Baby boy in the family!

A new addition to our family!! :) My sister in law gave birth to a baby boy 5 days back and I'm so excited about it. My darling husband is in Delhi right now, he just had to go when he got the good news! A friend is coming tomorrow to stay with me while he's away, though I would still love to have my husband beside me all the time.

I just so had to make a card for her, I am a proud Maami now! For those who don't know, Maami is kid's mother's brother's wife! lol! It sounds so complicated, though is not, since we Indians have been brought up in a world where every relation has a specific name! Check this link if you are into reading all possible relations we use in everyday matter..

Ok, so getting on with the card, I was in a hurry to complete this in time. I seriously didnot want my husband to leave without a card!  The design is inspired from one of my own baby-girl card that i made. I happen to purchase both boy & girl gift papers from Archies, which is why even the sentiments look same. Even the baby  on both papers is same, only the picture frame is in a different color.

Details of the lovely glitter hands from itsybitsy & ribbon from A1 craft supply -

Sorry for not-so-nice pics, was in a hurry to click them too. The night time when i clicked these doesn't help either!

Edited later :  Just going through my archives & realized, today my blog turned 6-year old! :D what an awesome feeling..  I started blogging as pure fun, when i was back in college and blogging was the new-est fad! There was no concept of followers, no page widgets and designing the blog was much more complicated. Through all this time, I've stopped blogging for a few months every now and then.. 2009 saw only one entry into the blog..For those who dont know, I have even churned out some fictional short stories on this blog, my fav one being this one. These days I'm majorly focused on paper crafts & general state of my mind & life.
My come back to blogging happened by chance, when i hooked onto indian ATC swapping club - found on ICR now. This blog allows me to express my happiness & my thoughts with so many lovely people out there. I thank each one of you for reading my stories, appreciating my work, advising me, doubling my happiness and sharing a part of my life! 

Baby boy in the family!

A new addition to our family!! :) My sister in law gave birth to a baby boy 5 days back and I'm so excited about it. My darling husband is in Delhi right now, he just had to go when he got the good news! A friend is coming tomorrow to stay with me while he's away, though I would still love to have my husband beside me all the time.

I just so had to make a card for her, I am a proud Maami now! For those who don't know, Maami is kid's mother's brother's wife! lol! It sounds so complicated, though is not, since we Indians have been brought up in a world where every relation has a specific name! Check this link if you are into reading all possible relations we use in everyday matter..

Ok, so getting on with the card, I was in a hurry to complete this in time. I seriously didnot want my husband to leave without a card!  The design is inspired from one of my own baby-girl card that i maid. I happen to purchase both boy & girl gift papers from Archies, which is why even the sentiments look same. Even the baby  on both papers is same, only the color of frame is different.

Details of the lovely glitter hands from itsybitsy & ribbon from A1 craft supply -

Colourful Thank you

Another card for today, first one's here..

This one was made keeping Palette #2 on CraftyJC's challenge #11 for the month of november.. I so love this colour combo!! Came out better than i expected!

I coloured a couple of white doily by blue,green & purple inks and cut one of them into pieces. The cut ones are tucked under purple tabs.

There's some Pie-lane chunky glitter around the doily & some chipboard flowers from a random-stuff shop in Brussels.

P.S. I need to buy some sentiment stamps, soon.. I have only "Thank you" & "For you" lol.. Plus my stash of rub-ons is dwindling! Any idea on which one will be good for starters? As in some set/Brands that will cover all basic sentiments..

With Love

Well, something came over me yesterday night, I started with making a card for CraftyJC november challenge & ended up making two! :) I have used Palette #1 for this card.. 

Almost all the inspirations for the challenge used roses in some form & i got truly inspired :D

Details of the lovely roses! I got them from a party shop in Brussels! 

And i have some wonderful news to share, my sister-in-law (hubby's sis) gave birth to a healthy baby boy today morning & i'm so delighted for her.. All i want to do is fly back to Delhi right now!
And wait for another post coming up in about an hour! :D using Challenge's Palette #2..

Shaker-Slider card

My husband's birthday was  few days back, and i wanted to try out some new technique which i had never tried before. I made this shaker & slide card for him. The color of hearts is same as the shaker, dont know why they both look a little orange in the pic.. 

The shaker box rolls on the sliding slit using two of the 1-pence coins :D I had fun making this! 

I have used some of the scraps from itsy bitsy PP sheets, put stripes in alternate colour & did some free hand cutting around the edges.. 

& here's a lovely look of my shaker box.. Coated in Red glitter & filled with beads.. I wanted to fill chunky glitter, but while making this box I realized that glitter will work better in square box. It is impossible to  arrange ALL the foam pieces together without a single gap in between!! A bangle might just work perfectly for a circular box filled with glitter or any such fine material.

