Guest designer- Anushree

Hi everyone,

Sindhura here. Happy Diwali! May you all have a great time celebrating the 'Festival of lights' with family and friends. Here is what I would like to wish everyone... 'Go green and stay safe!'

We usually take an off on Saturdays and Sundays but today I bring to you a rather festive post. :) 

We have Anushree guest designing for us and she has lovely projects to share with you all.

Anywhere will take the post further from here... She also answered some questions to help us know her better.
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Hi everyone! This is Anushree and today I am so happy to be on Lulupu blog,Here's little about myself....

1. Tell us a little about yourself and your family.

I live in Bangalore,India with my husband and two beautiful daughters aged 6 and 2.I am a professional crafter who quit her well paying job 10 years back and jumped in this deep ocean of crafting...since then each day dedicated to family and crafts.I run my hobby studio in Bangalore in the name of " WORKSHOPEASE" where we train numerous interested people in various Indian and international crafts.

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

Although I was crafting since i was a small girl,till date I have tried my hands on almost all crafts,have trained numerous craft lovers but paper crafting ,card making and mixed media works started with making some birthday invitations for my daughter in 2014,to Pinterest,to teaching this beautiful art form and finally to the world of blogging..i have been hooked ever since and precisely been making cards and mixed media projects for two years now.All the rest of my hobbies have taken a back seat !

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

I love my Sizzix Big Shot,Martha Stewart scoring board, Rangers heat tool, Rangers gold embossing powder(one of my favorites) , how can i forget my distress inks...my very first buys since i start card making, handmade flowers for which i am just crazy abt....lot of metal charms and yessss my Finnabair modelling paste with super awesome Lindy's sprays.

4. What is your favorite crafting technique?

My favorite techniques are distressing and wet embossing.I also love using various mixed media techniques with spray works.

5. How would you describe your crafting style?

My crafting style is CAL and what makes my cards and mixed media projects unique is that i always try to make my designs meaningful.I also love to explore different products and techniques to make cards,boxes,mini books and projects for home decor. Besides card making,i often try my hands on paintings,fabric flowers and decoupage.

6. How long have you been crafting?

Honestly its been more than 20 years of crafting,I was always very keen in crafts so started early...Card making and Scrapbooking I have started just two years back and blogging few months back.

7. My signature style

Some wet embossing,some mixed media tricks, my handmade flowers combined with glitters,pearls and enamel dots.

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

My husband is my inspiration...yeahh sounds cheesy but honestly i would never have been here if he would not be there inspiring me each day...then i always have two beautiful sweet admirers for my work..my daughters...what else i need in this world to inspire me...I admire international artist like Gabrielle Pollacco and Debby Hughes, Few Indian Artist like Rajni Chawla and Kavitha have always inspired me.

9. When not crafting , what keeps you busy?

My family keeps me busy...I have small kids and I try doing maximum things for them myself including cooking and spending loads of time with them.I mostly craft when they all off to sleep or they are in office and school.

10. What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on some Diwali projects for a client,also upcoming will be another guest design post for few other blogs.

Here goes my GDT post for the blog,

Yes its Diwali around,my family's favorite festival...lot of work at home for all of us,right from cleaning of the house to shopping for new clothes,diyas,lights and lot of mithais and gifts...one major challenge we all face is packing the gift items.

So this time i thought how about packing the gifts on our own and adding our own personal handcrafted touch.So my today's post is how to make quick Diwali gift bags and a Diwali card.

Attaching few close ups of the project,

 Lets start now with gift bag first,I bought a patterned paper and started making a easy gift bag following some Youtube videos.I finished making that in next 10 minutes,now I wanted to add some personal touch to it so I pasted a paper doily to the front base of the gift bag.Then i took my flower stamp and memento ink and stamped flower on the paper doily by following Overlapping masking techniques.

Overlapping masking technique : In this technique I stamped the same flower first on the paper doily and then on paper sticky notes,i cut out that flower on paper sticky note by fussy cutting.Now i placed that sticky note cut out on my first stamped image on the doily and stamped the flower again overlapping both on right and left hand side.I have stamped the leaves also by following same technique .

I have stuck some of my handmade flower on the edge of stamped image.These flower i have taken cutouts of flower petals and dabbed them with Inka gold.Once the gold color dried ,I have shaped petals using my flower shaping ball tool.Embellished these flower with pretty shiny green leaves which i took out from my stack.

For the sentiment i have used red card stock as base Die cut and did wet embossing with gold embossing powder.

I have also attached a pretty tag with the bag where the circle is a die cut and again i have done wet embossing with gold powder for the girl image on vellum sheet.Tied it with the golden ribbon to the bag.Also attached small metal embellishment at the bottom right of the bag.

I have also tried making a quick Diwali card with same wet embossing technique and then adding the sentiment by stamping with black archival ink on a die cut.

This was really quick...i finished both my projects in 30 min...so you can ,so what to wait for...start now...Below is the list of supplies I have used for both the projects.

