Xpressions

One of my friends had gone to this place called 'Chokhi Dhani' in Pune where they have live pottery stalls that allow you to try your hands at pottery, creating small interesting art works. And we are also allowed to take this piece which we create. So my friend had got this beautiful little flower pot and I simply had to paint it ... :) The tough part here is that these are not baked. That makes them extremely delicate and difficult to work with.  I started with 2 coats of  primer. My idea was to paint it in the rainbow colors of 'vibgyor' but given it's size I was able to put only 4 colors on it. Sharing a few pics here ... It does look kind of cute ... :)

Had this idea of creating a hand made personalized calendar since many days. Am finally able to actually create it. Hand made because I'm writing the dates and personalized because I've added family photographs and birthday/anniversary reminders for myself. Really simple and even make for a great gift to near ones specially right into the new year. Here's the plan ... Requirements : Handmade paper - any color of your choice, I always prefer white Colored gel pens - If you get them with sparkler ink, its even better Photographs of the family members/friends - Idea is to get at least 12 photo's one for each month. I've used this birthday/anniversary theme. So I selected photos of family members who have their birthday in that month. You could use other themes like seasons or festivals - so select seasonal/festival photo's to represent season or festival falling in that month. Photos having people in them make it more personal. Decorative Items - Anything fro...

Been busy unleashing my creativity on the paper ... so don't feel like pouring anymore on the net ... :) But can't stop showing off my latest creations ... :D So here you go ... 

Painted Diyas make a very apt Diwali gift. Tried it myself this year and it has turned out really amazing. Here is the plan ... Requirements :  Diyas afcourse ... :) You get them in variety of shapes and sizes in the market. When bought in bulk they come really cheap.  Primer and thinner - this is for a white colored base coat. Colors - base colors would be the usual fabric colors. For detailing, you can select tube colors including sparklers for really good effects. Brushes - larger ones for the coat and base paint. Thinner ones for detailing. For the finishing touches - plastic sheet, different colored satin ribbons and stock paper to make tags Small decorative stick-ons, colored pens et al for decorating the tags. Preparations : Dip the earthen diyas in a bucket of water and keep them overnight. After removing them from water, keep them to dry in sun if possible for a couple of days. Start with the base coat. For this we use the primer directly on the ...

This year I wanted to  try out some new DIY ideas for the Diwali cards and came across some interesting options. Here's how I've tried to implement a few ... Requirements : Stock Paper set of colorful craft papers set of other stick-on craft items scissors and glue colored pens for borders/writings Preparations : Start with cutting your stock paper into cards of required size and shape. I've stuck to simple rectangular shaped cards.  Decide on a theme, so that you can shortlist few items which depict that theme - here I've opted for Diwali, so I went for 'Diyas' - simple and apt for the festive season. Other common option can be flowers - which can pretty much suit any occasion.  For other stick-on craft items I've used gold-red brocade laces to resemble the festive season. Alternate option would be to use colorful paper.This is for the borders.  For generic decorations, star shaped gold-red colored stick-on's and shiny flowers or a...

This is an age old art in which small paper strips are turned and curled so as to make different patterns which are then pasted together to form a beautiful picture. Sounds easy right .. :) Requirements: A quilling kit Card, Siccors, Fevicol Lot of ideas and afcourse some dedicated time .. toughest to obtain A quilling kit includes strips of colorful paper and the quilling tool. This is the basic kit we get in the market. However there are many professional kits which containt several different tools and boards which enable you to make really intricate designs and patterns. Choose the strips of your choice and curl them using the quilling tool. The 2 basic quilling patterns are the coil and the scroll. From the coil, you can further create simple patterns like the tight coil, loose coil - which can then be pinched from one end to make a tear drop shape, pinched from both ends to make a marquis and so on. Same with the scroll, by curling it from both ends and...