hosted and sponsored by some Amazing and Talented card makers.

Week #1 is hosted by the amazing Priya Sivaraj who owns The Craft Shop! The challenge is simple - create anything, inspired by The Craft Shop banner.

RULES

1. Create any project inspired by 'the craft shop' banner
2. Only new work please
3. You can enter twice
4. You can combine with other challenges (as many as you like)
5. This challenge will run for a week i.e from 01-08-2015 to 07-08-2015

And the winners will receive a gift voucher of Rs.500/- from The Craft Shop

This is my inspiration card for the challenge:

I concentrated on the colorful butterflies fluttering around the banner. I randomly dabbed acrylic paint in two shades on my DIY background stamp, sprayed some water and stamped on white handmade paper. (You can check out more cards with DIY stamps here & here.) I actually got three backgrounds by repeated spraying and stamping! Here is a close up of the background.

Rest of the card came together very fast. I used the Text Block: Birthday die by Papertrey Ink to cut a piece of white cardstock and colored it with distress inks to get the matching shade of purple. I then heat embossed it twice with clear EP. Some translucent paper and a bit of yellow ribbon completed the card.

Hope you liked this card. Please do check out the amazing inspiration by my fellow Catchy Girls at the Create Something Catchy blog and hope you will participate in this fun challenge!

Love,

Nandini

A new challenge...

Hi! A quick post today, for a card I made inspired by the mood board put together by my friend Deepti Stephens.

She is hosting a new challenge on her personal blog, Catchy Design called Let's Get Pinspired. I loved the mood board. And the top right image really stuck in my mind. So here is my entry for Let's Get Pinspired #1!

I started with a piece of white card stock on which I had heat embossed the Large Petal background stamp by Hero Arts in white. I colored it with distress inks in the rainbow order. Then I die cut the letters with Lawn Fawn's Quinn's ABCs and the hearts with the Stitched Journaling Card set. Here is a close up of the die cuts.

The Happy sentiment is part of Bo Bunny Stamp's Sentiments set. Since I didn't want a very bulky card, I die cut two more sets of letters from black paper and layered everything together. I mounted the letters on black card stock, added the little hearts and my card was done!

Also entering this in the Lawnscaping Challenge: COLOR Inspired by the Rainbow

Hope you liked this CAS card.

Love,
Nandini

Challenge entries...

Hi! I tried no line coloring as a part of DT for the Create Something Catchy Challenge.

Supplies used are white card stock and distress inks. The pink EP is from WOW and the sentiment is part of the PTI Phrase Play #11 mini stamp set.

Linking this card to the following challenges:

Virginia's View Challenge #16 - 100% Stamped

Happy Little Stampers July CAS Challenge

STAMPlorations Blog July Challenge - Stamps & Distressing

Love,
Nandini