Cross Stitch Card

Since I have grown up seeing all ladies on my maternal side of the family always keeping themselves busy with sewing, embroidery, crocheting, stitching clothes for the kids, etc., I think it was very natural for me to develop an interest in the same. My mom used to get me some long stitch kits during my summer breaks since that was the only way to keep me home for a few hours.

When I moved to the US, my first visit to the craft store here was at Micheals. I got my first cross stitch kit and it got me addicted. I did several cross stitch projects in the next few months. I had some  leftover Aida cloth and I decided to use them for making greeting cards.

This is how I went about making the card :

I cut 14 count Aida cloth in 3X3 inches and made this design (from here) 

After this was done, I had to make a card to fit in the design.

I took a 12X5.5 inches paper, scored it at 4 and 8 inches.

I needed to make a window for the cross stitch to show ( Aperture card ). I took the Sizzix die and ran it through the Big Shot die cutting machine. I taped the die on the card, so that it wouldn't move. 

Then I positioned the cloth.

I put double sided tape to stick the cloth and also on the left flap of the card. 

Next, I folded the left flap over , this way the back side of the cloth will hide and give a clean look to the card.

In my later posts I will share some cross stitch basics.

-Smriti.

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Small Card Big Meaning

We spoke about making personalized gifts here and just like any personalized gift, handmade cards are always a one of a kind token to give someone to let them know how that they are special!  

Making a card can be lots of fun and can turn into an enjoyable hobby for you, your family and even your kids. As a beginner you really do not need elaborate machinery or embellishments. You can easily start making a card by using simple card making kits or even by assembling cute knickknacks you may have ready at your end. There are some interesting sites which can help you with card making by providing you with kits or ideas and here is a good site for all the beginners. There are also many boards which you can follow on pinterest to gain inspiration.
 

All you really need to put a card together, is some paper (you can start with a humble white paper or some good cardstock paper which have several varieties in colour or texture), an adhesive, a scissor, some sketch pens, if you have some add-ons and loads of imagination and enthusiasm.

I made a modest card for my friend’s birthday and I will love to share this one with you.

I had the brown ribbon and some cut open stock paper with a fall script print which was in the shades of brown and ochre and hence I decided to select the light beige shade for my card base. I additionally had some fall leaf cut outs in the shade of red and green which went well with the warm colour family of the card and added some softness to the card. I also had a cute bird stick on which was also in the warm yellow, red and green family and went perfectly with the leaves. I assembled the card together one layer at a time (sometimes you can draw on a blank piece of paper a design of how you would want your card to look like… it helps!) Once I had my basic design ready, adding the sticker etc, was optional and you need to decide how elaborate or simple you would like your card to be.

 

Once the card was ready, I used a simple sketch pen to write down my message inside and a cute personalized card was ready! (If you are not sure about your writing, you can print the message on a paper and stick it inside as well)

We would love to see and feature your cards here as well… so do share them with us.

- Shamoni

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Urban Warli - An Easter Special!

My love of art and trying something different always has me exploring new territories of artistic expression and this is one such experiment.

I have been working with Warli for a little while now and I absolutely enjoy it for its simplistic elegance. Warli is an Indian tribal art, which illustrates daily rituals and social events of the Warli tribe. We will certainly go through more details about this interesting art form in a future post, but in this one I want to share with you my attempt towards adding an urban attitude to Warli! For this particular art piece I decided to go against conventional depiction of tribal seasons or rituals, like harvest or hunting and instead to look at a typical city event and protray it.

Easter is coming up this weekend and there are several Easter activities that have kept everyone busy in the city this week, whether it is the egg hunts, Easter crafts or planning parties. Since this is the big celebration for the week, I decided to illustrate the Easter Egg Hunt through Warli. I have taken a textured pastel coloured cardstock paper (A4 size) and folded it vertically to form the basic A5 size card. I have trimmed this card to fit a standard A5 size picture frame. Sometimes if a card is well made people like to frame it, so size the card in a way that it fits standard frame sizes.

I have used a black Sharpie to draw the elements on this one since I was using a textured paper. If it were a smooth paper I would have used acrylic colours and a size '0' brush. On the card I have tried to show a local park with the children and parents enjoying the Easter egg hunt along with some Easter bunnies, a food and refreshment table and a picnic feel. I have tried to keep to an contemporary essence by including the parked cars outside the park, a home across the park, people walking their dogs and so on.

I’m glad with the outcome of my first mix and match experiment and I am planning to continue working on more contemporary designs. Do send me suggestions for  they are more than welcome and so are your feedbacks on this one!

- Shamoni

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Quilling Therapy

I was (still am and always will be) fascinated with paper. 4 years ago when I discovered a quilling kit in a craft store, I knew I had to buy it!! It sat in my studio for about 2-3 months before I opened it and experimented. It was magical and then there was no stopping.

Quilling (also known as paper filigree) is therapeutic, addictive, fun and inexpensive. It’s an art form that uses narrow strips of paper that are coiled and then pinched into different shapes. Quilling can be very versatile and one can create unique gifts like cards, wall art, photo frames, trinkets, jewelry. It isn't difficult, just needs a lot of patience because you are dealing with tiny paper coils and trying to shape them. With practice you will get it just right. So let’s practice! J

This is where you will get some basic instructions, tools, supplies, techniques to begin. Google ‘quilling’ and you will see some really inspirational quillers who stimulate me.

Before working with the paper strips that came with the kit, I thought it would be more appropriate to practice with plain paper. So I took A4 size papers, cut them into strips (2mm or 3mm width each) coiled and shaped them. There are different ways of gluing the strips - a lot of quillers use a fine tip glue applicator, but I take out some glue on a plastic sheet and use a toothpick for application. A MUST have equipment while quilling for me is a tweezer.

The picture below was a card for my Mom's birthday. Since it was one of the first few cards I made, I played with a few shapes (basic)  which included circle, tear drop, marquise, triangle and some scrolls. 

-Smriti.

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