"K" for Krishna

Well, completed my first monogram quillography after coming to France :)

Quillography is a combination of Quilling + Calligraphy and so can be more or less described as writing in calligraphic fonts using paper strips instead of a pen! Different techniques of bending the paper and filling up the letters give the different finish. Choice of color and font style are also contributing factors. I first came to know about this term and eventually learned this technique from Art'Zire from my friend Pritesh Ananth Krishnan :)

This one is quilling the monogram in "Royale Initialen" font (freely downloadable from www.dafont.com)

The background effect is created with Tim Holtz distress ink pad (Mahogany red) and a border using simple punch craft with small daisy flower as a pattern. The complementary colors red and green are used as outline and beehived filling respectively, also keeping in mind the "green" shades in peacock feather which also symbolizes none other than my favorite Krishna :) 

Here comes the final picture:

The snapshots are as follows:

(1) Getting the impression on the colored background

 (2) Completion of the outline by Brick-Red text-quilling strips (available online at A1craftsupply)

 (3) Adding some distressing shades in complimentary green to add some extra finish before starting the beehive work inside the letter.

This brings me back with a memory of creating my first quilled typography word "Krishna". It was created on a patterned photo paper and using Adine Kirnberg Calligraphic font. The peacock feather is a real one. It is one of my favorite typography work so far and is gifted to a close friend of mine.

Please visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers" for latest projects and pictures.

Quilled Quotation stands

Here comes a set of quotation stands

The wooden plaques are small ready-made MDF cut-outs which are available in any stationary store or can be ordered online from Nupurcreatives.
The quotes are written using Bo-Bunny clear stamps and Tim Holtz distress ink (better to use Memento Stamping ink) all of which are available from The crafts shop.
The background coloring effect is created by using distress ink pads.

The rest of the craft is a 3D quilled assembly of different floral and leaves patterns using different rolling and bending techniques of Paper Quilling.

The overall project is created on simple A4 card-stocks which are again available in colored sets in any stationary stores like Itsy Bitsy (available also online) and also can be ordered from Nupurcreatives.

The quilling strips are bought from different sources which are from Shilpi brand (http://www.craftuniverse.com/ ), and Dimensionscrafts (http://www.dimensionscrafts.co.in/store_quilling.htm ).

With a nice wooden box framing the quotation stands can be a nice gift for friends and can be customized as well depending on occasion and different themes,

Zoomed in view

Zoomed in view

One more idea with creating quotation stand with quilling work can be working with mini canvases. These mini canvases are available in stationery stores like Itsy Bitsy and Hobby Ideas or any local store. I have bought them from Hobby Ideas, Bangalore. This work is a couple of years old and was made upon order from a client. The quotations can be customized in the black space provided with acrylic colors, stamping ink or can just be simply hand-written with colored inks.

For updated pictures and latest projects also visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers".

Punch craft and embossed flowers

I was feeling absolutely accomplished to finish another quillography project. It was a Sunday afternoon at our residence in Orsay, France. I was just planning my next quilling project and was looking for some nice background papers. There were some embossed felt sheets kept inside the carton boxes which came from India a few months back when we had moved from Bangalore :)

While just creating some design in my mind I suddenly got reminded of my punch craft tools! Bingo! I just took out all the punch craft and embossing tools and started with some paper cutting, sorting, embossing and shaping. 

Sometimes even without much of planning when you get something nice the happiness goes to an additional level. I could not resist to take out some money envelopes, which I brought long back from Nupur (Nupur Creatives, Pune) and just started decorating them. Here are the results! 

My Sunday fun was completed :)

A greeting card

Set of money envelopes

Some more ideas to create handmade customized photo frames using cardstocks, acrylic colors, embossed flowers and punch craft flowers and swirls. Distressing technique (Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads) is used to create the shading effect on the swirls and paper doilies

Zoomed in view

Customized photo frame (1)

Zoomed in view

Customized photo frame (2)

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Please visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers" for recent project updates, ideas, and pictures. Thank you!

