A Roses And Butterflies Card - Inspired by a Previous Project

Does this look familiar? If you know my work, you'll recognise it immediately! One of my earlier projects on this blog was a Glittering Butterfly Card with a Ginormous bow. The feedback was a shade mixed - some thought it was grand and stylish and loved the bow. Others weren't too kicked about the colours, the bow being so big and the gold was bordering on harsh. So when I was asked to recreate this for someone, it was mildly suggested that I tone it down a bit - replace the gold with red, reduce the size of the butterflies and replace the bow with something less dominating. So here's my creation!

I replaced replaced the bow with a rim of red roses from ItsyBitsy. Love them, can't go wrong with them. I also made the butterflies smaller as you can see. The rest I kept the same. The base layer is white card stock, followed by another layer of card stock and the top layer is vellum embossed with a floral design.

 But here's something new to share! How do you like my coordinating box envelope? The flap has the same butterfly design in the same rich red all cut from my cameo! Isn't it awesome! I've made it before for other butterfly cards but just realised that I have never shared it on my blog. 

So what do you think of my card as compared to the previous one? Is this better or do you prefer the gold one? Would love to hear your thoughts! 

Linking to 

DCAM Challenge 3 - I've chosen the red and white colour scheme.  

Flutter by Wednesday - No Orange or Black

Delightful Challenge - Winged Things

My Time to Craft - Butterflies

If you would like to know the supplies used for this or any of my projects, please write to me at craftingtillthecrackofdawn@gmail.com

A Jar for Fall

I love love LOVE fall colours. Although here in India, specially Bangalore, we don't really have the 'fall' season nor do we have the colours, I still love the schemes that are popping out of overseas craft challenges. Most challenges have fall related themes and although it doesn't bring up any specific feelings or sentiments for me, I simply ADORE the colour spectrum. The Shabby Tea Room has asked for Fall Florals this time. We're required to create a project inspired by a photograph (at the end of this post) and include some fall flowers in our project. So here is my card.

The flowers are all handmade by me using the Tattered Florals Garland die, heavily distressed with Vintage Photo distress ink. The jar is cut on my cameo as well as the lattice background. These two elements were also distressed with Antique Linen.  Here's the inspiration photo: 

I also included a lot of layers and texture in this project along the lines of the BGC's Layered and Over the Edge. The base layer is white card stock, then a layer of this awesome white Thai paper from ItsyBitsy which is almost furry. Next I added a layer of burlap and finally the lattice layer of card stock. The flowers are spilling over the edge on two corners of the card. 

Also entering Colour Conceptions Challenge 4 - Distress - As I said earlier, the flowers are distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and the Jar/ Lattice with Antique Linen Distress Ink. 

That's it from me! Later folks!

If you would like to know the supplies used for this or any of my projects, please write to me at craftingtillthecrackofdawn@gmail.com

A Lacy Parasol Black and White Card

Whew! It's been a long time since I posted a project on this blog. It's not because I've not been crafting till the crack of dawn, because I have. It's not because I don't craft any more, because if you've been following the Itsy Bitsy blog, you know that I have. It's not because I've run out of ideas, because again  all my ideas are showcased on ItsyBitsy. I guess I haven't posted in a while because the responsibilities of being a mother of 2 finally caught up with me. Between shuttling my son to school, dealing with daily homework, trying to manage my extremely naughty toddler daughter and ensuring I spend enough time with them, I finally had to give my craft blog a bag seat.

That was until I saw Corrinne's fabulous inspiration on Sindhu's blog. Sindhu is celebrating her first wedding anniversary and her blogaversary by hosting weekly challenges. Corrinne Dietrich of Dietrich Designs was the first host and her challenge is Wedding/ Anniversary Cards with Black and White and Lace. Corrine's inspiration card is totally to die for and from the moment I saw it, I knew I had to make something for it. Last night after putting the kids to sleep, I suddenly got an idea for it and I jumped up from the covers to craft! Here's what I made. 

My idea was a lace parasol right from a Jane Austen novel. And I wanted it closed so that the frilly trim is dominant. I actually have 2 such parasols - actual versions one with black lace and one with white. I could never use them but they were so so so so pretty that I just had to have them. I followed the tutorial on this link to make the parasol with a few changes of my own. Here's a closer look at the parasol. 

The ornate frame is cut from my cameo and the pattern paper beneath it is from the DCWV Lemon Flower stack. It's sooo gorgeous! Silver textured design, perfect for my card. Was delighted to find it in my stash but very reluctant to actually use it. It was so so so pretty. 

Well that wraps up this post. See you around Blogosphere either here or on the ItsyBitsy Blog. Toodles!

Also linking to Lulupu's Load it Up Challenge (Thanks Doc Sonia). I have 4 layers over the base card and the 3 embellishments are - a lace parasol, ribbon and a pearl.

