Money envelopes and more with GD Priya Sondhi

Hi everyone!

Today I have the pleasure to welcome an amazingly talented paper crafter to our blog as Guest Designer. She is well known for her colour coordination skills, making beautiful backgrounds with distress inks and using patterned papers beautifully! I'm sure you are all going to love what she created for us. She is none other than Priya Sondhi.

Before I show you what she created, here are some questions she answered for all of us to get to know more about her....

1. Tell us a little about yourself and your family.
 - Hi all! I am super duper excited to be invited at Lulupu store blog to be the Guest Designer today. I am a software engineer Team Lead by profession but at heart I am a full time paper crafter. I am from India but currently living in US for past 4 years because of my job.

 
2. How did you become interested in crafts and what inspired you to start blogging?

 - From the childhood I was into crafts. I used to craft with my super talented sister. But during collage, I lost my  touch and fell totally into academics. Roughly 6 years back when I was sitting idle in office, I stumbled across Martha Stewarts crafts. That's how I was introduced to paper crafts. I found it very interesting. Slowing I discovered craft blogs of many talented crafters from India like Tejal, Kavitha, Bhavana and also Karuna (Owner of Lulupu craft store). I was totally inspired by them and followed their blog and started crafting myself. One fine day I started to blog to share my crafty process.

3. What are some of your "go-to" supplies for crafting?

 - My go-to supplies are my Tim Holtz Tonic craft scissors which I use alot for fussy cutting. Next one is my Fiskars Surecut paper trimmer; It's the best to cut paper with absolute precision. And last one is Martha Stewart Scorepal for basic scoring.

4. What is your favorite crafting technique?

 - My all time favorite craft technique is creating backgrounds using heat embossing and distressing with distress inks. Now a days I am hooked to watercoloring with my Zig clean clear real brush markers.

5. How would you describe your crafting style?

 - I am an ever evolving crafter. Once I get a hang of a technique or style, I want to learn new techniques I have not tired or anything latest that comes in the craft world. 

I would describe my technique as clean and simple with minimum embellishments. I don't like my creations over loaded with different elements and embellishments. Majorly, I am into card making, but I love making bookmarks, envelopes, boxes, gift card holder, etc.

6. How long have you been crafting?

 - I have been crafting for around 6 years and blogging for about 5 years.

7. My signature style

 - My style is clean and simple with one focus image/sentiment. 

8. Who are some of your influences? Who has been your inspiration?

 - There are many people who has inspired me. Crafters like Hussena, Tejal, Kavitha, Ujjwal inspired me to start crafting and blogging. Now a days, I goto Youtube and Pinterest when I need some inspiration. Also, ever ending support from my parents also inspires me to craft. My family feels proud of me that I spend my time in such a creative way.

9. When not crafting , what keeps you busy?

 - Crafting is my only hobby. When I don't craft or not at my job, I try new dishes and reading about  different cuisines. I love cooking and trying out different restaurants. Apart from Indian, I like Italian, Thai, Mediterranean and Ethiopian food. 

10. What are you currently working on?

 - Currently I am working on a craft order for notecards and bookmarks.

Now I would like to share some creations I made using products available at Lulupu store. I have 3 bookmarks, 2 money envelopes and 1 card to share. 

Money envelopes :

1. To start with, I took a black piece of cardstock measuring 8 x 7.5 inches and scored at 1.5 and 5 inches.

2. Then I layers it with pattern papers using Grey Bloom Paper Pack from Papericious.

3. Flowers were made using Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set and Altenew crisp inks. I then fussy cut it using my Tim Holtz Tonic craft scissors

4. Finished of the money envelopes with some nice sentiments from Mudra' Purely Sentiments stamp set

Here are individual pics.

Bookmarks :

For the bookmarks, I used the same supplies above and some twine. The size of the bookmark is 5.5 x 1.5 inches. These are super easy to make and help you in reducing your stash of scraps you have been hoarding for a long time. Bookmarks make a great gift too!

Starry distress card :

1. For the card, I used distress ink cardstock. I used stargaze Mixable stencils from MFT and did some heat embossing using Versafine clear embossing ink and Tim Holtz Super fine white embossing powder.

2. After that I distressed the cardstock with Mermain Lagoon, BLueprint sketch and hickory smoke distress inks.

3. For the sentiment I heat embossed the sentiment from Lawn Fawn Lucky Star stamp set to match up with the background. I also used same set of distress inks to distress the sentiment cardstock piece.

This is it from my side. Please leave some love if you liked what I shared. 

Thank you for having me here Lulupu!

Happy Crafting!

Priya.

I don't know about you but my jaw hit the floor several times while going through her projects!

Thanks so much for accepting our invitation, Priya! We thoroughly enjoyed looking at your projects.

That's all from our side for this month. Catch you all soon with a brand new challenge on the 1st of September.

Take care,
Bye!

Friendship with a twist - Challenge Inspiration

Hello people,

Chirali here with my take on current challenge#64 (Friendship with a twist).