&I love the way this bow has turned out! specially with those tine roses.. They *were* toothpicks!

On another front, my pregnancy is going absolutely fine. I just got back from a "Babymoon" in Edinburgh.. Apparantly the vacation taken normally in mid-pregnancy as a last-couples-only vacation is called babymoon! :) Edinburgh is a lovely place, more like a town than a capital city. The old town has a lovely charm to it with a castle in middle.
Recently I noticed a very surprising thing, my husband gets up with an alarm on his mobile. My baby almost always kicks 5-10 mins after the alarm, like he/she also wakes up by it. Once my hubby had to go late to the office and so the alarm was set for an hour later than the normal time. Courtesy my diligent body clock, I got up at the regular time, but the baby just did not kick!! I felt them only when the alarm buzzed an hour later!! & the same thing happened in Edinburgh as well when obviously the alarm was set for a late time to give us longer sleeps!! :) So many little things happening inside my *huge* body by now! lol! I'm enjoying every bit of being pregnant! :)


I am entering this card into two challenges -
ICR challenge #12 - DOTS AND/OR STRIPES + TAG IT
Priya's Use your scraps challenge

Love to travel

Okay, so another orange card on the way, when i dont really like orange too much!!
I made this card for Yvonne's guest challenge this week. I had these wonderful 'Artemio' clear stamps bought from Belgium a few months back. This challenge by Yvonne to use postage stamps was perfect moment to put these to good use. The stamps in the card are used on a magazine to create faux-stamps!
I used the sketch i recently saw at Ujjwal's blog for The prickly pear challenge, hope i have done some justice to the sketch! I am otherwise generally hopeless when it comes to sketches!

The idea for this card came when my husband booked a vacation for both of us to Edinburgh next week.Needless to say,I Love to travel. Thanks to my darling husband I am a well traveled person, Scotland will be my 11th-visited-country so far (that count includes India though :D).

I once dreamed to be visiting 30 countries and atleast 5 continents before i die.. Looks like i need to upgrade my dream! I have already visited 3 continents so far and its pretty long life i have ahead! :)

Here's another view of the card, taken at a tilted angle so you can see the 'heart' before '2' and the dull gold rings below in its true colour. Btw, do you notice the background for this card? I used a Sizzix texture plate to stamp the background & I absolutely love the effect.

Supplies -
Tim Holtz walnut stain ink, Artemio Postal Mini Clear Stamp Set, Inkadinkado Inchie stamp set, Jef Circle punch & Echo park collection - walk in the park Alpha sheet.

you make my life Bright

 I rarely make cards now, no one (locally) to send them to!! :(  I made this for my husband dear -

 

Details of the gorgeous flower -

I have cased Priya's Card in this one.. The moment i saw this card on Priya's blog, I fell in love with this Bargello technique of patterned papers!! I have used up all those old Itsy-Bitsy thin patterned paper sheets that were left.. Having been exposed to better papers, I dont feel the need to use them often..

I'm also entering this one for Using-Scraps challenge at her blog..

Supplies - 
Alphas from Echo Park - A walk in the park collection. Dark green paper from Papermania chistmas capsule. Multiple thin sheets from itsy bitsy for the background. Flower from Khushboo :) Green leaves & twine from stash

how do you keep up..

..with details of all the challenges going around?

I decided to take part in challenges this week, and went through ICR, CraftyJC, Kavitha's, Yvonne's & Priya's Challenges.. And when i sat down to make something,  I totally forgot what was i supposed to make for each one!! LOL..If you have any idea on how to keep up with all the challenges floating around, please share!

Btw, do you know, pregnancy make you forget things and makes you a little more lost!!  Thats a fact though no one knows the reason.. If you don't believe me, check this & this.. Yay!! Now, I have something to put the blame on :) Even though i have tendency to feel lost, pregnant or not!

One amazing thing happened yesterday early morning; I was laying on my back, with my hands on the tummy and i felt a soft thump on my palm!! And along with this thump i felt something inside my tummy.. A feeling i was experiencing since 2 previous days and which had me pretty convinced I have got some bad digestion problem and probably some *gas* (very very common in pregnancy).. All this while my little and tiny baby was kicking me hard to let me know he's there!! I am grinning from ear to ear now!

