Upcycled Frame

Hello Peeps,

Too many things happening all at once. New life, new people, new relations and some adjustments. Amidst all these new things I stand trying to keep up with the fast moving pace. Living a paradoxical life, with hailing from a small town and moving to a metro, takes its toll. The change though is sweet, but I rarely end up with time to craft, which at times leaves me in melancholy.

Anyways, one Sunday when actually I had no work to do and no outings to go to, I ended up revamping a broken frame gifted to me on my wedding. It was a wooden frame covered with glass, but all the glass had broken. I took it up and made a collage of a recent Mahabaleshwar trip we had gone to.

Do let me know how you find it. I love reading your opinions.

Love,

Bijal

Wedding Explosion Box Card

Hello,

Its been long I have said Hi in the blogland..! But with my marriage preps going around, I hardly found time to switch on my lappy.. Getting married is the most wonderful feeling in the world :) For being loved much more than loving someone brightens up your life with beautiful colours.. And thats what exactly i feel these days :)

I had my friends and cousins buzzing around in my ears as to what post marital gift i should give my husband. Being a craft lover, i ignored all those advises and created a handmade card for him :)

Since valentines was around , i thought of making something in red in white... with tinges of pink..!

On the sides you can see i have used 

• Martha Stewart Crafts Heart Clover Pattern Punch All Over the Page MS punch

My friend just recently returned from US. I ordered alot of MS punches. And the poor soul dutifully got my complete order, inspite of facing custom issues. God bless him!!

Here is the 2 tier cake square cake that i place in between. I thought of leaving the circular cake and try a square one for change!!

Throughout the card I have extensively used my MS punches. I guess I was like a baby, cherishing my new purchases :)  I added some of our pics that were clicked during our pre wedding shoot.

Do leave back your comments. They mean alot..!

Connecting to : Hobbymela, BGC, Hearts inspired me to make a valentine theme card,Kraftzone, Passion for promakers, digi choosday,Crafty Secrets

Regards,

Bijal

Handmade Birthday Frame

Hello All,

With the wedding date nearing, my days are spent in shopping and trials :) I have been surrounded with colours, designs, embroideries, meena work,etc. As a result, I hardly sum up time to craft :(

Anyways, both my mother-in-law and father-in-law, have their birthdays just a day apart. I had been scratching my head as to what should I gift them. Since they are aware that I love to craft, they would not accept any market gifts from me :) Finally I came up with the idea of making a frame for them.

Often after a certain age, a couples' lives revolve around their children. The love they share, their likes dislikes, the romance in their relation takes a backseat and the needs of children take priority. I wanted to gift them something that would make them feel good about themselves and generate those sparks again :)  Haha.. call it being naughty :P

So this is the frame i came up with. With winters/fall stepping in, I have used some fall colours. What i love best about fall is the how the colours of leaves change and take a brown/orange look!

I added some lovely pics of them together and wrote a poem in gujarati for them.

A close up of the poem. The poem states that,

Their love and care has made this house a home,
Their teaching have brought success in lives of their children
I pray Almighty to fulfill all their wishes!!

This flower was made using Juhi's Tutorial

This is how it looked after framing it up. Its a wonder how handmade articles refresh memories and bring happiness. My In laws loved it and have put it up on their wall !!

Do give me your comments. :)

Linking it to: Just Inspiration,All Craft Challenge,Coloring With pencils,Beyond Grey

Bijal

Doremon Keychain

Hello,

I have little nephew-in-law who is a huge doremon fan. Doremon is his lunchtime buddy. Without seeing him my little sweetheart won't gulp a morsel of food. Well, to ease his mom's plight I thought of making a doremon key chain for him. Collecting key chains is one of his hobbies too!

Here is a peek at the keychain

The Ben 10 has been coloured using local water colours. I have given a small tutorial on making a key chain here. 

Am not sure if the keychain eased his mom's plight or not, but I did get my reward for gifting him this keychain :). See below:

A Big Hug from him and it felt so precious :) Don't we both make a cute Aunt-Nephew pair :)    :)

Do leave back your comments. They mean alot to me.