I have made a couple of shaker cards based on the challenge theme. I never knew making these cards could be so much fun. 

So here they are:

First one,

I made this tag especially to use centre part of doily. I used the Mudra stamp I got in my DT pack.  I loved colouring the stamped and embossed image. It's a beautiful stamp. 

Now for the next card,

This card is different from the cards that I usually make. A simple card which turned out very elegant after splashed some colour on it. I stamped the heart wreath image with distress ink and then fussy cut the middle portion to cut out a window for the shaker elements. Bird was also stamped, coloured and fussy cut.

And the last one,

This is a bit different from the other two. I wanted to make something which could be used flexibly and not for a particular purpose or occasion. So, i made a shaker frame in which one could put a photo or frame a favorite quote. I am going to use this as a photo frame to remind myself of a special day.

This is how it looks when there is nothing inside.

The next image shows how it could be used as a photo frame. The shaker elements are such a fun addition to the frame.

You can use it vertically too and frame your favorite quote. 

One last picture of all the projects shown in this post.

I hope you enjoyed it. Do not forget to enter our ongoing challenge. Click here for all the details.

Thanks!

Chirali. :)

Supplies used from Lulupu Store.
1. Green Sequins
2. Blue Sequins
3. Mini Bunch Mudra Stamp
4. Summer-Me & My Big Ideas Pocket Pages Themed Cards

Artist trading cards with No line colouring

Hello everyone,
      Riswana here with you.. Today I'll be sharing some Artist trading cards (ATCs) using No line watercoloring technique in different methods..
      For new crafters, ATCs are miniature pieces of artwork which is great to show your style, experimenting new techniques etc., The only thing standard about an ATC is its size- 2.5"×3.5"  No other rules on what to do on the canvas. You can trade or swap ur cards with other artists around the world & trust me, it is so much fun.!
      Now let's get on to the projects.!!
The key to no line coloring is using a water soluble, lighter color to stamp the image so that the outline kinda disappears as you add more colors..  I'll show you few ways.!

Using image stamps: 

         Here I've used this beautiful Santoro stamp & stamped with scattered straw DI. You can see that the image is very light. (Did you see that super cool collector's card there?? Comes free with the stamp.!! Am drooling over it.! Perfect example for an ATC ;))

Start adding a layer of lighter color first & then bring in layers of darker shades..

Add shading for the ground  & sky..

Matt with a cardstock & it's done.

Using solid stamps:
     There are many ways to use a solid stamp. This technique is so much fun.!

        Stamp the solid image with the lightest shade of DI. I've used Mudra's floral silhouette stampset.
(Taping the Canvas not only holds it but also prevents warping.!!!)

I used Zig real brush pens to color the images. Here i started with the darker shade first & then blended with lighter colors.

After the image has dried completely, add some gray shading around to make the image pop up more.. (Note how you can achieve totally different effects using the same stamp.!!!)

Stamped a sentiment from Heidi swapp stampset & added some clear sequins to finish it.

Using Stencils:
     Now let's make some backgrounds with the technique..
   
      Place a stencil over the Atc & sponge some light ink very gently.

You'll get a real light & soft background..

Now use the same technique to add in the darker shades. I just darkened the edges facing the center of the flower & it gave a super cool 3D look.

Added some vellum with embossed quote & few sequins..

Using Free hand painting:
     Here's a very simple & abstract method without stamps or stencils..
      Just add solid lines using lighter color ink & water brush..

Fill in the squares (or whatever shape u need) randomly with colors & that's it.!!!

Since it was a very small surface, I kept my sentiment as the focal point..

Here's a round up of all four..

Hope you liked my projects & that you found the information helpful.!
Pls do give it a try & let us know through social media :) Looking forward to see your miniature artworks in the form of ATCs.!

Create.Have fun.
Rhiz.

Fun shaker card with masking and water colouring- with GD Deepti Stephens

Hello everyone! Sindhura here and I am so glad to introduce you to our lovely Guest Designer of the month- Deepti Stephens. To be honest, Deepti needs no introduction. She is well known for her fun, playful, CAS (Clean and Simple) style of card making. I love how effortlessly she uses bold and bright colours on her cards and make them look stunning.

Over to her...
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Hello everyone! This is Deepti Stephens from Catchy Design and today I have the great pleasure to be the guest designer here for Lulupu. Lulupu was my like my first school when it comes to crafting, where I learnt so many things like photography, how to be organised etc. The things I learnt here helped me to build up my career! So I'm very happy to be here today! And today I'm going to show you how to make a Fun Shaker Card with Masking and Water-coloring techniques. Masking and stamping techniques are my all time favourites but recently I have fallen for die-cutting and water-coloring techniques also. This water-coloring technique is so therapeutic and ya! it is! ;)

For my project, I took a standard sized white card stock and another panel which is slightly smaller than the main card base. Then on to that panel, I went ahead and stamped the birds from My Heart Sings stamp set from Neat and Tangled with Archival Jet Black Ink. I took a thin copy paper and created masks and I used tombow removable adhesive to adhere the masks temporarily in place. Instead of a thin paper you could use a post it note or masking paper!

