Oh So Bright!

My project this month is all bright and colorful. I created this 8x8 canvas using Distress Spray Stains from Rangers, which were part of my Challenge 5 kit sent over by Artful Crafting. 

As I have mentioned before, working with bright colors / creating bright projects, is a real challenge for me so this theme was a pretty big deal. I messed up twice, before I finally got going. (I think the finished canvas looks pretty decent).

The project is very simple, I just sprayed the stains onto canvas , ensuring minimal overlap, and then left them to dry. Once dry, I added some texture using modeling paste and the Tim Holtz, Dot Fade, layered stencil.

For the center focus, I printed Erin Hanson's poem, "What if i fall", onto Prima Marketing's Epiphany paper collection, and tore it out. (It is such a beautiful poem!) The torn edges were inked with Memento Bamboo Leaves ink, and overlaid with rainbow colored wire, from a local book store.

White cardstock was sprayed with the three stains, (Shabby Shutter, Salty Ocean, Ripe Persimmon) and then stamped with butterflies using jet black Archival Ink. The butterflies were hand cut, and coated with glossy accents. Thatched Roof Cottage glimmer mist, by Tattered Angels, was sprayed to add some shimmer.  (have tried to capture it in the picture above)

And that's all folks!
To take part in the challenge please hop over to Artful-crafting's blog. (Even if you don't want to participate, hop over for some inspiration)

Happy Crafting,

Abstract Art by Zubayr Alikhan

My first post for the month of April '13 is dedicated to an absolutely brilliant 9 year old artist, Zubayr Alikhan. He loves to paint clay pots, and enjoys making cards for his loved ones. Sharing below an impressive master piece done by him.

 

I love the bright colors used, the blending of yellow, green, and mustard is just beautiful. I find this piece absolutely amazing and full of life.

Please note here that colors have not been photoshop-ed, this is how it looks in natural light.

As an Aunt (Khala) I am extremely proud of my little nephew Zubayr, whose work and ideas are often the source of inspiration for many of the projects that I do. Below is a flower he did using the Tim Holtz dies, its so simple and yet so beautiful.

Wishing him all the best and hoping that he does not ignore this talent as he grows older.

Happy Crafting!

*your comments will be passed on to him =)*

Craft March: Project 8 - "I Adore You"

Yup, I really do ;)

*Sigh* its been a very long, very busy and a very tiring week so far, alhumdolillah. I had completed this project on Sunday or Monday, but just didn't get a chance to post. So without further delay, I give you Project 8 - I Adore You!

The beauty of this card lies in the white roses. Each rose is hand made using the Tim Holtz die; the largest with 7 layers, medium with 6 and small with 3. The flourish in the background is white chipboard, and the cardstock is from Memory Box. I don't remember the exact name of the pa because two of Memory Box stacks got mixed somehow, and now I cant remember which is which. The little 'dew drops', I don't know what to call these. They aren't exactly rhinestones, but something on those lines. The dew drops were inspired by Erum Tasneem's cards - her recent collection has bursts of glitter balls, and bling and they look really nice. Added some trim to give the card 'the complete look.'

I wanted the roses to be pure white. I simply shaped the petals without using any ink or paint on them.

The tag is layered too.

thats all folks!

Happy Crafting

Craft March: Project 6 - Moments in Time

This project was inspired by the Craft Hop weekly challenge posted by Firefly. The requirements were super simple; Spring - incorporate a hand made flower.
I had received some new supplies from Many Happy Return, and I couldn't wait to try them out - this theme let me incorporate all my favorite supplies. so YAY!

  
This is a big card ladies! 6.25" x 6.25". All embellishments except the flowers are chipboard. Papers used are from My Mind's Eye and DCWV. All flowers are hand crafted!

The sentiment "Moments in time", because spring always gives us some awesome moments :)
Happy Crafting!

