Saying thanks

Here's a card I made to thank a friend.

Could I have said thanks over a phone or msg? Sure. But for a card maker, there is no better joy than to say it with a card. ^__^

How'd I make it?

A CAS project, I used the Flower Flourish stamp by So Suzy Stamps along with a sentiment stamp by Tim Holtz.

Stamped the flourish and sentiment onto cardstock and tied a ribbon.

The cardstock that you see here is the white textured cardstock sold by PABD. (Peek-a-boo Designs)

Colored parts of flourish using Sakura Pens.

Added glitter to parts of flourish. (I used pva glue and glitter with a thin brush but an easier option is wink of stella!)

Finished it off with a few pastel sequins. (From Craftin' Desert Divas)

And that's it!

Before I sign off, a quick close up :

Sparkly!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

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Bunch of ATCs!

Hello and good morning! ^__^

Here's the post that was long overdue...

What happened was I made some ATCs, and then made some more and since they were all different, I decided to collaborate them into one big post!

So here goes..

The photograph that you see above was a part of a sneak peek of a gorgeous Limited Edition stamp set called Away We Go launched by Peek-A-Boo Designs.

You can read all about it : HERE 

Next up, this set of ATCs was made using distress inks, stencils, washi tape, glitter, crackle accents, modeling paste, die-cuts and sequins along with some mini mixed media themed stamps by Peek-A-Boo Designs.

This one was made using distress inks with my favorite stamp - Phineas The Peacock by So Suzy Stamps.
The sentiment is a sticker.

This one has a mix of stamps from Studio G, Altenew and So Suzy Stamps.

This ATC has the Love Balloon and Celebrate stamps by So Suzy Stamps along with the usual suspects, glitter, washi tape and sequins!

This one was challenging, as the theme was love without using the colors : red and pink!

It has quite a few items like rhinestones, pearls etc. adhered to it but, the stamps used for this project are by So Suzy Stamps & Tim Holtz along with the Rhapsody stencil by Memory Box.

Last but not the least, this ATC features a Heidi Swapp stencil with a partial So Suzy Stamp (Stardust Dancing).

I'm sorry I couldn't describe the steps in detail for each and every ATC, because as you can see, they are all different and that would make this post painfully long!

But... if you have any query regarding any of these, drop me an email at : halak.shah@gmail.com OR leave a comment on this blog post and I shall reply to it at the earliest!

Thank you so much for stopping by! *Big Panda Hugs*

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A sparkly birthday card

Hello! ^__^

A quick post today, sharing a with you a birthday card I made.

I made this using Bielo Cardstock, a sample of which was given to me as a part of the 3rd birthday celebrations at The Craft Shop. (Thank you Priya! It's really awesome!)

This cardstock is smooth and super sturdy, 300 gsm.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it took on the inks during stenciling, because these are not distress inks... these are dye inks! So despite me using dye inks, as you can see, it led to a nice, smooth blend.

It's pure white cardstock, which means it does not have subtle yellow / grey undertones, thereby making the colors look more vibrant.

All in all, I really enjoyed using it and will definitely be getting more of this cardstock to try with other mediums!

A fairly easy CAS project, here's a list of the stuff I used to make this card :

The sentiment (Happy Birthday stamp by So Suzy Stamps) was stamped using Archival ink.

The dye ink set is called Highland Spring and is also by So Suzy Stamps.

I used brads (by Kaisercraft), washi tape, glitter (both local buys) and some die-cuts (RAK from a crafty Pen Pal).

Also on the butterfly and the background you can see a script stamp which is by Tim Holtz.

Here's a close up :

This was one awfully tough to photograph project (blame the poor lighting) but I did manage to click a picture at a lower angle to show you the shimmer on the butterfly.

Oh, also used some mini pearls, a teeny tiny confetti star and some rhinestones in blue and purple on the butterfly. (From my stash.)

The various layers of shimmer! Sparkly sparkly! ^__^

And that's that!

Thank you so much for stopping by, have an awesome day!

Linking this to :  The Craft Shop Contest 

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May Stamp Release + Challenge #6 @Peekaboo!

Hello and good afternoon dear friends!

It's the 1st of May and time to check out the new release over at Peek-a-boo Designs (PABD)!

To go to the PABD blog, click : Here

My project features stamps from the awesome Solid Shapes set, stamped in pastel colors.

Here's a picture of the set :

I absolutely love this set! ^__^

So many possibilities... background building, bokeh technique, geometric design etc!