Once the stamping part was done I went ahead and water-colored the images with my favourite color distress inks - Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard seed. I have been wanting to use these colors for such a long time and finally the time has come! yay! ;)

Once the panel was dry, I took a paper knife, cut small slits in the center and then took my scissors and fussy cut along the edges of the birds leaving a little white border! Then I flipped over the fussy cut panel and adhered an acetate from the packaging with the help of Tombow multi glue. 

Next I took a pattern paper form Studio Calico - Print Shop Collection and adhered it on to the main card base! Then stamped the sentiment from the same set with Archival Jet Black Ink. Then placed some sequins from my stash, and adhered the fuzzy cut panel on to card base with foam tape! And that's it, our super fun shaker card is ready!! :)

VIDEO DETAILS

I have filmed a card processing video where I have shared a few tips, tricks and techniques along the way. You can watch the video here or at Lulupu's YouTube Channel, here.

Like this video? Please give it a big thumbs up and share it with your friends and also don't forget to subscribe to the channel for more inspiration.

Thank you so much for stopping by. And thank you Lulupu and team for having me and it was nice to be here again. Thanks again! Bye.. :)

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Thanks so much for accepting our invitation, Deepti! We wish you good luck for your future. 

That's all for today, friends. Watch this space for more inspiration. :)

Bye!

Have you participated yet?

Hello people.

This month, being the friendship month, we have a fun Challenge going on which is to make Shaker Cards or Shaker Tags and you still have time till 31st august to participate! 

We have some beautiful entries till now. Here are some of them we really loved!

By Dotstolinesblog. A beautiful shaker tag with a great colour combination. 

By Shylaashree. In love with this wonderful shading. 

By Deepti Stephens. A perfect shaker card with vibrant colours. 

Do check out the inspiration by pur Design Team Members as well in case you missed it

Click here for detailed post.

Click here for detailed post.

Isn't it fun to make such cards? So what are you waiting for? Create yours and link the same here.

The challenge is open till August 31st.

We will be back soon with another DT inspiration.

Create. Participate. Have a chance to win goodies. :)

Accordion Cutout Card - Tutorial

Hello.

I hope you are doing well. This is the month of festivals so everyone must be busy with that. Today I am going to share the most asked tutorial of the card, Accordion Cutout, without use of accordion cutout dies. 

It looks complicated but once you make it, it's quite easy. This time I have made it a masculine one with 'The Gentleman' paper pad from Papericious for keeping upcoming Rakshabandhan in mind. This is how it finally looked:

So let's start with the tutorial. 

First of all you need to measure the die cut you are going to use because overall size of the card depends on size of diecut. Mine one measured approximately 3 1/8x4 1/4 so i decided to keep inner rectangle measuring 3 1/4x4 1/2 and overall card size 4 3/4x6. 

So now take a paper of 19x6, score it at the interval of 4 3/4 and fold it in a valley-mountain style so that it results in a 4 3/4x6 card. Let's call each 4 3/4x6 portion PART. (Image shows mountain-valley style, please ignore for sometime. :) )

Now, score each part vertically at 3/4, 2, 2 3/8, 2 3/4 and 4 and horizontally at 3/4 and 5 1/4. You can check the image for clarity. 

Cut the rectangles as shown in image.

Be careful for this part. It can mess your work if not cut properly. You must have 3/4 portion with a centre score in the middle of each part. We will keep a valley style for first two parts, therefore, put a cut on left 3/8 portion on first part and right 3/8 portion on second one. Fold it outer side carefully as shown. Please check the image. It's hard for me to explain this.

To cover this base with patterned papers, take six papers measuring 5 7/8x4 5/8. Score 4 sides of each at 5/8 cut the centre rectangle resulting from scoring each side. 

Adhere them to the base. There are only 4 parts but when we close it, front and back portions will be different which will be backside of first and last part so we took six papers and adhere them too. 

Now take 4 base paper dies cuts along with same shaped die cuts of patterned papers. 

To make an accordion of these die cuts, take a stripe of thick paper, adhere them on back side of base paper die cuts keeping them in a line and then fold them in a mountain-valley style. (Our base card was folded valley-mountain style).you can stick another 4 die cuts to hide these stripes on back.

Glue that center cut and folded portion of each part. Be careful, only cut and folded portion should be glued and not the one attached to the base. Adhere each die cut in centre. You can see glued portion and how to adhere die cuts in the image. 

Tan da nann. We are done with the base. See how it looks from front and back. 

Fun part begins. Embellish patterned paper die cuts and adhere them to the base. First die cut will be seen as a front so decorate it accordingly. 

Some more photos of my card:

I have made couple of cards in the past too. Have a look:

With different die cuts.

Mountain-Valley style whose front will not be visible when card is open.

Another masculine card for friendship day.

I hope you enjoyed it. Do let me know if there are any questions regarding this. We will be waiting for your take on such card. 

Thank you,

Chirali. :)


Supplies used from Lulupu Store:

The Gentleman - Papericious