Express Imagine Create

For a Good Cause

2010-05-21T14:57:00.004+05:30

hi everyone,
I'm really sorry that I have been offline and off the face of the earth for so long. I'm not even going to promise that I'll try harder cause it seems I can't try hard enough...EVER! Anyhow, I have been mostly busy with non arty stuff of late.

But, for the summer, I'm interning at a non governmental organisation. Its called Sarthi and their goal is to help out all the artists living in India...well more specifically- New Delhi and Jaipur anyway. So I thought I'd use my blog as a a platform to voice their cause. They work for artists of all types- dance, music,magicians, puppeteers etc. They have projects to help educate these people and to provide housing, legal aid etc.

However, since this is a privately owned organisation, many of their efforts can't be formed into concrete plans and executed due to lack of funds. And for this, they need the help of the community. They do shows for dance and music outside India as well, in Europe and the US.

So now, I am asking the online crafting community to please help support their cause by providing donations.

You can click on the title and it will direct you to their website if you want to read more about them.

Sarthi is also looking for sponsors who can help support any of their fund raising events or programmes.

All those who are interested in making a donation, please contact sarthi and they will forward you the details to make your donations.

Also, once you have made the donation, come back here and leave a comment telling me you have and your name will be added in for a lucky draw to win a handmade gift from Sarthi.

And, you can get a second entry for adding a link to this post on your sidebar. Those who aren't able to make a donation, please help spread the word and your will still be entered into the lucky draw.

Don't cheat cause I'll be checking!

Happy Crafting,
Anu

A Card that got Late

2009-12-05T16:22:00.002+05:30

Well this card was meant for taylored expressions I think....ok maybe not but it was for a sketch challenge but I wasn't able to post it since my internet connection failed to initiate. Anyhow, I'm posting it now. I tried to keep the focus on the background itself and added gemstones to the center of the flowers to add interest. The butterfly is a punch and I've added two gemstones for the butterfly's body. I didn't have matching ribbon so instead, I decided to use some embroidery floss to do the job. lol

I'm in Delhi right now with my parents so won't get around to creating till next week or so but I have a couple of my own projects and I also have mail that was waiting for me here! Will take pics and show you!

Happy Crafting,
Anu

Card for Crafty Pad Sketch Challenge

2009-11-26T14:45:00.003+05:30

Hi,
This is my submission for the Crafty Pad Sketch Challenge for this week. I substituted some of the shapes and things in the sketch to accomodate my card though I tried to stick to the original sketch as much as I could. The oval shape in the right bottom corner has given way to a line of some gem stones.

Oh boy, I've been using too much purple these days. Better go look up some color challenges so I don't get a chance to do that. But then again, I can be a little sneaky and add a dah of purple here and there, can't I? lol

More coming up later.

Happy Crafting,
Anu

Just Saying hi AFTER AGES!!!!!

2009-11-26T11:58:00.003+05:30

Hey everyone,
hope you all are doing well. Yeah, I know I've been off the crafting world for quite a few months now. Any who, I'm trying to improve that and have a lot of posts ready to write up and publish here on the blog. I have been busy with college and didn't have access to the internet and didn't have a lappie or PC. Well that has been taken care of. I don't have a printer or scanner but do have my phone, my own lappie and internet connection so alls good now. Ok, so now I'm signing off so I can start making good on my crafty promises.

Happy Crafting,
Anu

hi again

2009-08-08T11:21:00.002+05:30

well its my birthday today and I have not actually been able to do anything to celebrate on my blog but be assured that I will though not in the near future as of now. Today I'm going to fly to Delhi which is where my parents live. A pandemic has been declared here in Pune where I live due to swine flu so I am sitting here in an internet cafe with a mask on my face. Hopefully I'll be able to get a lappie in a week or so and get back to my card making and crafting.

I SO MISSED DOING CRAFTY THINGS FOR OVER TWO MONTHS NOW AND I MISSED BLOGLAND SO MUCH TOO!!! I HOPE I CAN GET BACK TO IT ALL SOON.

Well I have a muscle pull in my right arm so can't talk more today as my whole arm is throbbing. See you guys later.

Happy Crafting,
Anu

Namaste

2009-06-11T23:33:00.000+05:30

If you’re a little baffled seeing my salutation, let me explain. For those of you who do not know what Namaste means, it is a form of greeting in India. If you have read my profile then you already know that I plan on going to college very soon. Well, I am planning to go to college in India which is my home country. And guess what?

THAT’S EXACTLY WHERE I AM! I’M IN INDIA RIGHT NOW.

