Space Jam

Hello everyone!

I have been MIA for a while now.... but I have been busy crafting :) Some of you have seen the pics, but here are some glimpses....

The invite (thank you Shalini for the number cutouts!):

The party decor:

The birthday boy:

The rest of it:

Smita :)

Creativity and me...

Hello everyone!

I know my posts have been a bit too sporadic in the past few months. This time I have no reasons... I don't know what's been keeping me from crafting. Busy, yes, but not sooo busy that I can't craft. Anyway, here is what I have to share with you today:

First, a 'card' by Aaryan for his favorite 'chachu' (my husband's younger brother):

Not the best picture I guess, and not the best work by Aaryan but yes, it is from his heart :D My boy has used only scrappy bits that Mamma 'doesn't need'. He just came and asked me if I could spare some things - anything - that I may not want; then sat with his glue stick and created this by sticking it all in a random pattern. He also upcycled some things (like the plastic sheet in the middle, a stone that came off from a sandal  - insisting that it is a black colored diamond for his uncle- and that foam letter 'E' which is not a letter but just a 'pattern'!) I asked if he wanted my help folding a card but he said he didn't want to make a 'normal' card and he just wanted to do his own thing!! :D The flowers are ready made but everything else is scrap that was lying in my scrap pile! And it is a big card!!! He has signed off with his name too :-p

I am, of course, submitting this for the ICR kids card challenge.

Second, a card my sister-in-law asked me to make for her hubby (yes, Aaryan's favorite uncle, that is):

The inside:

and the coordinating envelope:

Well, the story behind it is related to those headphones! I have finally realized something... though we keep saying that it is difficult to craft for men, there is one thing that isn't so difficult. Every man has a weakness (apart from the woman in their life ;-) ) - sports, gadgets, cars or such like! And my brother-in-law is a gadget freak :-p with these speakers and headphones being on his wishlist forever! :D So, though nobody is yet gifting him these, I thought it would go well in her card! The quote is of course partly Shakespeare and partly me ;-)

All that glitters on this card and envelope is Pie Lane! :)

I love the heart chain! ;-) It took me a while to get the trick right though... courtesy a utube video.

I am submitting this card for:

Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog - Challenge 180 - Cards for men

Ciao,

Smita

Nothing crafty but something yummy!

Hey there everyone!!

How have you been? I know it has been a while since I posted... but luckily the mood is now better than it was a month ago... Thanks for your prayers... my mom in law is doing better now.

Happy Children's Day to all kiddos in India. :) Here is what I made for my boy:

Angry Birds is Aaryan's current obsession!! :D Of course, there is more than enough inspiration online! I used stuff that I had at home to make our very own Angry Bird Pizza :)

Hoping to get back to crafting soon!

Ciao,

Smita

Happy Diwali

Hi all,

We are going to our hometown tomorrow. Happy Diwali to all my Indian friends from me and my family. I have no card of my own to share; but here's  a Diwali card that Aaryan made (with some help from his drawing teacher and a teeny bit of help from me):

He has glued on Pie Lane glitter balls on the tips of the firework display. {Aaryan: "Mamma, I saw you had a box of glitter that you used in the sports card sometime back... Can you please share it with me?" Me: " Ah well, now that you know I have it, you may use it"}

The inside of the card. He has drawn his favorite toffees inside. He has used Pie Lane glitter balls and jumbo glitter for decorating the diya (lamp). 

Thanks for the tip on how to take out glitter balls in a bowl and use, E.T. We didn't do it this time, but I have conveyed the idea to him :)

Do leave my little one some love ;-)

Happy Diwali to all of you once again!



Smita and Aaryan

Remember me??

Heya people,

I hope you haven't forgotten me! I know I have been almost absent in blogspace for a bit too long! But this time I hope I am finally back! ;-) I had to craft today, a little because I wanted to, a little because I wanted you to think of me, an a little because I was in a very good mood for no particular reason. :-)

By the way, in case you are wondering about my new header... (psst: if you are not, please do! LOL! ) let me tell you who the artist is:

AARYAN!

The painting is an evening scene with a reddish sky... the tree like structures, in his words, are mushrooms/toadstools that are stooping in the wind. Hope you like it :-)
[description of the painting: courtesy the little artist himself]

This card isn't really a favorite but I don't dislike it either. Crafting after so long can be quite challenging! The card is inspired by Laura's sketch 66 at 2Sketches4You... I flipped it. I made quite a large card with unusual dimensions because I have some huge envelopes to match ;-)

The Patterned Paper and gorgeous lace are from a kit sent by Yvonne; the leaf mask in the background is an RAK from dear Spardha; the stamp is Hobby Ideas and the beautiful white flowers are actually a Chinese Collar Button set that I picked up locally (I found them cute and very useful ;-) )... the fleur de lis punch is a not-so-recent purchase (also local).

Hope you like it!

Hugs,

Smita

Here I am!

Here I am back with a card and more after really really long. The Mojo's still not up and running as I want it to be though :-( Before getting down to my card, here's a little glimpse of 4 of the 15 cards my little Aaryan made for Diwali:

His drawing teacher taught him a fun background technique using crayons and he loved it so much that he made a card for each member of the family... he drew and colored the pictures himself :-) and he had a story attached to each picture (and a different picture for each card)! The second card from the left is what he gave me... he was trying to draw a kite.. the shape got distorted so he actually fixed it himself and told me that it was 2 kites stuck in a tree :-). I loved his explanation!!! And I loved every single card he made... He also wrote in each card himself (and he hasn't learnt the letters yet!! but he knew the basic shapes and wanted to write on his own... ) Proud of you, my darling Aaryan!

