Friday 31 July 2015

CAS cards using stencils

Hello freinds!!
Neha here and today I am sharing with you some CAS cards which I made using stencils. CAS is usually not my style and I was bit worried, but to my surprise I loved doing it. I had fun creating these cards. But Before I go ahead I would like to remind you about our current challenge. Here is the link to it.
Challenge #51 


Today is the last day to link your entries so get it done before it gets over.
Now coming back to the post. I have used various techniques with stencils to make these cards, like using Distress Inks,Ombre effect,  embossing and Texture paste. So in total I made 4 CAS cards.


So here comes the first one. For this card I took a White CS and simply sponged DI picked raspberry through a stencil. I have varied the intensity of DI, at some place darker shade and light at others. Matted it over a Bright pink CS of matching shade which was then matted over a white card base. Finished off with a sentiment and a die cut butterfly. 



In second card I tried ombre effect with stencil. I started with dabbing DI spun sugar through the stencil over a white CS, then worn lipstick and finally Picked raspberry. Matted it over a white card base. Stamped a sentiment (Kaisercarft) on vellum and heat embossed it using black EP. Placed it in the center of the card using foam dots to add some dimension and finished it off with enamel dots on its four corners. 



For the third card I decided to do heat embossing and its really very easy to do it with stencils. I just dabbed my mini versamark ink pad through it on a white card base, added Clear EP onto it and embossed it using heat gun. Thereafter I used DIs Picked raspberry and Spiced marmalade for the emboss resist effect. Added final touch with some twine and a die cut.



And now comes the final card. Here I have simply used Ranger's texture paste through stencil on  a white CS. Matted it over a white Card base. Added some color to the card using heat embossed vellum flowers, leaves and sentiment. The stamp set is from IO, heat embossed it using gold EP and then colored them with sketch pens. Added some rhinestones.



So Guys this is all for the today's post. I hope you like my cards and will try some CAS cards using stencils in different ways. Lulupu store has a wide range of stencils available here. There is still some time left to link your entries for our current challenge here.

Products used from the store:






Wednesday 29 July 2015

CAS Stamped and sentiments cards

Hello Everyone

This is Manu  and we, the team lulupu is showcasing CAS cards for this forthnight!! The team has decided to bring in some interesting topics to share with all of you every 2nd fortnight of the month, the first fortnight will be all about the Inspirations for that months challenge. The Second fortnight will be dedicated to some fabulous tips, tricks and techniques about the various trending things in the crafting industry so that we are all well aware of what goes on around us. 

 The team has done a fabulous job of showcasing different CAS style cards till now. We still have one more post about these CAS (Clean And Simple) cards apart from this one. I have focused on the Stamped and sentiments based CAS cards and have quite a few to share with you today.
Before I share what I made, I'm sure you must have made something for this months challenge and do not forget to share and link it up here
This month is all about Anything but a square and Rectangle, read all about it here
Challenge #51 

Here's what I made for the CAS cards. I made 5 different cards using different techniques and which gave different looks too! 


Here's the complete listing of my cards(And it's too difficult to pick a fav, but wait, I'll let you know which one I love the most ) 

This Card is made from Avery Elle stamp and I soo love the cute baby elephant in this one!! Elephant themed stamps are so in trend these days, I couldn't help getting one for myself.  The front panel is die cut with a circle die and then kept inverted to get the green and blue distressing done. Then it's flipped back for the stamping and the colouring. 


This is another simple one with Micia stamp flowers and W&W sentiment stamp. CAS is somewhat I thought is not my style until I made these simple cards. Simple, yet very unique and fun!


Well, one of my fav brand for Cute stamps is the LAWN FAWN (checkout the store for some awesome Lawn FAwn stamps) and the cards comes out to be super cute when these stamps are used. I definitely had to make one using these pretties!


Watercoloring is another trend which is super hot in the crafty world these days!! We had a watercolor challenge too which was a big hit with our readers and Since BOLD and BIG sentiments world awesomely well with watercolors, I went ahead and did a very simple water resist embossing technique in this card, and I was happy the way the colors pop up against the black background. 


Well, I have always loved the night sky so making this sooper lovey dovey card was a must! I truly adore the way this pretty one came out to be!