I came here so I can go on with admission formalities like interviews, written tests and group discussions in the various colleges and universities I am applying to. So far I have 3 colleges on my list and by the end of next week, I’ll probably have 5. Yes, I’ve kept my options open but let us see whether I get into the course and college of my choice. *fingers crossed*

Anyway, moving on to crafty news, since I am busy with admissions you won’t see any new things on the blog for quite some time. I do have a couple of projects that I had wanted to share with you but I don’t have access to them as of now since the pc is back home in Kuwait. Our family is going to be shifting to India for a couple of years and my parents are busy packing while I try to keep a hold on my future.

Anyway, you will find me chatting once in a while about my life and happenings and I will also post about any new sites and blogs as well as candy that I find when I have the time to cruise through blogland. I’ll try to keep my blog candy roll updated as well but I can’t promise. The amount of blog candies I list on my blog is quite large and it can take me upto 7 hours to get the list updated. Well, I got to go and look through all the creativity out there while I’m at it, right? Seriously, I spend WAY too much time just admiring other peoples work and end up doing none of my own.

Anyway, this post was quite long and I hope you understand and don’t mind my being MIA for a while. Oh, and another reason why I can’t craft is cause none of my craft supplies are here. I mean, I don’t even have normal cardstock and paper. Yes I’m miles away from any crafting activity.

Did anyone even read the whole post? I know I sometimes cheat and not read the posts and just look at the pictures and since there are no pictures here, so……????

Happy Crafting,
Anu

The Color Dare Challenge Blog

2009-06-05T09:33:00.003+05:30

Good Morning everyone. Are you up for a challenge and some blog candy? The color dare challenge blog is a new blog that has weekly challenges for you to join in. Since they are just starting, they are offering some great candy as well on the blog. So hop over and join the fun!

Here is where you need to go-

http://colordare.blogspot.com/

Happy Crafting,
Anu

Lucky Me on Tuesday!!!!!!

2009-05-20T00:39:00.004+05:30

I'm posting this a week late cause I didn't get the time to earlier. Anyway, when it comes to crafting and blogging, my favourite words are blog candy and RAKS. Well, blog awards are on the list too but I haven't got any yet.

RAKS

Two lovely ladies whom I've known for over a year now have sent me some nice packages.

The first one is Karen Knegten. I think she has a blog but I don't have the link at the moment. I got a swap card from her. She sent me this awesome pocket card and the lovely goodies too. The goodies were actually tucked inside the pocket but I forgot to take a pick and took them out.

The images up next are of a pocket card and some great images that Val had sent me. You can visit her blog by clicking on the link on my sidebar.

I also wanted to share about some blog candy I won.

I won 2 candies on the past Tuesday. Can't wait to get the packages. Will tell you more once I get the new goodies :)

I also won 2 digi images from LPS for a challenge I participated in. I got the images on Saturday so you will probably see a project or two made with those soon.

Well, that was a lot of good news for a single day. Mom says Tuesday is a lucky day for me cause that is the day I was born.

Well, thats all for now folks. I'll have a post tomorrow with a project of my own. Stay tuned!

Happy Crafting,
Anu

one for a guy, one for a gal

2009-05-15T00:56:00.007+05:30

Flourishes has a challenge this week to make 2 cards. One of them should be for a female and the other needs to be for a male. Besides this, the other condition they have for the challenge is that both cards must be made using the same sketch. The sketch is your choice. So, I gave it my best shot. The sketch I used is from Taylored expressions. So, both my cards qualify for that challenge too!

First up is the male card. I created this birthday card thinking it can be given to a boy. Pretty simple image used which I colored with water color pencils. It was really hard to restrain myself from adding some bling, so I sneaked in some glitter. I think blue is the ideal color for this card.

And although I had not initially planned it, my card also qualifies for the color challenge on color create which is blue and green.

High Hopes Stamps wants a guy card created so I'm entering this card there as well.

Now we have the girl card. I thought this would be a nice card for a lady who likes gardening or loves her garden. I think we all love our gardens. Ok, I don't have a garden but I love my potted plants anyway. I like how the coloring came out. I used colored pencils and water color pencils. The can and the grass are the watercolored parts of the image.

This card is also my entry for Three Clovers Designs Thursday Challenge. We need to have flowers on our cards for this one!

All in all, I'm quite pleased with myself for todays creations. Do u like? Let me know!

