A little more Diwali

Hi….I hope you had a lovely Diwali….
In my last post “Diwali Decorations 2013”, I told you about how I made some stuff to make our Diwali a little extra special…..Today I’ll tell you about some articles I made last year for my Diwali workshop…..I had conducted my first Diwali workshop for kids and adults, where we made a bunch of items, about which I’ll tell you now….

Every Diwali begins with the installation of an “Akash-Kandil” or a lantern as we call it…..So, we started by making a lantern…We used handmade paper which was quite translucent…..We cut it according to our template, and then assembled it….We left an opening on top for passing a lightbulb in it…..We also stuck small shiny punched flower on each piece…..This was the final product…..

Paper Lantern

And, this is how it looked when it was lit….

Akash Kandil

We then proceeded to our Rangoli…..Rangoli is traditionally used to adorn the doorstep, as it is considered very auspicious….It was traditionally done with rice flour and some natural dyes…But, with the availability of various commercially available colored powders, rangoli has become an art……What we made in our workshop was a rangoli with a twist…..We made a permanent rangoli using some cardboard, Rainbow/ Iris paper and some rhinestones……We made a 6 piece rangoli which can be used in various ways……This was our fruit of labor…..

Rangoli

Then, we started with our “Toran” aka garland…..We used a gold ribbon, construction paper, rhinestones, 3D glitter and key rings to make our Toran…..We made leaves and flowers and glued them alternately on the ribbon and put key rings on either ends to hang them……This is how our Toran looked…..

Flower Garland

Toran

Finally we moved on to the last item in our workshop, the integral part of Diwali- a “Diya” or the Lamp…..Rows of oil lamps are lit and placed outside the doors and windows during Diwali….How could we forget those….I gave a choice of two designs to my class and each participant made one as per their liking….We used paper, terracotta lamps and acrylic colors to make these….This is how they turned out…..

Terracotta Lamps

Festive Diya

Hand-painted Diya

And, this is the whole package!!

Diwali workshop

Hope you had a good time reading about this…..Don’t forget to let me know your opinions and feel free to contact me through the comment box if you have any questions…..Till then, keep crafting and come back soon for more !!!

DIY Flower Light - Recycle Craft

Hello there.....
How do you like this pretty little Flower Light????
Adorable...Isn't it???

DIY Flower Light

This Light is made from the top of a water gallon.....Surprised????
Yes, it really is a plastic bottle top!!!!

Flower Light DIY Tutorial

I cut it with scissors and then colored it like a dainty flower.....

When it was completely dry, I inserted a small LED tea light in its bottom....

Flower with Tea Light

Recycle Craft 

And there it was....quick and easy Flower Light......

Ready to adorn any table as a centerpiece.... on its own, or with a few more

 flowers like this.....

This definitely is a conversation piece......

And it cost me almost nothing.......I had the colors and tea light  on hand.....

Flower Light

Hope you liked it as much as I do :)
If you make one like this, do not forget to credit me and link me to your site/ blog.....
You can also view another flower light I made earlier here.....
See you soon with more such crafts.....
Till then, 'Like' the post and enjoy!!!

DIY Quick Rock Paperweight

Hi....

How often are you frazzled by the papers flying all over from your desk...right?

I am one of them.....My kid gets all these flyers from school which pile up on the table....

They kept getting knocked, and were falling all over the place.....That is when I felt the urgent need for a paperweight.....Thus, my Quick Rock Paperweight was born ;)

What best to hold down papers than a fairly good sized rock???

Ya, right!! ....So, I took a medium sized rock from my storage and painted it white.....

I was pondering over what design to paint when I saw one of my son's tattoos lying around....I liked this butterfly instantly :) 

When the color on the rock was dry, I applied the tattoo to the rock and left it to dry for a couple of minutes....

When it dried it looked like this:

Quick Rock Paperweight

Finally, I gave it a coat of sealer to lock in the tattoo....

It looks cool on my desk now....I love this project of mine...

Though it was instant, it turned out to be a beauty.....

I sometimes, also use it as a part of table decor..

Paperweight

I hope you liked it.....

Please comment to let me know you came by....

