PAPER WHISKY CROWNS!!!

Yesterday was my best friend's theme b'day party, the theme was "funky head and eye wear". 

The minute I heard about the theme, I was reminded of Inna's quilled owl mask that she made for her daughters, and how inspired I was to make something on my own to wear to a party.

The idea stemmed from my love for Scotch and that I consider myself KING (yes, not queen). So, I combined the two and made these Paper Whisky Crowns for myself (pink) and my husband (green).

I started by picking up images of some of my favorite Scotch, a Whisky glass(with the rocks!) and to add ZING to the crown, I added a silhouette of a pole dancer.

Here are the crowns laid flat.

I grouped all the images together and used coloring tools to give them green and pink tint.

Here is the image I made before adding the tint.

Now comes the printing part, if I had printed the image without any image on the back, the backside would have been white and would have spoilt the look, so I inverted the image and pasted it below the original one. Take a look at the picture below to understand what I did

Once the images was ready, I color printed the them (2 copies of each) and hand cut the extra black and white part of the paper.

I managed to take one picture of the process of cutting, here it is. You can see that, I have only cut the top of the images till the next one starts and not gone all the way down.

Once the images were cut, I folded the below image (image with inverted Scotch names) and pasted it behind the main image (the one with actual names). 

As mentioned earlier, I took 2 copies of each image, so now to make one long single piece, I pasted them together and punched a hole on either sides and added a woolen black string, to use it to tie the crowns.

Take a look at some close ups 

Finally, the whole deal paid off, as I got the biggest compliment ever! My friends didn't believe that I made these crowns. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!

That's us at the party with our PAPER WHISKY CROWNS!!!

xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoox

Self Rating - 9/10
Status - Overjoyed by the response received from my friends and my husband.


As, Im so happy with the outcome, I am sharing the image with you'll (without the watermark). So feel free to download it, color it as per your choice and flaunt your crowns!!!!  Let me know if you need any help making it.

I would love to see pictures of you'll wearing the crowns, so please share them with me. You may mail them on nishthartimagine@gmail.com or leave them as links in comments to this post.


Also feel free to share any other crown ideas that you may have.


Till next time, PARTY HARD!!!! 