Doing the Craft March: All Things Grow With Love

There has been a buzz, on my facebook timeline, about March being the month of Craft in PK too, this year round. Seems like the national event has now become international :).  For me its just another opportunity to craft away, :D. With that said, I am trying to roll out atleast one project a day all through March. Its a bit of a challenge in my case, juggling both client projects, and others, but its a start!

So far I have been very happy with myself, 2 craft projects in 3 days- "I is happy with myself."

Sharing the first here:
"All things grow with love"
This is a tag, 3.5 x 6.5 approx
stamped, and embossed

adding 1 more picture; a close up of the hearts and wooden butterfly

 Happy Crafting!!

Round Altered Jar: Beauty and the Beast

Today as I made my way to the craft area, I was distracted by a huge stack of discarded old story books sitting in a corner. As I began going through them, an idea popped into my head, why not use one of these for my altered jar project!  and that is exactly what I did.

You can call it an Altered Jar project or a Recycling project; your call :)


All you need for this project is:

• Box / Jar
• Picture
• Sentiment
• Some trim and ribbons
• Contrasting cardstock

I used an empty Body Butter jar, washed and dried. I removed the top label too made it nice and clean. And the story book I chose was Beauty and the Beast. I cut out the picture of Belle and the prince for my project.

Next came the sentiment; I didn't want a simple rectangle, so I traced out the desired tag shape making sure that it covers all the text, and nothing is cut off.

 Once that was done all I did was cut it out as accurately as possible.

This was the hard cover, thus extremely difficult to cut; but where there is a will, there is a way. The rough edges did not worry me much because I was going to distress them, and thus they would not be very obvious.

Next came the layering. Layering in my opinion is one of the simplest yet most beautiful technique. It adds a lot of definition to a project. I used, roughly 4 layers, not including the picture in this count. A close up of the layers below.

The Kraft paper board layers were used to give the project a strong base. So I went ahead and embossed them, just to add some body to the board.

 






Once embossed they were distressed with Vintage Photo for depth and color.














In the above picture, can you notice the difference between the two? the top piece is distressed while the bottom one isn't. Well, I distressed both for the project.

Next came the organizing; putting it all together without actually sticking it, just to see how it looks and tweak it before gluing it down. This is an essential step!

Adding some floral sprays; no project is complete without them, now is it! This looked pretty good me thought. With the top done, it was now time to focus on the sides.

I was pretty decided that ribbon and trim would look best so I went ahead and began gluing it down.

Starting with the ribbon and then layering it further till I liked what I saw:

Next I glued the Kraft base to the jar, and added beads to embellish it further. Also added a cute little bow for finishing.

Once this was done the project was fairly over, glued down the top as was arranged earlier and embellished it with beads and rhinestones. Below is what the finished product looked like..

From an empty useless Body Butter jar to a cherished Keepsake!

Another Scrapbook In the Making!

Peace be upon you!

Just wanted to share some of the pages of another scrapbook that I have been working on; and this time its a chipboard scrapbook, with a very different shape. Lets just say I designed this one myself ;)

It is approximately 7" x 6", with the DCWV black currant theme (that is black, pink, grey combination). Video with the details on the cardstock, embellishments, stamps will follow completion.

I've experimented with lots of fun techniques in this scrapbook which I look forward to sharing with everyone.

 I plan on working on the cover right at the end, so here is the first page; it has an acetate pocket which is embellished with bling flourish from Prima. There are 3 tags, and there is lots of room to add many more. The tags are embossed, and inked.

Here is another page with a small foil pocket, which holds a cute little tag. Some more heart bling here with trim and foil accents.

I am super happy with how this turned out. These are double pockets with spacious photo mats. I designed this to hold 2 photo mats, BUT you can easily fit 3, and the two pockets turned into three as I was putting them together... haha what fun that was.

There are many more pages to go, which I must complete in the coming week. I'm pressed for time with an upcoming exhibition, but loving every minute!

So happy crafting.
and stay tuned!

As always queries are most welcome sabascraftland@gmail.com.

Scrapbook Complete!

Peace be upon you!