And here is my not so great card following the sketch at 2Sketches4You:

The stamp is Hobby Ideas and the PP is American Crafts. All other materials from stash...

ETA: I made it to top 5 at Get Sketchy for their Challenge #60 for this card! Thanks for letting me know, Juhi! I am soooooo happy and I didn't expect it :-)

Ciao,

Smita

Happy Diwali

Wishing all my Indian friends a very Happy Diwali and a prosperous year ahead. 

I've been quite tied up of late and am hoping to have at least one post next week; but I am not too sure. Aaryan's having vacations now and I have my hands full at the moment. I will come back soon to post some [around 12] cards that my little boy made 'on his own'. Proud of him :-)

Sorry I have not been blog hopping either... just too busy!! :-(

Ciao,

Smita

Father and Son

Here is something the father and son duo (ohh, I mean my hubby and my son) asked me to create for them. Well, actually, the husband asked first, and then the son had to have the same concept though slightly better :-D

Vineet's is a post-it note holder. He took away my gorgeous checkered post-it note pad and said he wouldn't "mind"if I made a case for him, so I obliged (after all, I have to keep the husband happy in the holiday season so he lets me shop ;-) )

I kept it very simple so that he could keep it at his work desk.

And my son wanted a "notebook"for drawing and writing. He has promised no to scribble :D But he was particular about the stickers and was really happy that I wrote his name on it (he can read his name):

He took the book from me as soon as I was done, clicked a photo with my phone and told me that I could use the photo... and immediately scribbled his name on the cover. I am not too sure he has written all letters... well, he can't really write "R" yet so I guess he skipped that...lol!

The PP is from Itsy Bitsy; the button from my stash; the stickers are local buys and the ribbon is from my Mom.

Met one of my blog buddies today. We had a really good time. Thanks for the time, girl :-)

Ciao,

Smita

HP again

Hi all,

Nothing very new to share... We had been to Vineet's office on Friday. They had organised a little something for spouses and kids. The event was great - games, food, music, magic and a lot of fun. The kids had a fancy dress competition and they were to dress up as their favorite superhero... well, I got to know this only on Friday morning; so with the little time I had in hand, I thought spiderman would be too difficult and settled for Harry Potter once again.;-) I gathered some supplies; bought some more in a 15 minute shopping spree and set to work.
I got the idea for the amazing wand from the Instructables site... they used brown paint and distressed it with black; since I was out of brown, I went with copper and made a metallic wand with some help from my hot glue gun. I think the wand looked amazing. Then I made a normal wizard's hat and something that was supposed to be a broom. I gave him a golden ball (to take the place of the Quidditch 'snitch')... an oversized black t-shirt with some ribbon sewn to it; and a cape completed the look. I did call my good little friend, Sharanya, a huge HP fan, to get her inputs (and so as not to get the colors wrong!).. I added the Griffindor color on the hat. And this time I didn't forget the scar ;-)

Aaryan didn't let me click a full picture of him in the costume; though he did let the office photographer do so.. I am still waiting for that one... And he won the first prize :-)

And this last one was clicked yesterday... Sports day in school.

For my darling son!!

This post is dedicated totally to my darling son, Aaryan. God! how much I yell at him sometimes!!!!!! Poor thing...

Yesterday, I sat down, after ages, to do a bit of pencil coloring on my stamped image. The image had so many little details that it took me a lot of time... Then, not knowing what to do with it, I created a simple easel card and used the (huge!) image there ;-)... didn't like the look of the card, so I just let it be on the table to see what everyone else at home would say to it. Aaryan woke up from his afternoon nap after a while; he came directly to where the card was kept; looked at it... and smiled! :-) He asked me if I had made it for his birthday (which is in January, he reminded me again). An idea struck me and I told him that though it wasn't for his birthday (I had used the same image for his bday last year!), he could give it to his teachers in school for the holidays. He was so thrilled with the idea that he took the card in his little hands, turned it over, figured out how he'd close it to give it to his teachers and also that they would really like it. He came and gave me a hug and said...'Thank you, Mamma... you have used a button too' :D He absolutely adores busy cards and he loves buttons...

(the incomplete card)

Anyway, the card was incomplete then... Today I just saw a bit of lace peeping from my lace box. It reminded me of a candy cane (the exact same pattern!!), so I made a giant candy cane using a popsicle stick, bits of chipboard and the lace... Added the sentiments and a house (too lazy for a gingerbread house... might still color it brown though) and viola!! I hope Aaryan likes the new additions to his card...

The complete card

The candy cane (i loved it)

My little one's name (since this post is dedicated to him) and the little house

Cheers,

Smita

My little prince

Hi,
This post is about my darling son, Aaryan. We both had been out for lunch today, and we had a blast. We went to the mall... he played for a while, and then we had pizza and garlic bread for lunch. He was a little reluctant about going in to Pizza Hut at first, but later I guess we both had a good time. :-)
And yes, we both went crazy at Hobby Ideas!! They have a new lot of patterned papers now, and I am so happy that I almost bought everything!! ;-) Aaryan liked a few sheets of stickers and other stuff and insisted on buying them; but ofcourse, Mamma was strict and she didn't let him buy anything. :-( The boy is so so fond of stickers that if I buy him one strip of stickers, he won't ask me to buy anything else for him that day! :-))))
It was the Annual Day at Aaryan's school on Saturday. He had taken part in a couple of dances. He was dressed as a sailor/boatman and they danced to one Hindi and one English song (not entire songs, of course). Here are a few pics.

The guy with the blue cap on, right in the middle (front) is my little prince.

Aaryan is on the extreme right with the oar in his right hand.

My handsome young man!! :-) Isn't he adorable?!

Love,

Smita.