Furthering the Good Will

Early December a Give-Away was announced by Many Happy Returns at the launch of their blog, Artful crafting. I was amongst the, approximately, 40 craft enthusiasts who participated, but sadly did not win. As I stopped by to congratulate the winners, I saw the following post by Shereen:

I CAN'T bear to see you SAD. What can I do, I'm a softie. So All of you SAD people cheer up i'm going to send each of you 1, Many Happy Returns 6x6 paper pack...

Needless to say it made my day, and I am sure it brought a smile to the others too. So the stack I got was named "Little Sunshine"; basically themed for a baby boy in shades of blue, yellow and green. I loved the stack, and decided to incorporate it in my newest project "Hand Crafted Flowers" for Favors & More. (You can read up on this project here)

There was no way that was I going to incorporate these in my project and not further the good will. So upon completion of the first set, I announced a quick quiz; whoever guessed the stack using which these blossoms were made, gets a set as a gift from us. With the first correct answer posted, by Sundus Mariya within 15 mins of the announcement, the quiz was over soon. Short and sweet!

Here is how I used the stack:

 

If you are interesting in purchasing these; email favorsmore@gmail.com;

These are designed especially for paper crafting projects such as scrapbooks, cards etc:

Size: 1" and 1.75"

Price: PKR 250 for a set of 6.

To view other products visit Favors & More

Thanks!

Happy Crafting!

 

Love, Grow, Cherish!

The three magical, yet extremely powerful words set the theme for the card that I made for a very special fellow crafter, Shereen Aftab. 

When one is designing something for a client, there are many factors that one has to be mindful of, and at many times these factors curtail our creativity. But designing simply for the love of crafting is a totally different ball game. 

I love designing using numerous elements, mixed media and several techniques; all of which is visible in this tag/card. I went all out with this one!

The base is in the tones of Off white, and the second layer is from Vintage Vogue (tones of grey) from Many Happy Returns. So basically the colors used here are soft, and simple- Pink, off white and grey.

I started working on this from the base, using 4 different sizes of flowers. The largest was made using the DCWV Black Currant stack (and yeah, if you have been a regular follower of my blog you must have figured by now that this is one of my favorite stacks). Arranging the flowers was the most challenging part of this entire project followed by positioning the Prima Swirls. But I managed both tasks successfully and was happy with the result.

No card is complete without a pretty little butterfly- had to add one here.

So once everything was put together, I held in my hand a beautiful masterpiece that was all set to travel.

Happy Crafting!

The Quilled Pram

Today's post is dedicated to give everyone an understanding of the amount of effort and time that goes into making all those cute little things for the tiny new comers; and in the process make clear why Favors & More's products are defined as 'Exclusively handcrafted'.

The focus will be on the Quilled Prams that we recently did on some 70+ baby boy announcement favors for a very happy mom-to-be.

It looks simple, with nothing much to it right? But when you actually get down to making these, it takes minimum 15 minutes on each pram -note: the time stated is just for the pram, does not include the assemby of favor boxes and other details-.

Please understand that nothing used on these prams (except for the acrylic pacifier) is ready made.

What we start off with is a plain sheet of cardstock -yes cardstock not paper-; and cut it into the desired shape. We end up with something like this -reminds me of pac man :) -

Once that is done, each piece is individually dry embossed by hand. Which takes times ofcourse, but gives the desired detail.

The above was a bit difficult to capture, so this is the best the best pic.
Now that the simple part is over, we come to the quilling part. What we start off with are called quilling strips, over 220 in this case:

 Each of these is quilled to form the wheels, and the handle of the pram.

  Once that is done and the ends secured, the wheels are added to the prams

This is like 60% of the job done (with respect to the embellishment). After this, the prams are added the favor boxes, and further embellished with a bow, pacifier and handle. I was too tired to take pictures of those as I proceeded.

So you see, when at Favors & More we say 

'exclusively hand crafted' 

we mean it!

Here is the finished product:

and here is what makes it all worth it:

"Saba, the boxes are so adorable i love them...it shows all the hardwork thank you so much...next time i will be contacting for (other) themes inshallah" ~ Mrs. Arzak

Here are some other similar prams that we have done:

 According to my mom; "each is a piece of art"

Happy crafting! =)

Fempowerment International Womens Day 2012

Peace be with you!

I know I haven't been regular with my posts in the past month or so, but I try and blog whenever I get some time. Our Wonderful Wednesdays aren't as wonderful anymore cause I haven't been able to blog, but alhumdolillah things have been really busy. What I decided was that in lieu of me posting every Wednesday, how about you share something wonderful, and we post it on your behalf?  email sabascraftland@gmail.com if you want to cash in on this offer ;)

There is some wonderful talent out there. Its only when we share that things grow, especially when it comes to knowledge...the more we share, the more it will grow. Atleast that is what I believe in, and therefore this platform.

Today, I would like to share something very exciting that has come my way, via my business Favors & More; I was honored by a call from the "Fempowerment International Womens Day 2012" organizers who wanted me to encourage female entrepreneurs at this grand platform. I was humbled by this request, being a fairly new entrepreneur myself and being asked to help others start of meant a lot to me. It was a moment of mixed emotions, and for me it also spoke volumes of Favors & More's success (alhumdolillah). 

So I am very excited about meeting some 200 prospective female entrepreneurs, and some very experienced, trainers, and motivational speakers (like Mehreen Shoaib, Ambreeen Khan, Ayesha Tahir, and Yogi Wajahat to name a few) at this grand event.

Now you see why I'm all excited ;)
Will post on how it went soon inshallah.