Hello friends, welcome back to my blog!! Hope you all are doing great and am very excited to be back with an altered art project after a long time. Its my favorite time of the year - yayy its spring finally here in California. The weather is warm and trees are in full bloom everywhere around me. The magnolias and the daffodils makes me feel happy and fresh. So to celebrate this season and welcome these flowers around me created this project "Spring bloom". 

This time also I have an altered art project just like my previous spring themed projects. I have altered an cell phone box which is in a match box style. I have saved this cute and sturdy box in my bin for a long time.  

Process:

I covered the outer layer of the box with DCWV paper pack.Adhered black lace and Rhinestone chain.Distressed the edges using black ink and used red shimmer spray for the top of the box. 

Embellishments:

All the flowers are handmade using recollections punch. Glued a small piece of twine , craft pearls, silver beads , leaves and flowers . Since the flowers are created inspired by the cherry blossom and daffodils, all the flowers are either in pen or yellow color. 

Inside of the box:

For the inside of the box I have again used DCWV pattern paper. Distressed the edges using brown and black ink. The sentiment is handwritten. 

I made a matching tag to go with the box by recycling a part of packaging carton. 

Hope you all like my post... Do leave your comments/suggestions.See you soon with another crafty post.  Happy spring and summer to you all!!

Entering this project to the following challenges:
1.country view challenges - " Pimp it up" alter or reuse something
2.Creative artiste challenge - " Anything mixed media"
3.4 crafty chicks - " flowers"
4.A bit more time to craft - " Anything goes"
5.Rhedd's creative spirit -" Anything altered or recycled"
6.We love to create challenge blog - " Anything creative/mixed media"
7. Alphabet challenge blog - " Anything but a card"
8. Altered eclectics 

Hello friends Welcome back to my blog!! Am posting after a long time as I was busy with my one year old baby. Since this is the birthday season in our house we bought cakes to celebrate them. After consuming the cake the base board of the cake was very sturdy that it resembled a circular canvas. So altered it to a mixed media layout. 

I cleaned the base board using a wet cloth and then applied thick coats of gesso. For textures I scrunched the butter paper pieces ( tissue paper ) and pasted using glue Then applied some random textures using texture paste and stencils. I used diluted alcohol ink  and color shine sprays of teal , yellow and green color. Distressed the edges using brown ink and glued scraps of paper from DCWV paper pack. Stamped the sentiment , clock and tape. Decorated the layout using handmade flowers , pearls, beads and lace. 

Since my baby has started to move she is pulling everything from my craft table.Since most of the mixed media supplies are toxic and harmful I don't craft much these days. But will try my best to post as often as possible. 

Hello Friends, Welcome to my blog!! Today am sharing an altered art project with you all. I have altered an empty salt tin into a mixed media pen stand. 

This project is inspired from Ola Khomenok's tutorial on altered bottle.  I first gave two thick coats of gesso to the tin and started working on the textures. The ideas to make different textures was inspired from Maremi small art. Initially I created textures using stencil and texture paste. Then mixed seed beads , urad dal and fenugreek seeds with texture paste and applied randomly. Stuck some lace and thread and glued the handmade flowers( made using recollections 5 petal punch) The feather is hand cut from watercolor paper. Finally covered the embellishments and textures using diluted gesso. 

Once everything is dried I  started working on mists and sprays. I used home made shimmer spray of crimson color as the base coat. Then dabbed  some  metallic red and copper color  paint here and there finally dry brushed using old gold metallic paint. Added some dots using liquid pearls. 

Now this salt tin is ready to decorate my craft table as I will be using it to store my brushes and tools. Hope you all liked this post. See you soon with another post. Have a great weekend!!

Entering this project to the following challenges:

1.Creative Artiste mixed media - " Anything mixed media"
2. Country view challenges - " Flower power"
3.Let's craft and create challenge - " make your own background" - I made the background using textures and paint sprays.
4.More mixed media challenge - "Anything mixed media with optional twist to use color pink"
5.A bit more time to craft - "  Anything goes"
6. Rhedd's creative spirit - " Altered art/ mixed media"
7.Altered eclectics - " Altered art"
8.We love to create challenge blog - " Anything creative/mixed media"
9.Rainbow craftykari challenge - "blooms magic" - All the flowers are handmade using recollections five petal punch.

Hello friends, Welcome to my blog!! Today am sharing a  mixed media canvas based on the theme "Flowers". I spotted these cute mini canvases when I had been to Daiso Japan last weekend .