So ever since the 'realization' dawned on me, I have all my concentration towards the tummy.. Baby kicks a LOT, though the movement is so slight that i really have to be concentrating on my tummy to feel something! My darling hubby can't yet feel the kicks when he puts his hands on my tummy..
And I have been trying a lot of things that makes my baby kick more.. Friends told me various things that worked for them like, eating sweets, putting a slight pressure with hand on the tummy, hubby talking in the room worked for them! For me, turning the music ON works, specially the foot tapping numbers! I believe I have a dancing star on the way!!! Tejal coined that term for my baby.. lol.. 


And well, if you know some place in London to do craft shopping do let me know! I only know hobbycraft, which is damn expensive, prices are more than what it costs in India to get things shipped!!! :D Online stores here offer better rates, but i would rather see some stuff before buying.. tools etc are okay to order online, but i tend to like to see things like paper, ribbons, embellies etc. before buying them

Love is...

Well, I have been away since a while now.. I'm having constant Backaches :( Courtesy my little baby!! Recently went to the mid pregnancy ultrasound scan and i could see my hyper-active baby, kicking n waving to me :D Its such an awesome experience! I'm waiting to feel the baby kick from inside my tummy.. :D

Anyways, so in the whole last three weeks, I have been making & completing this card  for Craftyjc challenge #10 - Simplicity.

It was hard to not go overboard with embellishments & PPs for this one..  For the first time ever I have doodled an image & hand-wrote something on front side of the card! I dont really like to see my handwriting. But it was getting difficult to get the mesg printed here, plus none of the alphas i have were matching with the theme! :D
The image is colored with watercolor pencils! 

Getting Nostalgic

Getting nostalgic, not about India though :D My darling husband is in Berlin for 2 days on a short business trip. Which makes me remember all those lovely moments we spent there. Berlin was the first European city I visited with him, about 3 years ago.. I remember being charmed by the European architecture, ornamentation on walls, the history of Germany and the lovely street performances. I Loved being in Germany, and Germans are the most communicative species when it comes to no-common-language discussion!! I was amazed by the amount of effort put in by most people to understand me and answer my query, mostly by gesturing and moving their fingers, even though i would end up not-understanding-a-single-thing.. :)

The first thing i remember about Being in Germany was its Weather.. My husband was there a week before me, n told me not to pack too heavy woolens, since i was going only for about 10-12 days. And well, what would i know of the unpredictable weather.. When i reached Berling, Weather was slightly cooler than expected and the next day, there was chilled winds blowing and continue to blow till the end of my trip.. I wore (my hubby's) body warmers underneath my jeans & tops!

And believe me, its not a good thing to have ALL your pics clicked in only a couple of woolen tops.. And to make things worse, one of them was white and I was not carrying scarf/muffler to match the other one.. aaarghh... I still cringe at the memory of those chilled winds blowing on my neck!! I always HAVE to wear a muffler/scraf, even in Delhi winters.. My white top looked like it has seen the worst of dust storm when it came back to Delhi :D

Some clicks from around Berlin -

My favourite of all places - This chain link is Huge! & its built in between very busy road.

The first fountain i saw in Europe! I was smitten by the detailed designs.. sadly, i dont give a deep look into fountains i now see across every place in Europe.. 

I loved this style of gates :D 

Old vs New :)

The remains of Berlin Wall.. Some part of it still kept as a memorial.. 

A distinctive marker runs through all roads, marking the place where Berlin wall used to lie.. 

A very Beautiful Church - 

 The Guardian Angel of Berlin :) Goldelse -  

And this is the place i spent most time in when my husband was away in office.. There's a HUGE craft store called Idee in the basement that you'll literally go mad inside! 

And the most exciting part, the street performances! Fairly common sight in rest of Europe, not seen anything like this in London though.. 

Sorry for the pic heavy post! 

My first Easel Card

So finally i did complete the ICR challenge #11 to create an easel card & use a basic shape. Here's my entry -

I have used only Rectangle as the basic shape.. Wanted the card to look simple :) I made this for a very close friends new born baby boy. Din want blue at all! :D The baby & the bear are done using 3D technique.. The multiple pictures come from the same book i used a few months back from Brussels..

Some more details of the card -

And every time i see this card or a baby pic or babies in prams in the market, i wonder whether i'll have a boy or a girl myself :D :D I wish for a girl, though everyone around is having gut-feeling about a boy! Surprisingly, i dream of boys as well!

On another wonderful note, my stuff from India arrived yesterday.. Have unpacked most stuff, but still need time to put everything in place.. My new cabin (my hubby calls it that ways) is overflowing with boxes filled with ribbons & papers & embellies..Can't wait to unpack it all! Plus, I realised, its been 3.5 weeks since i am in London and i have not seen a single tourist place! That also means, i dont have any picture to show around.. Been busy in shopping on weekends. It takes a lot of effort to set up a new house..