I hope you all liked the cards that I made for the CAS theme for this fortnight !!
Do not forget to link your entries for our this months challenge here

Products used from the store:





Monday 27 July 2015

CAS - Floral Cards

Hello dear readers, 

Dolly here.. Welcome to yet another post, where today I will be sharing some Clean and Simple [CAS] cards with floral images. These cards have been created with very simple stamping and colouring. All the cards are single layered and easy to replicate! So sit back and enjoy !


Distress Ink + Floral Stamps

This card is created by random use of distress inks (spun sugar, shaded lilac, cracked pistachio) over corner and stamping the floral image on top of it. I think this is a very simple style to recreate many a time, with different colors of inks. 


Stencil Highlight + Floral Stamp

This card is super easy to make. I used one of my circle dies to create a circle shape space, which I colored with the distress ink - seedless preserve. Once I was happy with the coloring, I stamped the floral image and my sentiment. To finish the card, I used a matching strip of card as a border. 


Faux 2nd Generation Stamping

This is yet another simple card which has been made using the 2nd generation stamping technique. The only twist is that I have used spun sugar for the lighter image followed by festive berries. This gives an impression similar to second generation stamping and can be used with any light and dark color combination. 

I hope you all liked the CAS cards shared and will be try some of your own. 

Have you linked up your entries to our this month's challenge. If you,check out the details at:


See you again with a new project!

Love, 
Dolly


Supplies available at Lulupu:

Friday 24 July 2015

Spotlight Designer - Suman Pandit




Hello friends,

I have a very interesting post for you all today. 
So grab yourself a cup of coffee/tea and prepare yourself for a fabulous read about
Suman Pandit of Kalasirjana


She has even prepared a tutorial to share with you all.


1. Tell us a little about yourself and your family.
Crafting is a small part of me; I am an Economics graduate, a writer (with five best-selling books, all more than ten editions each) and an Astro-Vastu consultant with a busy practice. Wife to a Management consultant and mother to two loving sons Devaansh aged 20 and Ritvic, 13 yrs. I am a voracious reader and we are surrounded by books in our house on all topics !!
2. How did you become interested in crafts and what inspired you to start blogging?
I started my blog on March 2013 on an impulse. I had been doing some quilling with handcut strips and trying out with glass colors on bottles before that. Mainly started following some blogs with an idea to help my son in his school projects but then got more and more involved. I am so happy to have joined this beautiful world and for the generous support and love from so many of my blogger buddies. All my learning has been from the generous sharing by bloggers around the world and I like to repay my bit by doing tutorials and WIP pictorials whenever I can.

3. What are some of your "go-to" supplies for crafting?
Hummm….maybe acrylic paints, stencils and Texture paste….and a paper knife!!
4. What is your favorite crafting technique?
Love mixed media for the freedom it provides!!

5. How would you describe your crafting style?
Cannot say exactly but am heavily inspired by Indian motifs and Handicrafts!! Love to incorporate textures, layers and organic stuff like wood, twigs, dry flowers, jute/burlap, fabric etc in my creations!!I get fascinated by faces, leaves and birds and love to have these as focal points( one of the reasons I like Image/photo transfers)!! I love Mix media, Mandala designs…..Altered art and Recycling is always big on my list!!

6. How long have you been crafting?
Just about 2-3 years!!

7. My signature style
Right now a bit of a mix of all different styles

8. Who are some of your influences? Who has been your inspiration?
I have a long list of favorites and I like Andy skinner and Betty Krause’s works; I follow a lot of mixed media artists.
 
9. When not crafting , what keeps you busy?
Have plenty on my plate….home, kids, friends, reading, Facebook (haha…)and movies !!

10. What are you currently working on?
My Art Journal !

I am so happy to be here today and sharing something about myself with all of you.  Thank you so much Karuna and team Lulupu for inviting me here !!
I made myself a handmade Art Journal using thick Canson cardstock and Brustro Watercolor paper. Here is a tutorial on how the cover was prepared. I do hope this tutorial is helpful, I would be more than happy to answer your question, if any !!
 
Print the image on copy paper using the laser printer and fussy cut it. Dilute the silks (ColourArte Silks acrylic Glazes in Sea Spray and Lemondrop)with some water and spray using mini misters to create the background. 