If you would like to know the supplies used for this or any of my projects, please write to me at craftingtillthecrackofdawn@gmail.com

A Shabby Chic Pink Card

I gotta say when I first saw the inspiration photo at the 'For Love of Crafting' Shabby Chic Challenge, I was literally blown away and despite it being a really crazy month for me, I was desperate to create something for the contest.  But as the days passed, it became more and more evident that time was not on my side, and I would probably have to give it a miss. The month of July began, and all hope was lost until I saw a post on my blogger feed. It was a project by Shweta Patil of 'Creative Space'. She had just done a Shabby Chic card for this challenge and that's when I remembered, For the Love of Crafting  starts on the 10th of the month, not the 1st which means they were still open for submissions! Hurray!! I got to work right away and here's my creation. 

So there were a lot of things in the inspiration photo that appealed to me. The soft cream, white and pink colour scheme, the floral motif, the rose bunches and the theme of Shabby Chic is one of my faves at the moment. I tried to incorporate all these elements into my card. Here are some closeups. 

And here's a look at the the inspiration photograph from the challenge. Isn't it just fantastic! Makes you want to just run to the craft table and get crafting!!

If you would like to know the supplies used for this or any of my projects, please write to me at craftingtillthecrackofdawn@gmail.com

A Textured Card with Jute and Lace

I haven't been able to make anything for this blog in quite a bit! I've been so tied up with the Itsy Bitsy projects that I just couldn't fund a free minute to create projects for any challenges. It has also prevented me from commenting on your lovely creations but I must say I have been popping by so please forgive me. I have to kick off this post with some super happy news. 2 of my cards made it to the top 3 of 2 challenges and both the results were announced last week. For Lulupu's My Mom My World, my Apple Tree Card made it to the top 3 and for Crafter's Corner Bingo, my Garden Swing Card actually won! How friggin cool is that!!! Yippee!!! It got me so pumped that I got to work on a fresh card and this time it is for The Shabby Tea Room - Totally Textured

The challenge comes with a gorgeous inspiration photo that I have added at the bottom of this post and also asks that we use dry embossing and stitching to create texture. Now that was a packed challenge! So I started out with a jute/ burlap sheet that I picked up from Itsy Bitsy and began to create my card. I love the tassels on the inspiration photo so I tried to create that effect by pulling out some of the jute threads and roughing them up a bit. I also loved the frill in the photo so I used some crochet lace to create an underlay frill beneath the jute sheet. 

   

For the stitching, I created a stencil by using the negative card left over from using the Cuttlebug vintage corner die and followed this stencil to create the curly corner on the top and bottom. I stitched it with white wool so it adds even more texture to this card. For the embossing, I took a piece of white card stock, embossed it with a floral embossing folder and added the sentiment - "For a very Special Mom". With Mothers' Day in just 2 days, it had to be the theme of this card. Here's the inspiration photograph - didn't I tell you it was divine!

I loved making this card. This inspiration image has been on my mind for a few days now so I am relieved, thrilled and satisfied that I was able to create something for it. I also want to thank you all for the wonderful support you showed for my 100 followers candy - I am now at 150 followers which is like WOW! Thank you all so much for coming on board and I hope all my followers, new and old enjoy this project and my future projects as well. 

If you would like to know the supplies used for this or any of my projects, please write to me at craftingtillthecrackofdawn@gmail.com

A Shabby Teapot Card

School's out for the summer!!! My son's school that is. And what does that mean? No waking up early, no packing snack boxes, no hurried baths and most important of all - endless crafting till the crack of dawn!!! Last night after my husband and I caught a late movie (GI Joe - please don't ever ever ever watch it) I sat down at my craft table and by 4am - here's what I created.

As you can see I'm still over the top obsessed with the Shabby Tea Room and their 'Beautiful Blues' theme this week. Yesterday I posted another card for the same theme which you can view here. Today I went with a more pastel feel. I started with some navy card stock and then I layered over white distressed with some Tumbled Glass distress ink. For the central doily design I used a rose frame cutfile from Birdscards.com which you can find here. The centre focus is a vintage teapot, again a cutfile from Birdscards.com.

Another thing I tried for the first time is adding charms to my card. I got some delightful little charms recently and took great pleasure chaining them up and adding them to my bow. The photo above provides a close up of the charms. And how gorgeous is that open rose! Another one of my faves from ItsyBitsy.

Finally I gotta say, I just love the theme over at ICR this time. It's all about English being such a 'Punny' Language and we are required to use witty sentiments and callouts using puns. I guess that inspired me to use a pun for the sentiment - You are TEAriffic. Cute isn't it! The sentiment was etched on my cameo using a pen holder and a Staedler Microtip Pen. 