Till later,
Happy Crafting,
Anu

I'm trying out for a design team

2009-05-12T01:05:00.005+05:30

Funky Hand Designs is looking for one new member to join their design team. I thought that even if I don't get selected, it would be nice to atleast try. So, here, I have some of the cards that I had made and am proud to show off.

These are just short descriptions of some of the cards-

The sort of vine u see is a part of the green, yellow and red card. Its made using rice grains positioned to look like flowers and leaves and then I watercolored them.

For the black and white card, I strapped rubberbands around a peice of styrofoam and used it as a stamp to make the background.

The 2 butterfly cards with the same layout have butterflies which were actually originally a part of a dp.

For the card with the dresses, I drew the dresses and cut them out. Then paper pieced them and added more bling with the help of embroidery floss, star shaped gems and glitter.

Well hope you like and the ladies at Funky Hands do too!

Happy Crafting,
Anu

Blog Candy on Toodles and Binks

2009-05-11T18:56:00.003+05:30

Toodles and Binks is having a blog candy for this month and 3 winners will win it. All you have to do is follow the link at the end of this post and then you can enter for the candy. Plus, even if you don't win, your name will automatically be added in the draw for decembers blog candy and maybe you might win then. Thats 4 chances! So head on over there!

http://toodlesandbinks.blogspot.com/2009/05/sah-015-swalk-and-blog-candy.html

Happy Crafting,
Anu

Combined Challenges

2009-05-07T19:41:00.005+05:30

Today has been a bad day so far. I made this card feeling a lot of ideas coming up. It is supposed to be my entry for 3 different challenges and so I wanted the picture to come up really well. I tried connecting my mobile to the pc but for some reason that isn't happening. I tried scanning the card instead and for some reason, no matter how I scan the card, the sentiment is not visible enough. Now, I have given up and here is the picture of the best I could do.

I used small beads for the stem and a glass bead for the center of the flower which is a combination of a die cut and a prima flower.

The sentiment which you can barely see reads, Live life to the Fullest.

The sketch is from Mojo Monday. I have used a flower and that is the challenge for LPS which is being hosted on PCP. The Crafty Pad wants us to show "holes" on our cards this week. You can use eyelets, paper piercing etc. I used a hole punch to punch the holes on my card. Then, I put a strip of blue dp behind the hole to make them more visible. You can only see 4 of those holes thugh since the rest got blocked by the image panel.

Happy Crafting,
Anu

Bookmark Challenge

2009-05-03T03:24:00.000+05:30

I love to read and when I saw the bookmark challenge on Change of Heart, I knew I needed to create bookmarks. You also get a chance to win some great candy too. Double motivation for me to create! I created 3 bookmarks for this challenge. I tried to keep them looking as different from each other as I could but when you sit down to create, you end up making things with similar ideas (sound familiar?). Anyway, atleast the colors are all different. I went shopping today and picked up some new papers which I used for these bookmarks.

The first one you see above uses only one dp though it looks like two. You might be wondering why I have a teddy bear in the middle. Let me explain. I was thinking about little kids when I was making this one. Little kids like to hear bedtime stories and they snuggle in bed with their soft toys. So, thats where the bear comes in for my bookmark. I also have stuff toys on my bed but they are just there cause they give a good look and girls just love them, right? The colors are also sober enough so that someone older could use the bookmark too.

This is a green bookmark. I used a different layout on this one then the second one. Love how the punched butterflies fill it up. I wanted to place them in a sort of semicircle for a long time now and finally I did.

My scanner just seems to hate yellow. It always turns out really bright. This bookmark was inspired by spring. When its everywhere, how can you ignore it? Lots of bright colors used on this one. I got some nice printed ribbon pasted on and vellum stickers to match the dp. This bookmark is flat in the true sense. Everything on it is quite thin so no matter how many layers and embellishments are on it, its as thin as a single layer of thick cardstock.

If you like, you can also join in the fun by making a bookmark but you'll have to be super quick as the draw ends quite soon. You can find the link on my blog candy roll. The one that says Change of Heart- Candy + challenge is the link.

PS- Please ignore my poor picture quality. The USB Cable is still to be found.

Happy Crafting
Anu

Monochromatic Cards

2009-04-27T01:56:00.000+05:30

I haven't been able to do any crafting lately but since my blog is fairly new, everything I've ever made has not been showcased here. So, I thought, instead of just waiting for the one fine day i do get around to crafting something new, I'll just show you my older projects in the mean time. I made these two monochromatic cards for a color challenge a few weeks ago. Before then, I didn't even know such a style existed. I am so elementary at these things. *sigh*

The card you see on top was an all turquoise card with a bit of yellow and a black mat on it. The ribbon wasn't really as loud as it seems in the scanned image. I paper pieced the dresses which I drew and then added embroidery thread, a star shaped gem and glitter to make them a little fancier. I also used my fancey scissors on the long gown.