3D Quilled boxes

Quilling love continues

Now I am absolutely sure that I am not only passionate but a little obsessed with the art of Paper Quilling. How much ever I learn I always feel there is more to it and my wishlist is still longer.

Another set of quilled boxes and tray learned from Shabana in Bangalore and all these are done just within a month's time, just before leaving Bangalore. Indeed, I had finished all the projects on 24th May 2015, a day before my flight from Bangalore to Kolkata. I was leaving Bangalore and moving to France. The last one month of stay in Bangalore (May 2015) was indeed one of the most passionately active months when I was working on my final assignments on Image Management, enjoying my time with this beautiful art and at the same time planning the packing and moving.

If I combine all the three projects almost 3000 or more shapes are created and assembled towards completion. The number might seem to be high, but the joy of creating is much more in comparison to that. And that is when I realized I really can sit and do quilling for a whole day. That realization is a motivation for me to move one more step towards my dream.

So here it comes. A red color heart shaped box, a rectangular box and an acrylic tray with a cover decorated with quilled floral assembly inside, which all I learned during the workshop.  

And the love continues with some more creation later during my stay in France since last three months.

Some nice combination can be created with these quilled boxes. The jewelry is bought from "Jute-Cottage".

For latest projects and pictures please visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers".

Sospeso on 3D surfaces

"Sospeso Transparente" is a 3D volume decoupage craft invented and patented by Monica Allegro (an Italian Artist). The procedure involves the following steps:
(1) Preparation of the Sospeso sheets
(2) Cutting and sorting
(3) Heat embossing and sharing
(4) The assembly of the shapes in flat designs to create some gorgeous three-dimensional finishing.

I have attended the workshop in 2013 by Ms. Kosha Shah from, who is a paper artist from Mumbai. Shabana had organized this at her place and like always I was one of the participants to learn this beautiful paper art. I have made this tissue box decoration and one more on a photo frame in the workshop.

Sospeso materials are available online and can be purchased from the craft shop (Owner: Ms. Priya Shivraj)
Some more decoration made by me on pen stands and small MDF cut outs.

Pen stand (sospeso on wood)

These gift tags (sospeso on MDF cut outs) can be added with this or any gift to make it complete.

The wooden products or laser cut MDF are available online at The Crafts Lane.

For new project updates and pictures please visit my page in Facebook "Lights and Papers".

Merry Christmas

My second quilled typography project is now completed. Although Christmas is not too near, I have created this project keeping the red and white theme of "Merry Christmas".

Like the Eiffel tower project, this is also done on 8/10 inches canvas. The background is created with red and white artist grade acrylic colors from Camel and using a cracking medium which I had bought from Fevicryl Hobby Ideas store. Before the typography is done, the individual letters are cut out from paper and pasted on the canvas. After that outlining with 2 mm wide white text-strips and beehive with 3 mm wide red paper strips were completed.

Here are some snapshots while working on the canvas.

Outlining with white text strips

Texting is completed with inside beehive pattern

The patterns and shapes that are mostly seen in these assemblies:

(1) Malaysian petals
(2) Combed petals
(3) Composite flowers
(4) Leaves in sets of 3,5 or 7 in numbers
(5) Husking
(6) Multi color husking
(7) 2D and 3D tear drops
(8) Marquise

Embellishments that are used in these assemblies are:
(1) Half pearls
(2) Pollens

The assemblies are snapshots and finally they all became part of this project. The overall process of making the flowers involves the following steps:

(1) Choosing the background color and color of the strips used to create the shapes
(2) Plan a count of the total number of shapes
(3) Measure length and cut strips based on individual shape counts
(4) Create individual assemblies like the flowers and leaves (for flower assembly the Silicone Glue is used as shown in the snapshot below)

The individual flowers are assembled beforehand on small plastic sheets using a sealant (Anabond RTV 666, available in any craft or hardware stores). After 6-8 hours when the glue is complete dried it can be cut out from the plastic sheets and this is how the flowers look like as shown in the picture below which can be further decorated with leaves and swirls using the same glue.

This is an edited form of the picture by me with a Christmas Theme :)

The assembly can be customized in different ways and can be used to create different projects.

