Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Colorful Quilled Peacock , Now at our Etsy shop



I am quite excited about this quilled peacock I made recently. I had always wanted to make peacock with quilling. I enjoyed innovating by using mirrors with paper quilling strips to create the feathers of the peacock.

I got inspired by the ethnic mirror work of India, where they use mirrors and embroidery threads to create amazing clothes and art pieces. It took a lot of time to roll individual strips of paper around the mirrors but I really love the result and am sure you will see a lot of this technique in my future projects.

Hope you liked it. Do visit our shop Navanka Creations at Etsy.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Mini Scrapbook for Wonderful friends


Each of us have been reliving beautiful memories of past over and over. Those beautiful moments in past which enriched us have always been the real treasure of our lives. Some love to have them in their memories and some in pictures and some bring them all together on scrapbook. It is well said that a picture is worth thousand words, a carefully crafted scrapbook filled with pictures and little anecdotes is worth much more. It is precious.

When one of our very close family friends were moving out, we wanted to give them something they will treasure for a long time to come, something which represents the most wonderful times we spent together and something which makes them feel how much their friendship means to us. Scrapbook was the answer to that.

Like most of my crafts that I love the most, this one also was a last minute idea. I wanted to make something unique. I included some of our favorite pictures and attempted to capture special moments in this mini scrapbook. I decided on this size, because it looks cute and also due to the baggage weight restrictions of airlines.

Supplies:
-Acid free and lignin free plain and printed scrapbook paper /cardstock in various colors
-Paper trimmer
-Bone folder
-Screw punch
-Double sided tape
-Martha Stewart border punch
-Martha Stewart butterfly punch
-Archival safe pens different colors
-Scissors
-Glue-stick archival quality
-Embellishments



Instructions
1.Think of the message you want to convey: It is very difficult to decide which photographs you will use. Consider it as a storybook. Like in my case I tried to capture the beautiful time they spent with us, especially my daughter. I used butterfly as it represents the time that flew by and also that it was beautiful. Once you are sure of the story, rest of it falls in place.

2.Select pictures: This is the most difficult part as you would like to use all the pictures. Be strict, pick those which have special emotions attached, those which tell your story, for mini scrapbook one or maximum two per page is more than enough. Do not make it too bulky as then it makes it uninteresting.
The one I made has pictures of all our friends as the story is incomplete if it was only the picture of only two families. The whole experience was magical with all of us together. It became a gift from all of us to them and hence more precious.

3.Embellishments:
Once your story is final and you have decided on pictures think of embellishing all the pages. You can decorate each with store bought embellishments or make custom ones using your imagination and few decorative punches like ones mentioned above.

4.Decorate Pages: Stick the photographs and decorate the pages, write a one liner or two about the page you made. Something sentimental and personal will be the best. What you write makes the whole experience more memorable.

5.Bind the Pages: Make precise holes using screw punch. Bind the pages together using a ribbon as shown. Decorate the cover page with more details.

Your Mini Scrapbook for a loved one or for yourself is ready.

Scrapbook can be made for any event in your life. It can be for your baby’s first few months, or his whole childhood or graduation, Vacations you took over the years or may be a particular vacation, friends, family etc.

Scrapbooking is a craft which has been practiced from long and hopefully will be practiced forever. There are numerous different ways scrapbooking enthusiasts practice this. Your creativity is the only limit here. Craft stores are full of different kinds of scrapbooking papers, embellishments, albums. Just let your imagination run wild and capture one of your favorite memories in a beautiful scrapbook. Every time you will look at it, believe me it will be the moment relived again.

Do give it a try if you have not already.

Tips for Scrapbooking:

-Always use acid-free, archival quality material. Wide variety of such pages is available in craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby.
-The glue or tape used for scrapbooking should also be archival safe quality. Double sided tapes are the best.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Cute Crotchet Craft for a Cute Kitty Cat Toy


Grandma's Love

This mother's day I thought of sharing about our mom. She mom is a born artist. She just puts her heart in anything she creates. Her expertise in Sewing and Crotchet are the best in our family. She has always encouraged us to express our creativity and do our best in whatever we do. We are blessed to have you as our Mom.

This is for you Mom. Happy Mother's Day Mom and Grandma (Nani).
On the occasion of Mother's day we bring you her latest and cutest creation.

This one is my favorite because it was made on demand and it is easy to make (even I tried making it myself). It made my kiddo the happiest kid in the world.

Here is how it all happened. Last weekend we went to a trip with my parents to Lake Geneva, WI. At Lake Geneva my daughter saw a cute little kitty toy at a gift shop. It was making a meow sound when pressed. Problem was, the one that makes sound didn't have a blanket(crotchet) and my daughter wanted a pink blankie for her cute little kitty. So she asked her Grandma, Nani can you make one for my kitty when we reach home? (She is aware of her expertise).
Grandma obviously said sure I can try. Delighted by the answer my daughter immediately decided which kitty she wanted to buy.

When we came back from trip, this was the first thing she got done by her Grandma.
I love this creation the most beacuse it made me see the love and the bond both of them shared. Really could see Grandma's love pouring all over.
My daughter says this cute little kitty in her blankie is my treasure.

Here is the picture of one I made in white yarn. That's all I had at that time.



Supplies needed:
Crotchet Hook
Yarn

To create this you need some basic knowledge of crotchet.Not very tough for experts they say.

We will share some of her most admired and latest creations for her Grand kids. We will share this in a series of posts.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms and Grandmoms. You make this world so beautiful.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Easy Mother's Day Craft

This one is a quick and easy craft for Mother's day. My 7 year old student made this one for her Mom.

Supplies you need :
- Card stock
- Quilling Strips
- Matching ribbon
- Scissors and glue
- Paint and  Okra ( Bhindi / Lady finger) for doing stamping on the card stock

Cut out the card stock to desired size. Cut the Okra from center and dip it in paint and stamp the card stock with it. You can be creative with the way you stamp on the paper. Glue quilling strip to create the border and letters MOM. Punch a hole in top center and tie a ribbon to complete the project.

We used cut Okra for the pattern. You can use any stamp pattern you want.

This is and easy project for kids and Moms can cherish this useful craft for long time.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Happy Mother's Day


Here's is a craft made by my student for her mother. She is the sweetest seven year old I have met. She has been taking quilling classes from me for some time.I saw this bouquet in Alli's quilling book for card making and had been wishing to try it for some time. This week with Mother's day approaching I thought this project would be a great idea.

We made the bouquet with card stock and added quilled daisies to it. The ribbon was attached to get a pulled together look.

I hope her mother liked it. We sure had lots of fun making this bouquet of daisies for her. Its amazing how quilling is fun for a seven year old as much as its for me.

Happy Mother's Day to all our readers. Hope you brighten some one's day with a handmade gift or you get one from some one you love.