Linking it to: Corrosive challenge:boys, Hobby Cutz:boys,IDIC:anything goes,Scribble And Scrap:anything goes, CraftyCatz:Boys

Regards,

Bijal

Thinking Of You ......!

Just as they say, "Nothing feels better than falling in love", my days are passing with blushes and smiles. It is indeed a great feeling to be in love and to be loved by someone :)

My fiance and I sort of have a long distance separating us, with him in Mumbai and me in Mumbai suburbs :)  (Well not that long, but we hardly end up meeting :( ) . So made up simple cute card to express to him that how much I am missing him and thinking of him :). Since love gives a feeling of "being over the moon". Hence thought of choosing the moon image

I have coloured the magnolia Tilda and the moon using local water colours and shaded them with crayons and pencil colours. The roses are handmade with a 5 petal punch. The sentiment is hand written. Unlike my other cards, i shied away from taking a pic of the poem that i wrote for him :)

My fiance loved the card and told me that he wished he could be as expressive as me. I guess that is a compliment in itself; dont you think so ?

Do let me know your comments on the card.

Linking it to :
CSCC:water colours, Art Journal:living beings,Creatilicious:Upto Sky

Regards,
Bijal

Handmade engagement ring tray

Hello friends,

Here is one more item that was crafted for my engagement. The engagement ring tray itself!!
We browsed the markets in Mumbai to find a decent tray. But either we didnt like the designs or they were just way to expensive!!!! Hence came up with making a tray at home itslef!! Due to crunch of time, was not able to click pics when the making was in progress, but have the final shots!!

Hearts... is what our theme has been. Even our invite was full of hearts!! :)  The entire border was made out of scraps. Thick magazine pages cut out in small size and rounded them up. Stuck blue ribbon over it. The green roses are from local shop. Red paper is velvet paper.

This is the top view of the tray. The 2 small boxes were made for the ring. They are thermocal  boxes covered with velvet paper. Put a small slit in it for the ring

here is the entire completed tray, with the pic of the bride and groom :)  The photographer loved the tray and did a photoshoot of it :) And my in laws loved it as well!!

Do let me know how you liked it!!

Linking it to:

Little red Wagon, Clear It Out Challenge(used magazine stash), Paper Shelter(anything but card),Craft My Life,Emergency Crafters(not a card), Flat Friends, REally Reasonable Ribbon(non card)

Regards,

Bijal

Easel Cake Card : Engagement

Hello friends,

A midst the engagement preparations, I hardly found much time to craft, leave alone blogging. But after the engagement mania has settled down, I will share a few items that I made as part of engagement gifts!

Since a few days, I have been toying around with the idea of making a easel cake card. Easel cards are my favourite!! Easy to make and the give your card a fab look. But the cake part i felt a little challenging!

I wanted to gift my fiance something new and out of box, so came up with experimenting a easel cake card. To my surprise, the card mechanism ended up being extremely simple. But the toughest part was colour combinations :) Try as i might, the crafter in me wouldn't rest until I felt the overall look and feel JUST RIGHT!!! Completed the card in one evening, but i literally crafted till the break of dawn! :)

The card when opened and kept upfront

A closer look at the couple pic.  absolutely loved this stamp and enjoyed colouring it!!

The cake adorned with pearls! and flower

Have added handmade fabric roses here. My fiance loved the card and I felt extremely happy seeing his happiness.

Please do let me know how my experiment has turned out to be! Your comments meant alot!!

Linking it to :

The Crafting Cafe(wedding), Create something catchy(wedding),

For New Beginnings: Curtain Card

Hello friends,

One of the best feeling in life, is getting hitched and finding that one person with whom you will spend your entire life. Just as I started taking my baby steps towards being committed, I felt like gifting me fiance with a card that marked a New Beginning for both of us.

With arranged marriages, there is always bonding first and sparks later on! With some hesitations and some love, we have slowly started building a bond between us.. :)

So here is the first card i gifted to him.