Also entering this card into Crafting When We Can - #41 - Name That Tune. "I'm a little Teapot' is the song - my daughter just makes me sing it to her all the time.

I have made a video tutorial on how I used the Cameo for this card. It's still being edited but will share as soon as I spruce it up for you! And as always, if you want to know the supplies used for this or any of my projects please write in to me at craftingtillthecrackofdawn.gmail.com.

Thanks for stopping by....

A Rosette Card.... For 50 rupees!

Has my blog titled intrigued you? It's a really funny story! But I'll get to that in a bit. I've been wanting to do rosettes for a while and when I saw the sketch at Mojo Monday. I thought it was a perfect opportunity. I also had some pattern paper scraps remaining from a previous project and they happened to totally go with the Dynamic Duo color combination this week which is monochromatic and this also happens to be the challenge over at Tuesday Throwdown. So all things put together, this is my card.

 Now on to the story. About a month and a half ago, my apartment building had this carnival and I put up a stall of all my cards and crafts. It sold like hot cakes and my major market were young girls - from age 5 to 14! A few days after the carnival, one little girl came to me and said, 'Aunty I didn't see your cards at the Carnival. All my friends were saying you were selling such beautiful cards. I didn't get a chance to come by. I really want a card... Do you have any left?

I said, 'Sorry - no all my cards were sold.'
She said, 'Oh Aunty can you make one for me, I really want one'.
I said, 'Ok sure - it will be Rs. 70.
She said, 'Ok thanks'.

A few days later  as I was sitting in the playground with my kids, she came running to me,
'Aunty, have you started my card?'
'No not yet', I replied.
'Oh thank goodness!' she said, 'Actually Aunty, can you make a 50 rupees card? Not a 70 rupees card?'
I giggled to myself and said 'Ok sure'

Then yesterday she ran up to me again, 'Aunty, I want to give the card on Monday - is it ready?'
'Oh ya.. I forgot about that', I said, 'Ok I will give it to you tomorrow'
'Thanks so much Aunty!' And she ran off but not before saying,

'Only 50 rupees ok Aunty!'

And this is the card she is getting. Even now as I type, I am giggling to myself. Sometimes you need comments like this to stay grounded, don't you think!

Have a great Sunday folks!

A Chandelier Card

Once again, the folks over at Play Date Cafe have come up with a really unusual color combination - its Plum, Mustard and Rose this week and I have literally been conceptualizing this card for the last 4 days. It's hard to make mustard work with anything really and so after much racking of the already over-racked brains, I came up with this, a chandelier card. 

The background pattern paper (from ItsyBitsy) has the rose tinges. The mustard is in the ornate border I made on my cameo out of Golden Sand Card Stock from ItsyBitsy. And the delicate chandelier in the center is made out of some discarded wrapping paper I found in my paper bucket. It has some lovely gold/ mustard swirls on it, making it particularly fitting for this color scheme. Finally, no card of mine would be complete without a bow and was I lucky or what to find plum grosgrain ribbon (again from ItsyBitsy) in my stash. I wanted this card to have a vintage feel which is why I distressed the edges of the white card stock and the ornate border and added the rose pearls on the chandelier.

Here is the picture inspiration from PDC 165. Do you think I captured colors?

Also entering into:
Top Tip Tuesday - Lavishly Luscious Layers - there are 7 layers on this card, not counting the ribbon.
Creative Craft Challenges 2 - Bling it Up - The pearls on the chandelier are my bling
Inky Chicks - Becky's Bingo Grid - Bottom row: Die Cuts, Bow and Pearls
Kaboodle Doodles 155 - Ribbon 

A Carousel box and card

I finally got down to making my own craft blog. I've been thinking about it for AGES but I could never find the time. So this little space is dedicated to sharing my own creations and interacting with all you, my crafting buddies!

Here's my first post for this blog - a carousel box and card. For most of us, the idea of a carousel or merry-go-round brings back fond memories from our childhood so I really had a wonderful time creating these two pieces. The round box is a gift box, about 5 inches in diameter, intended to present small meaningful gifts and the matching card is a 6" by 6" square. If you look closely, you will see a little flag popping out of the top of the card. 

I've kept the card simple since the box was so elaborate. The only flair I added was the little white shadow for the horses.The supplies used on this creation are just stripy white card stock and crimson red card stock both from ItsyBitsy. 

Ultimately what I was going for was a Christmas Carnival feel. What do you think? Did I hit the spot? 

Linking to
The Crafters' Corner Make a Set Challenge,
Cameo Creations White Christmas Challenge,
C.R.A.F.T Challenge 184 - Christmas
Unstampabelles - #18 - Christmas
Charsimacardz - Challenge 48- Christmas
Hooked on Craft - Challenge 27

UPDATE 13.12.12: I won the C.R.A.F.T challenge - Yippee!!!! So so so so so kicked!!!