1.Patterned paper,Paper doily,Red ,White and Silver card stock

2. Rangers gold embossing powder,Black archival ink,Memento lady bug

3.Penny black petal party,Penny black sealed with a kiss,Peek a boo Diwali sentiment

4.Penny black Dahlias,Joy craft floral flourishes

5.Viva Inka gold,Versafine watermark stamp pad

All the supplies are available with www.lulupu.com. 

I really enjoyed doing these,hope you also enjoyed. Please leave some love on the blog, also feel free to ask any queries.

Thanks Team Lulupu for giving me this awesome opportunity.

Have a nice day!!

Anushree

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Thank you, Anushree!  It was a pleasure having you as our guest.

That's all for today. See you soon... take care!

Sindhura.

Detachable Mini Album with pictorial

Hello.

Chirali this side. All must be busy with Diwali preparations. Happy Diwali in advance. :) Today I am here with a brand new tutorial. So bored with the traditional type of albums? Then all you need is this post. It's a Detachable Mini Album in which you will be able to change your inside of an album.

Have a look to the outer side:

Here we go:

Take three milboard pieces, two measuring 4 1/8*6 1/8 and one of 1 1/2*4 1/8 to make an album cover. Then cut the corners, score at the edges and adhere them with tacky tape. Cover the rest portion with 13*3 sheet and cover is ready.

Now, prepare a box frame of 4*6*1 1/2 which will result in an inside space of 3*5. Detailed tutorial of such frame is here (when I was a Spotlight Designer :)).

 Take a strong magnetic sheet or magnets now and settle them on right side of album cover inside and back side of the frame, as shown in photo. Cover back of the frame with black paper.

As we have 3*5 space in frame, we will make an album measuring 2 3/4*4 3/4. Cut five pages of 2 3/4*4 3/4 and 4 stripes of 2 3/4*1 1/4. Score the stripes at 1/2 and 3/4 and adhere 1/2 portion to the pages which will result in 1/4 space in between the pages. Take a stripe of 2 3/4*3 to cover spine.

So we are ready with the base. Start embellishing it. Here is mine:

Frame detached and stand attached backside.

Pages when album tied to cover with ribbons.

I am in love with this paper pack. I can't get rid of it, so refreshing and colorful.

I prepared a magnetic stand to keep the box frame stand after pulling out from an album and a magnetic page to put as a last page of an album once we take out a box frame. And added ribbons in album to tie them with the cover when we don't want frame inside. A bit confusing? Then I am posting a video to remove all the confusions.

So that is it for the day. Hope you enjoyed the post. Shower some love with your comments and queries are always welcomed. :)

Thank you,
Chirali. :)

Supplies used:
1. Golden Moment - Penny Black

Challenge #66 Highlights.!!

Hello everyone,
     Riswana here with you today.! We have some fabulous entries for our current challenge running on the blog, Bling a ding with a stamping twist..
You can find all the details about this challenge Here and PLEASE do take a minute to read the GENERAL guidelines Here. It's really heartbreaking for us to disqualify your beautiful entries for not adhering to those simple rules.!! We accept only blog links and not through other social media. So please do link a valid blog post for us to easily visit your creations :)
Here are some of the uniquely beautiful entries we have so far..

Here's the beautiful and gorgeous card created by my teamie Sindhu.!

The Uber gorgeous album by Chirali.!

Find the full post Here

You can find my take on the challenge Here and Here

Don't forget to link your wonderful creations Here if you haven't yet.! There is still time :) Looking forward to see them all.!

Happy Crafting.!

My favorites from the store...

Hi everyone! Sindhura here.

Hope you are all doing good. This post isn't a regular one. I don't have my own projects to show but I have some random things to share. :)

Lulupu Store has been recently loaded with new supplies and I was very excited about a few of them. I'm looking forward to placing an order for these products on my wishlist.

The first is 'Ranger's Enamel Accents'.

pic source- internet

Tim Holtz, the creative director for Ranger, shares a bit about these little jars of magic in the video I linked below. You can see what the awesome colours look like before you decide which colours you want to buy. You can watch the video on YouTube if you prefer, HERE

I think I will buy all of them as they could be used to make enamel dots of our own. Personally, I find enamel dots a bit pricey. From what I could gather from the videos, these small bottles last a long time.

Here is another helpful video by Anita Houston about how the enamel accents could be used in the video linked. You can watch the video on YouTube if you prefer, HERE.

I was so happy when Lulupu stocked these enamel accents. They carry all the ten gorgeous colours plus white and black. Click HERE to shop your favorite colours.