The Image is Bubble hearts image from Mo's Dream team. Drawn and colored with water colors

My fiance and In laws loved the card and most of all the poem :) and i was all blushes :)

Do drop back your comments with your blessings for a new start in my life :) . They mean alot

   Entering it for:

Beyong grey challenge: stone,ribbon,flower,sentiment : white,butterfly, Crafters Corner, Catchy Challenges, Inky Impression: Lace,flower,pearl

Thanks,

Bijal

Anniversary Explosion Box card

Hello friends,

I took an extremely looonnng break from crafting. The normal stress from work life didn't leave much space for crafting :) And when i was free i just ended up lazying around or enjoying the little joys of mundane life ;)

Anyways crafting world in a way beckoned me in form of my sweet cousin. She wanted to gift her husband a lovely card on their 15th wedding anniversary. Celebrating 15 years of togetherness...!! Wow!!! I don't think words are needed to express when a relation matures over years.

She wanted something with a little surprise factor in it. And nothing can be more surprising than an explosion box card. Its a treasure trove of memories. :)

She loved the card and my brother in law was speechless and goes without saying that their happiness made me feel rewarded

Do let me know your comments as well. They mean alot to me :)

Regards,

Bijal

Diwali Cards!

Hello All,

India is a land that is rich in its culture. We have diversity in basic things like food clothing and shelter from region to region.We are said to have "Unity in Diversity". The one thing that most of the times unites us is the celebration of multiple festivals throughout the country. Every month marks atleast one festival in India :)

But out of all the multiple festivals, diwali is one such festival that is celebrated with great vigor, enthusiasm throughout the country. Rightly called as the "Festival of lights", it illuminates the light of hope and courage in our hearts. For its celebration is to mark the comeback of a great warrior "Shri Ram" from his battle with Ravan.

Indian culture is so much in my nerves, that i can seriously go on and on. So cutting it short, for this diwali one of my colleague asked me to make cards in bulk to be gifted to her husband's client as diwali gift. She wanted me to make 50 cards. Initially, i was little hesitant. Reason being that amidst diwali preparation i would hardly get time for crafting. But she was really insistent that I take up her order and kept on encouraging me that I can do it :) (Friends have a weird way of making u feel that you r the best). She was soon due for her maternity leave and wanted the cards before that. Try as i might i did not have a heart to refuse her. I love pampering females when they are expecting. I find them really cute:)

So then the started the battle of sleepless nights, coping office work and home duties and most of all staying geared up for diwali as well. She didnt want all of them to be same. So i created some variations for her. She wanted something simple yet elegant. So presenting a few of my cards here :

These cards have different types of diyas:

These cards have hand cut lantern shapes on it:

These cards have hand drawn Lord Ganesha on them:

When all of the cards got over, i did heave a sigh of relief with a weird sense of achievement :) My colleague was very happy to get the cards before her maternity leave. I in turn became happy seeing her smile :)

Do leave back your comments, they mean alot to me

Hugs,

Bijal

  

Doremon Pop Up Cake Card

It was my niece's birthday. I wanted to gift her something special apart from the regular gifts given to her. Something that would bring a 1000 mm  smile on her face :)
I thought of making a card that shows her favourite cartoon character. When i asked her mom about her favourite cartoon character, she told me it was "DOREMON".

Somehow that really turned me off. I myself love watching cartoons and enjoy them a lot. But i don't know why today's cartoons just do not have the charm of the cartoons that came during our time. I used to love watching talespin, gummy bears, mermaid etc. But those cartoons sadly do not exist these days.
I do not like doremon at all. I feel it encourages kids to become lazy.

Anyways, you must b wondering that if i do not like doremon, how did I end up making a card about him. In I.T. we have a rule "Whatever Works" So if it was doremon that made my niece happy, I would give that to her!!!
So here is a look at my card :

Thats the inside of the card. I added a small pop up cake and added 5 candles on top indicating that she completed 5 years. I added all the cartoon characters to her garden party and added a board saying "Vrinda's Garden Party :)

Am really bad at clicking pics. So here is one more pic of doremon that shows the actual yellow background.

Later on i added a poem to the card. Due to lack of light and crunch of time, this pic has not come clear. Hopefully you will be able to read the poem :)

And finally that's me and my lovely little niece at her birthday party. Isn't she the cutest thing in the world?

No wonder i love her sooo much.

Please do leave back your comments on the card. They mean alot to me

Regards,

Bijal

Guitar shaped card.....