I have used a lot of Malaysian flowers in most of this assemblies. One reason for which is that it is one of my favorite patterns. For a quick tutorial on how to make a Malaysian flower petal shape please watch out this video.

Thank you for watching the video. Please watch out for more at my channel 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5oOPcjJDd90A7hGqhyEQiA

Enjoy !

Eiffel Tower (la tour Eiffel)

The biggest attraction of city of love, Paris

The Eiffel Tower is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and build the tower.

I have been staying near the city of love, Paris, since last three months. Orsay-ville, a beautiful hill station of the Paris region, is my new residence and certainly the new nest to nurture my creative ideas :)

With time, I had realized that Paper Quilling art is not just something I like to do, but it is something which gives me enormous happiness and a passion to live with for long. So I created my very first quillography and 3D assembly project with the theme of EIFFEL TOWER or la tour Eiffel as the French would say.

Here comes the picture of the completed project.

The center is a hand drawn Eiffel Tower (created from an impression) and then outlining it with 3 mm width black text-quilling strips from A-one craft supply, Bangalore. The rest of the quilling is done with 3 mm light green text-quilling strips. The beehive pattern to fill up the texts (Adine Kirnberg Calligraphic font) is done with light blue and orange color strips, each of 3 mm width.

Canvas background: The complete project is created on an A4 size (8 X 10 inches) canvas. The canvas background is created by the distressing effect with Tim Holtz distress inks (purchased from the craft shop, Bangalore).

The 3D assembly is a technique by which the flowers, leaves and swirls are incorporated on the project and customized accordingly.

Following are snapshots of the project on the go:

Outlining text with text-quilling strips and also the Eiffel tower impression (high gsm, 3 mm wide)

 Completed outlining the text

Completed beehive pattern inside the outline of text

For the floral assembly, all the flowers, leaves and swirls etc are assembled separately and finally they are arranged on the final project. 

 Preparing the 3D flowers on silicone sealant

Below I have shown another assembly idea which can be used in any other project and can be arranged in a customized way.

For latest updates and pictures please visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers"

Let there be always light and a reason to smile :)

Let there be always light and a reason to smile :)

April 2015 denotes one of the most important decision of my life when I had to quit my job in the research industry after a long tenure of five years and eight months. The reason is indeed a happy one for sure as we had moved to France with new work, new goals, and new dreams to fulfill :).

I love to learn new things and meet new people. One of those things that I love to be involved with most of the time is craft-making. Since 2012, I had got several opportunities to participate in various craft workshops in Bangalore. Candle making was always there in my wishlist and it became a reality when I visited "Neoart" in Bangalore and met Ms. Anushree Vyas. I was following her beautiful work of art for almost about a year and finally decided to learn the art of making different kinds of candles in May 2015. I felt happy to get enlightened through learning the art of creating candles and spreading the gleam of happiness in my own way :).  I also started my journey in the field of consulting and training. I made some cherished relationships and met some wonderful positive spirits. They all became my reason to smile.

That's me with 15 different forms of a candle made in a one-day workshop with NeoArt before I left Bangalore.

Candles learnt: Ice candle, T-tights, designer T-lights, Floating, Prop candles, Handmade rose, Gel candle, Ball candle, Luminarc candle holder, Photo-embossed candle/holder, Cup candles, cupcake icing candles, chunk candles, layered candles, Beeswax sheet candle,  

During these last three months of my homestay in France, I never felt like sitting at home for a single moment. Probably this is because I had really so many things in my mind to plan for and so many things in my work list to be accomplished. I made my first set of hand-made candles at our new residence in the beautiful hill station named Orsay-Ville in eastern France.

 

Here are some pictures of my first venture of candle-making and topping them up with some Sospeso design, another beautiful craft form. I definitely laid my way with a lot of creative ideas for the next set of ventures.

 A set of different candles (rose bed, cupcake, ball, and t-lights)

 Sospeso design on a candle holder (T-light candle inside)

Set of designer candles: Festive feeling and at the same time a nice way to gift someone with a reason to smile and a gleam of happiness.

For latest updates and pictures please visit my facebook page "Lights and Papers".