      -May ART be with you©

~~~ MY DOC-MOM ~~~

After making my mom a Mother's Day card (posted on 6th May, 12), I decided to make a Mother's Day card for my would-be mother-in-law.


As she is a doctor, I wanted to make something related to her profession and hence I came up with this.

I found the stethoscope image on the Internet and added the text on my own and created this image for the card. I color printed it on a 5x7in plain paper.

To add depth and texture to the card, I pasted the printed image on a red chart paper.

Once the red bordered image was ready, I cut out a handmade Chinese paper into an unfolded card shape that would fold into half and open vertically. I then pasted the red bordered image on the front of the card.

Finally I added white chart paper on the inside to write the message. The message reads - 'To, sweetest Aunty...You are no less than my mom to me... Lots of Love -Nishtha"

Apprehensively, I gave her the card today at dinner and she loved it... (PHEW!!!)

xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxox

Self Rating: 9/10

Status: I and my Mom-in-law are happy.

Tip: Either print the message to be written inside the card or ask someone with good handwriting  to write it for you (I wrote it myself and as you can see, its not the most beautiful handwriting)

Let me know what you think of this professional themed card.

                                                                                                -May ART be with you©

P.S. - I gave my "MUMMY" themed card to my Mom and she loved it. So both my MOMs are happy. 

Happy Mother's Day.

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The inspiration for this card came from the homonym - 'MUMMY', which mean Mother and Egyptian mummified body.
So I wanted to combine the two, make a card for my MUMMY using something of Egyptian MUMMY theme.

So, I started by cutting out an image of a girl offering a bouquet to her mom on a cardboard and covered the mom and the girl in 3mm golden quilling strips (I tried to give the effect of the way Egyptian mummies are wrapped). The bouquet was wrapped in 3mm maroon and green strips.

I then pasted the three wrapped images on a black base, which was made by covering a border-shaped cut-out cardboard with 10mm black quilling strips (again trying to replicate the Mummy effect). 

Once the image was  pasted firmly, I added colour printed writing on the side on the image - "my mommy best" (again using different kind of font to give it Egyptian look)

I then pasted the entire black cut-out with images and writing onto a black and golden handmade paper, which I cut out in the shape of a card.

Finally, I added a yellow chart paper on the inside of the card, to write the message.

Cant wait to give it to her - my MOMMY!!!!

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Self Rating: 8.75/10

Status: I am happy with it, I hope my Mom likes it too (this is my 1st hand made card for her) 

Tips: Definitely keep a wet hand towel with yourself or you'll get dried glue all over your project.

Let me know what you made for your MUMMY.

                                                                                                -May ART be with you©

Under the Cowl

I love to wrap my gifts in unique, hand made and personalized wraps, hence when I gifted the comic book 'Batman Under the Cowl' to SID-B (a Batman fanatic), I wrapped it in this Batman themed wrapping.

I started by gathering and color printing batman related images. 

For the wings, I found this cloth wings image and cropped it in two. To get the wing's folds accurately, I added dotted lines on the cropped image using coloring tools.

I then covered the comic book with black chart paper till about 70% of the length and cut out all the images gathered. 

Finally I pasted all the cut out images - the Batman logo on the front of the black cover, the mask on the inside and the folded wings on the back of the cover.


My DARK KNIGHT is ready to save the GOTHAM CITY!!!!

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Self Rating - 9/10

Status - ELATED

Try a unique wrap yourself and share it with me.

                                                                                                -May ART be with you©

JIG -- SAW!!!!

I'm flooded with paper jewelry ideas, so here is another one...

I made these cardboard jigsaw pendants

I started by cutting out the jigsaw shape I desired on a card board and filed the edges to make them smooth.

I then color printed random images and cut them out in shape of the card board and pasted them on the base pendant(card board cutout).

Once the image was dried, I painted the back side of the card board with acrylic colors.

To make them sturdy and add sheen, I coated them with varnish and left them to dry overnight.

Finally I punched a hole in the finished pieces (not very neatly though) and added a woolen black string to them.

Waiting to flaunt them!!!

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Self Rating - 7/10

Status - Happy, but could be neater

Tip - You could use old jigsaw puzzle pieces to make this

So, go ahead and make it and let me know how it goes.

                                                                                                -May ART be with you©

Paper GEMS!!!!

My latest addiction is paper jewelry, cant stop thinking about it, nor can stop making it

I learnt watercoloured paper jewelry makng from Ross Barbera's blog. I loved the idea so much that I had to try it. 

So here is my take on her art. I made these four pendants.

I used drawing paper and three water colours - blue, green and yellow to make these.

I randomly dabbed colours(mixed with water) on the paper till the entire sheet was covered. Once done, I sprinkled cooking salt on the colours (this gives the textured look) and left it to dry over night.

Once the sheet was completely dried, I scrubbed off the excess salt and cut out two pieces of each shape desired (for front and back)

I also cut out the two exact same shape of each piece in plain paper.  So I had four pieces of each shape.

I pasted the black string in between the two plain paper pieces and stuck them together with glue.

Once the string was firmly attached, I pasted the coloured paper pieces on front and back of the base pendant (made of plain paper with sting in between) and left them to dry overnight.

Finally I coated them with varnish. 

And they were ready to be flaunted!!! 

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Self Rating - 7.75/10

Status - Happy, but need to so better

Tip - sprinkle the salt when the colours are wet, or the textured effect wont come

So try it and let me know how it goes.

                                                                                                -May ART be with you©

So cracking!!!

I  have been so inspired by handmade jewelry, that I couldn't help but try one myself.
This is my 1st handmade piece which I learned from BeyondBracelets on youtube, but made alterations according to the craft supplies available to me.

I started by cutting the cardboard in the shape that I desired to make the pendant in, then cracked and pasted pieces of boiled egg-shell on the base.

Once all the pieces were pasted, I filed the edges of the pendant to smoothen them and remove any excess egg-shell.

To make it durable, I coated the pasted egg-shell pieces with glue and water mixture(70% glue & 30% water) and left it to dry overnight.

Once it was completely dried, I painted the egg-shell side with transparent colors and the back side with acrylic color. 

Finally sprayed the completed pendant with craft varnish, punched a hole in it and added the silver chain.

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Self Rating - 9/10

Status - Very happy with the outcome

Tip - punch the hole before coloring the piece

Try it yourself, its easy, fun to make, and super cool to wear.

Let me know how it goes.

                                                                                                -May ART be with you©

P.E.E...

After creating the Playboy bunny and, playmate themed gift wrapping paper for Easter (posted on 4th April 12), I wanted to make more, but with the same Playboy theme {cant get Playboy bunny out of my head, I'm sure Mr.Hefner will be delighted ;-) } 


So I created P.E.E. -- Playboy Easter Egg:


It has a vintage worn out feel to it, I didnt intend that to happen, but in the process of making, it did (works out even better for me)

I used a real boiled egg (as I couldn't find a craft egg), covered it with hand torn white paper to give it a base.

I applied 2 cotes of glue and water mixture (70% glue & 30% water) to strengthen the paper base.
For the bunnies, I colored printed the below image, and tore the bunnies out by hand and pasted them all over the egg.

To further strengthen the egg after pasting the bunnies, I coated it with glue and water mixture and left it to dry over night.

Once completely dried, I sprayed it with varnish to give it a sheen.

Finally , I mounted the finished egg on a black quilled stand.

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I give myself 6/10 for this project. I'm satisfied with it, but not delighted.


What do you think? How much would you rate it???

                                                                                                -May ART be with you©