True Love

My first card after along while! & my first one from London n my new craft room too!  :) This one's for Piali's Challenge on Yvonne's blog.. Challenge was to do block stamping using an acrylic block! 

Here's my entry - 

I ended up inking too much i guess, cos now when i look back at Piali's work & other entries, my work seems a little blotchy! :D But i anyways love this card.. 

Luckily,all the new purchases i did in last month from India did not went into the Cargo! (My lucky mistake is what i call it!), so i had this big Acrylic block & 3 new distress inks. And the only stamps i have are background stamps from Ujjwal & a labels stamp set from Karuna! :D The label & flower vines comes from the label set! 

And I learned about colouring white ribbon using stamp pads from Priya's blog recently. The link for the tutorial is here.

ATC club

Okay, So now I have joined ATC club UK!! Here's the link..  The theme for this month was 'Shades of Autumn'.. The theme need not be Autumn based, as long as the color palette was formed of those colors..

Here are my entries - Everyone's allowed maximum 5 entries..

1.  2.

3.

4.  5.

Most Supplies from stash. Others -
1. Chunky glitters & vintage garden beads from Pie Lane
2. Flowers from Itsy-Bitsy. Crystal Hearts from A1craft supply.
3. Wooden buttons from Khushboo, Tag was altered from a Thank-you-tag sent by Ujjwal.
4. Die cuts from Jaya, Wooden beads from a broken bracelet, Glitter balls from Pie Lane
5. Star button from Khushboo & crystal stars from A1Craft supply.

I'm in London!

Hey peeps!! Holla!! After a long time..
I have shifted to London, been about 10 days now ..  I spent about one month in Delhi without my husband, and that really was the worst part ! I was eagerly waiting to join him here & I am so loving the weather in London right now! Its not really chilly & not really warm.. Just the right pleasant weather, n it mostly is covered in clouds with sparse rains here and there.

Other than the weather & having to spend time with my husband, What i am loving about this place is that there's a small study room in my newly rented apartment. Its more like an office cubicle, probably made by the previous owner/landlord to serve as make shift office-at-home.. But it serves my purpose for doing all the crafting work with as much scattered or as neat as i want my work to be.. For the first time since my marriage, I have my own work-table!! :) :)

And well, it took me 3 whole days to look out for a white light here.. People apparently love the yellow bulbs & yellow lights everywhere, there's no concept of tube light either.. I bought several energy-saver bulbs & ordinary CFLs, trying to lay my hands on a white one!! Though i returned them back, I would have already spent a fortune otherwise.. And then, not to forget the really long conversations i had with a lightning store's salesman about what i mean by white.. Those yellow lights are called "warm white" and that's the whitest & the brightest they stock! By my good luck though, my husband, who was getting bored & roaming around in the store, found the white bulb on a highly costly Lampshade!!.. Salesman said, "Well, but that's not white, that's the blue light. Not very popular here, but we do have a few of those".  The cover of that bulb said - 'Daylight bulb',and I really had to curb my desire to show him the word DAYLIGHT & tell him that Hey! even the cover says its not a blue light!

Now I am so eagerly waiting for the cargo to arrive here. The cargo stocks all my crafting supplies, i only have a few basic stuff with me.. So the first thing i made with all the limited supply - I altered this diary cover to make it look a little brighter!

The balloons n silver die cuts are from some RAK i received last year. I got about 2-3 packages n swaps n gifts with some die cuts n these were in one of them. The Bells & birds are from one-pound shop near my house :D. The silver hearts & flowers are from A1-Craft supply.

The end result is really very kiddish, but i like it for the brightness & cuteness!! :D I'm going to use this as my new office diary!

There's another good thing that happened recently, someone contacted me on my blog n sent me a pic of card she cased based on one of my previous posts.. I was touched to realize that your work is loved by someone so much that they cased it n showed them to you.. :) .. She made it for her husband, and she's not a crafter.. :D
So here's Bhawana's work - Alongside the card she cased it on, here's the link to original post.

frens!!!!

:D :D someone just did a gag here, on my blog.. Posted something abt me puking.. Ignore that if it comes in your readin list.. In the meanwhile I'm planning how to kill someone!! :D

And I know I should be posting more often about what I am making these days.. Sadly, I am just not into crafting these days. My mind is off, my heart is jet-lagged & my body is tired.. No Mojo, no enthu & no fun.. Missing my husband a lot! He's in another part of the world right now! :( & I'll be able to join him in about 3.5 weeks from today! I'm counting days!!