Thanks for visiting :)

DIY Halloween Pumpkin Decoration

Hi and welcome to my post on Halloween Pumpkin Decoration....
My son had to take a decorated pumpkin in his school....
So we made this pumpkin....
However, Hurricane Sandy ruined our plans and our poor pumpkin had to stay home :(

Halloween Pumpkin Decoration

For making this, we chose a foam pumpkin instead of a real one as it was easy for my son to handle...
My son decided to go with a skull face for pumpkin.....so, I painted a skull.....
My son also wanted the scary triangle eyes for the skull....
According to him, the skull looks more spooky with these eyes!!
Then we glued a rubber bat, rat and a spider for a more spooky appearance....
Last but not the least, we carved the bottom and fixed a LED candle to give our pumpkin an eerie flickering glow!!!

My son was pretty excited with the final outcome and he couldn't wait to show it to his fellow kindergarteners!!!!
Hope you liked it too....
If you do, be sure leave a comment below and 'like' my blog.
You would also like my post on Halloween Decorations here.....
Thanks for visiting :)

Painting- Blossom Branch

Hello and welcome to my blog.....

This is the latest painting I made....

I call it the " Blossom Branch"....

This is an Acrylic on canvas.....

The canvas size I have used is 16x 20 inches....

I find this painting simple yet eye-catching.....

I was pretty pleased with the outcome.....

Canvas Painting 16x 20

Here's the close-up for you.......

Blossom Branch

And Here's how it looks on the wall.....

This is a farther perspective......

 If you liked this painting, do comment below.....
This one is available for Sale....
Kindly contact on the e-mail address mentioned above.....
Thanks for visiting and come back again!!!

Fancy Key-holder

Key-holder

Today I will show you another key holder I made recently.......
I really love making these :)
This one especially is one of my favorites.....
The design is really simple, but the final product turned out very impressive....
Pardon the image quality.....It doesn't really do justice to the real thing :(
However, let me tell you how I made this...... 
I painted a wooden block 4"x 6" in acrylic color- black.
When it dried, I made some squiggly lines for the branches with my favorite:  3D outliner- gold......
Then I made some leaf outlines with the same outliner along the branches......
I finally stuck red teardrop shaped rhinestones inside the leaf outlines......
Thus, my fancy key- holder was ready......
This was sold the very next day :))
Hope you liked it.....
You can see the other 3D key holders I made, in my previous posts, Happy Home Key Holder and Under the Sea key holder
Have Fun and Thanks for visiting :)

DIY Painted Metal Butterfly Wind- chime

Yayyyy......
I am back!!!
I missed blogging so much.....
Anyways, Today I will show you how I turned a cheap wind chime into a fancy one!!
I saw this metal Butterfly wind chime at a dollar store recently, and I really liked it....
Butterflies are one of my favorites :)
I bought it instantly......

Butterfly wind chime

However, I was not so happy with the tan and orange colors it had.......

Butterflies are supposed to be colorful and vibrant!!!

So, I decided to revamp it.....

I colored it with acrylic colors- yellow and Violet and acrylic pearl color- blue.....

Metal Butterfly

Lastly, I embellished a little bit with my favorite 3D glitter outliners and Voila......

My pretty little wind chime was ready.....

Here is how it looked when it was done....

Aint it cute????

Painted Butterfly wind chime

This dainty butterfly now chimes merrily on my patio......
Hope you liked it....
Please comment to let me know if you do.....  :)

DIY T- Shirt Painting- Ben 10

T-Shirt Painting

Hi and welcome to my post on T-Shirt Painting.......

My son is a Ben 10 fan, and he was looking for a T-shirt with Ben10 and his friends together.....

And even after scouring all the kids garment shops, we couldn't find what he wanted..... :(

He was disappointed and so, to cheer him up I decided to make him a t-shirt with Ben 10 and friends....

We bought a plain green t-shirt.....

We finalised a design of his choice from one of his coloring books.....

After tracing it on the t-shirt, I painted it with acrylic colors (Fabric colors)......

You can see it in the picture below.....

T-Shirt painting

I finally outlined the whole picture with fabric color- black.....

After letting it dry for 24 hours, I ironed on the reverse to fix the colors......

Ben 10

I also added a little spunk to the tee by painting on the back.....

This is the design on the back......

T-Shirt Painting

Ben 10

My son fell in love with his new T- Shirt.......
And I was glad to see him so.....
Hope you liked it too :)

DIY Faux Metal Wall Art- Recycle Craft

Faux Metal Wall Art

Hi and welcome to my post on Faux Metal Wall Art......

This Wall art has a complete metallic look but is actually made from recycled cardboard, foil 

and paper grocery bag !!!!