I applied a coat of gesso to the canvas and used acrylic paints of pink, orange and red colors with water spray. I dabbed some paints and then sprayed water upon them to get a drooling effect. Once it was dried I started making random textures using Liquitex texture paste and stencils. I had few scraps of pattern paper left over after using it for the sewing machine project. So pasted those upon the canvas. 

All the flowers are handmade using recollections punches and the lace is crocheted using i hook and wool. The black hearts are hand cut from empty cereal cartons and colored using black acrylics. The sentient is handwritten. 

Hope you all liked my canvas!! See you soon with another interesting post.

Entering this project to the following competitions:
4 crafty chicks - " Anything goes"
Lessology challenge - " Hand lettered love" - The sentiment is handwritten and the black hearts are made by recycling empty cereal cartons.
Stamplorations challenge -


We love to create challenge blog - " Anything creative/ Mixed media
Anything but cute challenge -  " Crazy for color "- I have used vibrant colors and lots of flowers in my project. 

Hello Friends, Welcome back to my blog!! Today am sharing with you all a special post made for a special person in my life. It is a beautiful journey of us together from the day I was born. She is my best friend, my source of strength and my pillar of support. Hope you would have guessed it !! Yes , this post is a small dedication to my mom for her birthday.

I was thinking for many weeks what I will gift her this year. When she told me few days back that she is altering some of my dresses I got the idea of making sewing machine shaped card for her as she loves stitching.

There are lot of cute memories associated with this sewing machine. My mom learnt sewing after I was born so that she could stitch variety of dresses for me. She used to stitch frocks with flowers and dolls of my favorite color. Later in life she got busy juggling between office and household that she didn't have time to pursue her hobby. Few months back she mentioned that she wanted to learn sewing again. I hope this card will motivate her to sew more. 

I used my sewing machine ( brother - xl2600 i) as a reference to create this card . For making this card I used canvas paper as they are thick and sturdy. For the base ( bobbin cover area) I have recycled an empty phone packaging box. I have used DCWV - once upon a time paper pack for covering the whole card. At the edges I have glued black lace from recollections.  

I made the stitch selector dial by using a circular piece of packaging cardboard and plastic bottle cap. For the hand wheel at the side I recycled an empty ribbon spool. The spool pin / thread spool is made up of empty tissue roll and cardboard pieces. I used push pins for the stitch length adjustment lever. 

The borders around the selection dial and thread guide are hand crocheted using i hook. For the needle I have used a toothpick colored in black. The spool storage box is made using the recollections card stock.

All the flowers are handmade using recollections punches. The leaves are hand cut from glitter foam sheet and card stock. The piece of cloth kept under the needle is the leftover from our ( mom and me) first sewing project together. Instead of a printed or stamped sentiment I decided to try my hands on calligraphy writing. These are my first attempts of calligraphy fonts using rolling ball pen ( gel pen). I followed the tutorial of  Julie Turrie .

Draw the shape of a sewing machine on a canvas paper and cut 2 pieces - for front and back. Make sure the backside is slightly bigger than front. Cut slits on the front piece for the thread guide and stitch length adjustments. Cover it with the pattern paper. 

To make the box first measure the length of the front piece. For curved portions measure the length using thread and scale method. Now cut a strip from a card stock measuring the length measured and width 2.5". Mark 0.5" up and down on the cut strip and draw a line. Make a fold on the line drawn and cut small slits as shown above. 

Glue one side of the slits to the front piece of the card. The slits make it easy to follow the curvy shape of the sewing machine.

Hello friends, Welcome to my blog!! Today am sharing with you all three mixed media tags made using different techniques. 

I wanted to create an unconventional shaped tag so made this in circular shape. I gave a thick coat of gesso to my canvas paper and then applied texture paste over heart shaped stencil. Then sprayed blue and pink acrylic paints. The colors were soft so to get a brighter tone I loosely applied blue and violet pearl paints with brush. I added some white twine and pasted the flowers upon it. The flowers are handmade using punches.Finally glued a white lace at the bottom and stamped the sentiment. 

For this tag I took a piece of canvas paper and applied orange , brown and yellow distress inks and blended it using a blending sponge. Then I used Americana stencil over texture paste to get circular textures. Once dried I applied golden color to the textures using brush. Then I used Kaisercraft clear stamps and black archival inks and stamped at the top and middle of the tag. I made a loop using a black rope and glued it to the tag using glue gun. Pasted some handmade flowers. To add more interest I have added the golden ball chain. The trail I went to hike this weekend had lots of berry tree branches fallen on the road. So collected a few of them and used  here. The sentiment is handwritten.