The next awesome addition to the store is Waffle flower stamps. They are SO gorgeous! I love how their designs are so fun and unique. I honestly can't choose one favorite! Here are a couple of stamps that I'm sure to buy and try. They are from their latest release which is awesome! :)

I can already think of many possibilities with this fantastic holiday stamp set called 'Peace on Earth'. The big, bold 'Merry Christmas' sentiment would make an awesome addition to the 'back side' flap of the envelopes for your holiday cards, don't you think? Each and every sentiment in this stamp set could be used alone on a card to make some quick and awesome CAS (Clean and Simple) cards. Heat embossing them in gold would look great too.

pic source- internet

The next stamp set that I absolutely love is 'Wild & Free'. Isn't the name of the stamp itself awesome?! I would totally be tempted to buy it going just by the name of it. :D

I love this stamp set because it has some great silhouettes and a combination of silhouette and outlined images which I find very unique. 'Be wild and free', 'All good things are wild and free' are two sentiments I would use on the cards and give them to my hubby who is a free spirit! I think, he will like it! :)

Ink up a blue sky with clouds, stamp the bird, and then stamp 'Live' and then mask everything else from the sentiment except 'free' from the 'Wild and free' sentiment and stamp it. It would make an awesome card! You can also make a beautiful background with the flowers and leaves in the set. What can I say about the deer image? I'm completely in love with this set!

pic source- internet

You can find all the Waffle Flower crafts stamps HERE.

Also, make sure to visit the links to Waffle Flower's blog and YouTube channel for tons of inspiration HERE and HERE.

I'm not done yet! Have you seen the Penny Black 6x6 patterned paper packs? I'm totally smitten with them! There are 48 papers in the pack and are reasonably priced too. Some are already out of stock in the store.

Here are a couple of my favorites from the collection. (Please click on the captions to go directly to the mentioned product.)

Golden Moment
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Holiday trimmings
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You can shop HERE for all the Penny Black paper pads.

I love patterned papers and I shamelessly hoard them! When I think of patterned papers, the first brand that comes to my mind is 'Simple Stories'. I LOVE the fact that Lulupu is always loaded with Simple Stories papers and other accessories.

Here are my personal favorites from the recent addition.

'Posh' sn@p card pack
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'Posh' designer stickers
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How I wish I could use washi tapes! I just don't know how some of my friends use them effortlessly! I want to learn using them so I can buy this gorgeous bundle here! :) I mean, look at that bold floral design? How can you even resist it?! OK. That's the reason it is currently out of stock in the store. I'm sure it will be restocked soon. You could also write to Karuna at hello@lulupu.com to preorder.

'Posh' washi tape pack
pic source- internet

 Did I tell you I love stripes? And when the stripes are bold like the ones in this paper pack, I love them more than my husband! LOL! Since I have this paper pad, I want to mention here that all the white you see on the papers isn't really true white. They are kind of 'off white'. But I promise, they are still very pretty.

'Posh' 6x6 paper pad
pic source- internet

You can shop the full Simple Stories 'Posh' collection HERE.

You would be blown away when you look at all the awesomeness on Simple Stories 'Posh scrapbook collection' Pinterest board. Oh My God! Pinterest is so bad for my pocket!

Now, I am almost finished. Thanks to those who still are there with me! :)

INKS!! That one word would have me jumping out of excitement! If you add 'Hero Arts' to inks, I might even dance.(I'm not good at dancing, so beware if you are meeting me in person. LOL!)

Lulupu has many ink cube sets now. I'm so excited about them! The best thing is, they are Hero Arts and Kelly's line of inks from Hero Arts.

coffee and donuts
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urban
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Lucy's florals
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 You can find all the inks HERE.

I'm finally done! Thanks so much for joining me today! Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

Love,
Sindhura.

'Penny Black - Golden Moment' Mini Album

Hello.

Chirali here. I hope everyone is doing great. :)

So today I am here with a mini album made from a very refreshing 6*6 paper pad of Penny Black, 'Golden Moment.' It contains papers full of colors which are perfect for almost any themed album.

Here is what I created:

Flowers on front are die cut from this paper pad only. Those birds have been fussy cut from same papers. So cool, isn't it?

Some inside photos:

And yes, how can I forget our ongoing challenge #66, 'Bling a Ding with stamping twist'. Therefore have used a simple stamped and embossed sentiment. Click here to enter with your creations.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Keep crafting.

Thanks,
Chirali. :)

Supplies used:

1. Golden Moment - Penny Black 6x6 Paper pad

Vintage themed cards with a twist of glitter

Hello everyone,
            Riswana here. I've two vintage themed cards for you today.!

Card 1:

I've used Crafty individuals rubber stamp for this card.! It's so awesome with lots of textures & details.. Perfect for ATC lovers as it measures the same size.!!!

Colored the images with Zig CCRB pens & added wink of stella.! Can you see that shimmer?!

Card 2:

I'm totally in love with this gorjuss girl stamp set.. I tried a vintage look this time..

I've used gauze cloth, tissue paper & distress inks on the background. Also some stamping & splashes for added interest..
Hope you liked my projects. Do check out the new challenge running on our blog Here and enter your creations.!!

Supplies used:

Crafty Individuals - Pretty Poppy Rubber stamp
Santoro Gorjuss Rubber stamp - You brought me love

C ya all very soon.
Create. Have fun.
Rhiz