I had saved a nice stiff cardboard used for a curtain packaging......

Using the cardboard as a base, I started this piece......

I stuck two pieces of corrugated cardboard ( again, recycled) on the base....

To add some more texture I used some leftover knick-knacks from an old project on the sides......

Then I stuck crumpled foil all over the piece using PVA glue......

After smoothing with a Q-tip I got my finished base.......

Then came the butterfly project :)

I made three butterflies of varying size out of a grocery bag , using PVA glue and burning technique.....

The butterfly is shown below......

Metallic Butterfly

After brushing the butterfly with golden powder, it looked like this.....

 Metallic Gold Butterfly

Then I painted the edges of the butterfly with metallic blue to give it some contrast.....

Lastly, I attached floral wire antennae to it.....

I repeated the same procedure for other two butterflies as well... 

After all the butterflies were done, I glued them to the base in descending order of their size.....

Faux Metal Butterfly

Finally I added a braided golden string to it for hanging.....

Thus, my recycled "Faux Metal" Wall Art was ready.......

This is how it looks on the wall......

I sold this artwork at a craft show recently :)

Faux Metal Wall Art

You can leave a comment below to let me know if you liked it  :)

DIY 3D Photo Frames

Photo Frames

Hi....

Today I would like to share with you the 3D Photo Frames I made with my son for

gifting his teachers on the occasion of  'Teachers Appreciation Week'  :)

We bought some blank wooden frames by Plaid.......

My son painted the frames with acrylic color- yellow.......

He did two coats of paint and, we let the frames dry for an hour......

We had also bought wooden cut-outs of a sun and a ladybird......

We glued the sun on one frame and the ladybird on the other.....

We even glued some googly eyes on the sun and the ladybird....... :D

Then my son stuck foam stickers of flowers and butterflies on the frame......

I gave it the finishing touches with 3D glitter for the butterfly trails......

And......Our Frames were ready......

My son was very happy to make such lovely frames on his own.....

And, I was so proud of him !!!

The best part was that, his teachers adored their gift as well :)

Sun Photo Frame

Ladybird Photo Frame

You can leave a comment here to let me know if you liked the 3D Photo Frames.......

One Stroke Painting - Totes

One Stroke Painting

 Hi....
Today I have uploaded a few pictures of the totes I had painted in India a few months back....
The method used is that of One Stroke Painting......
You can also check out my previous post on "One Stroke Painting on Envelopes"  to see the details of this method.....
I had used acrylic colors for painting on these bags ......
I had used my old camera here, so please pardon the quality of the images ......
All these bags, and more similar ones were a instant sell-out......
Pls comment and let me know if you liked them..... :)

Tote Painting

Tote Painting

One Stroke Painting on a Tote

Tote Painting

One Stroke Painting

"Happy Home"- 3D Key Holder

3D Key Holder

Hi....This is another key holder commission piece I made a few days back......

This is a 3D key Holder and I call it "Happy Home"......

I made this design on a Wooden Ply 4"x7", using epoxy / M-seal.....

The details on how to make this can be found in my earlier post: 

'Under the Sea' 3D Key Holder

I think it turned out pretty cute.....What do you think ???

Do leave a comment to let me know how you feel about it ....

Have Fun :)
And Thanks for Visiting .....

DIY Recycle Craft- Pen and Card Holder

Pen and Card Holder

Welcome to my latest post on Recycle Craft......

I have made a Pen and Card Holder by recycling toilet roll tube, cardboard and a scrap piece of wood......

I prepared the base by sanding the wooden piece......

Then, I glued the tube on the wooden piece using a hot gun......

I cut two cardboard semicircles and glued them on the wood as a card holder....

I also used PVA glue to  create texture on the roll and the cardboard and left it to dry.....

You can see the initial assembly in the picture below....

Recycle Craft

After everything was nice and dry, I painted the whole thing with acrylic color- black......

When the paint was dry, I used 3D outliners to create some wavy string designs and added a few diamantes for some added glitter....

I also dusted some golden powder on the whole piece to give it an antique look....

To finish the borders I used some braided golden lace.....

Finally, I gave it two coats of spray varnish for a glossy finish.....and it was ready!!

This Pen and Card Holder now sits on my hubby's desk :)

Recycle Craft

Do leave a comment, to let me know if you like this craft.....

Have fun, and.....Recycle !!