The silks are permanent once they dry. I hope you can see the shimmer. Once the background is dry, place the image face down and adhere with gel medium, give a coat of Gel medium on top as well and leave to dry completely. Once everything is dry,spritz with water and rub gently to remove the paper, be very gentle so that  only  the  very  top  layer  comes off. Let it dry and if you see bits of paper still sticking repeat the process. Coat the image with Gel medium to seal the image.
I don't have the process pics after this , will try my best to explain. I have used the faber-Castell Mixed Media stencils, 101collection and texture paste to stencil all around, stamped with Black archival ink and Prima texture stamps, used ColourArte Silks acrylic Glaze in Apple Blossom to add some more color.  



Add the silks on the image to enhance the colors on it…the mica in the acrylic glazes adds so much of glamour to the image.  

The words are from Tim Holtz chitchat stickers, some stars are added and lastly I have added few layers of Transparent Glass stain in clear from Sapphire (an Indian Glass stain company) which gives lots of dimension and a glass like finish to my focal image……


Wow! What a gorgeous project. 
We also have a challenge running this month at Lulupu - Anything but square / rectangle. Link your entries and see the beautiful inspiration from our DT here.

Wednesday 22 July 2015

CAS Cards

Good Morning blogland! 
Tanvi here, with my inspiration the month. In both the cards I made, the focal point is the die cut & sentiment.


 For the cards these are the supplies used -


To begin die cut the stitched rectangle (largest in the set - Simon Says Stamp) for the front panel of the card & then cut a circle on it. Now glue the pattern paper behind this (TIP - use a print with small patterns so that it shows in the small space behind the die cut). I saved the die cut circle for the next card!


Using the next smaller die in the set cut another circle & stamp the sentiment on it.


Glue it (foam tape) in the center of the pattern paper circle & finally glue this on the card base. 


In my second card I used the same circle dies to make a frame. So here we have two cards with the same dies! 



Thats it from me today!
And remember you still have time to join this months challenge - Anything but square or rectangle

Thank you for stopping by today!

Supplies available at LULUPU.COM

Thursday 16 July 2015

CAS Cards - Mixed Media style

Hello crafty friends,

How are you all today?
Its mid month and the design team have revealed their interpretations of this months challenge - Anything but square or rectangle. You can read more about the challenge here.
Have you linked your creation yet?

Through the rest of this month, the team has decided to showcase CAS cards. CAS stands for Clean and Simple. This means a card with lots of empty space, minimal layers or embellishments, in other words uncluttered.

CAS is definitely out of my comfort zone, but once I started, found it hard to stop. Today, I'm sharing three cards from the lot I made, hopefully managed to find a balance between CAS design and my love for mixed media art.

 
For all my cards, the background was created by using gesso + white sand texture through a stencil. Gesso ensures that the texture paste gets a bright white color on drying to match the white card stock.  
 On this one, as there is a contrast already between the texture paste and kraft card stock, no paints were needed, just some embellishments. 

On this card, the tiniest amount of watercolors were used through a waterbrush to infuse some color before embellishing with gold stars, title and vellum snowflakes.

I usually make a few card bases together and experiment with different techniques and color combinations. One such piece of card stock was used to cut the three Christmas trees and another such piece was used to mat the card on.The words have been heat embossed with gold embossing powder after stamping with versamark watermark stamp pad.

Thank you for visiting us today. 

Don't forget to check back in a couple of days for more CAS card creations from the rest of the team.

Cheers,
Kripa

Products used from the Lulupu store:

 

Monday 13 July 2015

Round shaped mini album

Hello everyone!!!!
Neha here, with the inspirational post for this month's challenge Anything but square & rectangle
I have made a round shaped mini album. 





             This is a mdf based album which was lying with me from a long time. So for this challenge I      decided to use it finally. It was very easy. I have used here Prima epiphany collection. I just love                            Prima papers and I was hoarding these papers from a long time.