I am delighted to tell you that the scrapbook, baby girl scrapbook, which I was working on is now complete!
Sharing the completed scrapbook with you with the help of a video :) it is my first video, and I have spent all day synchronizing the audio and then compressing the video so that it does not take forever to stream.
Its under 7 minutes and I have tried to share names of all the products used. If there is anything you want to learn more about, please email sabascraftland@gmail.com.

Here is the video!

and as always, comments and feedback are welcome on sabascraftland@gmail.com.
For orders email favorsmore@gmail.com,

Thanks

Acrylic Resist! Finally :D

Peace be with you!


I am really excited about sharing my newest project this Wonderful Wednesday. I finally got around to implement what I learnt from Beate's tutorial. I cannot begin to tell you how eagerly I looked forward to trying out the acrylic resist technique. Every week I planned to do it, and every time something came up...I just wasn't able to get down it, and then it happend! yay!!

Here is the first look; the beauty in all its glory.
I just love the end result!

So basically all you need for this particular card is white cardstock; yup, that is correct, just plain white card stock (you can of course use whatever you like, the point is that you can make something like this with just the basics). I did not use any colored paper, or patterned paper time; just distress inks and acrylic paint.


This is a square card, the stamped with inkadinkado (that is such a cute name :D), and inked with Tim Holtz's distress inks. I used the same stamp for the base as well as the petals :). Here is a close up of the flower, it is the same 13 petal flower used for the earlier for the Simple 3D card, slightly altered this time to go with the theme.

I used vintage photo and wild honey for the flower, and worn lipstick for the base. Worn lipstick as you know is a bit on the darker side, and that is one of the reasons why I used it. I wanted to give the card a warm feel, but did not want it to be really dark; so worn lipstick was applied in circular strokes with medium pressure. When working on the flower, you would want to stamp and color the cardstock before cutting out the petals; its much easier that way. Oh, and incase you are wondering about what lies in the center ... well that is puff paint :) pretty puff paint. hehe

Here is a close up of the faux stitch... doesn't that look awesome! I explored with puff paint this time, and it turned out great...I think it looks so much better than the one done with gel pen; but chances of messing up when using puff paint are a lot higher too. 

And that is about it!
Happy happy crafting! (must try acrylic resist ;) )


For further queries email sabascraftland@gmail.com
for purchase write to us at favorsmore@gmail.com or visit Favors & More.

A Card for Every Season

Peace be with you!

It is Wonderful Wednesday and I have another of my creations to share with you. I call it the "Every Season" card, simply because of the sentiment used :D. So here is what it looks like:

Isn't it a beauty! and no, you cannot say it aint ;)

So this card is very very different from any of the cards that I have done so far, with respect to the colors and sentiments used. What I like best about this piece is that it can be used for any occassion and it can be given to anyone, young or old :)

I started off with a 4 x 5.75 inch folded white card stock and distressed the edges. The distressing was kept very light because I wanted the center piece to stand out. So, once distressed the based was layered with yellow cardstock to give it dimension.

Then I set this piece aside and began working on the center piece. Started with dry embossing the center piece, and then filling in the color with a light and dark tone of the same shade. For this card I have used "Vintage photo" and "Antique Linen" distress inks. You will start with the lighter shade.

When you get the desired effect, stamp the sentiment. Usually, one stamps before dry embossing, but in this case we do it the other way round. Its totally up to you how you want to do it, I just liked it better this way.

Once the base is ready, you can paste it on to the partially completed card or, you can add some fancy sentiments to it like I have done here.

I made this myself using ribbon, flowers, beads and a brad :) Love how it turned out. All you need to do is to make a 6 loop bow, secure it. Then take flowers of your choice and secure them on the bow as desired; and cover the center with a brand or button. The one I used here is embossed metal. I love it :). Beads at the base of the flowers are optional...i just added them in to give it a finishing touch.

So adhere the sentiment on the embossed card stock first and then adhere that to the base. And your beautiful card will be ready  :)

Happy crafting!
For further details email sabascraftland@gmail.com or visit Favors & More. You can also visit my card gallery.