The other card was an only purple card. I used different shades of purple for it. I kept the card pretty simple but used an interesting layout. Instead of using an image, I used a prima flower with a purple star for the centre. The same stars have been used on top and at the bottom as well. The purple matting u see is actually a frame i got from a friend. I aligned it with the white square to make it look as if it was matted.

Hope you like my cards. Will be back tomorrow with more old projects.

Happy crafting,
Anu

Toodles and Binks

2009-04-22T14:56:00.000+05:30

Toodles and Binks is a stamp manufacturing company. They are hosting a giveaway. The prize has not been revealed yet but it seems to be really big. You'll have to head over to their blog to see how you can win.

I still don't know how to add those small links in my posts where the whole link doesn't show and only a word or two do. So, till I get enlightened in that respect, you'll just see whole links in my posts. So, here is the link to their blog-

http://toodlesandbinks.blogspot.com/

Don't worry, the candy will stay on top so you will be able to see it easily when u get there.

Happy Crafting,
Anu

Whiff of Joy Summer Stamp Kit up for grabs!

2009-04-20T01:47:00.000+05:30

Katharina has a lovely candy up on her blog till the 1st of May. She is going to give away a summer stamp kit (from WOJ) each to 2 lucky winners. If u'd like to win, head on over to her blog to find out how. You can also click on the logo on my sidebar to go to the Whiff of Joy shop and see all the lovely things you could buy there to add on to your stash.

The link to her blog-

http://katharina1704.blogspot.com/2009/04/woj-elisabeth-bell-summer-stamp-kit.html

Enjoy!

Anu

Card for a Challenge

2009-04-14T00:24:00.000+05:30

I finally got around to crafting a little today. Only managed to make one card though. Its a clean and simple card. I really liked the image and wanted it to take centre stage so thats why i kept it this way. The image was watercolored and then outlined using a bleck gel pen to make it a little sharper.

Really sorry for the poor scan. The square shaped gems are actually pink. I liked the "clipped" corner under the image where I snipped a corner of the dark pink paper underneath. i had wanted to add a little bling there but nothing seemed to look right so left it that way at the end.

I'm hoping I can get a new USB cable for the camera soon so I won't have to scan the cards and show u. It'll also help me share more 3-D projects too. The old USB cable seems to have disappeared somewhere and after having conducted a 7 hour search for it, I gave up. Lets hope I'm able to get a new one without any problems.

Happy Crafting!

Anu

Art/ Share Blog Candy

2009-04-11T19:01:00.000+05:30

ok, Here is something interesting I found on Libby's blog a couple days ago and I think it would be nice to give it a go.

The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice! For you! Could be a card I am really pleased with, an altered object or something else altogether! My choice! But this offer has some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be made with you in mind, so you won't get something I already made unless I think it suits you to a T.
3. It'll be done sometime this year.
4. There is a catch - you must offer this same blog candy on your blog! Let me know you're in, then re-post this on your blog and offer something you make - your choice - to the first 5 people who respond to your post. Add my name to the #1 slot on your list - I am your first participant. When you create your giveaway, you will become the first participant on the lists for the people who participate with you. Got it? :-)
Soooo... who wants to play??? :-)

I have the following ladies playing-
1. Betty - http://zacksnaat.blogspot.com/
2. Libby- http://stampinlibby.blogspot.com/
3. Ann Nabors
4. Rebecca
5. Yael - http://nushi1.blogspot.com

**********I have received responses from 5 ladies. This art share is now closed and I will not accept any more responses. However, I might do this again sometime so stay tuned!**********

Happy Crafting,
Anu

Blog Candy

2009-04-11T14:47:00.000+05:30

My friend, Angie whom I have gotten to know over the past year or so is hosting a blog candy and giving away some fab stamps for it. She has a really awesome blog with lots of stuff to get ideas from. Angie has also recently started stamping too. To enter the blog candy and visit her blog, go to

http://lilacanglia.blogspot.com/2009/04/blog-candy-here.html

Happy Crafting,
Anu

The Beginning

2009-04-10T15:16:00.000+05:30

I have created this blog to share my crafting experiences and art work. Once, I get the ropes of running a blog, you will see more posts by me. I'll also try to fix things up a bit so my blog doesn't seem so "barren". I will also post links to blog candies and great sites too.