 



Close up of cover page
 Inside pages



Pocket on first page



Tags



Photo mats in round and heart shape



Pocket with tags

It was very easy to make this album.  Just traced the shape on pattern papers, cut them and pasted on the mdf pages. I have made some pockets, tags and photo mats also keeping in mind the theme; not to use squares or rectangles. Tags were cut in heart, oval and circular shape using various dies. Distressed the edges using vintage photo DI. Also did some stamping with texture stamps (Prima) and a bird cage stamp from Hero arts. I have decorated inside pages using Prima flowers (Cigar box secrets and forever green collection), washi tape and wood veneers.






The album front cover page was done in mixed media. I tried to match it with inside papers. It was done using DI evergreen bough and vintage photo. I just spritzed some water on paper and added DI evergreen bough with a brush to give it a watercolor effect. Splattered some of the same ink and black soot. Stamped with Prima texture stamps, used texture paste through stencil (dot fades) and embellished with a chipboard frame, flowers, vegetable netting, lace, wood veneers (all from Prima) and flat back pearls. Finally added some charms and stickles glitter over flowers.Added a sentiment from BO Bunny and my album was ready. 
I just loved it and hope you also like it!! Let me know!! And you can take part in our current challenge here. 
Hugs!!!
Neha

Supplies available at LULUPU.COM -

Big Shot

Saturday 11 July 2015

Cake Shaped Birthday Album + Tutorial

Hello Everyone!

This is Manu here and I'm sure that this months theme is keeping you up on the toes and is making you think out of the box for some new creations!!! This month is all about exploring the crafty space for anything but-square-and-rectangle(of course, only  cards, mini's and tags) and is the perfect time to bring out those ideas and make something different than the usual.  Here's the complete listing of this months challenge rules and guidelines


Here's my take on this months challenge. I had been thinking of making a 1st birthday album for my little one and what more could I ask for than this awesome theme. I made a Cake shaped album for her. I had been kinda delaying this project since I wanted a really different style for her Birthday album, and this months theme made me do it!!! *Happy Dance*

I also have a picture tutorial for making this one, so you might sit back, relax and read on!

Here's what I made for my little one's First Birthday memories.


Well, I love the way this one turned out to be and there are soo many elements that I love love love in this album and to my utter joy, my baby loved this one and gave me a huge grin when she took this album in her hands!! So worth the wait!!!

Here's the step by step tutorial on how I made this album!
Since I did not had any dimensions or any idea, I just make up my own dimensions and decided how big I wanted this album to be. The specifications I took are detailed below.

1.  I first measured out the dimensions of each page (there are 4 pages) depending on how big and wide I wanted the album to be. 
Each page measures 5*9, 7*7, 9*9 and 11*9 resp. I did a rough paper draft first before I began to work on my chipboard album.  You can also make it as per your measurements and required size!


Here are the pics (click on the pics for a larger image)



Once I was happy with my design on paper, I then used the same on a thick and sturdy cardboard and then cutted my design out. I taped some Washi tape onto the edges to get a neat look. Lulupu store has an amazing stock of Washi tapes and you can all grab them when the store opens back up!

So here's my album before I starts embellishing it!


2. Once this was done, I did that one part we all love... choosing the right papers and embellishing it.Cut out the pattern papers a little smaller (less than 1mm) than the actual dimensions of each page.

Here's how my album turned out to be. 


I have used some bright and chirpy papers from the DCWV packs (Lulupu store has some amazing paper collection, you can check it out here


 I loved making that cuke cake with ribbons and laces. and totally adore those square alphabet beads!! they make an awesome way to make names and like. 

 This is the inner page and it's all done up to put in pictures and also have tags to write down the messages.  Each message insert is stamped with some nice quotes (mostly Technique tuesday stamps, I love these stamps of their calligraphy!)



 This page has an interactive element (which you can see opened up in the next picture) 


 This space is to keep up all those pics with the family members.. 

Ohhh yes, birthday's are fun with wishes.. so a little wish corner for my baby !!! 
I have lots of pictures of her birthday and maybe I might add up pages in between later on. But I totally loved the outcome and can't stop watching it over and over again! (well that makes someone else happy too as I actually did progress a little )

I hope you all liked my shaped album and don't forget to participate in this months challenge. You can find all the rules and guidelines here
Do gimme a review on how you find this album to be! (I love it, tell me you do tooo,  *wink)


Products used from the store

Happy Crafting!
Manu