Often at times, we are so caught up in the nuances of our busy life, that we forget the basic things that make us happy. In fact, we forget being happy all together at times. Work ,home and duties become a daily routine. We forget that happiness is not subject to the extra comforts or fancy bread that our money earns. All we need is a love in our hearts and joy in our minds and happiness beholds us at every step...

You would wonder why am i going in all this weird philosophy. Its actually the reason i came up with this card. A very dear friend of mine always had a deep desire to learn guitar. But career, success etc had taken such a heavy toll on his life that he let go this simple desire to achieve some greater things in life. Just as i find inner solitude and peace while crafting, I always asked him what hobby does he turn up to. Once he had mentioned to me that he wished to learn guitar. And as crafting is to me: music is to him :)

So on his birthday I thought of gifting him a card in shape of a guitar. It was my way of encouraging him to take up his hobby and pursue it, just for the sake of pleasure that it would give him. Something that he could turn upto for finding his inner peace

Anyways, it turned out to be a little difficult task. I was worried if the shape would come up correctly because i was doing it free hand. Here is a glimpse at my card...

I had downloaded a few shapes of guitars and made a free hand drawing for the same.

The so called rock star is a big fan of cartoons. So i added alot of stickers to make him happy :)

The brown paper is taken from used wedding cards. For making the guitar strings i used the 3-D fevicryl colours. Am not sure how many strings does a guitar actually have. But i made mine accomodate 5 :) hehe

Made a 3 layer cake on the inside.

Anyways he absolutely adored the card and my efforts were truly successful. As it is the purpose of giving cards is to spread smiles and am happy that i gave him one :)

Please do let me know how did u like my card

Regards,
Entering in :
Lulupu: 3 layers on the front. used fevicrly colours, stickers and black bindi on the cards front

Hanna and friends,paper crafting journey, Seize the birthday, Sassy Design studio, Rhedd and rosie,Stamp and doodle,C is for challenge
Bijal

Crafters Corner First Anniversary

Hello Folks,
 Crafters Corner blog is celebrating their first anniversary. I wish the entire team a hearty congratulations. !!!
Love your blog, your challenges and the warm comments by your DT. Thanks for introducing lovely products to us.

Cheers ,
Bijal

Lord Ganesha Rangoli!

On the eve of Ganesh Utsav, we had taken ganpati at home for a period of 1.5 days. For the welcome of our cute little Ganesha, i thought of adorning our veranda with his rangoli. So a quick post here on the rangoli that i made for him!

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all of you  :) !!

Regards,
Bijal

Raksha Bandhan Card!!!

This Raksha bandhan, i thought of gifting my brother with a cute little card. I don't know why, but I always end up being in a time crunch while making any card. At times i have this habit of leaving things till last moment :)

I wanted to make something cute and while browsing across images i came across this cute edwin and tilda pic. I immediately sketched it out and colored it and made this cute little card for my bro...

The inside of the card , i adorned with my small poem.

Hope you liked this card. please do leave back your comments. They mean alot to me

Linking it to :

Crafters Corner

Ben 10 Key Chain!!

Hello All,

Its been quite sometime since I wrote my last blog entry... Feels like ages...
Anyways a cute friend of mine was a little upset with me. When i had been to his room, I saw his bed sheets full of Ben 10 cartoon pics. I found it so weird and funny that i ended up laughing out loud.

And my poor little friend started pouting and then refused to talk to me how much ever i tried. I had to make up to him and kept thinking hard that how should I?

Then it struck me, that why not make a Ben 10 key chain and gift him.I felt sure that it would cheer him up.So here's the key chain  that i made for him.

Here is how i made this cute little key chain.

I cut out a piece of cardboard and applied a thick coat of fevicol on one side and let it dry. After it dried up, I repeated the process for the other side. 

I punched out a hole using my single hole punch and adjusted the ring in it. I decorated one side using the Ben 10 stickers and fevicryl colours.

The layer of glue on both sides will protect the cardboard from getting spoilt in rain. He extremely loved the key chain and my acceptance of his favourite cartoon character. I got a big big tight hug from him and i was all smiles!!!!

Hopefully you guys like my little experiment and project as well. Please do leave back your comments. They mean alot to me !!

Entering it in :

Itsy Bitsy:For kids, Crafters corner: Anything Goes