This is my favorite of all the three tags. Its because I have used lots of items that are left over in my stash. For creating this tag I took inspiration from Lynn Kopas april tag. I started off by giving thick coat of white gesso to my canvas paper. Adhered the flowers, terracotta beads, glass beads, tooth picks , a piece of burlap cloth , piece of tree branch,buttons, iron on letters etc using tack glue. The flowers are all handmade. These terracotta beads cannot be stringed into a necklace as they got cracked while baking or the holes are not big enough to slide through the wire. I had many beads like that. So this tag gave me an opportunity to use all those beads and the toothpicks used for creating them. Once everything is glued properly I gave  2 thick coats of white gesso. Then used homemade majenta acrylic spray ( acrylic paint + rubbing alcohol+ water) . To make it a little darker dabbed red color randomly using brush. The sentiment is stamped using black archival ink.

Hope you all liked my tags. Keep visiting my blog.

Submitting to

City crafter challenge blog - " Tag" 

Hello Friends, Welcome to my blog!! Today am sharing a mixed media canvas layout with you all. 

Winter has dawned in US and there is snowfall in many states though we don't get any here in California. Every year during the Christmas week my husband gets a week off in his office . So we visit some nearby hill stations to see the snow and play with them. The tall snow covered Christmas trees and the breathtaking snow clad peaks reminds me of my friends words. When we were in college she used to tell me that we at least once in lifetime we should celebrate Christmas in the snow. When I visit places like these I feel like am living her dream and how nice it would be if she was with me then.With these memories flashing in my mind I created a mixed media canvas layout with the theme " Let it snow". 

Then glued the image ( print out) which is matted on a white card stock and added all the embellishments. The flowers are handmade using recollections punches. The bird and the tiny rose flowers are made using playdoh.  I used white glitter foam sheets for the leaves. I made small white dots to give the canvas a snowfall effect. The sentiment is handwritten. 

Hello Friends, Welcome back to my blog!! Well the autumn season has begun, so today's project is all about welcoming this beautiful season of gold. I love to walk on the dried crispy leaves as they give a crunchy effect like that of potato chips.. Lol..  There is a surprise inside this jar which is revealed at the end of this post!!

In California fall season is not much pronounced like the east coast so we can see lot of green trees with some dried trees in between them. So I took the color palette from what I see here - green , yellow, gold and red. I have seen many altered mason jar projects made by my fellow bloggers of which my favorite is Neha's altered mason jar. So I bookmarked that and thought of trying it soon. When the ghee bottle became empty I decided to alter it with the fall theme. 

I covered the jar with pattern paper from DCWV paper pack. Then adhered different laces from "Celebrate it" collections. I inked the laces with golden, yellow and red distress inks. Recently I bought a Martha Stewart daisy punch and was waiting to use it. All the flowers in this project are made using this punch and recollections card stock. The leaves are hand cut and distressed using inks.

The sentiment is a print out. I used pearl chain, pearls and golden bead chain to decorate the jar. The mini book charm is handmade using stacked papers from old magazine and packaging card board.  

For the top panel I have used burlap cloth , lace and handmade flowers. The bird is hand cut from the glitter foam sheet. 

So what is inside the bottle??  Here is the surprise!!!

I wanted to create a window so that my haunted house is visible. So glued the laces only 3/4th of the jar.  For the background I have used black glitter foam sheet. On the lid of the jar I pasted a LED candle using double sided tape. 

With the onset of fall the temperature starts to decrease here so its not possible to keep the door open always as in summer. So we need an air freshner.  Hence I filled the jar with  home made air freshner  and added three pumpkins above it.  On the lid of the jar I pasted a LED candle using double sided tape. See how it gives a spooky effect in the dark.  I am going to keep this decorated jar in my crafting table so that I can enjoy the pleasant smell while I craft. 

Here are some of the ideas to make your own air freshner:  http://www.viralnova.com/diy-air-fresheners/

I added  homemade potpourri  inside the jar. As its fall time I picked many dry leaves and flowers from the nearby garden and added lavender essential oil to it. 

Hope you all like my project. Do leave your comments/ suggestions!! Have a nice weekend!!

Entering this project into the following challenges:

1, City crafter challenge blog - "Fall has arrived"  - I was inspired by the falling leaves and the colors of the picture. I have used red, yellow , green and brown in my project.
2. Kraftzone challenge blog - " Altered art with sentiment" - I have altered a ghee bottle/jar.
3. Dream valley challenge - " Autumn colors"
4. Lessology challenge - " Its reading time" - I have made a mini book charm by recycling magazine papers. I have also recycled ghee bottle/jar.
5. Crafting musketeers - " Challenge 29 - Autumnal colors
6.Our creative corner - " Shades of autumn"
7. Altered eclectics