In my project, I created a faux-distressed look using this set.

How'd I do it?

Simple, I had some locally purchased non-branded ink cubes and their ink was kinda watery.

So, I squished the stamps onto the ink pads and stamped them onto the cardstock. (Do note that to achieve this effect, the ink pads need to be really juicy.)

The theme this month is to create a project using any 3 elements out of a project created by the DT member.

The elements that make up my project (apart from the stamped images) are : Brads, Sequins, Die-cut (the sentiment is a Die-cut), Glitter, Washi Tape, Paper Tape and Pastel Colors.

So, if you pick my project as inspiration, you will need to use 3 or more elements out of the elements that I used.

Fairly simple and interesting challenge, what say? 

What are you waiting for? Grab those stamps, pick a project as inspiration and get going!

To participate, click : Here 

One close up image to share before I take your leave : 

Have a lovely Sunday and thank you for stopping by! *Hugs*

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Same same, but different

Hello hello! ^__^

So, a couple of days ago, just another evening... me making this card...

I did need one more card for a friend and this design would be too blingy for him (because this was designed for a girl)....

That got me thinking.... what if I whip up a slightly toned down version of this card using the same craft supplies in a different color scheme?

Hmmm.... 

Yep, I did it! :D

A minimalist look on this one with a  warm color palette and finished off with just a touch of gold sequins.

The process of making these is the exact same, only difference being : the first one has been matted and jazzed up a little more with the shimmery card base and the sequins + pearls.
Whereas the second card, as you can see, is a lot more simpler.

Steps :

This card uses 1 of each of the following elements :

1 Stencil (Flourish by Tim Holtz)
1 Die-cut (Forest Branch by Marianne Creatables)
1 Stamp (Happy Birthday by So Suzy Stamps)

1. First, I stenciled the design.

2. After that applied colors to the die-cut using a blending tool with distress inks.

3. Added a coat of crackle accents to the die-cut and adhered it to cardstock.

4. Stamped sentiment with Archival ink.

5. Lastly finished it off with some sequins.

For the fancier version : (Up to step 5 exactly same)

6. Added pearls along with the sequins and glitter to select leaves of the die-cut.

7. Trimmed, rounded one corner and matted onto purple cardstock. (Rounded the corner of purple cardstock too.)

8. Finally matted it onto silver embossed cardstock. (From my stash.)

And there you have it folks, two projects with same supplies and different color combos!

Thank you for stopping by and have a lovely evening!

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A winter ATC

Hello and good evening!

Here's a winter themed ATC that I recently made.

It does not snow where I live but boy oh boy, winter sure is pretty in some parts of the world! ^__^

This is just my humble attempt of winter portrayal.

Steps :

1. Smooshed salty ocean and mowed lawn distress inks onto paper and let it dry.

2. Once it dried, I took the Hypnotic stencil by Penny Black and stenciled the design using salty ocean distress ink.

3. After that, I took a die-cut consisting of a ring of snowflakes, applied crackle accents to it (for that crackle / frost look), let it dry, cut it up and randomly adhered to project.

4. Stamped sentiment (Winter's Butterfly stamp by So Suzy Stamps) and butterfly (Wplus9).

5. Lastly, added some white sequins + colorful rhinestones and matted onto black cardstock.

And that's how I did it!

Hope you enjoyed reading it! Have a lovely evening dear friends! *Hugs*

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Swimming by, saying hi!

Here's a hello card I made for a new friend. :)

Kept it simple and let the beautiful sea horse stamp shine through.

The seahorse stamp is... of course! By my favorite rubber stamp company, So Suzy Stamps.

He also has a name! He goes by the name Polo - The Seahorse! How cool is that!

Okay okay... enough about me going gaga over the cuteness, here are the steps :

1. Stamped Polo and masked him.

2. Stenciled around him using Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers distress inks with Tim Holtz Flourish stencil.

3. Stamped sentiment using archival ink with a Wplus9 sentiment stamp set. (From the strictly sentiments series)

4. Colored Polo with Staedtler Luna color pencils and Sakura gelly roll pens.
Added glossy accents to his belly + fin and sprinkled some glitter over it to give him a little bit of sparkle!

5. Tied a bow and matted it onto green with a final mat onto white card base.

6. Finally, used the sequins I recently bought from the Pastel assortment at Craftin Desert Divas (yay!) and scattered them around!

And that's it! I hope you guys have a lovely Sunday!

Thank you for stopping by! Till next time!

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