I made some notecards though, for the indianstampers friendship day event.. Have not taken photos though to share with you all..

tid bits

I believe everyone of you might have noticed my absence from blogging.. Though i am actively reading your posts, appreciating your new projects and getting inspired to do many new things,  i am still not really doing anything in my own life.
Some of you already know the fact that i am moving to London for a few years. And to be honest, I am more scared than i am thrilled at the prospect. I have never been a homely girl, always finding fun & peace in outdoor activities. I don't love to cook, I don't really watch television and I definitely don't like to 'relax' by sitting at home (doing nothing). Take me to dinners, parties, movies, get-togethers and i am a content soul! Even working in office is better than working from home!
And, why the hell am i scared of moving? First thing, i am not going to be able to afford a maid there.. I'll be cooking, cleaning, washing and what not!! Even though, I know, my darling husband will be helping me, there's no denying that the amount of task I'll have to do there is going to be much more than what i have ever done in my life!
Then there's the BIG question of unemployment. It has been a long time since I have working & I do love my financial independence. I am not afraid of being bored at home, I have a lot of hobbies to nurture in absence of my usual programming job. I still am anxious for my future & career in the long term. I think I'll also apply for a PhD studentship in next study year. There's a big doubt if I'll get an admission & bigger doubt about whether  I'll be able to afford the studies if i am not offered a scholarship!  Keeping my fingers crossed.
I am really excited about one thing though, I'll have no dearth of crafty supplies there.. I was checking out an Australian scrapbooking magazine ( jan 2008 edition) and the stuff advertised in that magazine has still not reached India in mainstream retailing. I should have expected that nonetheless the fact still hurts me!!
On another note, you know what i have been doing past few days? I have been reading/viewing a LOT of scrapbooking & card-making books, I have a cute collection of about a dozen such books, and I love going through them again & again.. And, I have made envelopes for the note-cards I'll be sending next week for ICR secret swap event.. you read it correct, I have made only the envelopes, yet to make the note cards.. & I already have 3 Tags to send out (I made them in Brussels :D )

Just for you

I made this card for two challenges, Indian Craft Room's challenge #4 and CraftyJC's challenge #7.

ICRC #4 challenge is about black/white card with a shade of tiffany blue & no PP.
CraftyJC's challenge is about doodling or using a digi image in the creation.

Here's my entry -

I have doodled the background.. That too on my husband's office diary while traveling in Delhi metro for 1.5 hours on a single stretch! This is really really time consuming.. I had plans to add a dash of red to it, but then decided to make this for ICR's blue challenge.. :D Today is last day for the submission, so i am just in time..

Some more details of the sentiment -

I have used a stamp from Hobby ideas in the background with blue ink. Square Alphas from Staples, Noida. Alpha beads from Itsy-Bitsy. Blue foam alphas from Hema.

Vintage fun

Can't believe its my second card in a single day!

Have you ever noticed my answer about my handwriting in the blogger profile? Well, I just thought i'll put up some proof too !  Check out -

 And here's my gibberish handwriting - 

Made this card for  Elizaveta's vintage-inspired challenge running on yvonne's blog! This is the first time i attempted a vintage look, & I think i have managed okay for the first timer..
I wrote some *gibberish* in my diary & used some wet cotton to apply the light brown ink.. & then blow-dried it to get the crumpled-old-look.. then used walnut stain Tim Holtz distress ink on the borders.. I used it on card-borders as well..

ICR challenge 3

ok, so that one was not my last card.. made this one a few minutes back!! :D out of no where i decided to make an orange flower whose tutorial i read sometime back on the ICR forum (using a heart punch) Of all the limited things that i'm carrying with me, hearts punch was the one never used till now! :D

Challenge was to have some handmade embellishments & to use this pic as insipiration - ( My inspiration was the orange flower.. I have never used an orange flower before..)

So, here goes my card -

I have added some quilled loops to give some dimensional balance to the popping-up petals of the flower..

yOu ShAkE mY hEaRt

Probably my last card from Belgium! :) Going back home this week.. It was a good trip!! Eager to go home now.. yay!!!

Aniversary card

Made this card in bits & pieces..The flower was made first, using a tutorial (in french!) to make ribbon roses. I dont have those flat ribbon in colors of a rose, so tried with this pink thread! & lightly inked the outside. Then came the blue cardstock & lightblue paper from papermania.

The silver leaf stickers was bought from mumbai, and the inner backing left from the leaf was used in the flower! Alphas are from Hobby Ideas.

On another note, I am enjoying like crazy.. been to Paris earlier this month.. Disneyland is such a visual treat!! Eiffel tower is well, OK :D looks exactly like its pics!! :D :D

And I'm planning to visit Swiss this coming weekend!! yay!! Its like been on a European honeymoon, with a few days gaps! :)