Once Upon a Time...

In my opinion, the "Once Upon a Time" stack from DCWV is one of the most beautiful stacks I have seen. Though it is pretty old, I have always loved it and admired the projects done by fellow crafters using it. I finally had a chance to work with it late October, and loved the finished project.

The theme, as narrated by the client, was a bride's-to-be life journey. Since at some stage in life, every girl believes that she is a princess, and one day her knight in shining armor will sweep her off her feet, I decided to give this scrapbook a royal, yet aged look and feel. You will notice that I have not used rings to bind this album, that is because I felt rings would not go with the theme. So basically, I inked the cardstock to make it seem like wood, and used it as the spine cover. I further embellished the spine with intricately cut "hinges" (designed by me), and, a stained metal and acrylic charm.

I designed a font for the cover, and heat embossed the background. Each alphabet is coated to give a glossy finish.

Now for some of the very special details;

Above is a close-up of one of the photo mats. Its a gorgeous castle; I simply highlighted the details to make them prominent. A floral arrangement done for the pocket.

A side pocket embellished with handmade pennants, beige lace, and dull gold zigzag ribbon. The pocket holds a beautiful foliage tag, with highlighted details and a castle in the background.

The frame above was an off-white paper die cut which I received as a gift (about a year or two back). I decided to use it here because the details were in-line with the theme.  For starters, I had to trim some of it to fit the page, then I heat embossed it in gold. I used UTEE in center, and rhinestones for details. The frame was then layered on to heavy cardstock. It holds three tags which too have been heat embossed in gold.

Some fairy themed tags above.

And last but not the least, the pages:

Happy crafting!

Being Part of WomenX Pakistan

This post is not about a new project that I've completed or am working on, but to share a little something with which I have been involved lately.

A little background for perspective: Favors & More is my business venture which launched in 2010, with its key feature being, "exclusive hand crafted" products. With a little bit of creativity, lots of love and attention to detail we create memorable products for our clients. Since the business is young and growing rapidly, we can use some guidance/help, and so when my sister heard of this program she insisted that I apply, and I applied just a day before the deadline = D. After a few days it was humbling to receive an email which read (extract below):

"I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to join the inaugural Women^X Cohort in Karachi. With a pool of hundreds of talented women entrepreneurs, you were recognized by our panel as one of the 50 enterprising women to be invited to join the first Women^X Cohort..."

And soon I found myself standing with 50 amazingly talented entrepreneurs, each a source of inspiration in their own right.



Our session began with introductions and it was amazing to discover that the nature of businesses ranged from furniture, ladies accessories, to education, right through to IT and engineering.  Everyone extremely focused and determined.

Amongst us were ladies who "stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow their way, adjusted their sails." Ladies who started with nothing, no formal business education (and in some cases no education at all), finances or references, but were now running full fledged successful businesses. Each and everyone brings a wealth of knowledge to each session and there is tons that we learn from each other.

Our knowledge is further enriched with discussions on relevant case studies, formal business models and interactions with successful Pakistani entrepreneurs who are invited to share their experiences with us.

A special thanks to 'IBA CED' and 'Enclude', who have done a brilliant job in organising this World Bank funded program.

Already a few sessions into the program, and looking forward to more.
(Photo Credits: WomenX organisers)

  

The Floral Exploding Box!

One of my recently completed projects; A floral themed exploding box in red and white, which has been entered into Challenge #15 - All The Pretty Flowers hosted by Craft Hoarders Anonymous

(Working on this project sent me down memory lane! oh how I had struggled with my first exploding box project back then... It had to be elaborate, had to have 3 layers, butterflies and what not.  :D )

So as you can tell by the top, I used tons of flowers on the project along with floral cardstock, and punches too.

Once the lid is removed the box "explodes" to reveal 27 which too has been set in flowers. Lots of roses, rose buds along with leaves and vines.

Inside are hershey kisses, which too have been embellished with punched out white flowers and leaves. Not to forget all the embossed floral layers and tags =)

Hope you find this inspiring!
Happy Crafting

And the Birds were Angry!

I finally had the opportunity of working with the famous Angry Birds, and boy were they angry! hehe.

Mini books for little guys, in blue and yellow. Each mini has around 6 pockets and a total of 14 tags.

Using the paper piecing technique, each custom tag is themed according to the characters of the game.

The pages are plain, as requested by the client, with some Angry Bird themed dimensional on each

These mini books come in customized Angry Bird themed bags. :)

 

 

That's all Folks!
(Please direct order related queries to favorsmore@gmail.com, thank you!)

Scrapbook: Turquoise and Peach

Sharing with you today, a scrapbook done for an 18 year old, whose favorite colors are peach and turquoise.

I used cardstock from the Authentique Classique: Elegant stack, combined with some peach cardstock,  mainly from the Rustic stack. The resin frame is from Prima, while the blooms are hand made, by yours truly.

I had decided on Authentique Classique Elegant for this project, which was recently released, but did not realize that finding the 12 x12 Authentique Classique Elegant stack would be such an ordeal. Most of the vendors were carrying the 6x6 stack and the ones with the 12x12 weren't shipping to Pakistan. Very thankful to Artful Crafting for having this shipped in through their vendors in time for me to complete the project.

So below are some closeups of the completed scrapbook.

I absolutely love this design and wanted into incorporate it in a manner that it doesn't look too blank and blends with the theme, which was basically turquoise and peach. So I colored the flowers and added a hand stamped and cut butterfly to it for detail.

Below is another gorgeous cardstock design which I used on the pages themed for shopping. I added some makeup to it for detail.

Oh and the pocket, it holds some trendy tags. Below further details from the shopping themed pages.

Love those heels!

The above is dedicated to her passion for photography.

The above is a close up of a hand made/stitched passport style booklet, which can be used to note/record anything. 

The complete scrapbook follows:

Happy Crafting!

Scrapbook: Baby Girl

My first post for this month is about a Baby Girl themed scrapbook which was successfully completed and couriered to the client, at a time when havoc struck my beautiful city. That is the beauty of Karachi, it never stops, keeps going!
Well, coming back to the post, so here it is!

 The lettering on the cover is chipboard, which has been inked and glittered.

The Highlights

The Tooth Book 

So this time round, instead of spreading the "tooth chronicles" across the page, I designed and then stitched together this little tooth book, which has ample space to not just note dates, but, other interesting details too. It can be removed and placed back easily.

The Booties!

And how could a baby girl scrapbook be complete without the little booties! Added a pair of two 1" booties to the milestones. It is difficult working with such a small size, but I managed. Embellished them with dusty pink, inked flowers, and white rhinestones.

 

The Bath

There just had to be a page dedicated to the first bath with all the little ducks and bubbles. 

Once again the frame is removable and has room for a picture, and a journalling tag.

The Complete Scrapbook

And that's not all folks!

The Bag

The beautiful bag for presenting the scrapbook

and that is about it!

Thank you for all the love,

Happy Crafting!

Sharing the love recieved :)